sous vide suggestions
February 3, 2011 10:19 AM   Subscribe

I now can SOUS VIDE. What should I SOUS VIDE?

Finally have graduated from the beer cooler method, to a homemade immersion circulator contraption, put together by my handy roommate.

So fellow MeFite food-gadget-geeks... What should I sous-vide next?

I'm looking mainly for personal experiences. I am already familiar with resources like Under Pressure, Ideas in Food and Cooking Issues.

Have already done: soft cooked eggs, hanger steak, venison steak, duck breast.
Thinking about: 48 hour short ribs, duck confit.
posted by AceRock to Food & Drink (10 answers total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'm so jealous. If I were you I'd want to try octopus to see what it does to the texture.
posted by Mngo at 10:35 AM on February 3, 2011


48-hour short ribs were great, although be aware that the internal fat doesn't melt like it does when you slow-cook them, so they may be fattier than you're used to. Really tasty though.

We had great results with blade steak; it's flavorful but (when cooked conventionally) tough, so perfect for sous-vide.

Both of those we did at 135F; we found that 130F could be hit-or-miss, sometimes resulting in a steak with a slightly rawish texture.

You already listed soft-cooked eggs but I'll mention that after some experimentation I found that 144F for 45 minutes was perfect. Super over toast (and to make eggs a la dfan, add a drizzle of sriracha).
posted by dfan at 10:38 AM on February 3, 2011


I've done chicken breasts (with a jerk marinade, then finished on the grill) and salmon, both beer-cooler method.
posted by Prince_of_Cups at 10:55 AM on February 3, 2011


Go for the Duck Confit. That remains one of the best sous vide experiments of all time.

Sausage is actually pretty tasty, but nothing compared to grilling it.
posted by fnord at 11:08 AM on February 3, 2011


We just did turkey legs and they were really good.
posted by ghharr at 11:23 AM on February 3, 2011


Scallops (with traditionally cooked bacon, if you are me) are fantastic sous vide.
posted by Lame_username at 12:17 PM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]


this website/book might help.

There's instructions for salmon in there!
posted by ArgentCorvid at 3:58 PM on February 3, 2011


Fish, of course. I find delicate white fish the best thing to do in our sous vide. Make a little beurre blanc sauce and you're golden, and it is fast enough to do for dinner in an evening.
I'm impressed by those that have had good luck sous viding red meats. We tried to do some steaks and they ended up greyish and very unappealing. What is the secret?
posted by ch1x0r at 4:08 PM on February 3, 2011


Salmon is an excellent candidate for sous vide. Kenji's sous vide burgers are excellent as well
posted by proj at 5:33 PM on February 3, 2011


I've sous vide-d lamb chops. They were super tasty.
posted by mismatched at 7:41 PM on February 3, 2011


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