Finished a salmon filet, 122* for 40 minutes.
A delicious perfectly cooked cod filet.
I ordered an Anova unit from Amazon.ca and they just put the order on hold, while they figured out stocking. In other words, they didn’t want to ship me one at the price they were showing, possibly due to the way the Canukistani buck is fluctuating against the 'Murrican greenback. After a while, I got sick of waiting, cancelled with Amazon, and ordered direct from Anova. Got it a few days later. No delays cross-border.
Did a couple of Costco steaks, and liked the outcome. Medium rare, wall-to-wall, instead of layers of gray, nicely pink, and then bloody, barely warm in the middle. I never minded the latter, but my wife is a tad squeamish. She liked the way it came out of a dutch oven with Anova. I look forward to a more flavorful/less-initially-tender cut of beef, to really see how the meat improves after a LONG time in the bath.
Meanwhile, though, I’m really not sure what to do with veggies. For example, green beans. I tested a few.
I followed the big chart (the printable one) that said “green vegetables 85C for 5 to 10 minutes” Um. The beans were warm, and not noticeably not-raw. I mean, way more al dente than … um… al dente. Raw-warm. Crunchy and stringy. Not pleasant.
I then wanted to know what happens if I “cook” like above (85C) then drop the bath temp to (say) 65C for (say) chicken, and let the beans ride for a couple of hours. After about an hour, they were losing color. After about two hours, they were warm, faded-green (no longer bright and new looking, or like they’d look after blanching), but they were still just about as tough to chew.
So then, I tried just boiling a handful from a cold pot. Pulled them off after 15 minutes. They still had most of their color, they were crisp and flavorful, but not a mouthful of work, if you know what I mean. So, I really don’t know why I’d want to do a veg like green beans in the water bath. What am I overlooking?
Anyway, I bought a 12-quart Cambro Camwear clear container from a local restaurant supply store, and I’ve got a Thermapen on order, just to keep tabs on the Anova, but so far I trust the Anova. I think we have an ancient vacuum-bag sealer in the basement, in a box that hasn’t been opened since we last moved (5 years ago…), so I’ve been using Zip-Lok freezer bags.
About the only thing I can think of that I’d still like to find is some kind of rack that could stand in the bottom of the Cambro container, so I could stand-up several bags of food simultaneously with a bit of gap between them. Currently, I just clip one or two bags to the sides of the bath container, and they wave gently in the wash from the Anova, but any more will start to interfere. I don’t want to risk cool spots that don’t get any flow.
kevinmcl,
The only veggies I cook SV are root vegs. Anything green will turn out looking dull cooked in a bag and likely lack crispness.
Most of the red meat I have done SV has been long cooks so cold spots are not so much of a problem. However, I did a large dinner with four 2 inch thick Prime grade rib eyes following Kenji’s instructions (Serious Eats). I was concerned that I was overloading my 12 quart poly container as there did not seem to be a lot of room in between bags - and that space was inconsistent. To compensate I moved the steaks around every 15 minutes, or so - swapping them around and flipping them over. Anyway the steaks turned out awesome. Finished with a little butter on a cast iron griddle to crust them.
So, the APC seems to circulate the water pretty well, but I will stop by IKEA and pick up a stainless steel pot cover rack to use as a stand for the container. The rack is expandable and costs a few bucks. I have a couple to stand our covers vertically in a kitchen cabinet.
thanks for sharing 