New Sous Vide User? What Are Your Burning Qs?

[AlyssaWOAH]

You can just cook the medium steak first. Then drop down the temps for the medium rare. You can keep the medium steak warm in the bath as the other cooks.

[Anita_Curtis_Ray]

Really? It won’t continue to cook as well?

[Anita_Curtis_Ray]

Sorry to jump in here but can you leave both steaks in the bath until time to sear just before eating. And what temp would you leave it on?

[chatnoir]

Anita, your last question first. Yes, you can leave both steaks in the hot water, - for a reasonable length of time, until time to sear. Leave the water temperature at your desired medium rare cooking temperature.

As Alyssa explained, you first cook the medium steak. It will not cook any more at the lower medium rare temperature. Water temperature regulates doneness. Please trust us.

Successful sous vide cooking requires all new thinking on your part. Anita's greatest challenge will be to stop applying conventional cooking thinking to her sous vide technique. You can start by remembering the following: - more-time-does-not-mean-more-doneness. Close your eyes and repeat that three times. Better do that quietly if other people are nearby and try not to move your lips.

You are now working with new cooking rules. You already have Rule #1. If the medium rare steak is cold the water temperature might drop to your desired and hopefully already reset medium rare doneness temperature. Otherwise have a handful of ice cubes ready. You probably only want a 5F drop in temperature. Then having already calculated your medium steak's required length of time to cook by using its thickness as your guide you are all set.

Don't forget to pat dry and apply ample Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper before searing. Go to it and enjoy your two great steaks.

[Anita_Curtis_Ray]

I’m thankful for your answer and your sense of humor!! It’s a little overwhelming the first time. Thank you so much!

[sariaj]

I m planning to cook a brisket in accordance with your recipe.
The recipe suggests 155 F temp. for a 5 lb. for 24 hrs
Mine is about 3.3 lb. Do I need to adjust either the weight or the temp?
Thank you

[fischersd]

Not sure if Alyssa will be on - this IS a long weekend (she should have a life away from Anova)

The temperature controls the level of doneness - so that should stay the same if you don't want any pink in the brisket (most people don't I believe).

The 24 hours is to tenderize the brisket. With sous vide (for meat) more time doesn't increase the level of doneness, it just continues to break down the proteins, making the meat more tender. (some of us cook our ribs for 36 or 48 hours, for example)

When you're cooking other cuts, you're going to find that it's the thickness, not the weight that dictates your cooking time (there's lots of sous vide thickness charts online - google is your friend) - or you can use the search function on there - lots of us have pasted them in prior threads.

So, I'd leave the temp and time the same - it should turn out awesome!!

Cheers!

[rxman59]

Hello, used my sous vide device to do Arctic Char (131F x 26 min). Although fish appeared to be cooked correctly, i.e., flesh was opaque, my wife and I found the fish to be lukewarm to cool when we ate it. Should we put it in the oven for a bit to heat it up some more or maybe cook at a higher temperature? Thanks.

[Ember]

Serving hot food onto heated plates will help it hold its warmth.

[Eleanor]

I cooked a boneless, skinless chicken breast at 140 degrees for an hour and 15 minutes. It came out dry and tough. Could I safely cook a breast at a lower temperature, say 134 degrees? If so, how much time should I add?

[Ember]

You'll find answers to your questions here:
http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Poultry_and_Eggs

[AlyssaWOAH]

[wapiti]

I just used my sous for the first time and I have 2 questions
1 after leaving my salmon in the fridge for a couple hours should I rinse it of the oil and salt
(it came out kind of salty)
2 do I let it the salmon come to room temp before it goes in the water. I would think that it should come to room temp so the water would not cool down.
other than being a little salty I can't wait to use this again, I have a elk in my freezer.
where can I find more venison recipes

[Ember]

2) No. Cook straight from fridge or freezer. Leaving things out to come up to ambient temperature is not good food safety practice. Besides, it takes way longer to reach ambient temperature than just the 5 or 10 minutes that people do.

1) How much salt did you use? If it was too salty you used too much. You're seasoning it not curing it. I prefer adding salt post sous vide just before I sear.

[rwbarnes]

My first attempt was an 1 1/2 inch rib eye, I set temp at 129 for 1 hour, taste and doneness was perfect but it was very tough, I seared it on a charcoal webber. What did I do wrong?

[AlyssaWOAH]

Hmm. How long was it seared for?

[rwbarnes]

About 2 minutes per side

[Ember]

You can work on 30 mins per half inch for temperature of the steak's interior to reach the temperature of the bath. So, 90 mins is enough to reach equilibrium for a 1.5" steak. This is usually enough for naturally tender steaks, but most folk like to give them a bit longer to allow for some small amount of improvement in texture. 2 - 4 hours for steaks its the preferred time.

[Mirozen]

And I think a 2 minute sear on each side was probably too long too. In my opinion go with a VERY hot grill or pan for maybe 40 seconds a side.

For Christmas I brought my Anova over to my brothers and cooked around a dozen steaks (both New York strip steaks and Rib Steaks) for 3 hours at 133F. My brother handled searing out on his "Big Green Egg" grill - but he didn't listen to me when I told him to wait until the grill was VERY hot, then sear for maybe 40 seconds a side. He seared maybe 2 minutes on each side...and the steaks were...well...normal steaks. After dinner there were still a couple steaks left in the bath as I'd wanted him to have a couple to eat the next day. I had him take one out to the grill and sear HOT for 40 seconds a side.
My brother and nephew attacked the resulting steak like a couple sharks! lol Tender and perfect.

[rwbarnes]

Thanks Ember and Mirozon, I appreciate the help