FOOD Any Sous Vide chefs out there?

[ShadowMan]

Just learned about a new cooking method Sous Vide. Our future DIL introduced us to this and I've been investigating this method. While I like the idea I'm a bit concerned about the safety. In my navy Food Service Sanitation training the goal was to keep all food below 40 degrees or above 140 degrees. Many of the temps in the various cook books for this style of cooking were below the ideal140 degrees for several hours at a time. To me, that indicates the possibility of food poisoning from bacteria growth.

Any experience in this cooking method? Safety concerns? Am I worrying unnecessarily?

 

[Meemur]

The Instant Pots have a Sous Vide program. I'm with you. I'm concerned about temperatures. Here's some instructions.

These days, I scramble eggs and fully cook bacon. I think that helps cut down on potential problems.

Use your Instant Pot's Sous Vide program! (available on some models)

Find out everything you need to know about how to sous vide with Instant Pot models. Use this easy cooking technique to perfectly cook food in your Instant Pot.

www.paintthekitchenred.com

 

[Anti-Liberal]

I make a mean bowl of Spaghetti 'Os, I'm working on my Ramon noodles though

 

[Lilbitsnana]

We received one last year for Christmas....it is still in the box, unused.

 

[Meemur]

We received one last year for Christmas....it is still in the box, unused.

I looked into getting one. I ended up just getting an air fryer. It makes frozen fish taste 100% better, so it gets used at least once a week and sometimes more often in the summer. It doesn't heat up the kitchen. Before, I used to bake frozen fish in a toaster oven. It usually came out on the soggy side.

 

[Sandcastle76]

My BIL cooked steaks for us using it....like eating boiled meat. Not for me...I am also involved in food safety training and question the temp ranges utilized w this method. Some love love it, me....meh,

 

[KFhunter]

Yup

Did a whole brisket, used a cooler to help the heater out. Had to trim the brisket a little bit to get in the foodsaver bag.

Turned out great, seared witb mapgas torch, I'd like to eventually get a searing torch head.

On the long cooks I seal the bags multiple times by trimming off a bit of tail then sesling again higher up the bag, then again and again until I run out of tail and the sealed strip is nearly a soild inch

 

[KFhunter]

Some steaks I did

 

[Lilbitsnana]

I looked into getting one. I ended up just getting an air fryer. It makes frozen fish taste 100% better, so it gets used at least once a week and sometimes more often in the summer. It doesn't heat up the kitchen. Before, I used to bake frozen fish in a toaster oven. It usually came out on the soggy side.

I wanted an air fryer or an Instant Pot. I got both of those for my daughter, but the Sous Vide came from some friends/coworkers of DH.

 

[Macgyver]

My BIL cooked steaks for us using it....like eating boiled meat. Not for me...I am also involved in food safety training and question the temp ranges utilized w this method. Some love love it, me....meh,

Yes, love it.
Ignore the normal logic about food safety temperatures. Time (long) essentially replace temperature.
Meats are always going to need grilling or searing afterwords.

 

[Macgyver]

Check out this guys YouTube channel.

Sous Vide Everything

Sous Vide Everything is all about amazing food! The channel is dedicated to the search of perfectly cooked proteins and more. The name says it all! Everythin...

www.youtube.com

 

[ArisenCarcass]

My BIL cooked steaks for us using it....like eating boiled meat. Not for me...I am also involved in food safety training and question the temp ranges utilized w this method. Some love love it, me....meh,

And what, pray tell, is wrong with Boiled Meat?
I personally like meat that is juicy, spiced and falls apart when picked up......
I've never been fond of seared/fried meats, probably because of how I was raised (lots of stews, sauces over rice, noodles and potatoes, and spice boiled venison and old chickens).

 

[Zahra]

Sous Vide cooking essentially kills bacteria by pasteurizing the meat so it's a safe method. I like to sous vide bone in chicken pieces till done then batter and fry them. It's the best way I can manage to make perfect fried chicken that I know is cooked all the way through inside, tender & juicy, and fried to just the right color & crispiness on the outside.

I also like to sous vide nice thick pork chops because I can get them to a perfect medium every time and they stay juicy inside. If I pan cooked or oven roasted them to the same degree of doneness they would be dried out and nowhere nearly as good.

Lots of high end fine dining restaurants sous vide items.

 

[Dreamer]

The time and temperature requirements are based off of the food being cooked and it’s size/thickness. If the food stays at a given temperature or higher for a certain amount of time, it is considered safe by the USDA. The *standard* recommended cooking times are what is needed when only hitting that time for an instant.
I look to precook low and slow, then finish over dry heat. That means the food is cooked safely throughout without getting dry, and the great crisp or sear is still on the outside.
It also excelled in holding things for an uncertain dining time, without losing quality.

 

[shane]

My son has done a couple steaks for me this way, with a brief hot seared finish.
Perfect juicy medium rare throughout, highly recommend! Takes medium cut of
meat and makes premium, IMO.

 

[dioptase]

My DH has been cooking this way for years - chicken, beef, pork. We have never gotten sick. He always finishes the meat by searing it with a small hand-held propane flamethrower (sorry, I don't know what the word is), to give it a nice exterior.

I will say that I have NEVER had a decent chicken breast until DH started cooking sous vide. They were always overcooked. Now, I love it when I can get him to make a pesto chicken breast; the meat is nice and moist. YUM.

 

[Terriannie]

I got the Ninja Air Fryer/Pressure Cooker and absolutely love it except for pork. Steaks and chicken are the best but when I tried it out on links of fresh pork sausage, even though the thermometer showed cooked, I got a huge stomach ache, vomiting later in the evening. Was it due to that or just a coincidental bug, I don't know. I'm very leery with pork, to begin with, so I tend to think it was due to pork.

 

[ShadowMan]

Pork is something you always want to thoroughly cook and especially "fresh" sausages. Like hamburger any ground meat has the potential for bacterial infestation if you're not absolutely sanitary in your prepping. Just the natural bacteria on your hands....even after a good soap and hot water washing can be enough to infect the ground up meat if it's left out too long. Unlike steaks and solid meat where the bacteria don't have time or an easy way to get INTO the meat and are killed during cooking. Ground meat by it's very process can easily be contaminated throughout the product and if not chilled quickly or cooked thoroughly can really mess you up.

Chicken is something I've always consider a dirty meat and it gets carefully handled, properly washed and thoroughly cooked. We also have cutting boards exclusively for different meats (beef, chicken, pork, fish) and one for Veggies and we NEVER cross contaminate them or use them for anything else. I've had severe food poisoning several times in my life and ended up in the E/R.....dont' want to do that EVER again.

 

[KFhunter]

Not true with pork anymore, it's as safe as any other meat. Trichinosis has been eradicated.

wild hogs? Yeah cook em 160+ same with bear

 

[Dennis Olson]

plug "sous vide" into our nifty search engine.

 

[Fenwick Babbitt]

Meats are always going to need grilling or searing afterwords.

And this is the key, if you like a juicy med-rare steak you can cut with a fork sous vide is the way to go, I grew up in the steak business, an easy tip to help tenderize a middle of the road grocery steak is to medium salt both sides(kosher or sea salt) then sit it out at room temp for an hour or so, season it and it will be as tender as a prime steak. Good link below explaining the process:

Steak Recipe: How to turn cheap "choice" steaks into "prime" steak

How to dramatically improve the flavor of your steaks with this method. By cookbook author and TV chef Jaden of Steamy Kitchen

steamykitchen.com

 

[Profit of Doom]

Yup

Did a whole brisket, used a cooler to help the heater out. Had to trim the brisket a little bit to get in the foodsaver bag.

Turned out great, seared witb mapgas torch, I'd like to eventually get a searing torch head.

On the long cooks I seal the bags multiple times by trimming off a bit of tail then sesling again higher up the bag, then again and again until I run out of tail and the sealed strip is nearly a soild inch

You ran out of tail!
Never run out of tail!

 

[Sandcastle76]

BIL didn’t sear them...prob why I didn’t get the same taste/experience as others..no harm, no foul

 

[KFhunter]

doh!


gotta sear em

 

[Meemur]

doh!
gotta sear em

Sounds like a lot more work than I want to do. Right now, good steaks go on my grill. Not so good steaks are cut up thinly and used in stir fry.

 

[KFhunter]

don't blame you a bit!

I like to do steaks that people (barf) want well done, pull it out the water and grill it dead, and they get a steak with no pink and yet still not all dried out.

mostly a bunch of guests are involved when I break out the sous vide.

 

[SSTemplar]

My girl Is a chicken fried steak kind of girl.

 

[dioptase]

I forgot to mention that sausages are one thing that we DON'T sous vide. Those go on the grill, or into the oven. They are just not worth the time/effort - when you want a polish sausage or a hot dog, you want it NOW.

 

[Stanb999]

I forgot to mention that sausages are one thing that we DON'T sous vide. Those go on the grill, or into the oven. They are just not worth the time/effort - when you want a polish sausage or a hot dog, you want it NOW.

Most quality raw sausages are poached prior to pan searing. A sous vide is perfect for poaching. A nice quality weisswurst cook on a grill from raw would be ruined.

 

[LtPiper]

Just a little FYI. Check out Taco Bell’s cooking method now days.

Everything that’s cooked comes in prepackaged and precooked. They take the bags of the precooked frozen product and put it in a big sous vide machine till they come to temp and are held until ready to use.

 

[Toy Maker]

Would never cook a steak any other way!

 

[Homestyle]

My SIL cooks this way and it's very good but DH and I can't tell any difference from the way I cook the different meats my regular way at home. Her husband says my cooking is the best. It's old fashioned rural Arkansas cooking, not all fried as some think.