Sous Vide

[freshmanjs]

It's pricey ($400-$500), but the best Sous Vide device is the Sous Vide Supreme. Buy a vacuum sealer with it, and you're good to go. Put a light coating of salt and pepper on each side (less than you would grilling) and vacuum seal the steaks the night before. Leave them in for anywhere from 90 minutes to 3 1/2 hours. The longer you do it, the more tender the steak will be. It's zero maintenance...you can leave them in there and go to a sports bar and watch some college hoops.

I do my steaks at 132 instead of 134, which allows for a bit longer on the cast iron skillet to sear. I usually do 75-90 seconds on each side and 15 seconds on the two narrow width sides. Just make sure you're doing at least 1 1/2 inch cuts of meat or that sear time will make the steak cooked too much. An easy way to get a good sear is to put your cast iron skillet into the oven and pre-heat it to 550 degrees before you put it on the burners of your stove. Add a little oil and you're good to go. Just make sure you have the right temperature resistant gloves to handle the skillet.

The sous vide makes just about any protein amazing. I did a rack of lamb last night, which was fantastic.

Thanks Trooper! Separating into a new thread...

I tried to do shrimp last night and it was an epic fail. A few problems:

a) Bags were floating. Perhaps this is because I started with frozen shrimp and the ice made them too buoyant. Put some butter knives in and that did solve this problem
b) Could not get shrimp to stay in anything resembling a single layer in the bag. This meant that after 35 min at 140F, some of the shrimp were done and some were raw
c) Wanted to vaccum seal, but there was too much liquid from my marinade and some liquid got sucked into the machine

Lots of rookie mistakes, I'm sure. It was a frustrating experience. Any suggestions welcome and maybe we can have an ongoing sous vide discussion here!

[Ggallagher]

I have been playing with sous vide cooking for about a year (using an Anova unit), and gotten really good results. Two comments regarding your experience.

1) Vacuum sealing - I haven't found a need to bother with a vacuum sealer. Before I begin cooking, I ALMOST submerge the bag leaving it slightly open. Obviously keeping the opening above the water level. Then I use a spatula to push any bubbles toward the top of the bag. The water pressure helps move most of the air out of the opening, and the spatula lets me break loose any bubbles that might be clinging to whatever we're cooking.

2) Putting frozen items in the bag - I've never done that. We have several different meat dishes that I marinate in the refrigerator for several hours before cooking. It's been my practice to take the meat out maybe half an hour or so before I want to start cooking. I don't know that it's important to do so, but it just seemed like a good idea to not plunge a piece of refrigerated meat into the water. You do have a lot of flexibility with cooking times when you go sous vide, but it just didn't seem right to me to put anything into the water that's especially cold.

And it's worked great for us...

[weezie]

I'm impressed with you guys/gals. Always been curious about the sous vide and consider myself an adventurous cook but kudos to you for giving it a shot.

Does the rack of lamb taste braised or roasted?

[BigWayne]

Steaks in the Sous Vide are very good and pretty easy.
I wouldn't bother with shrimp. Shrimp are so easy to cook quickly. All the time for me is in the prep of the sauce or coatings.

Tried to do some wild goose legs confit style as per some advice on the internet and it did not work for me. Can't remember the exact specs, but I recall leaving them at least 12 hours, still came out tough as leather.

I tried doing thick bacon. It cooked it OK and was decent, but the way it comes out is more of a pork belly result rather than what most people think of as cooked bacon.

[BigWayne]

I'm impressed with you guys/gals. Always been curious about the sous vide and consider myself an adventurous cook but kudos to you for giving it a shot.

Does the rack of lamb taste braised or roasted?

Have you tried out new recipes you have never cooked before on dinner guests? People think I am crazy every time I do that. No failures so far. of course, anything really weird I try on my own first.

[weezie]

Absolutely, yes. Enough wine and the guests think I'm weezie Escoffier!

[Trooper]

Thanks Trooper! Separating into a new thread...

I tried to do shrimp last night and it was an epic fail. A few problems:

a) Bags were floating. Perhaps this is because I started with frozen shrimp and the ice made them too buoyant. Put some butter knives in and that did solve this problem
b) Could not get shrimp to stay in anything resembling a single layer in the bag. This meant that after 35 min at 140F, some of the shrimp were done and some were raw
c) Wanted to vaccum seal, but there was too much liquid from my marinade and some liquid got sucked into the machine

Lots of rookie mistakes, I'm sure. It was a frustrating experience. Any suggestions welcome and maybe we can have an ongoing sous vide discussion here!

Here are a few high level tips that mostly come from trial and error.

1) Don't use anything frozen. It works, but I've found it to be more challenging all around, especially if you aren't vacuum sealing.
2) I find the best uses are for things where precise temperatures and tenderness make a big difference. Almost any form of red meat is a home run. Chicken is actually very tasty as well. I've done a few types of fish and had good luck with both sea bass and salmon.
3) If you vacuum seal (which I recommend), you need far less marinade than normal. The combination of the longer cook time and the seal accelerates the absorption of the marinade into whatever you're cooking.
4) If you google around, you'll find a bunch of suggested cooking time ranges. I find that most things come out better (more tender...which I prefer for most meats) if you err on the longer side of the ranges. Also, keep in mind that the cook times don't go up linearly with thickness, it's closer to exponential. ie, a one inch steak might take an hour, but a two inch steak isn't two hours...probably more like 3-3 1/2. If you are unsure, always go longer in time...there's no downside within a 1-2 hour range.

Someone asked about the rack of lamb -- i'd say it's closer to braised, particularly if you give it a really good sear at high temps...which is definitely needed.

Interestingly, the Sous Vide actually makes amazing poached eggs, which can be great for a number of side dishes, a carbornara pasta, or eggs benedict. We've also had good luck with putting some vegetables in with a bit of butter and sea salt. The flavors and colors are more vibrant than dropping them in a pot of boiling water. One thing I wouldn't recommend is mashed potatoes... I've tried it twice and it has been meh. Probably user error on my part, but I can't seem to get it to be steakhouse quality. Unless we're counting steak 'n shake as a steakhouse!7128

[tecumseh]

Souls Vide seems a bit of a hassle without a lot of value added to me for things like steak, chicken, eggs. BUT hey you guys are in North Carolina, the one area where it really shines is barbecue. Pulled pork or brisket and souls vide is a match made in heaven. The extended low cooking temperature is the key to barbecue but it is hard to get the temperature exactly right especially when you have very long cooking times plus when cooking brisket the sweet spot WRT to cooking time is surprisingly small. Sous vide solves all that all that.

So to me sous vide is good not great for most things, I really like varying textures like the little char on the steak, but for barbecue it is amazing, hate to say but science supports it, better than pit barbecue. Roast beef is pretty amazing also.

[Ggallagher]

Souls Vide seems a bit of a hassle without a lot of value added to me for things like steak, chicken, eggs. BUT hey you guys are in North Carolina, the one area where it really shines is barbecue. Pulled pork or brisket and souls vide is a match made in heaven. The extended low cooking temperature is the key to barbecue but it is hard to get the temperature exactly right especially when you have very long cooking times plus when cooking brisket the sweet spot WRT to cooking time is surprisingly small. Sous vide solves all that all that.

So to me sous vide is good not great for most things, I really like varying textures like the little char on the steak, but for barbecue it is amazing, hate to say but science supports it, better than pit barbecue. Roast beef is pretty amazing also.

It's really less hassle than you might think. But what we use it for most often is to "substitute-grill" in the winter. We live in Ohio so for at least part of the winter, it's a little colder and a little darker than I prefer if I'm going to be grilling something.

We'll sous-vide it for five or so hours (and it really is just kind of drop it in and forget about it), and then when it's done, I'll slap it on the grill outside for about 90 seconds a side, and we're good to go. It allows us to have some things during the winter that would be done entirely on the grill in the more comfortable parts of the year.

There's also a side benefit to this approach. When you sous vide meat it tends to hold a lot of the juices inside that would normally drop into the grill. So when we cook a large portion of something in the winter and save the leftovers for reheating, they tend to be really juicy and moist.

[-jk]

Wuss. I was grilling during Snowzilla last year...

Yeesh.

-jk

[BigWayne]

Souls Vide seems a bit of a hassle without a lot of value added to me for things like steak, chicken, eggs. BUT hey you guys are in North Carolina, the one area where it really shines is barbecue. Pulled pork or brisket and souls vide is a match made in heaven. The extended low cooking temperature is the key to barbecue but it is hard to get the temperature exactly right especially when you have very long cooking times plus when cooking brisket the sweet spot WRT to cooking time is surprisingly small. Sous vide solves all that all that.

So to me sous vide is good not great for most things, I really like varying textures like the little char on the steak, but for barbecue it is amazing, hate to say but science supports it, better than pit barbecue. Roast beef is pretty amazing also.

I have seen a bunch of articles where people start or finish their pulled pork with Sous Vide but they all seem too complicated. Doing sous vide all the way would not get you the smoke flavor I have to have on my pulled pork. Managing the temperature for pork shoulder in the smoker is pretty easy if you have the right gear.

[Ggallagher]

Wuss. I was grilling during Snowzilla last year...

Yeesh.

-jk

Well.... maybe half-wuss, or possibly wuss and a half, I'm not sure. There actually are some things that I grill outside in the winter, but I'm NOT going to post any of the photos of me with the headband-headlamp thing I wear so I can see what I'm doing. Not really an impressive look, and it really freaks out our dog. :)

[YmoBeThere]

Bump...did my first steaks sous vide style tonight. USDA Prime Ribeyes(boneless) about 1.5 inches thick, 2 hours at 132.

Seared in a stainless steel frying pan, 1 minute a side and each of the 4 edges for 45 seconds.

Striking consistency but lacked depth of flavor. Perhaps grilling for the sear step would resolve that issue. Only used salt for seasoning and added it about an hour before cooking while vacuum sealing the bag. Might need to make some changes there also.

Altogether a $250 investment not including steaks.

[BD80]

Bump...did my first steaks sous vide style tonight. USDA Prime Ribeyes(boneless) about 1.5 inches thick, 2 hours at 132.

Seared in a stainless steel frying pan, 1 minute a side and each of the 4 edges for 45 seconds.

Striking consistency but lacked depth of flavor. Perhaps grilling for the sear step would resolve that issue. Only used salt for seasoning and added it about an hour before cooking while vacuum sealing the bag. Might need to make some changes there also.

Altogether a $250 investment not including steaks.

I've heard some recommend a sear BEFORE the slow cook as well as after.

[OldPhiKap]

Not sous vide, but roasted a half leg of lamb in the convection oven with a simple rub of pepper, salt, rosemary and garlic. Pulled out at 135 internal and let it rise to about 142. Not bragging, but hard to imagine how it could have co e out much better.

Smoked a London broil earlier in the week, again with a really simple rub. Really tasty.

Neither cost much in the way of preparation.

[BigWayne]

Bump...did my first steaks sous vide style tonight. USDA Prime Ribeyes(boneless) about 1.5 inches thick, 2 hours at 132.

Seared in a stainless steel frying pan, 1 minute a side and each of the 4 edges for 45 seconds.

Striking consistency but lacked depth of flavor. Perhaps grilling for the sear step would resolve that issue. Only used salt for seasoning and added it about an hour before cooking while vacuum sealing the bag. Might need to make some changes there also.

Altogether a $250 investment not including steaks.

The Anova sous vide cooker is at $100 on amazon lately. If you don't already have a vacuum sealer, you can use ziploc bags by submerging them to squeeze the air out. You don't need a vacuum, just to get the air out so it doesn't float.

I sear my sous vide steaks 30 seconds each side in a hot cast iron pan and they come out great. We usually put some herbs in the bag with the salt and peppered steak before cooking.

[grad_devil]

Bump...did my first steaks sous vide style tonight. USDA Prime Ribeyes(boneless) about 1.5 inches thick, 2 hours at 132.

Seared in a stainless steel frying pan, 1 minute a side and each of the 4 edges for 45 seconds.

Striking consistency but lacked depth of flavor. Perhaps grilling for the sear step would resolve that issue. Only used salt for seasoning and added it about an hour before cooking while vacuum sealing the bag. Might need to make some changes there also.

Altogether a $250 investment not including steaks.

I recommend not adding salt during the sous vide - it draws the moisture out, from what I've experienced. I only add aromatics to the bag during the sous vide process.

I like my steaks on the rare side of medium rare, so I usually do 128-129 for 2-3 hours.

Also, sear in a cast iron skillet (better crust) or on a super hot grill (nice grill lines). I like to pat dry and add a rub, not just simple salt/pepper. (My last rub had a little corn starch, coffee, white sugar, and savory seasonings). Use oil and butter in the pan, and continually baste the oil/butter over the top of the steak while searing.

I did a nice pork shoulder over the past 24 hours, and had carnitas tacos last night. I started with this recipe (http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2017/01/sous-vide-carnitas-crispy-mexican-style-pulled-pork-recipe.html), if anyone is interested.

[devil84]

Santa brought an Anova sous vide for Christmas. My son's girlfriend has a Joule, and they absolutely love it. They use it at least once a week. They do a lot of triathlon training, so they can set it and train, then dinner's ready when they're done. They kept telling me how good steaks are with it.

Last night we did strip steaks at 129F for 1 hour, seasoned with our favorite Regas seasoning (salt, oregano, garlic, pepper, and other herbs and spices) with about a 1 minute sear on each side. I used the water displacement method with slide lock bags instead of a vacuum sealer. They were the best strip steaks we've done! Very juicy and flavorful. They are usually a little bit tough and dry in comparison on the grill.

My son said that he's heard that carrots are incredible with sous vide and had been wanting to try them. I followed Kenji Lopez-Alt's recipe on Serious Eats (http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/06/sous-vide-glazed-carrots-recipe.html) for glazed carrots, and they were quite good. Much more flavorful than any other way we've done them. And because I was doing carrots, I thought I'd try broccoli, too. Um...don't. You can't get enough air out of broccoli. It tasted like overly steamed broccoli. I'll do the glazed carrots again, though.

[YmoBeThere]

And because I was doing carrots, I thought I'd try broccoli, too. Um...don't. You can't get enough air out of broccoli. It tasted like overly steamed broccoli. I'll do the glazed carrots again, though.

Do you think using a vacuum sealer would have gotten better results?

I'm trying to justify the one I purchased from Costco a couple weeks ago.

[devil84]

Do you think using a vacuum sealer would have gotten better results?

I'm trying to justify the one I purchased from Costco a couple weeks ago.

Maybe? Or cutting the broccoli smaller? The broccoli branches seem to hold so much air. Perhaps a vacuum sealer might work better, along with chopping it smaller.

The vacuum sealer is definitely justified, however. Why? Because a new kitchen gadget is always justified. At least, IMHO.

[curtis325]

Santa brought an Anova Sous Vide for Xmas. We did a 3.5 lb rib roast at 132 for 7 hours and it was like butter. Awesome! I probably should have seared it for a little longer after taking out of the bag (Ziplock worked). It was so tender that it was difficult to slice--maybe I need a sharper carving knife or maybe less cooking time.

I'll be experimenting.

[weezie]

Lucky!

"I got rocks..." Charlie Brown

[Nick]

I got a sous vide immersion circulator a few weeks ago and I absolutely love it. Experiments and results so far:

* Bone-in chicken thighs: Pretty good though slightly dry, it's possible I left it in a bit too long as this was the first thing I tried. All the leftover juice made for an amazing pan sauce.
* Bone-in chicken breast: Same, except not nearly as much leftover juice.
* Sirloin tip roast: Outstanding! Tender meat on a cut I've almost always overcooked in the past, and the kids loved it.
* Filet mignon: Amazing! I've never cooked this before given my tendency to overcook thick cuts of meat, but this was tremendous.
* Steak: Delicious.
* Boneless skinless chicken thighs: Surprisingly these turned out better than the bone-in thighs, I'm not sure why. I did two hours @ 165, then cut them into chunks and seared to finish. The result is along the lines of the chicken at Chipotle, but juicier and more tender. I used to sautee these but sous vide gives comparable-to-better results with less work.
* Hamburgers: not bad, although I think next time I'd add more seasoning and cook at a higher temp (we did 139).
* Carrots: Added some OJ, the end result was pretty good. Nothing spectacular in my opinion but my wife really like them.

Things I still want to try: turkey breast, pork chops, pork butt, beef short ribs.

All in all, I enthusiastically recommend sous vide. For cooking I've just used ziploc bags and let the water pressure force the air out. I haven't done any marinades yet, everything's been salt and pepper. I tried out my dutch oven and my pasta pot for cooking, but they both got a little cramped so I bought a suitable 4.5 gallon plastic box for cooking which has worked well.

[devil84]

Welcome to the addiction, Nick! Glad you're enjoying it.

I'm still sous-viding pretty much any protein I can find. And my family isn't complaining about it, either! The only thing I've tried that was "meh" (since the broccoli debacle upthread) was fresh sausage (Lowe's Food's Vampire Hunter, a favorite!). It wasn't bad, it just didn't seem any different than usual methods. It's quicker to do them on the grill or the skillet.

We've done a turkey tenderloin that was delicious. So much so, that the next turkey we do for a holiday will be done sous-vide. Not sure how we'll pull that off, but I'm certain that this method by Kenji Lopez-Alt (https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/11/food-lab-sous-vide-turkey-crisp-skin-sous-vide-101-thanksgiving.html) will play a large role. I did chicken thighs like this, including the skin -- the skin came out deliciously crisp (like bacon) and really added that roasty flavor to the tender thighs.

My family has noted that I should only prepare pork chops sous-vide, not just because I tend to overcook them, but because they are so tender and delicious.

Flank steak done for 1.5 hours is good. Done for 8-12 hours, it's spectacular.

I'm sous-viding a London broil right now. They were on sale, so I've got 4.5 lbs going. They're cut up into a number of meals. They're going for 12 hours, and when I'm done, we'll eat one for dinner and the remaining will be quickly chilled in their freezer bags and frozen so later I can thaw/reheat in the sous-vide for some quick meals.

As far as flavorings, I found that a very generous coating of whatever rub you're using works well, lots more than I'd normally use. I have yet to overseason. As far as salt, we're restricting sodium, so I try to avoid it. However, I've got three blends that I love that have a lot of salt. I haven't had a problem with them on steaks and their relatively short cook time. There might be some reason to use salt with longer cook times (for beef and pork, 8+ hours) as it acts like a brine.

[Ggallagher]

I got a sous vide immersion circulator a few weeks ago and I absolutely love it. Experiments and results so far:


Things I still want to try: turkey breast, pork chops, pork butt, beef short ribs.

All in all, I enthusiastically recommend sous vide. For cooking I've just used ziploc bags and let the water pressure force the air out. I haven't done any marinades yet, everything's been salt and pepper. I tried out my dutch oven and my pasta pot for cooking, but they both got a little cramped so I bought a suitable 4.5 gallon plastic box for cooking which has worked well.

Glad it's working out well for you. We've certainly enjoyed ours.

On your list of things to try, one item we especially liked was doing pork chops that are a lot thicker than I've been able to managed successfully on the grill. When I grill nice thick ones, they usually end up overcooked and dry or a little bit pinker than we're comfortable with. But they've been great every time when we sous vide them.

[devil84]

We did a turkey sous-vide this year, following these instructions: https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/a-better-way-to-turkey-cook-that-bird-sous-vide-for-the-best-feast-ever

Oh. My.

Spectacular.

Tips:

Fresh turkeys are significantly marked down on Black Friday, if your store has any left. We did a Sunday night family Thanksgiving and hadn't figured out what we were making for dinner as of the Friday trip to the grocery. This may be a new tradition.
Watch the video on how to cut up the turkey. It should not require cleavers, brute force, power tools, or a trip to the ER. It's much easier than I thought.
Use the carcass and wing tips to make broth so you can make dressing, as there's no way to stuff a sous-vide bird. (An Instant Pot makes short work of that task.)
When placing the quarters into the skillet with hot oil, lay them down away from you in the event it slips out of your hand and then splashes hot oil away from you instead of all over your arm.


The nearly boneless breasts are spectacularly moist and tender and the skin is crispy. The dark meat is amazing. And the quartered bird can still make a nice presentation on the table, as the breasts are easy to slice.

Unanimous opinion was that we're never roasting a bird again. Sous-vide it is.

If you don't have an immersion circulator, they're the perfect holiday gift, IMHO.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Sous Vide doesn't appeal to me at all, but I saw this and thought it was pretty interesting. Maybe I'll give it a shot one day.

The Sous-Vide Supreme, introduced last winter, and of which I am a big fan, is certainly a big step in the right direction. But at $450, for most people, it still remains prohibitively costly. In an effort to help those who'd like to experiment with sous-vide cookery without having to put in the capital, a couple weeks ago I devised a novel solution to the problem: Cook your food in a beer cooler.
https://www.seriouseats.com/2010/04/cook-your-meat-in-a-beer-cooler-the-worlds-best-sous-vide-hack.html?fbclid=IwAR00avRpv1VwCmoTgRyukpc2lpuQ6eD lE01UuloFAlRAMqsFh5J5Cc-YA5Q

[budwom]

One of the kings of U.S. sous vide just died, Gerard Rubaud of Fairfax Vermont..you can google up an article about him from 31 years ago in the Washington Post...amazing chef, amazing guy...plus he
used to ski with Jean Claude Killy's team, which is kind of like playing on Mickey Mantle's little league team...

[devil84]

Sous Vide doesn't appeal to me at all, but I saw this and thought it was pretty interesting. Maybe I'll give it a shot one day.

https://www.seriouseats.com/2010/04/cook-your-meat-in-a-beer-cooler-the-worlds-best-sous-vide-hack.html?fbclid=IwAR00avRpv1VwCmoTgRyukpc2lpuQ6eD lE01UuloFAlRAMqsFh5J5Cc-YA5Q

Sous vide + smoker = bliss

An hour or two in the smoker, then lots of hours in a sous vide bath and you might be a convert.

Also, it's no longer $450 as an entry point; you can get a good one for under $100 (there's the Anova Nano on sale now for $69). And you don't need to cook in plastic; reusable silicone bags are available, as are reusable plastic vacuum bags (that I've found aren't as reusable as I thought). And there's a hack that you can drill a hole in the cooler lid and put the immersion circulator in the cooler to ensure that the water remains hot enough. I used to culture my yogurt in a water bath in a cooler overnight, but it was lukewarm in the morning. A larger cooler does better than a smaller one, which I used because it weighs less.

Give it a try. I think you'd be surprised.

[Nick]

We did a turkey sous-vide this year, following these instructions: https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/a-better-way-to-turkey-cook-that-bird-sous-vide-for-the-best-feast-ever

Oh. My.

Spectacular.

Tips:

Fresh turkeys are significantly marked down on Black Friday, if your store has any left. We did a Sunday night family Thanksgiving and hadn't figured out what we were making for dinner as of the Friday trip to the grocery. This may be a new tradition.
Watch the video on how to cut up the turkey. It should not require cleavers, brute force, power tools, or a trip to the ER. It's much easier than I thought.
Use the carcass and wing tips to make broth so you can make dressing, as there's no way to stuff a sous-vide bird. (An Instant Pot makes short work of that task.)
When placing the quarters into the skillet with hot oil, lay them down away from you in the event it slips out of your hand and then splashes hot oil away from you instead of all over your arm.


The nearly boneless breasts are spectacularly moist and tender and the skin is crispy. The dark meat is amazing. And the quartered bird can still make a nice presentation on the table, as the breasts are easy to slice.

Unanimous opinion was that we're never roasting a bird again. Sous-vide it is.

If you don't have an immersion circulator, they're the perfect holiday gift, IMHO.

We do fresh turkey breast sous vides every now and then and it's a popular dish. (Trader Joe's stocks fresh turkey breast year-round if anybody's curious.) Note that if you do the Serious Eats crispy turkey skin recipe you'll get some leftover fat in the baking sheet that you can use for gravy.

[devil84]

We do fresh turkey breast sous vides every now and then and it's a popular dish. (Trader Joe's stocks fresh turkey breast year-round if anybody's curious.) Note that if you do the Serious Eats crispy turkey skin recipe you'll get some leftover fat in the baking sheet that you can use for gravy.

I forget that people actually do gravy. We've got so many people on low calorie diets in the family that we haven't made it in years. Besides, you don't need gravy for turkey prepared this way! Doing the Serious Eats turkey skin works well for chicken skin, too.

I didn't know TJ's has fresh turkey breasts year round. That's great! Thanks!

[grad_devil]

Doing some sous vide ribeyes for friends tomorrow.

Does anyone have a favorite steak rub they use when they sear their steaks? Looking to achieve that great crust. I typically use a cast iron skillet on high heat for less than 1m per side after sous vide.

I've dallied with different rubs before - one had coffee, lawry's, white sugar, and a bit of corn starch (perfect crust, but I can't replicate it!), but I strike out much more often than I hit it out of the park.

Some rubs I enjoy for traditionally cooked steaks don't translate to sous vide steaks, due to the much reduced time in the skillet/fire.

ideas?

[BigWayne]

Doing some sous vide ribeyes for friends tomorrow.

Does anyone have a favorite steak rub they use when they sear their steaks? Looking to achieve that great crust. I typically use a cast iron skillet on high heat for less than 1m per side after sous vide.

I've dallied with different rubs before - one had coffee, lawry's, white sugar, and a bit of corn starch (perfect crust, but I can't replicate it!), but I strike out much more often than I hit it out of the park.

Some rubs I enjoy for traditionally cooked steaks don't translate to sous vide steaks, due to the much reduced time in the skillet/fire.

ideas?

My son has done the last few batches of sous vide steaks we have enjoyed. I started letting him take over since he is now a top line cook at a Michelin star restaurant and cooks 50-100 primo steaks a day. He puts in more effort than what I was doing in that he sears the steak both before and after the sous vide bath. On the post sear I think he has some fresh thyme in the pan with the oil. Seasoning is just salt and pepper. Comes out better than when I do it.

[DukieInKansas]

I forget that people actually do gravy. We've got so many people on low calorie diets in the family that we haven't made it in years. Besides, you don't need gravy for turkey prepared this way! Doing the Serious Eats turkey skin works well for chicken skin, too.

I didn't know TJ's has fresh turkey breasts year round. That's great! Thanks!

The gravy is for the potatoes and stuffing. Turkey can have gravy on it but it is not necessary.

[devil84]

The gravy is for the potatoes and stuffing. Turkey can have gravy on it but it is not necessary.

I thought it was to moisten dried out turkey breasts! At least, that's what most of us used it for in my family. We use butter on the potatoes, and the stuffing never needed gravy. Hmm...I learned something new!