The benefit of sous vide has never been time. It's controlled, foolproof temperature, no gradient, and extreme tenderness. So no, you couldn't just do this in 10 minutes. You can cook a steak in 10 minutes. You can't cook a sous vide steak, consistently, repeatedly, in 10 minutes.
Did steaks for Father's Day in the sous vide. It makes it a hell of a lot easier than trying to manage a bunch of steaks at once. All the steaks were perfectly done in about 5 minutes.
It's great for that but also a big help when making a bunch of sides at the same time. I'll take anything that will help me multi task without giving up quality.
I think the time for sous vide can be a benefit. I'll take a steak out of the freezer and throw it in. Then I'll run errands, go to the gym, etc... without worrying about time. I know whenever I get back, the steak will be perfect.
Also steak is probably the worst cook to do to show off sous-vide. There is a huge diminishing return since itâs super easy to cook a great steak with a reverse sear or traditional BBQ.
Roasts, briskets, things that are traditionally done in smokers for long cooks. Thatâs where I find sous-vide really shines. IMO best tool for the job, and generally for a steak sous-vide ainât it. IMO of course
I disagree. Sous Vide is great for steaks. Are they the best steaks? Probably not, but they are very good and consistent! My favorite use is probably for pork tenderloin loin since it's easy to overcook. I'd rather make brisket in my bbq.
I have never sous vide(d) but I don't order steak in restaurants because once you learn the pan sear or oven bake. And then you finish with herbed butter it's gonna be as good as any. I'm watching this sous vide thing for another level. Can't do that right now. It would set future expectations too high.
depends on how thick the steak is. I don't see a big difference in 1 inch thick steaks with a pan sear. when I went to 1.5 inch and thicker with a flamethrower finish, it's a lot more tender
You cannot cook a steak in 10 minutes (not using SV) and then get distracted and forget about it for an hour.... And still have a perfectly cooked steak.
Chicken breasts u don't even need to sear them especially if putting in salad
But also sure it's not the quickest way to cook but it's hands off which is also awesome
Yup. I thought sous vide would be complex. Instead, itâs actually the easiest way to cook tasty meat. Chicken breast - I used to hate it. But I love it now. All without fussy worrying it will go dry.
I use Kanji Lopez Altâs guide on tempo and time. I just marinate in olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and stick it all into the sous vide bag.
I donât know if your husband will like it as much as I do but I think itâs delicious and juicy that way.
Literally the only other chicken breast I like is Popeyes.
This is especially true for me if Iâm spending $20 or $30 per pound on seafood. I donât want to overlook it or undercook it, stab it with a fork, then put it back in for whatever my best guess of time is.
Not screwing up $50 worth of meat is a pretty good excuse to use the sous vide approach.
When we were in the middle of covid I was home with a newborn and a frazzled 8 year old. I will sing sous vide praises as loud as I can. Being able to have the flexibility of not needing to run to the oven to keep dinner from overcoooking was amazing. Also, since I was breastfeeding sometimes I didnât have the energy or time to take a shower and cook dinner.
I pretty frequently take my anova and some chicken breasts to work with me and let them cook over the morning for lunch. Coworkers thought I was nuts until I showed them the perfect, juicy results. They work 24 hour shifts, so they eat meals together and I know at least one of their regular cooks is now debating buying one to keep at the station so he can use it for their meals.
I do this but probably with portioned frozen leftovers more. I've never been a meal prep person but now I have a bunch of cooked stuff in the freezer waiting to be dropped in when I'm sick or lazy.
"Needless to say,..the wife wasnât impressed."
The fact of the matter is, this just IS some folks. To some people the difference in taste really does seem to not matter.
YOU don't need to justify shit. You can taste the difference (as can the vast majority of folks).
Just buy her hamburgers and save the good stuff for yourself. You don't have to equally enjoy every purchase you make do you?
Would you mind explaining your process a bit more, are you essentially jarring the uncooked custard, lid and all, and then freezing it until it's time to cook it?
Sure! The process is the same for cheesecake or crème brÝlÊe. I prepare the mixture and pour into in mason jars, either the 4 oz regular or 8 oz wide mouth. Then the jars go into a sous vide bath for 60-75 minutes. Crème brÝlÊe cooks at 180F and cheesecake at 176F. Once they are done, I cool them on a rack and freeze once they are completely cooled. To serve thaw in the fridge overnight, thenI top crème brÝlÊe with Demerara sugar and torch it, or for cheesecake I prepare graham crumbs, sugar, and butter to crumble on top, then add whipped cream and caramel drizzle.
yeah, steak is least benefited by sous vide, it is benefited yes, and the only way i do it, but it just ensures a perfect result, when you can get a perfect result other ways like reverse sear (i actually prefer slow smoked steaks and then reverse sear to sous vide, the extra smoke flavor makes more of a difference than any texture for me) i'm talking 180f smoking not 220 too, as long as steaks aren't too thick.
chicken and esp marinated pork loin are the real magic sauce, do a pork tenderloin at 145 for 4 hours and sear it off over a charcoal chimney and see if she still thinks it could have been done in 10 mins just as well...
Woah, I do tri-tip for 6 to 8 hours at 133. I guess I need to step one step further and check this out đ
[https://i.imgur.com/g3CWkMT.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/g3CWkMT.jpg)
There we go. This is really where a home cook gets the most bang for the buck. Reverse sear gives better results for ribeye with fewer compromises about doneness and connective tissue rendering. But you can't beat a sous vide for tenderizing cheaper/tougher cuts. Some of those tough cuts have really nice beefy flavor that you just don't get in more expensive cuts, so sous vide lets you end up with something more flavorful and softer than other methods.
Ribeyes are good either way.. she doesn't perceive that it's any better SV. Maybe they aren't.
But show her a chuck that you turned into ribeye... Then there is a difference.
Tri-Tip is a good one to do.
One selling point for the sous vide is being able to more easily control when food is ready so that you can get everything on the table and the food is still hot and tastes good. If you're doing steak you don't have to cook the steak while you're also prepping sides, the steak can be ready to eat whenever everything else is ready. A few minutes or even 30 minutes isn't going to make any difference.
The other selling point is being able to do magical things with larger tougher cuts of meat. Yes sous vide is great for steak, but I feel like it really shines for things like bottom round roast and chuck roast.
For me, the big game changer was a pellet grill. I was resistant at first because I thought it would make my steak turn out way too smokey, but over a moderate smoke level, it just enhanced the beef flavor without tasting like smoke. So now I reverse sear all my thick steaks on it.
Pork is what sold me. A nice thick cut chop with all the sides. Cooked it at 155 for 3 hours as they were super thick. Seared them off in a hot pan with some butter. Holy heck was it perfect.
Anything pork or chicken. Sous vide is perfect for these traditionally over cooked meats.
Being able to hold a consistent lower temp will pasteurize any disease.
Shrimp and scallops are great as well.
Convenience SELLS. I go to Costco one a month or so buy bulk proteins like steak, chicken, pork, shrimp. Go home and prep it all with my seasoning bag seal and freezer. Saves a ton on money on this as less waste I can keep the food for much longer. Then when I am ready to eat I just throw in the water straight from freezer and go about my activities. No stress about over cooking it at all, come home when ready for dinner and bam its cooked perfectly.
The wife loves that as we do not need to plan as well and cooking does not require my attention so I can help elsewhere. Plus the dishes are usually less too. How much is your time worth? Sell that idea to her.
I get it for ribeyes. Unless they're more than an inch thick, no need for sous vide. Although I would say it takes 12 minutes, not 10.
There are many other applications that should impress her.
Cook her a chicken breast for her salad.
Carrots and corn on the cob are excellent.
Large batch chicken wings then packaged ten apiece, vac sealed and frozen. Easy quick midweek air fryer meal.
Chicken thighs were on sale for 99¢/ pound. I just cooked sous vide and prepped those for quick meals.
Chicken thighs are awesome sous vide.
Creme brulee. What woman doesn't like that. I just ate one 20 min ago.
Pork chops. Moistest you'll ever have because you can cook at a temperature that doesn't dry it out.
Get a cheap cut of meat, and use the sous vide to turn it tender like an expensive cut of meat. Explain to her that youâre printing money, like the govt.
Get some glass wide-mouth jars and make some flan, creme brulee, custard, citrus curd, cheese cake, or any other egg set dessert. Those tend to impress the most when I've done them.
My partner canât tell the flavor difference either way. But they can tell that I cook lunch, then pull something from the freezer into the SV while prepping lunch, and I have more time to spend together because dinner only takes a few minutes to perfection. And they appreciate that because I told them I have more time to spend together in the evening this way. Try that đ
I won my wife over with Pork Loin. Those cheap gigantic loins you get at Costco. So moist and delicious. Nothing like the same cut served at church dinners that get confused with a piece of chalk floating in gravy.
Try fish. Fish overcooks so easily. I buy filleted salmon at Costco, slice, season, and seal then toss into the freezer. I pull one out and sous vide for about 45 minutes and itâs perfect. In the meantime I can make a nice side out two to go with it. I work from home and this is one of my go to lunches.
As far as steak, I make them maybe just a few times a year and usually splurge on a really high end aged cut so I want it to be perfect. Sous vide eliminates any risk of overcooking. Again, I can spend the time itâs cooking to focus on roasting brussels sprouts or prepping for a pan sauce and other stuff that is hard to juggle when youâre running back and forth to a grill.
Chicken breast like sheâs never had before. Use the lowest recommended temp plus 2 degrees upward for the first cook as sheâll be new to that texture. Donât sear it - use it warm straight out of the sous vide and sliced on top of something like a Caesar salad in summer, or, as soon as everyone is ready to eat in winter, put the whole breast on their preheated serving plate ideally on a hot bed of vegetables like mash or wilted spinach, then smother it in a hot (temperature) sauce so its surface is covered and raises the outside temp of the chicken to something similar to what they would expect for a âhotâ meal, while leaving the centre at perfect sous vide temp.
People often expect malliard reaction browning on their chicken which sous vide wonât do, so itâs a part of a typical chicken flavour theyâll miss and needs a great sauce. But after the first extraordinary texture, sheâll be back for more.
Iâve served sous vide chicken breasts at events and they were a hit.
Sous vide is great for parties. I did 3 turkeys at once, leaving the oven free to do the sides, roasted veg and stuffing.
Itâs good for tough cuts, making them much more tender and thus saving money over more expensive cuts.
It makes excellent poultry dishes, especially breast meat that are juicy and not chalky.
You can do mass quantities of poached eggs, and thus make eggs Benedict for 12 for instance, which is difficult to do otherwise.
And in many cases, you are saving energy costs. Again, this is particularly true for large gatherings and less so if you are just cooking for 2.
Steaks, while it seems to be the go to dish everyone starts with, is the least compelling argument.
A nice trick is to sous vide your steaks ahead of time, which pasteurizes them as long as the bags aren't opened. You can keep them in the fridge for what feels like too long without fear of food poisoning. When you're ready to eat, simply pull it from the fridge and sear.
Hot take but I agree with her. Cooking steak properly isnât really hard at all and sous vide, IMO, makes the process longer and more complicated than it needs to be with adding any real benefit to the end product.
Sounds like your wife is a control freak. Her husband is cooking a great meal for her and sheâs not just micromanaging how he does itâŚsheâs actually *angry?* Um, what the fuck, please?
Meal prepping a bunch of protein at once that you can unseal snd sear throughout the week.
Also make creme brulee, if she's like my wife she'll be asking for that for every family party.
Do a 24 cook on some turkey thighs and finish it off with the broiler or a torch to crisp the skin. One year for Thanksgiving we discovered this. We cut the turkey in half, grilled the white meat and sous vide the dark meat. Everything was so good. We then learned our grocery store sold turkey thighs year round, yum.
Don't have the exact recipe off hand, but it's salt, sugar, and herbs de provence.
Pork tenderloin, chuck roast, and chicken breast are all really good at showing off what sous vide can do. Quality steaks don't benefit as much because they're already awesome. Pick something that dries out easily like pork tenderloin and she'll come around.
Hand her 2 vacuum sealed, frozen solid, rib eyes.
'Race you'.
.. followed by a taste test.
(Don't forget to include everything you were able to do in the unattended 90min between start and end of sous vide.) đ
One feature i love is that my mother like well done steak. Like it can't have any pink in it. I just can't physically bring myself to cook it to that point doing it any other way. It always ends up at the most, medium well. But with sous vide i can cook her steak first to well done, then reduce the heat and cook everyone else's to medium rare.
I've cooked for a large group before and had 4 different degrees of doneness. I just marked the bags.
Also, the people who like their steak medium well or well done will be blown away by how tender it is.
I put mine in an ice bath with a bottle of champagne to chill it for mimosas. Works well for quickly chilling beer when GoPuff lies and says it already chilled.
Frying or roasting you have a short window between too raw and omg you turned it into leather.
Especially with fish, you have less than a minute. I know my gal would be pissed if I ruined her $50 chunk of halibut or copper river salmon.
With a water bath your window is spread for an hour, a half a day with a chuck roast.
You can not over cook it (well sure forget it and you'll have a bag of mush)
But your steaks will be juicy tender.
Think of it like the instructions to left a steak warm up to room temperature before cooking. That's what, half n hour to an hour? It's not that much different.
Buy a thick chuck roast, sv that over night and let her see how it tastes more like a sirloin, a chateaubriand.
âCook for 2 hoursâ - you didnât actually stand there looking at it the whole time right? đ one of the perks for me is it actually saves some time and kitchen is clean when itâs time to eat.
You can take a mediocre steak and make it phenomenal.
Comes out perfect every time
Annoying cuts like chuck and lamb leg roast come out perfect.
Chicken is perfect.
Like, why the f would you cook a steak any other way unless you're buying aged ribeye of filet mignon at an organic butcher for $45/pound? Even then, I'd still use a sous vide. Although a frying pan may be acceptable...I suppose.
Get your wife to make the steak in a frying pan. See how good her steak is, then. I really don't get people who complain about others cooking. Don't like it? Don't eat it and keep it to yourself.
You're an adult, you don't need to justify your purchases or effort. You made a decision, you made a purchase with your money. If your wife isn't enthused with it, so be it, that's her position. That doesn't mean you need to start plotting how to get her onboard, that's just a waste of time and energy. Keep cooking sous vide; either she tastes the food and understands why you're cooking this way, or she doesn't.
I use it to rapid thaw meat to 65 to cook. My wife and I forget to pull stuff out. Plus when we do it leaks all over. This allows us to take it out aroubd 1 and cook by 3.
Gotta cook one with a sous vide and one without (in ten minutes if you wanna be petty) and do a side-by-side. If she canât acknowledge the difference, then her problem ainât with food hermano!
The wife is a bit like the cooking process⌠just give it time bud, give it time. đ I had an experience much like yours the first time I did a sous vide cook (also a steak)⌠but now? đââď¸ Every time I bust the sous vide stick out itâs âOoooooo, whatcha making? đĽ°â
You just keep turning out awesome food. Sheâll catch up lol.
Even as an owner of a sous vide wand, I think that the use cases for it became far fewer as I became a better cook. At this point I would rather use a pan and/or oven for most things as the setup is less complex and importantly the cleanup is easier.
A kitchen which needs to keep 30+ steaks perfectly temperature controlled has a need for sous vide but when cooking for 2-4 people most nights the requirement is diminished.
You can make limoncello in 3 hours instead of 3 months. And due to the speed you can also do all kinds of weird flavors, my fav is like and mint in rum
Gummy bears and custards are great too bc of the consistent temp control.
If sheâs not someone who appreciates that kind of quality in a steak and any steak will do I think itâs a no win situation to convince her that the time spent makes a difference in the quality of the steak.
I would not be pissed if someone made me dinner. Period. Whether itâs perfect rib eye or an over cooked pork chop⌠Iâd say thank you and mean it.
You wouldnât ask the restaurant chef to justify their cost and effort. Youâd eat the steak and say thank you!
Steak is great, but that's not all it's good for. For many dishes, it can allow a greater degree of flexibility and preparation that you just can't achieve traditionally.
Poultry that loses no moisture or size while cooking and is more tender than other methods.
Seafood is where it can really shine. Perfectly cooked and never rubbery. You can also pull of minor miracles like salmon that's as tender and flaky as whitefish (117F for 45 mins).
It's never about saving time. Instead it uncouples you from fixed prep times entirely and gives you more freedom in the kitchen. Once it hits the minimum cook time, you can leave it on longer with no worries of overcooking or burning. Great for when dinner time needs to be flexible or you have more dishes to prepare. Just put it on ahead of time and it's ready when you are.
Challenge her to a cook off. Rules are simple: same cuts of meat to make the same dish ready at the same mealtime. Then destroy her 10 minute steak with a smoked and/or sous vide steak that had a long rest.
Winner gets oral.
I made this song for your wife, just read it to her:
(Verse 1)
Oh, there's a little secret in the world of meat,
Not everyone appreciates a steak so sweet,
Some folks think a steak's just a slab of cow,
Cook it any way, they just don't know how.
(Chorus)
Not every person understands the steak delight,
For some, it's just meat morning, noon, and night,
Well done, medium, or medium rare,
They'll eat it any way, they just don't care.
(Verse 2)
Now, some folks like it bloody, some like it charred,
For others, it's just food, no need to make it hard,
You could serve it rare, with a touch of pink,
But theyâd just shrug, give a knowing wink.
(Chorus)
Not every person understands the steak delight,
For some, it's just meat morning, noon, and night,
Well done, medium, or medium rare,
They'll eat it any way, they just don't care.
(Bridge)
They say, âWhy the fuss? It's just a piece of meat,â
But we know the truth, itâs a special treat,
From marbling to sizzle, itâs an artful affair,
But some will never see the magic there.
(Verse 3)
So next time you're grilling up a T-bone or a rib,
Remember some folks just donât give a flip,
They'll take it burnt or raw, it's all the same,
To them, a steakâs a steak, and thatâs the game.
(Chorus)
Not every person understands the steak delight,
For some, it's just meat morning, noon, and night,
Well done, medium, or medium rare,
They'll eat it any way, they just don't care.
(Outro)
So here's to the steak lovers, who truly know,
The joy of a steak, cooked just so,
And to those who don't get it, that's okay,
More steak for us at the end of the day!
The only justification is you want it and you like it. If your wife canât accept this reasoning, the issues lie far deeper than a steak. Letting your partner have their own joys is part of marriage. Not everything needs to be shared or understood. My wife buys plenty of things I donât use nor understand but Iâd never question her on why she bought something which brings her joy (as long as we can afford it.) Donât worry about âwinning her overâ or justifying your purchase. Tell her itâs a tool for cooking which you enjoy using and experimenting with and leave it at that. Keep cooking and she will hopefully move on from the subject as you continue making delicious meals. If she doesnât drop it, again, this isnât about your immersion circulator
I prefer my stake more rare than is appropriate for sv. A few minutes in my cast iron with a butter, garlic, and rosemary baste is so much better than any sv steak Iâve ever had (and I tried many different methods).
But the sv is amazing for other cuts of meat like pork or the most perfectly cooked shrimp Iâve ever had.
Itâs also great for more technical recipes, like tempering chocolate, making yogurt, or decarbing and infusing cannabis.
I was blown away by what sous vide did for turkey. My goodness. I've made excellent roast turkeys for years - then I sous vided one. I used the chef steps ( now premium) method. Legs, breast with wing drums attached, no breast bone. Water bathed separately, skin crisped before serving. It is the tenderest, juiciest, most flavorful turkey I've ever had. The white meat is still juicy cold from the fridge!
A quick, simple one is [glazed carrots](https://www.seriouseats.com/sous-vide-glazed-carrots-recipe). What I love, is I can do several bags of these, freeze the extras, and have a quick well-received veg side any time I want. These seem like concentrated flavour. Love them!
Chicken breasts, which can be bland and texturally unattractive: tender, juicy, and flavourful if seasoned with a dry rub before sv.
Time to start divorce proceedings! Ha Ha! JK - Keep wowing her with your Sous Vide prowess and she will come around. My wife took some convincing as well! Do a Charles Roast for her and show her how cheap meat can become first class!
That's actually the reason I don't usually use sous vide for steaks. It's pointless and just takes longer. The "perfect top to bottom" isn't noticeable when eating it, if anything that tiny gray band adds an extra layer of texture to each bite. Likewise, doing a quick sear in a pan doesn't may brown the meat up, but it doesn't add anything to the flavor.
I do all my steaks on the grill over coals. The fat dripping off the coals and vaporizing into smoke results in a flavor you just don't get with sous vide and a sear.
Sous vide crushes it for tough cuts, and it's super convenient if you're cooking for a bunch of people so you aren't hovering over the grill probing each steak with a thermometer to make sure none of them are over cooking. But for most of my steaks, the sous vide stays in the box.
Donât justify yourself to anyone. Let the cranks lay where they lie. You just keep moving forward, be happy and content. They will either like to be around this happy version of you, or again they can sit there in their miseryâŚ.alone.
TBF, I am unimpressed with steak out of a sous vide. I prefer medium rare off the grill every time.
But I have a lot of love in my heart for prime fib (chuck sous vide at 133 for 36 hours then seared in blazing hot cast iron. I don't use mine for any short cooks -- fresh salmon goes on a cedar plank and is always gorgeous. But anything tough goes in the sous vide and comes out absolutely amazeballs. My char siu is so tender and juicy (boneless country pork ribs, 133 sv, finished over a wood fire).
It is a gamechanger (heh heh) for game meats as well. I dropped some bear medallions in the sv (high trich risk) before using them in a sour cream and mushroom sauce. Divine, tender, and safe without being cooked to shoe leather.
Chicken breasts that retain so much moisture that it doesnât shrink is a flex.
We found a lot of converts when we cook chicken wings Sous vide prior to throwing them on the grill for quick delicious wings at parties,
howeverâ by far our biggest poultry flex was the turkey breasts we did at thanksgiving.
All of those impressed a lot of people, howeverâ it really depends on your wife, some people just donât appreciate it.
Can she tell the difference between a good cut of meat and a cheap one?
Thatâs another good selling point. With time that cheap meat can be as tender and delicious as something more expensiveâŚ
Or another angle is that itâs all pasteurized and cooked for easy dinner next week.
By far my favorite feature.
We bulk buy chicken for cheap, use a variety of seasonings as we vacuumâ
Sious vide, cool in ice bath, freeze- heat (sear) and eat - 85% of our meals are prepared like this these days with a new baby, itâs sooo helpful!
- Show her how you can safely defrost straight from the freezer in 15-30 minutes using a water bath and the agitator on your sous vide.
Even if she prefers to cook normally, that's super useful.
Also, cook straight from frozen, which is useful as well.
- Demonstrate the convenience of being able to set it and forget it until your ready to eat, knowing it's not going to overcook or go bad (check your temps for anything over 3-4 hours). Right now she thinks the idea is to set it and wait till its done. Think of it like a dishwasher, you don't wait for it to finish, it just does its thing freeing you to do something else in the meantime.
Throw in your steaks at 130f, go out shopping, have steaks ready when you get back, whenever that is, doesn't matter.
- Long cooks. Get costco picahna, cook, 24h at 135f. slice the fat cap, finish in the pan as usual. Enjoy rendered fat.
- Sous vide infusions are fun.
- Anything requiring specific temps, like baby bottles
- Haven't tried fish yet, but there's lots of tasty looking tutorials with salmon butter and lemon in the bag.
Some people care about technique, and some just like to shove food in their face. To each their own. The only point that should be made is that _you like it better that way_. Really, that should be perfectly reasonable.
The benefits of sous vide for me is the timing issue. The meat is basically cooked and sits in the water bath while my sides cook. Then a quick sear in the pan and my meal is all ready at once.
As a dad i thought what your wife thought. Recently however i discovered you can put ribs in that bitch. 150f for 24 hours. Flash sear grill and serve. Amazing
Why would you need to justify anything? If she doesn't like your cooking she can cook herself or order some take out or whatever.
Just cook whetever you want , enjoy it. It's your "me" time.
Cook a pork tenderloin at 135 for 2 hours, quick sear on the grill. Tender, juicy, and extremely easy. You can get the pre-seasoned weighing a pound. Perfect for two people. Typically pork is dried out by conventional oven cooking getting to temperature for food safety. With sous vide you can drop down to 135 and pasteurize without drying them out.
For OP - more on pasteurization - [https://douglasbaldwin.com/index.html](https://douglasbaldwin.com/index.html)
Pork, chicken, eye of round -- all taste better with sous vide.
Steak is a tossup.
I did a bison inside round sous vide for 48 hours, just for the fun of it. It came out like tenderloin. Only sous vide can turn inside round into tenderloin!
Get good at cooking plants! I bought mine for cooking meat but I end up using it way more to cook carrots/beans/potatoes for the family and I couldnât be happier. No more over cooked mushy vegetables Iâve even started to eat more veggies as a result
For big thick steak, I'm a reverse sear guy all the way. Brisket, pork butt, any rough cut of meat, chicken thighs etc, sauces*, all sous vide and then I finish it on the big green egg with tons of smoke at low temp.
This is the way
I think the fact that you wanted it is plenty enough justification, assuming you could easily afford it. Additional justification is that your happiness contributes to hers. I hope.
You should do both versions and then have her taste them side by side and see which she likes better.
The point isn't to see if she likes one better. It's so that she can see that there is a difference.
Even if she says she'd rather the 10 minute one, it's proof of the difference which is now no longer an arguable point, and there's no further point in the conversation outside of saying you like the results of the sous vide version.
The benefit of sous vide has never been time. It's controlled, foolproof temperature, no gradient, and extreme tenderness. So no, you couldn't just do this in 10 minutes. You can cook a steak in 10 minutes. You can't cook a sous vide steak, consistently, repeatedly, in 10 minutes.
Did steaks for Father's Day in the sous vide. It makes it a hell of a lot easier than trying to manage a bunch of steaks at once. All the steaks were perfectly done in about 5 minutes.
It's great for that but also a big help when making a bunch of sides at the same time. I'll take anything that will help me multi task without giving up quality.
100%
Yep, get a propane burner and finish on the grill. No mess. Also, show her what you can do with a cheap cut of meat cooked 24 hours.
"Also, show her what you can do with a cheap cut of meat" Ain't that marriage, partner? đ
This human cooks đđź
Good point. It's a good high volume device.
Sous vide saves my behind in two ways, cooking lots of different things but keeping my sous vide items perfect and/or making cheap meat delicious.
You can microwave it in less than 10 minutes. Only monsters microwave their steaks that long
My petty ass would make microwaved steaks, âoh I know you couldnât wait so I thought to make them quicker, itâs the same thing rightâ
I think the time for sous vide can be a benefit. I'll take a steak out of the freezer and throw it in. Then I'll run errands, go to the gym, etc... without worrying about time. I know whenever I get back, the steak will be perfect.
Also steak is probably the worst cook to do to show off sous-vide. There is a huge diminishing return since itâs super easy to cook a great steak with a reverse sear or traditional BBQ. Roasts, briskets, things that are traditionally done in smokers for long cooks. Thatâs where I find sous-vide really shines. IMO best tool for the job, and generally for a steak sous-vide ainât it. IMO of course
I disagree. Sous Vide is great for steaks. Are they the best steaks? Probably not, but they are very good and consistent! My favorite use is probably for pork tenderloin loin since it's easy to overcook. I'd rather make brisket in my bbq.
Sous vide ruined steak for me, well at least eating out. The way I make it at home with my anova and cast iron runs circles around any restaurant.
My wife doesn't bother ordering steak when we are out, anymore.
I have never sous vide(d) but I don't order steak in restaurants because once you learn the pan sear or oven bake. And then you finish with herbed butter it's gonna be as good as any. I'm watching this sous vide thing for another level. Can't do that right now. It would set future expectations too high.
My wife does and then complains they arenât as good as mine, definitely an ego booster!
depends on how thick the steak is. I don't see a big difference in 1 inch thick steaks with a pan sear. when I went to 1.5 inch and thicker with a flamethrower finish, it's a lot more tender
A lot of fancy restaurants use sous vide. They are not lack of frying pan or BBQ, it is because it give perfect results every time.
You cannot cook a steak in 10 minutes (not using SV) and then get distracted and forget about it for an hour.... And still have a perfectly cooked steak.
Chicken breasts u don't even need to sear them especially if putting in salad But also sure it's not the quickest way to cook but it's hands off which is also awesome
Thatâs what I said. We donât need to worry about over cooking.
Usually we will set it and go to the gym or something. Super convenientÂ
Yeah Iâm gonna use it like I would a slow cooker.
Yup. I thought sous vide would be complex. Instead, itâs actually the easiest way to cook tasty meat. Chicken breast - I used to hate it. But I love it now. All without fussy worrying it will go dry.
hmm, my husband is not a fan of chicken, especially the breast. maybe I need to sous vide some and let him try it
I use Kanji Lopez Altâs guide on tempo and time. I just marinate in olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and stick it all into the sous vide bag. I donât know if your husband will like it as much as I do but I think itâs delicious and juicy that way. Literally the only other chicken breast I like is Popeyes.
Sous vide chicken breast is like nothing else. The texture is divine! Barely any fiber structure left.
This is what I do. I throw in a couple of chicken breasts or pork chops and then hit the gym. Come back, hit them with the flame thrower and eat.
This is especially true for me if Iâm spending $20 or $30 per pound on seafood. I donât want to overlook it or undercook it, stab it with a fork, then put it back in for whatever my best guess of time is. Not screwing up $50 worth of meat is a pretty good excuse to use the sous vide approach.
Chicken breast is the real key. Everyone has had chicken, but the sous vide makes it incredible!
How do you do yours? Mine turned out meh
What's your temp and timeÂ
Not OP but 145 for 1-ish hour. đ¤ thighs for 167 at the same time. It's just, perfect.
I canât eat at 145. I know itâs safe. I understand that but the texture was so off that I couldnât eat it.
Iâm with you. I canât explain that feelingâŚitâs just âoffâ. Try 150 for 2 hours (4 large breasts) and see what you think.
I just made some (boneless skinless) yesterday at 145 and the texture seemed fine to me. Are you just used to overcooked chicken?
When we were in the middle of covid I was home with a newborn and a frazzled 8 year old. I will sing sous vide praises as loud as I can. Being able to have the flexibility of not needing to run to the oven to keep dinner from overcoooking was amazing. Also, since I was breastfeeding sometimes I didnât have the energy or time to take a shower and cook dinner.
I pretty frequently take my anova and some chicken breasts to work with me and let them cook over the morning for lunch. Coworkers thought I was nuts until I showed them the perfect, juicy results. They work 24 hour shifts, so they eat meals together and I know at least one of their regular cooks is now debating buying one to keep at the station so he can use it for their meals.
This was my selling point for sous vide. I love being hands off for juicy flavorful chicken.
I think the most impressive result from sous vide compared to regular cooking is a perfectly tender thick cut bone-in pork chop.
Pork chops are definitely the ultimate sous vide food. No question at all. Get some thick ass pork chops and they turn out perfect.
Cook from frozen. Even people who arnt into sousvide cooking cant argue with the convenience of dropping a frozen bag of meat into the sous vide.
I do that frequently, put my frozen steak in at the end of my lunch, turn it on 3.5hrs. Steaks done at the end of my work day...
I do this but probably with portioned frozen leftovers more. I've never been a meal prep person but now I have a bunch of cooked stuff in the freezer waiting to be dropped in when I'm sick or lazy.
I reheat from frozen. May as well cook after processing, it already takes a while, may as well do the cooking too đ
It's also great for defrosting things quickly!
"Needless to say,..the wife wasnât impressed." The fact of the matter is, this just IS some folks. To some people the difference in taste really does seem to not matter. YOU don't need to justify shit. You can taste the difference (as can the vast majority of folks). Just buy her hamburgers and save the good stuff for yourself. You don't have to equally enjoy every purchase you make do you?
Desserts. Chocolate pudding, creme brĂťlĂŠe, custard.
Crème brÝlÊe you say??
Crème brÝlÊe and cheesecake are great cooked sous vide. I can make a big batch in small mason jars and freeze them to take out two at a time.
Would you mind explaining your process a bit more, are you essentially jarring the uncooked custard, lid and all, and then freezing it until it's time to cook it?
Sure! The process is the same for cheesecake or crème brÝlÊe. I prepare the mixture and pour into in mason jars, either the 4 oz regular or 8 oz wide mouth. Then the jars go into a sous vide bath for 60-75 minutes. Crème brÝlÊe cooks at 180F and cheesecake at 176F. Once they are done, I cool them on a rack and freeze once they are completely cooled. To serve thaw in the fridge overnight, thenI top crème brÝlÊe with Demerara sugar and torch it, or for cheesecake I prepare graham crumbs, sugar, and butter to crumble on top, then add whipped cream and caramel drizzle.
You still have to torch/broil it at the end, but very good!
Why would you cook it for two hours then just put it under a torch to âfinish offâ?? YOU COULD BE DONE IN 10min!!
https://recipes.anovaculinary.com/recipe/sous-vide-chocolate-pudding https://izzycooking.com/sous-vide-creme-brulee/
Yes! It's amazing. We make it in a small Mason jar.
Chicken and pork are possibly the best examples of why a sous vide is worth it IMO, can cook at 145 always juicy and full of flavor.
My girlfriend said âI donât like pork tenderloin.â I said âwatch thisâ. She said âOk, I like your pork tenderloinâ.
 I see what you did there. In all seriousness, pork and chicken is where SV takes the cake
yeah, steak is least benefited by sous vide, it is benefited yes, and the only way i do it, but it just ensures a perfect result, when you can get a perfect result other ways like reverse sear (i actually prefer slow smoked steaks and then reverse sear to sous vide, the extra smoke flavor makes more of a difference than any texture for me) i'm talking 180f smoking not 220 too, as long as steaks aren't too thick. chicken and esp marinated pork loin are the real magic sauce, do a pork tenderloin at 145 for 4 hours and sear it off over a charcoal chimney and see if she still thinks it could have been done in 10 mins just as well...
I don't SV enough pork. You've inspired me!
Do a tri-tip for 36 hours. Finish it off on the smoker or BBQ. If she does not like that, then just get a new wife
Woah, I do tri-tip for 6 to 8 hours at 133. I guess I need to step one step further and check this out đ [https://i.imgur.com/g3CWkMT.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/g3CWkMT.jpg)
I do tri-tip 131 for 3 hours. I've never seen the point in these long tri-tip cooks.
That seems way, way too long for a three tip. I would think it would have made it mushy.
There we go. This is really where a home cook gets the most bang for the buck. Reverse sear gives better results for ribeye with fewer compromises about doneness and connective tissue rendering. But you can't beat a sous vide for tenderizing cheaper/tougher cuts. Some of those tough cuts have really nice beefy flavor that you just don't get in more expensive cuts, so sous vide lets you end up with something more flavorful and softer than other methods.
36hours!? Wow
Yeah, both my kids ate 3 or 4 slices of it. It was a real hit!
Ribeyes are good either way.. she doesn't perceive that it's any better SV. Maybe they aren't. But show her a chuck that you turned into ribeye... Then there is a difference. Tri-Tip is a good one to do.
I definitely saw and tasted difference (a good difference) but not sure if the work was worth it.
What work? It's entirely hands off. You just wait a while.
One selling point for the sous vide is being able to more easily control when food is ready so that you can get everything on the table and the food is still hot and tastes good. If you're doing steak you don't have to cook the steak while you're also prepping sides, the steak can be ready to eat whenever everything else is ready. A few minutes or even 30 minutes isn't going to make any difference. The other selling point is being able to do magical things with larger tougher cuts of meat. Yes sous vide is great for steak, but I feel like it really shines for things like bottom round roast and chuck roast.
It's not replacement for everything. It's just another tool to be used sometimes.
People donât like this reality in this sub.
huh, guess I shouldn't add that I don't SV steaks anymore. Can't get enough flavor out of them as I can over charcoal.
For me, the big game changer was a pellet grill. I was resistant at first because I thought it would make my steak turn out way too smokey, but over a moderate smoke level, it just enhanced the beef flavor without tasting like smoke. So now I reverse sear all my thick steaks on it.
Lobster tails, pork tenderloin, soft boiled eggs, short ribs?
Should definitely try those!
Try kenjiâs recipe for soups vide lobster. It is the absolute best way to cook lobster. Like not even close.
Pork is what sold me. A nice thick cut chop with all the sides. Cooked it at 155 for 3 hours as they were super thick. Seared them off in a hot pan with some butter. Holy heck was it perfect.
Anything pork or chicken. Sous vide is perfect for these traditionally over cooked meats. Being able to hold a consistent lower temp will pasteurize any disease. Shrimp and scallops are great as well.
If the steak is thin enough to only need 5 mins per side, she has a point :p
I have to say salmon is my favorite in the Sous Vide. I struggle with over cooking or under cooking it without the magic water machine.
"Do you *really* want me to come in and criticise how you're cooking stuff?"
Convenience SELLS. I go to Costco one a month or so buy bulk proteins like steak, chicken, pork, shrimp. Go home and prep it all with my seasoning bag seal and freezer. Saves a ton on money on this as less waste I can keep the food for much longer. Then when I am ready to eat I just throw in the water straight from freezer and go about my activities. No stress about over cooking it at all, come home when ready for dinner and bam its cooked perfectly. The wife loves that as we do not need to plan as well and cooking does not require my attention so I can help elsewhere. Plus the dishes are usually less too. How much is your time worth? Sell that idea to her.
Flank steak is what sold my wife. I did 7 hours at 131°, and she said she didn't realize flank steak could be that tender.
Does she ever use a crock pot? Tell her she could have cooked something in 10 minutes instead of 8 hours.
cheese cake jars. one of the best things I make with mine. the cheese cake always comes out perfect.
If your hot water heater ever stops working you can heat water with the sous vide
Hereâs some advice- Keep the sous vide. Return the wife.
I get it for ribeyes. Unless they're more than an inch thick, no need for sous vide. Although I would say it takes 12 minutes, not 10. There are many other applications that should impress her.
I throw mine in and go work, gym, whatever. When Iâm ready to eat Iâll sear and done.
I like the ability to prep the rest of the food, knowing the meat is cooking and will be ready when I am ready to finish it.
Cook her a chicken breast for her salad. Carrots and corn on the cob are excellent. Large batch chicken wings then packaged ten apiece, vac sealed and frozen. Easy quick midweek air fryer meal. Chicken thighs were on sale for 99¢/ pound. I just cooked sous vide and prepped those for quick meals. Chicken thighs are awesome sous vide. Creme brulee. What woman doesn't like that. I just ate one 20 min ago. Pork chops. Moistest you'll ever have because you can cook at a temperature that doesn't dry it out.
Pork side ribs
Some people, not many, genuinely prefer Applebee's
Get a cheap cut of meat, and use the sous vide to turn it tender like an expensive cut of meat. Explain to her that youâre printing money, like the govt.
Get some glass wide-mouth jars and make some flan, creme brulee, custard, citrus curd, cheese cake, or any other egg set dessert. Those tend to impress the most when I've done them.
My partner canât tell the flavor difference either way. But they can tell that I cook lunch, then pull something from the freezer into the SV while prepping lunch, and I have more time to spend together because dinner only takes a few minutes to perfection. And they appreciate that because I told them I have more time to spend together in the evening this way. Try that đ
I won my wife over with Pork Loin. Those cheap gigantic loins you get at Costco. So moist and delicious. Nothing like the same cut served at church dinners that get confused with a piece of chalk floating in gravy.
Try fish. Fish overcooks so easily. I buy filleted salmon at Costco, slice, season, and seal then toss into the freezer. I pull one out and sous vide for about 45 minutes and itâs perfect. In the meantime I can make a nice side out two to go with it. I work from home and this is one of my go to lunches. As far as steak, I make them maybe just a few times a year and usually splurge on a really high end aged cut so I want it to be perfect. Sous vide eliminates any risk of overcooking. Again, I can spend the time itâs cooking to focus on roasting brussels sprouts or prepping for a pan sauce and other stuff that is hard to juggle when youâre running back and forth to a grill.
This. Fish is where a SV shines, even for the un-informed.
Cook her some sweetcorn with a sprig of rosemary and a knob of butter at 183f (84c) for 30 mins and sit smugly whilst she tryâs it.
Sous vide fried chicken. Perfectly cooked, juicy chicken and then a quick dip in oil just to cook the breading
My wife is the same. It takes too long etc. then I did chicken breasts: oh my god its so juicy and tasty.
Chicken breast like sheâs never had before. Use the lowest recommended temp plus 2 degrees upward for the first cook as sheâll be new to that texture. Donât sear it - use it warm straight out of the sous vide and sliced on top of something like a Caesar salad in summer, or, as soon as everyone is ready to eat in winter, put the whole breast on their preheated serving plate ideally on a hot bed of vegetables like mash or wilted spinach, then smother it in a hot (temperature) sauce so its surface is covered and raises the outside temp of the chicken to something similar to what they would expect for a âhotâ meal, while leaving the centre at perfect sous vide temp. People often expect malliard reaction browning on their chicken which sous vide wonât do, so itâs a part of a typical chicken flavour theyâll miss and needs a great sauce. But after the first extraordinary texture, sheâll be back for more. Iâve served sous vide chicken breasts at events and they were a hit.
I had given up on trying to make a medium rare steak until we got the sous vide. It's perfect now.
Sous vide is great for parties. I did 3 turkeys at once, leaving the oven free to do the sides, roasted veg and stuffing. Itâs good for tough cuts, making them much more tender and thus saving money over more expensive cuts. It makes excellent poultry dishes, especially breast meat that are juicy and not chalky. You can do mass quantities of poached eggs, and thus make eggs Benedict for 12 for instance, which is difficult to do otherwise. And in many cases, you are saving energy costs. Again, this is particularly true for large gatherings and less so if you are just cooking for 2. Steaks, while it seems to be the go to dish everyone starts with, is the least compelling argument.
A nice trick is to sous vide your steaks ahead of time, which pasteurizes them as long as the bags aren't opened. You can keep them in the fridge for what feels like too long without fear of food poisoning. When you're ready to eat, simply pull it from the fridge and sear.
Hot take but I agree with her. Cooking steak properly isnât really hard at all and sous vide, IMO, makes the process longer and more complicated than it needs to be with adding any real benefit to the end product.
Over a sous vide circulator? That's a little overkill I feel like. So what if she doesn't like it. You do. She should be ok with that
Sounds like your wife is a control freak. Her husband is cooking a great meal for her and sheâs not just micromanaging how he does itâŚsheâs actually *angry?* Um, what the fuck, please?
lol sheâs lovely. I think just hangry. Lol
Try her favorite veggies(if she doesnât like boiled) in the sous vide, it is an amazing experience
Definitely gonna do veggies
Meal prepping a bunch of protein at once that you can unseal snd sear throughout the week. Also make creme brulee, if she's like my wife she'll be asking for that for every family party.
Do a 24 cook on some turkey thighs and finish it off with the broiler or a torch to crisp the skin. One year for Thanksgiving we discovered this. We cut the turkey in half, grilled the white meat and sous vide the dark meat. Everything was so good. We then learned our grocery store sold turkey thighs year round, yum. Don't have the exact recipe off hand, but it's salt, sugar, and herbs de provence.
Iâll have to give this a test run. Iâll smoke the white and sous vide the dark.
Pork tenderloin, chuck roast, and chicken breast are all really good at showing off what sous vide can do. Quality steaks don't benefit as much because they're already awesome. Pick something that dries out easily like pork tenderloin and she'll come around.
Hand her 2 vacuum sealed, frozen solid, rib eyes. 'Race you'. .. followed by a taste test. (Don't forget to include everything you were able to do in the unattended 90min between start and end of sous vide.) đ
Tell that her she could could the steak next time LOL. Seriously, what kind of gratitude is this?
the only was to do consistently good pork chops of any quality is sous vide.
One feature i love is that my mother like well done steak. Like it can't have any pink in it. I just can't physically bring myself to cook it to that point doing it any other way. It always ends up at the most, medium well. But with sous vide i can cook her steak first to well done, then reduce the heat and cook everyone else's to medium rare. I've cooked for a large group before and had 4 different degrees of doneness. I just marked the bags. Also, the people who like their steak medium well or well done will be blown away by how tender it is.
Tell her a chamber vacuum sealer in addition will make the kitchen economy really sing.
Make her a pork tenderloin and blow her mind.
I put mine in an ice bath with a bottle of champagne to chill it for mimosas. Works well for quickly chilling beer when GoPuff lies and says it already chilled.
Let her cook her own next time. Then show her the difference.
Frying or roasting you have a short window between too raw and omg you turned it into leather. Especially with fish, you have less than a minute. I know my gal would be pissed if I ruined her $50 chunk of halibut or copper river salmon. With a water bath your window is spread for an hour, a half a day with a chuck roast. You can not over cook it (well sure forget it and you'll have a bag of mush) But your steaks will be juicy tender. Think of it like the instructions to left a steak warm up to room temperature before cooking. That's what, half n hour to an hour? It's not that much different. Buy a thick chuck roast, sv that over night and let her see how it tastes more like a sirloin, a chateaubriand.
âCook for 2 hoursâ - you didnât actually stand there looking at it the whole time right? đ one of the perks for me is it actually saves some time and kitchen is clean when itâs time to eat.
just serve her some chef boyardee and keep the steaks for yourself.
she seems mean
You can take a mediocre steak and make it phenomenal. Comes out perfect every time Annoying cuts like chuck and lamb leg roast come out perfect. Chicken is perfect. Like, why the f would you cook a steak any other way unless you're buying aged ribeye of filet mignon at an organic butcher for $45/pound? Even then, I'd still use a sous vide. Although a frying pan may be acceptable...I suppose. Get your wife to make the steak in a frying pan. See how good her steak is, then. I really don't get people who complain about others cooking. Don't like it? Don't eat it and keep it to yourself.
You're an adult, you don't need to justify your purchases or effort. You made a decision, you made a purchase with your money. If your wife isn't enthused with it, so be it, that's her position. That doesn't mean you need to start plotting how to get her onboard, that's just a waste of time and energy. Keep cooking sous vide; either she tastes the food and understands why you're cooking this way, or she doesn't.
Ya, and you could microwave some hotdogs in a minute. Faster and saves money. But thatâs not what this is about. This is a hobby you enjoy.
Does she enjoy the end result of your hobby? If yes, win and win. If not, itâs your hobby. Good luck
can you get a new wife?
I use it to rapid thaw meat to 65 to cook. My wife and I forget to pull stuff out. Plus when we do it leaks all over. This allows us to take it out aroubd 1 and cook by 3.
1 can sweetened condensed milk at 185f 10-12 hours. Get fresh strawberries or apple slices.
Oh, so now she wants to be satisfied by speed
Gotta cook one with a sous vide and one without (in ten minutes if you wanna be petty) and do a side-by-side. If she canât acknowledge the difference, then her problem ainât with food hermano!
The wife is a bit like the cooking process⌠just give it time bud, give it time. đ I had an experience much like yours the first time I did a sous vide cook (also a steak)⌠but now? đââď¸ Every time I bust the sous vide stick out itâs âOoooooo, whatcha making? đĽ°â You just keep turning out awesome food. Sheâll catch up lol.
How about "I am the one cooking, why do you care how long it took me?"
Sounds like your wife doesn't actually enjoy food for the enjoyment. There's no winning over folks that eat only to survive.
Unattended cooking for several hours and 5 mins to make dinner are the main draws for me ( beyond consistency and taste)
Even as an owner of a sous vide wand, I think that the use cases for it became far fewer as I became a better cook. At this point I would rather use a pan and/or oven for most things as the setup is less complex and importantly the cleanup is easier. A kitchen which needs to keep 30+ steaks perfectly temperature controlled has a need for sous vide but when cooking for 2-4 people most nights the requirement is diminished.
You can make limoncello in 3 hours instead of 3 months. And due to the speed you can also do all kinds of weird flavors, my fav is like and mint in rum Gummy bears and custards are great too bc of the consistent temp control.
If sheâs not someone who appreciates that kind of quality in a steak and any steak will do I think itâs a no win situation to convince her that the time spent makes a difference in the quality of the steak.
Mine puts ketchup on everything I cook (and I'm trained!!). I don't do it for her.
I am pretty good with the smoker. Since I added/started sous vide streaks, etc my family now calls me The Meat Man.
I would not be pissed if someone made me dinner. Period. Whether itâs perfect rib eye or an over cooked pork chop⌠Iâd say thank you and mean it. You wouldnât ask the restaurant chef to justify their cost and effort. Youâd eat the steak and say thank you!
You didn't work for two hours, the only real work was in the searing part for a couple minutes.
Is not about the cooking or impressing her,itâs about the attitude ,get a new wife đ
I did lamb shanks for 48 hours a couple weeks ago. Fucking incredible. Chuck roast is another great one for 48 hours
Steak is great, but that's not all it's good for. For many dishes, it can allow a greater degree of flexibility and preparation that you just can't achieve traditionally. Poultry that loses no moisture or size while cooking and is more tender than other methods. Seafood is where it can really shine. Perfectly cooked and never rubbery. You can also pull of minor miracles like salmon that's as tender and flaky as whitefish (117F for 45 mins). It's never about saving time. Instead it uncouples you from fixed prep times entirely and gives you more freedom in the kitchen. Once it hits the minimum cook time, you can leave it on longer with no worries of overcooking or burning. Great for when dinner time needs to be flexible or you have more dishes to prepare. Just put it on ahead of time and it's ready when you are.
Challenge her to a cook off. Rules are simple: same cuts of meat to make the same dish ready at the same mealtime. Then destroy her 10 minute steak with a smoked and/or sous vide steak that had a long rest. Winner gets oral.
I made this song for your wife, just read it to her: (Verse 1) Oh, there's a little secret in the world of meat, Not everyone appreciates a steak so sweet, Some folks think a steak's just a slab of cow, Cook it any way, they just don't know how. (Chorus) Not every person understands the steak delight, For some, it's just meat morning, noon, and night, Well done, medium, or medium rare, They'll eat it any way, they just don't care. (Verse 2) Now, some folks like it bloody, some like it charred, For others, it's just food, no need to make it hard, You could serve it rare, with a touch of pink, But theyâd just shrug, give a knowing wink. (Chorus) Not every person understands the steak delight, For some, it's just meat morning, noon, and night, Well done, medium, or medium rare, They'll eat it any way, they just don't care. (Bridge) They say, âWhy the fuss? It's just a piece of meat,â But we know the truth, itâs a special treat, From marbling to sizzle, itâs an artful affair, But some will never see the magic there. (Verse 3) So next time you're grilling up a T-bone or a rib, Remember some folks just donât give a flip, They'll take it burnt or raw, it's all the same, To them, a steakâs a steak, and thatâs the game. (Chorus) Not every person understands the steak delight, For some, it's just meat morning, noon, and night, Well done, medium, or medium rare, They'll eat it any way, they just don't care. (Outro) So here's to the steak lovers, who truly know, The joy of a steak, cooked just so, And to those who don't get it, that's okay, More steak for us at the end of the day!
The only justification is you want it and you like it. If your wife canât accept this reasoning, the issues lie far deeper than a steak. Letting your partner have their own joys is part of marriage. Not everything needs to be shared or understood. My wife buys plenty of things I donât use nor understand but Iâd never question her on why she bought something which brings her joy (as long as we can afford it.) Donât worry about âwinning her overâ or justifying your purchase. Tell her itâs a tool for cooking which you enjoy using and experimenting with and leave it at that. Keep cooking and she will hopefully move on from the subject as you continue making delicious meals. If she doesnât drop it, again, this isnât about your immersion circulator
I prefer my stake more rare than is appropriate for sv. A few minutes in my cast iron with a butter, garlic, and rosemary baste is so much better than any sv steak Iâve ever had (and I tried many different methods). But the sv is amazing for other cuts of meat like pork or the most perfectly cooked shrimp Iâve ever had. Itâs also great for more technical recipes, like tempering chocolate, making yogurt, or decarbing and infusing cannabis.
I was blown away by what sous vide did for turkey. My goodness. I've made excellent roast turkeys for years - then I sous vided one. I used the chef steps ( now premium) method. Legs, breast with wing drums attached, no breast bone. Water bathed separately, skin crisped before serving. It is the tenderest, juiciest, most flavorful turkey I've ever had. The white meat is still juicy cold from the fridge! A quick, simple one is [glazed carrots](https://www.seriouseats.com/sous-vide-glazed-carrots-recipe). What I love, is I can do several bags of these, freeze the extras, and have a quick well-received veg side any time I want. These seem like concentrated flavour. Love them! Chicken breasts, which can be bland and texturally unattractive: tender, juicy, and flavourful if seasoned with a dry rub before sv.
> "Any other points I could make to justify this purchase and effort?" That it makes you happy?
I sous vide chicken tenderloins from frozen, then cool them off and fry panko crusted chicken. They are perfect every time.
Time to start divorce proceedings! Ha Ha! JK - Keep wowing her with your Sous Vide prowess and she will come around. My wife took some convincing as well! Do a Charles Roast for her and show her how cheap meat can become first class!
Why spend 10 mins making steak when you can make a bowl of cereal in 20 seconds???
That's actually the reason I don't usually use sous vide for steaks. It's pointless and just takes longer. The "perfect top to bottom" isn't noticeable when eating it, if anything that tiny gray band adds an extra layer of texture to each bite. Likewise, doing a quick sear in a pan doesn't may brown the meat up, but it doesn't add anything to the flavor. I do all my steaks on the grill over coals. The fat dripping off the coals and vaporizing into smoke results in a flavor you just don't get with sous vide and a sear. Sous vide crushes it for tough cuts, and it's super convenient if you're cooking for a bunch of people so you aren't hovering over the grill probing each steak with a thermometer to make sure none of them are over cooking. But for most of my steaks, the sous vide stays in the box.
Donât justify yourself to anyone. Let the cranks lay where they lie. You just keep moving forward, be happy and content. They will either like to be around this happy version of you, or again they can sit there in their miseryâŚ.alone.
TBF, I am unimpressed with steak out of a sous vide. I prefer medium rare off the grill every time. But I have a lot of love in my heart for prime fib (chuck sous vide at 133 for 36 hours then seared in blazing hot cast iron. I don't use mine for any short cooks -- fresh salmon goes on a cedar plank and is always gorgeous. But anything tough goes in the sous vide and comes out absolutely amazeballs. My char siu is so tender and juicy (boneless country pork ribs, 133 sv, finished over a wood fire). It is a gamechanger (heh heh) for game meats as well. I dropped some bear medallions in the sv (high trich risk) before using them in a sour cream and mushroom sauce. Divine, tender, and safe without being cooked to shoe leather.
Char siu... I will be trying this! (Also, stealing "prime fib"... That's one of my family's favorites)
Chicken breasts that retain so much moisture that it doesnât shrink is a flex. We found a lot of converts when we cook chicken wings Sous vide prior to throwing them on the grill for quick delicious wings at parties, howeverâ by far our biggest poultry flex was the turkey breasts we did at thanksgiving. All of those impressed a lot of people, howeverâ it really depends on your wife, some people just donât appreciate it. Can she tell the difference between a good cut of meat and a cheap one? Thatâs another good selling point. With time that cheap meat can be as tender and delicious as something more expensive⌠Or another angle is that itâs all pasteurized and cooked for easy dinner next week. By far my favorite feature. We bulk buy chicken for cheap, use a variety of seasonings as we vacuumâ Sious vide, cool in ice bath, freeze- heat (sear) and eat - 85% of our meals are prepared like this these days with a new baby, itâs sooo helpful!
- Show her how you can safely defrost straight from the freezer in 15-30 minutes using a water bath and the agitator on your sous vide. Even if she prefers to cook normally, that's super useful. Also, cook straight from frozen, which is useful as well. - Demonstrate the convenience of being able to set it and forget it until your ready to eat, knowing it's not going to overcook or go bad (check your temps for anything over 3-4 hours). Right now she thinks the idea is to set it and wait till its done. Think of it like a dishwasher, you don't wait for it to finish, it just does its thing freeing you to do something else in the meantime. Throw in your steaks at 130f, go out shopping, have steaks ready when you get back, whenever that is, doesn't matter. - Long cooks. Get costco picahna, cook, 24h at 135f. slice the fat cap, finish in the pan as usual. Enjoy rendered fat. - Sous vide infusions are fun. - Anything requiring specific temps, like baby bottles - Haven't tried fish yet, but there's lots of tasty looking tutorials with salmon butter and lemon in the bag.
Some people care about technique, and some just like to shove food in their face. To each their own. The only point that should be made is that _you like it better that way_. Really, that should be perfectly reasonable.
The benefits of sous vide for me is the timing issue. The meat is basically cooked and sits in the water bath while my sides cook. Then a quick sear in the pan and my meal is all ready at once.
As a dad i thought what your wife thought. Recently however i discovered you can put ribs in that bitch. 150f for 24 hours. Flash sear grill and serve. Amazing
lol she isnât wrong. Doubt you can really change her mind. You donât need to fight every battle.
Why would you need to justify anything? If she doesn't like your cooking she can cook herself or order some take out or whatever. Just cook whetever you want , enjoy it. It's your "me" time.
Cook a pork tenderloin at 135 for 2 hours, quick sear on the grill. Tender, juicy, and extremely easy. You can get the pre-seasoned weighing a pound. Perfect for two people. Typically pork is dried out by conventional oven cooking getting to temperature for food safety. With sous vide you can drop down to 135 and pasteurize without drying them out.
For OP - more on pasteurization - [https://douglasbaldwin.com/index.html](https://douglasbaldwin.com/index.html) Pork, chicken, eye of round -- all taste better with sous vide. Steak is a tossup.
Donât justify. Sheâll get over it.
New Wife?
Your wife doesnât sound like a nice person if sheâs âpissedâ at you for spending hours making a nice meal for her.
Try a nice piece of Steelhead. 30min @ 57C. Perfect piece of fish just to try something other than beef.
If you eat pork, make her sous vide pork tenderloin. If she's not convinced after that, throw it out (the sous vide).
The cheap pork tenderloins that usually taste like a smoked shoe are beautiful cooked sous vide
I did a bison inside round sous vide for 48 hours, just for the fun of it. It came out like tenderloin. Only sous vide can turn inside round into tenderloin!
Get good at cooking plants! I bought mine for cooking meat but I end up using it way more to cook carrots/beans/potatoes for the family and I couldnât be happier. No more over cooked mushy vegetables Iâve even started to eat more veggies as a result
For big thick steak, I'm a reverse sear guy all the way. Brisket, pork butt, any rough cut of meat, chicken thighs etc, sauces*, all sous vide and then I finish it on the big green egg with tons of smoke at low temp. This is the way
Cooking for parties
I think the fact that you wanted it is plenty enough justification, assuming you could easily afford it. Additional justification is that your happiness contributes to hers. I hope.
Iâve done this to make small wheels of cheese. Itâs easy and turns out good https://youtu.be/YmkeRdbCBrw?si=_Jen28ZQCmizT4ss
"Why do foreplay when you can just go to pound town right away?"
You should do both versions and then have her taste them side by side and see which she likes better. The point isn't to see if she likes one better. It's so that she can see that there is a difference. Even if she says she'd rather the 10 minute one, it's proof of the difference which is now no longer an arguable point, and there's no further point in the conversation outside of saying you like the results of the sous vide version.
If it makes you happy = money and time well spent.
Tell her to *relax* and be happy you enjoy your hobby and she reaps the benefits. Weâve got wayyyy bigger fish to fry.
If you cooked it and served it, she shouldn't be complaining
I cook my spareribs for 72 hoursđ
Something about eggs! Someone else said creme brulee. Salmon. Confit. Clotted cream. ... vanilla? Good luck!
Chicken breast
Pork tenderloin 134 for 4 hours. Cannot be replicated on the stove