Hi! I’m new. After thinking about it for a year, I finally got an Anova circulator last week.
My first thing was a 2.5 lb pork belly, and tonight I did salmon for dinner, and then egg bites for tomorrow.
We had two chunks of pork belly, so we did one low and slow in the oven and one sous vide and compared. The one in the oven had a better crust, but the sous vide belly was more tender. It all got eaten up!
My first thing was 3 things at once (I like value for money/time): pork shoulder, beef silverside, lamb shoulder (bone in), each piece approximately 1kg (2Lb) or so.
All in 60deg C bath, beef for 20 hours, then temp up to 62deg C for another 4 hours for the pork and lamb. Seared in a cast iron pan afterwards.
For a first time, I think they came out great.
I’ll maybe leave the lamb an extra 2-3 hours next time but that’s the only change I’d make.
The beef in particular was perfect for my taste.
Pork belly next…
Well, the pork belly is in (since about 3 hours ago).
It’s at 70deg C and will enjoy its hot bath for 24 hours.
So as not to be lonely there’s a rolled leg of pork there as well.
And for the sake of diversity I added 4 pieces of lamb breast (really just some scrawny ribs with very little meat on them, meant for soup) to see what 24 hours at 70dec C make of the cartilage.
But before that I had some chicken breast to cook. I usually cook 1 kg of chicken breast in my weekly curry (or some other such stew, but mostly curry) as my work lunch. So tonight, instead of doing the usual, I though I’d do the chicken breast separately, with the Anova.
As I also got my Vacuum Sealer 3 days ago, I was eager to try it. So, Vacuum Sealer worked. Chicken breast got in the bath, 65deg C, for 1 hour (as I was busy when the hour came I just turned the temp down to 55C and left it in another 25 min, this is another handy thing about sous vide). Nothing fancy seasoning wise, just a dust of salt and garlic granules and a bit of olive oil.
I do not like chicken that much. And chicken breast is the part of chicken I like least. So, despite what I kept reading about it, I did not expect much.
Boy was I wrong! I love this chicken breast!!! It is like no chicken breast I ever had before. I could not detect any stringiness, no fibres at all.
I did not even sear it (as it’s meant to go in the same bowl with the curry). I just wanted to taste a bit to check if it was edible.
Well, after eating one full breast fillet I can attest that it is quite edible, so tasting was successful.
First to cook a great lump of beef to perfection (for my taste at least) and now to actually like chicken breast!?! This is like magic.
I’m converted.
I started with a ribeye, but today I cooked my first Wagyu beef (gold grade tenderloin pieces). 45 minutes followed by a brief sear in the cast iron pan; absolutely the most tender beef I’ve ever had.
The first thing I cooked was New York Striploin Steak. Thanks to J. Kenji López-Alt, the Anova produced the perfect steak, which was precisely the reason why I bought this equipment.
My wife was not at all happy with me spending so much money on a kitchen gadget but then she tried the steak and understood.
Thanks Anova!
First cook was last weekend 
Saturday - Chorizo Sausages, Bacon for breakfast. Steak Dinner. Creme Brulee for afternoon tea.
Sunday - Pork Ribs (started on Saturday afternoon) for lunch. Additional Steak for lunch. More Creme Brulee =)
Yes pretty much spent the weekend in my kitchen.
Oh yes I just ordered my second unit I must increase my through put!
Ferdinand
Glad your wife now approves and understands!
Sous vide chicken breasts are totally underrated! They are one of my favorites to cook up. Never have to worry about dry chicken. I usually don’t sear mine either, just drop it into a salad or sandwich - it’s fine as is. Sooo good.
OK, last post in this Thread (as it’s supposed to be about just the first thing…) to update things.
Apologies for maybe already hijacking this Thread… 
So, the pork belly turned out great. So good that - again - I did not bother searing. It’s now sadly gone.
The lamb breast/riblets also turned out great.
After taking these out I threw 2 frozen chicken breast fillets in the bath (which was at 70deg C) to experiment with “cook from frozen”. I left it for 1.5 hours.
I made a mistake here. I meant to have the frozen fillets at 70deg C (or so) for 30 min then continue cooking at 60deg C (as I did for my first very successful chicken breast try).
So, after about 35 minutes, I turned the Anova temp down to 60deg C and went back to the TV.
I did not realise that my improvised insulated box (just a plastic box wrapped with bubble wrap in a cardboard box with scrunched newspaper) was very insulated. I went back to take it out of the bath and the temp had only gone down to 68.6 deg C!
So my chicken breast cooked mostly at 70deg instead of 60.
Well, it was still good, moist, BUT the fibres were more pronounced. So, 60deg C better than 70.
The pork leg was also not as tender as the pork shoulder of my first cooking session, so for that it’s also 60deg instead of 70deg C.
So the conclusion of my 2 experiments so far, for my taste, are:
chicken breast, beef roast, pork roast: 60deg C (the roast 24h, chicken breast 1 hour).
lamb shoulder/breast, pork belly: 70deg C (24h).
This is great!
And I haven’t even tried steak yet!
Or lamb chops! Or beef ribs, or pork ribs, or duck, or… or …
Oh, the experiments waiting for me!!!
Love the excitement! fist bump That’s what it’s all about…your passion for making great food!!!
Try to grab a spiral notebook and keep a journal (or use a recipe app to do so).
Very hard to replicate your results 6+ months later…or improve on them, when you don’t have the feedback from the last cook.
That, truly, is the magic of this. It’s so reproducible that you can tweak a few settings to tailor the end result.
Happy cooking!!! 
I first tried some pork steaks that had been in the freezer a long time. Not bad but now a true test as they were getting pretty old. Yesterday I did a frozen strip loin at 134. It came out well as far as the interior but I didn’t sear it well enough to develop flavor as I was afraid of overcooking the interior. I plan to do the next one at 129 which should give me more leeway for searing.
This was one of my ah ha moments when I lowered the cooking temperature a little and then put a really good sear on the steak. While it is searing I also torch the sides.
What did you use for torching?
Here is the one I use.
You could also let the meat rest a while after taking it out of the water bath. That should drop the temperature of the outside a little.
I was thinking about getting that one though they cost twice as much here in Canada. How long does it take to do a steak?
Rather than letting it rest to cool, you could give your steak a quick shock chill once it comes out of the cooking bath. A dunk in some ice water. It will cool down the outside temperature of the steak and create a small buffer zone for when you sear.
Good idea, Ember. Thanks.