# Sous Vide / Cryovac ideas and techniques



## AnxiousCowboy

We recently took the jump and bought an immersion circulator at work. So far we are doing poached eggs at an hour and I started poaching my ballontines for an hour and a half (******' beautiful!) I recently ordered the Keller sous vide book and sure that will be a great resource, but besides that what interesting stuff have are you guys doing with these machines?

I don't have the cryovac yet, but when I do, besides storing things I can't wait to use it without a bag to get air out of farcemeats and pates. I was talking to a friend over a year ago who worked at Corton and he was telling me they did an herb puree that they pureed the hell out of in a blender (until it was black, not green) and put it in the cryovac in a hotel pan and it turned bright green again. I'm not sure if I remember all of the steps in which he described it to me, but it makes me wonder what other uses these vacuums have.

So what cool **** are you guys doing? Inspire me!


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## ThEoRy

I vac and cook pretty much every vegetable except green ones. Stuff like fennel, fingerling potatoes, chanterelles, radish, turnips, beets, get a pat o butter, herbs, some sliced shallots, salt, pepper. Baby carrots and radish maybe add a spoon of sugar. Endive or radicchio I add sugar and white wine. I've pretty much done every protein you can imagine. I've used it for pickling or even just crushing fruits and veggies for dramatic look and excellent texture or for infusing flavors. Hell I even make all my ice creams and anglaise in the bag.


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## AnxiousCowboy

Right now I do a braised fennel in white wine, parsley, chicken stock, bay leaf, and thyme, cool them overnight in the liquid (hotel pan) then strain them out and hold them in olive oil. I think once i get the cryovac that will be my next project as well as the poached rhubarb we just started doing. Besides cooking stuff have you used the cryovac machine itself to do anything crazy like that herb puree I mentioned?


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## ThEoRy

Sure, fruit and veg compression and flavor infusion. Vodka infused with peanut butter. I use the vac to pull air bubbles from newly sheered sodium alginate baths. Unfortunately my own vac machine is actually out of order currently or I would have more ideas fresh in my memory. Waiting for the new one to arrive maybe next month. It's such a crutch having that thing that now, without it, I feel like, "What do I do?".


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## Crothcipt

wow vodka infused peanut butter. mmmmm. Damit my keyoskj just messllyuiojh up.


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## ThEoRy

Yeah we were doing this pb & j dessert. Pretty neat. But it's actually the vodka which is infused with the peanut butter.


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## Crothcipt

ya what I meant to type is peanut butter infused vodka. I just got excited. altho the other sounds good too.:clown:


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## G-rat

Pineapple and crystal got sauce compressed is awesome.


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## sw2geeks

I am hoping to start playing around with Sous vide here soon. I tried making Sous vide corned beef with my multicooker that got me interested. I picked up a circa 1960's immersion circulator on eBay fo 30 bucks. It looks like a small evinrude. The 1000w heating element on it still works, an it circulates water like a small trolling motor. I have a PIP controller on order to regulate the temps. Once it comes in I am going to give this a try.


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## jcsiii

anyone here use a gastrovac...think of it like sous vide cooking in a pot where you can infuse flavors into veggies while not loosing texture.


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## scotchef38

Sous vide Anglaise is the best labour saving invention yet.


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## slowtyper

A coworker told me he once did a chocolate dish that imitated the "AERO" chocolate bars....like with all the bubbles in it. They would put it in the vac so it gets pressurized then unplug the machine before it goes PSSSHHHHHH haha. Anyways, there were more steps but I dozed off.


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## jgraeff

how to do you make sous vide anglaise? combine ingredients, cook, chill, and puree? 

i like to use it for hollandaise, vegetables, quick flavor infusion. I use it to cook proteins to just done to where i can just sear them and serve with venison and lobster. 

the vac machine is good for taking air out of sauces and gels to concentrate it more.


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## AnxiousCowboy

slowtyper said:


> A coworker told me he once did a chocolate dish that imitated the "AERO" chocolate bars....like with all the bubbles in it. They would put it in the vac so it gets pressurized then unplug the machine before it goes PSSSHHHHHH haha. Anyways, there were more steps but I dozed off.



They have a recipe for it in the Ideas in Food book, don't have it on me atm though...


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## MrCoffee

super fast marinade: open pan of protein and marinade in the chamber, pull a ridiculous amount of pressure and switch it off before it equalizes. wait 20-30 minutes and it's like it was swimming for a day.

also, the hot water from prep sinks tends to be around 135-140F, depending on your sink size you can pull a lot of steaks for group functions.


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## scotchef38

jgraeff said:


> how to do you make sous vide anglaise? combine ingredients, cook, chill, and puree?
> 
> i like to use it for hollandaise, vegetables, quick flavor infusion. I use it to cook proteins to just done to where i can just sear them and serve with venison and lobster.
> 
> the vac machine is good for taking air out of sauces and gels to concentrate it more.



Make sure everything is cold.Blend,pass,bag under full pressure and then cook at 82 c for 20-25 minutes.Chill immediately in a large tub of iced water and shake the life out of it for a minute to break up any curds.Also has the advantage of pasteurising the Anglaise so it will keep in the bag under refrigeration for around a week.


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## quantumcloud509

slowtyper said:


> A coworker told me he once did a chocolate dish that imitated the "AERO" chocolate bars....like with all the bubbles in it. They would put it in the vac so it gets pressurized then unplug the machine before it goes PSSSHHHHHH haha. Anyways, there were more steps but I dozed off.





AnxiousCowboy said:


> They have a recipe for it in the Ideas in Food book, don't have it on me atm though...



Ok guys...who's got the recipe?  I would love to try to make this. 

Tomorrow I will attempt to play around with a scant recipe I found on 2 triple 7 blog for sous vide plums...anise, cinnamon, red wine...I think I like what Im hearing. http://2triple7.blogspot.com/2011/01/sous-vide-plums.html

BTW anyone here working at 2 triple 7? I have a few questions about things I have found in the blog...main one being what the heck and how and what flavor did you get with the mountain pepper glass?

Also, have been doing a simple paprika, salt, mixed oil 1/4 turn cut parsnip sous vide which gets carmelized on the flat top after and goes with the tofu and chicken dishes. 
Looking for ideas for a different flavor profile/ combination for parsnip - what have you been doing? 
I found an idea I liked earlier this morning...veg demi glaze+thyme+parsnip. Will be running trial version of it tomorrow as well.


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## 77kath

Here is the blog version. It is also in the book.

http://blog.ideasinfood.com/ideas_in_food/2009/04/aero.html


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## quantumcloud509

Thank you. Been playing with sous vide for only a month. That website and blog are new to me.


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## JDA_NC

I strongly dislike sous vide for any proteins you're going to pick up in a pan, especially steaks - unless you're using tranny/meat glue - but it is great IMO if you're doing duck confit or pork belly. I haven't done anything like short-ribs sous vide (and I'd feel wrong doing so) - but long confits/braises are a real time/money saver in a circulator IMO.


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## Mrmnms

After talking to Mucho, I did sous vide short ribs. Trimnmed and finished them glazed on a screaming hot grill. My kid asked, "Is that the meat Daddy's been cooking for a week?!' I told a little lie... they ate it like candy. Then I told the truth.


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## Zwiefel

lus1:

I'm going to pull my 72 (and 48) hour shortribs out of the SV in about an hour...then waterbath, icebath, rest in the fridge. For dinner tonight, with pan sauce made from SV bag drippings...plus collards, old-fashioned mac-n-cheese with breadcrumb crust, and homemade pickle. Will share pics later!

Some of the ribs have been in 48 and some 72...will be a double-blind tasting to compare. All sciency and shite!



Mrmnms said:


> After talking to Mucho, I did sous vide short ribs. Trimnmed and finished them glazed on a screaming hot grill. My kid asked, "Is that the meat Daddy's been cooking for a week?!' I told a little lie... they ate it like candy. Then I told the truth.


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## Mrmnms

Sounds killer. Looking forward to the blind taste test. At 56 hours, if I went any longer , they may have started to fall apart on the grill a bit


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## Mucho Bocho

Love it guys!!! This weekend I was messing around with smoked Butt. I usually apply 72hrs of SV prior to smoking and finishing. I only did 12hrs but t 150 degrees as opposed to 140. Had a bit more fresh tasting as opposed to cured texture. More firm as opposed to soft and candy-like. My technique:

1.) Pump butt w/apple juice, vinegar, water, morons quick tender and FAB (phosphates), sodium Erythrobate for color to facilitate the cure. Vac tumble 1 hr, rest 1hr under vacuum
2.) SV 12hrs @ 149 degrees, remove quick chill 30 minutes. Unpacked, towel dry.
3.) Cover with light coat of yellow mustard and some sort of dry rub concoction, some turbinado sugar and some dry chili heat.
4.) Cherry wood smoke @ 235 degrees fat side up (Mrmnms) until internal temp is 170, the T-Crutch in foil and bring to 195. Drop temp in chamber to 200 and cook another hour until you've reached 200. 
5.) Yank it off, transfer to empty cooler and cover with a bath towel until internal temp is 160. 

This time I made a South Carolinian german mustard bbq sauce sauce

Pull baby Pull!


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## Zwiefel

Dinner is served:












In a double-blind test (Only I knew which bag was which, only my assistant knew which bag went onto which plate)...all 3 diners correctly identified the 48-hour ribs. Uniform agreement that they were considerably tougher.

That settles it for me: the extra 24 is plenty enough. 

This very unscientific test is over.


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## Mucho Bocho

Danny, Nice stuff. Here's are mine after 72hrs @ 129. I probably could have rested them a bit more, but I was dam hungry

View attachment 18849
View attachment 18850


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## Bacon Bandit

Are you guys doing anything with a FOODSAVER until you get your cryovac machine in. It does pretty well, you just need to watch the amount of liquid that you put into the foodsaver bags, also if you are doing any of the forcemeats have you tried putting your mixture into a piping bag and then taking plastic wrap and laying it onto the table to the desired length and pipe your mixture onto the plastic wrap {closer to one side}, now take and roll a little bit of the plastic and put on top of the mixture and begin to push w/ a bowl scrapper and begin to tighten things up to a log shape. Finish rolling the forcemeat in plastic and tie one end off, now take it and begin to roll it away from you using your wrist until it's tight and then tie off this end as well, refrigerate until firm and then proceed with the sous vide cooking methods of the emersion circulator. I hope this makes some sense to you, we have done this type of thing before at the Country Club.


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