We've had good results using a conventional slow cooker filled with water and an external temperature controller. I think our temp controller model is the dorkfood DSV. Has a little probe you stick in the water. You plug the crockpot into the controller and it cycles it A/R to maintain whatever temp you set it to.
I didn't realize it was a thing until I saw Babish use it for pickles.
What can you use it for other than meat? I'm not sure that we'd get enough use out of it to add it to the arsenal.
In reply to mtn :
Eggs, vegetables, mash potatoes although I've never had them come out right, cheesecake, regular cake, I've seen brownie recipes and sauces although I wouldn't berkeley with sauces because getting sauce into bags and vacuum sealed is a massive pain.
Just a different heat source, that you can set to whatever temperature you want and have it actually stay there.
Don't let the constant temperature fool you though, you can overcook things it just takes a lot longer. Example, steaks I usually put in around noon to eat at 5. I left one in for 22 hours by mistake, and while still a perfect 125 degrees the whole way through, it was like mush.
Although our Xmas Prime rib is a 24+ hour cook.
Gotta wonder how they'd do with meat that's expected to be tough, like venison or wild game...
In reply to stroker :
Very well with venison. Very well with ostrich. Only "exotic" meats I've tried so far, with wildly different "conventional" cooking styles.
Venison I always do slow, and the sous vide helps for that. Ostrich I always cook at extreme heat for very short periods of time, much like filet. Treat it like a steak in the sous vide and it's perfect with a good hard sear finish.
I was supposed to be getting some bear to try out, which is tricky to cook at the best of times, but my friends wound up not bagging one.
In reply to RevRico :
See to me that was the texture issue. I couldn't cook a steak over an hour without it seeming mushy to me. I don't know if it's a factor but I like mine on the rare side of medium rare.
Keith Tanner said:When I was canoe camping in the 80s, it was called "boil in a bag"
Haven't tried it. I think I'd miss the Maillard reaction.
Sous vide doesn't necessarily replace the full cooking process. If you're doing a steak, for instance, you can sous-vide first, then do a hot sear to finish.
Cooking sous vide in plastic isn't as awful as you think. The temps at which plastics start leeching crap into the food are way higher than sous vide ever gets.
flat4_5spd said:We've had good results using a conventional slow cooker filled with water and an external temperature controller. I think our temp controller model is the dorkfood DSV. Has a little probe you stick in the water. You plug the crockpot into the controller and it cycles it A/R to maintain whatever temp you set it to.
It looks like the Dorkfood DSV has been discontinued but there appear to be similar products available.
mtn said:I didn't realize it was a thing until I saw Babish use it for pickles.
What can you use it for other than meat? I'm not sure that we'd get enough use out of it to add it to the arsenal.
I sometimes do a batch of eggs. Throw a couple whipped eggs in a ziplock with onions, ham, or whatever, and toss it in a pot of simmering water for 10 minutes. Toss them in the fridge and I have quick breakfasts for a week.
I'm looking to pull the trigger on an actual sous vide cooker, but until then, a pot on the stove does the trick.
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
I'm stealing this from you.
The best applications for sous vide are for dishes that you would traditionally have to overcook to be food safe.
USDA says to cook chicken to 165F. Chicken thighs don't really get delicious and tender on the grill/in a pan until 185, so might as well do those in a pan or on the grill. But chicken breast sous-vide at 145 for an hour and then quickly chilled/seared is WAY juicier than any chicken you've ever tried before, and perfectly safe to eat.
USDA says to cook burgers to 160F, but sous-vide them at 130 for an hour, then quickly chilled/seared and you're eating food-safe medium-rare burgers that burst with juiciness and flavor.
USDA says to cook your pork chops to 145, and they'll still be juicy there. But sous-vide at 135 and then chill/sear and you're eating a pork chop that feels and tastes like it came from a high-end chophouse.
Super-thick steaks like filets, or 1.5" thick porterhouse are really hard to get up to a rare or medium rare internal temp without killing the outside. Sous vide lets you get there.
It's also nice for carrots.
I don't particularly like it for things like 24-hour or 48-hour short ribs (to make them fork-tender) because they tend to get mushy more than just breaking down the collagen as a regular braise would, or trying to cheat on a boston butt for pulled pork, but that's my personal preference.
Any time you end up with a protein that gets a little dry and powdery and you say to yourself "I wish I hadn't had to cook this quite so much" is the perfect use for sous-vide.
Coffee brewed with a sous vide is amazing. They're also fantastic for making a wort to brew with. The temperature control makes it so it's impossible to overheat the bath resulting in eliminating the risk of the acidity developing.
In reply to RevRico :
Scorchy you say? 
that's my searing toy. Yes I spent $70 on a torch to sear steaks.
In reply to Mndsm :
I have one of those for plumbing and have been wondering about using it on steaks.
How does it work? Are you just using propane or is that MAPP?
In reply to CrustyRedXpress :
Map+ because they apparently don't make mapp anymore but yeah. Works like a charm. Has a tendency to set off my smoke detectors, but it's a lot easier overall than dealing with heating a cast iron and I can sear exactly what I want where I want. Want that fat cap a little extra toasty? I got you!
I don't really get the sous vide thing. Have a friend that swears by it, and he was kind enough to cook for me twice. First time was pork chops, and I wasn't sure if I was missing something because I'm not a big pork eater. But the second time was steaks, and they just weren't as good as on the grill or seared and finished in the oven (aka restaurant style).
But I admittedly have an unrefined palette that considers a steak on the grill and potatoes to be the highest form of delicacy. So grain of salt and all that.
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