Louisville Restaurants Forum

So I have finally graduated from total Rube Goldberg contraptions to ownership of a circulator. Since I actually have some control now, I feel like I need to tighten up my sous vide game.

Anyone looked at used the Jason Logsdon books? Are there good web resources? IS the Keller book worthwhile?

Some good info here: http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html and http://forums.egullet.org/topic/136274-sous-vide-index/. Primer from Cooking Issues although not sure if this is fully functional: http://web.archive.org/web/201208022050 ... m/primers/

Which unit did you end up getting?

Good stuff. ->Taking notes.

I was given an Underground Circulator as a gift. Nice gift. Now, of course, there is the expectation that the gift giver will be thanked with crazy molecular meals.

http://www.undergroundcirculators.com/

Thanks for the links!

I saw a few of those listed on eBay from time to time - please let me know how you like it as I may try to pick one up in the future. Looking forward to your sous vide cooking endeavors!

I'm still using the beer cooler method with nothing more than a very good German industrial thermometer and a good vacuum sealer. Results have been excellent so far. Did 15 ribeyes at once and another dinner with eight super-thick Iowa style chops. I reckon I'm going to be doing mostly large batches so I'll be looking for ways to pimp the cooler to automate control of the heat.

Soon, we'll be in the realm of immersion circulators for the home cook for under $400.00. I managed to snag an unused lab circulator a while back and also have a Nomiku funded that should be here in March.

Now, I want to snag a Vacmaster VP112 chamber sealer. It's not really necessary but I'd like to have it for ease of use, compression, quick marination, etc.

Used the Douglas Baldwin guidelines for the ribs, but didn't have time for an overnight. They were tender, but not as falling apart as I might have hoped, the collagen hadn't fully rendered. But 8 hours in the bath and the meat picked up a good flavor from it's marinade. Conveniently, the medium done-ness and soft cooked egg were at the same temp setting.

For the DIY crowd, I successfully built a rig using one of the PID controllers from ebay. There are kits available now for around $75 for the controller, solid state relay and temperature probe. I used a electric water heater element as the heat source - far less expensive and more robust than other options. I use an aquarium air pump for circulation.

The whole thing is housed in a Cambro, with the heater, probe, and air pump mounted to the lid.

I did a lot of testing with multiple thermometers and the temperature is extremely even throughout the water bath.

Now all I need to do is actually USE it!

Interesting new options- the Sous Vide wars are heating up ( Pun intended).
http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/09/equi ... ulato.html

Deb

Ken B wrote:Are there good web resources?

http://www.chefsteps.com <-- These folks are pretty amazing.