What was the first thing you cooked?

I just got my cooker and plan to use it for the first time this weekend. What is a good recipe/item to start with? I thought about chicken or steak, but I wanted to put it to the community and see what you all started with?

My first meal I believe was a pork tenderloin. I salt and peppered it and added a pat of butter to the bag. I went with 138° for about 2 hours. It was then dried it and seasoned it with a little more sea salt and freshly ground pepper. My first tenderloin was seared with a torch. At first I was cautious not to overcook while searing but if you use a really hot pan it is not an issue.

Being the person I am, I wanted to do a full meal, so… I grabbed some green beans, tossed them in a bag with a pat of butter - at 185F for an hour then placed the bag in an ice bath to cool. Then (not knowing if it’s the right thing or not) I wanted to cool my bath down for some Hake fillets I had - so I tossed in some Ice cubes until I got it below my target temp of 132F. All I did with the hake was to salt and pepper, seal and place in my pot - along with my Green Beans… 30 minutes later and a sear in my pan - dinner served. My wife who is a nurse has a schedule that makes it difficult for creating dishes that I am ‘proud’ to serve - let me tell you - our new Anova will change how we eat for the better. We enjoyed our first meal - discussing how to creatively add to the dish for the next time. We love our APC!

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My first use of my cooker was an adventurous one. I went with something that was a long cook time and did 72 hour short ribs. I was already really familiar with the cooking method so I wanted to put it to the extreme test and was so happy with the results. But one of my current favorite things to cook is a simple pork tenderloin. 

Eggs in the shell.

@cjbomb This has become a weekend staple. I normally put 2 or three eggs on a piece of toast with a few slices of bacon or a suasage patty on the side. Salt, freshly ground pepper and a little hot sauce and my day is off to a good start.

@cjbomb said:
Eggs in the shell.


What is the temp/time that you’re using for that? It looks pretty great assuming the yolk is not cooked through.

I cook my poached eggs at 167 °F (75 °C) for 15 minutes. I then crack the shell and slide the egg into a small bowl and remove it with a spoon leaving almost all of any loose white behind. I get farm fresh jumbo eggs, smaller eggs cook a bit less. With my eggs I am surprised about 20% of the time with a double yolk. A little sea salt and freshly cracked pepper and you have a real treat.

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Bone-in chicken breasts were my first project. Adventures in Sous-Vide | Rhubarb Chronicles

the first thing I did was spend a few days perfecting my eggs

The Yum Yum Factor: A Journey to My Perfect Sous Vide Egg - Goal #1 CHECK!

the egg thing was one of the main reasons I wanted to get into sous vide
Since then, I have been perfecting each protein and other than a handful of recipes that are specifically for the sous vide, I have been concentrating on temp/times and am going to start experimenting with vegetables this summer.
I have had amazing results with meatballs : this is my favourite
The Yum Yum Factor: Sous Vide Chicken Souvlaki Meatballs

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@mamashack I do my eggs the exact way you  describe. Mine are jumbo local farm eggs and I go to 15 to get the same result. THe meatballs look great as well.

The very first thing I made, with my ANOVA ONE, was YOGURT.
I have had trouble holding the culture, at a constant 110 degrees F, but the ANOVA was rock steady, for the whole 8 hours.
The longest process I’ve done is a pork butt, for 48 hours. It was melt in your mouth delicious!

Today is day 1-

Poached eggs this morning- whites a little runnier than I like, so will have to experiment. Then I put in some baby redskins in bacon fat, when they were done I quick cooled them and put in fridge, will brown in frying pan before dinner. Then (now in) are 2 pork tenderloins in Garlic sage and bacon fat, will pan sear before serving.

Let's see how this goes...


The potatoes were done perfectly, will season a little more heavily next time (This will be a perfect method for cooking potatoes for potato salad). The pork tenderloin was delicious, just a blush of pink, moist, almost succulent. (I seasoned it with garlic powder, sage, ground pepper and a little salt, then put a couple tablespoons of rendered bacon fat in the bag before sealing 141 for 3 hours) Will make some excellent cold sandwiches.

The day my Anova arrived I cooked salmon. Delish!

I am having fun with my Anova.  The first thing I made was a Chinese Braised Pork Belly in Soya Sauce.  I was initially unable to set the temperature and time on the tool itself so I found another pork belly recipe on the Android app and used that settings for that dish…not at the temperature/time I want but it did work.  Here is my yummy pork belly.

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@Ginny Chan That looks delicious. Was it melt in the mouth tender? I have been meaning to cook a pork belly for a long time this may just inspire me to go buy a nice meaty one.

Browse through the community posts and you will find a lot of tips and recipes as well as some great pictures.

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That pork belly DOES look delicious, wowow.

The first thing I that I made was a fresh chicken breast. I added butter and sliced cremini mushrooms, and ate it from the bag, no finishing. I’ve been cooking for about forty years. This was THE (pronounced ‘thee’) juiciest chicken that I’ve ever eaten. Period. Then I made it a second and third time. If I never cooking anything in it besides chicken breast it was worth the money.

Yeah chicken is a star when you cook it with the PC :slight_smile: Probably one of my favorite options!