Consistency and look of one of the pre-sliced individual packaged yellow americans although I made mine 2-3x thicker because I think one normal slice is not enough cheese (same approx. LxW of pre-sliced, I believe about 50 grams each instead of the ~20 grams a normal american slice is). Consistency reminds me of velveeta, although I haven't bought that stuff in at least 5 years. Definitely no chemical taste.

I love sodium citrate, it's the key to making "velveeta-like cheese dip" but using cheese that, ya know, needs to be refrigerated. I use it for mac and cheese, making cheese slices like this and big time secret ingredient for queso dip. I made some queso to bring to a bbq a few weeks back and somebody tried it and said "this is smooth, but doesn't taste like crap, it's not velveeta is it?" so I gave a little lesson to the table. For the cheese slices, I made the recipe similar to the linked one then poured it all in a 9x13 pyrex and let it cool, then just sliced to size and peeled out, put between parchment pieces and put some in the fridge and some freezer. I originally made it specifically for the burgers, but have used the slices in anything a normal american slice would have worked, great for omelettes and grilled cheeses too
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See my responses in red.

I gather from your post you're not a fan of cooking. For me, I get a lot of pleasure from cooking. For some, it is just a chore. If you are happy with grilling and pressure cooking and crock-potting, you may not want another cooking method. Just my :-)
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Thank you, Peter! You're probably right about me and cooking....I don't mind prep-type work...and I do OK with temperature control and some basic applications of heat...but, when it comes to stuff that needs baby-ing...sauces and multi-phase cooking; even dry/wet rub combo barbecue....I don't generally have the patience. Some sort of mental block...once it hits the oven/stove/grill...my mind calls it done - cooking to me is prep to heat to table.
I'd like to get a little better with herbs, spices, sherrys, etc.... but I may not be ready to drop a couple bills on some gear I may not end up using very much.
BTW, anybody want a cheap fry daddy, or bread machine or electric griddle, or grinder, or Osterizer or waffle maker or.... :-)
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I did salt and pepper them though I don't feel like I oversalted. I feel they were seasoned perfect....but maybe thats too much when using the sosu vide technique?

Definitely going to not go as high as 160 next time. I was using Anova's guide and I know that was the highest they suggested.

I did do some sirloins as my 2nd cook. They turned out good, though I don't feel they were seasoned enough. The cook was perfect!

Also, I got the cooler in I will be using from now on. I really think it will do a great job being its as shallow as it is. I know why so many of the comments for it recommend it for sous vide now! I'll post an update once I get it ready.
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LOVE The cooking vessel Jack!
You guys are too much.... I've been back just short of 24 hours and I'm already teetering on the edge of a new slope!


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Pancakes.














:-)
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Dave,

Peter covered a lot of the bases. Just some things I'd like to add.

SV cooking isn't really any more work than pressure cooking. SV you have an extra step in bagging the food and an extra step in searing it when you are done (some things don't need it), but you don't generally have to worry about things like: getting the heat just right for the pressure widget, or leaving the food in too long - which for a pressure cooker could be 5 minutes, worrying about running out of liquid, then you have the whole cool down period.

I have a Fagor stovetop pressure cooker, which I really like, and I use it about as often as I use my SV cooker (about 1-6 times a month), but, I have to be completely honest, the pressure cooker is more work than the SV. Can't tell you how many times I've dropped stuff in the meat jacuzzi and just left the house. I can't pull that stunt with a pressure cooker.

I'd say SV is about as easy as crock pot cooking plus the extra effort of searing the food. Can't cook a 2" steak in a crock pot though, unless you like shredded beef.

Which brings me to the point that Dom brought up that sold me. Completely even edge to edge doneness. 2-1/2" thick ribeye, medium-rare, hard to do on a grill, you get a bullseye effect: a layer of well done, then med-well, then medium, then medium-rare and maybe even a rare center. With SV, the whole thing is cooked to medium-rare and can't get any more cooked because the water is only 136F. Ice bath the bag, open it, dry it off, season it and sear it. Now you're entering into the realm of what you used to only be able to get done right at a high end steakhouse.

I'm not a SV die-hard. It doesn't do everything, nor would I want to cook everything with it. Quite a few things that you can cook with it that I simply don't care for when cooked that way. For many things I much prefer one of my smokers, or my santa maria grill, deep fryer or some other method, but, for some things, I now found the SV cooker to be absolutely indispensable because it's simply the best tool for that particular job.
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Great post. Thank you
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Ben, with Lucy's a higher heat is needed to "set" the protein of the beef. That's what makes the ground meat bind together. Those are usually cooked on a griddle in Minneapolis where they were "invented". Cast iron would work very well. Try using rich meat such as 15 to 20% fat content. Be sure to work it first with your hands as most ground beef is strands that look like worms. Working it will help binding the sealed edges better. Helps to "knit" the meat fibers together so they bind more easily. If you are going to grill them don't try to cook them well done. Just about medium rare is as far as you should go or the cheese will get too runny. Hope that helps. Just wanted to give you my:-) Good luck.
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Thanks for the tips, the meat was well worked since I put a bunch of seasonings and other delicious stuff but maybe I didn't go high enough on the sear. I did cook the burger in the SV to higher than I would prefer, so maybe it was a combo of too high internal, too low sear. I also used a grill pan instead of a cast iron, not sure if that would make a difference since it split on the side but I could try switching that as well. Probably not gonna get a chance to make them again this week, but I will for sure in the next week or two. I'll report back!
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Forgot to post other recent sous vide successes.

1" thick swordfish steak seasoned with salt, pepper, EVOO, lemon juice, and fresh thyme . Cooked at 128 for 40 minutes. Finished in a cCast iron skillet ~60 seconds per side.
Moist and tender. Definitely will do this again.

Johnsonville Bratwurst seasoned with salt. Cooked at 147.5 for just under 3 hours. Brats were great. Finishing with Searzall a big fail. Cast iron next time.

Sweet Italian sausage. No pre-seasoning. Cooked at 147.5 for 2.5 hours. Delicious. Very tender and juicy. Served with homemade lasagna. Might try a higher temp to give links more of a snap/bite.


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Spent most of the weekend cooking, made a ramen broth ala momofuku, similar to this but following the directions from Chang in Mind Of A Chef (same recipe, longer times). The whole broth process took about 12 hours, but it was all eclipsed by the pork belly.

Got a chunk about 2 pounds from the butcher, didn't have time to do a full 36 hour cook so I did 10 hours at 170*. I used a tare-like sauce similar to here, but the best part was following the directions at the end of this one for after coming out of the tub. I strained the cooking juice and reduced it down probably by 75%, what was left was a thick black syrup, I used that to glaze the belly and holy ****, this was one of the best things I've eaten in a long time. I could have used canned chicken soup and the whole dish would have shined almost as brightly because of the belly. Can't wait to make it again, next time with the full 36 hour cook.

Prepped the juicy lucy's to make for dinner tonight, used 2/3 ground beef 1/3 chorizo, made the patties 0.5 oz bigger to try to add some girth to the outside to prevent spillage and vac sealed, will report back with results :-)
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I'd call attempt #2 at juicy lucy's a success, cheese stayed in all three up until I flipped them, after there were a few spots where you could see it but only one of the three had enough spill over to touch the grill pan. I cooked them to 133* in the SV but I was worried about the temperature of the chorizo I put in so I kept them on the pan for a little longer than I would with just beef. The vacuum sealer definitely helped them keep their shape and seal the seams. The cheese kept in their little pockets for all and stayed there pretty much until the last bite, but was still oozy and not too hot. One did overflow out the other side on the first bite but that wasn't the one I was eating, so I'll chalk that up to user error :-)
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Cooked up a little hunk of brisket yesterday, it was about 1.75LB, leftovers from a couple weeks ago when I bought a bigger chunk but didn't need all of it. When I first cut it up I made a roasted garlic paste/marinade similar to this one, slathered it on and vac sealed. Saturday afternoon I put that from the freezer into a 155* bath for 24 hours, took it out yesterday afternoon and put it on the cast iron with a little bacon fat and olive oil. It seared up excellently, not quite the bark you'd expect from smoked brisket but enough of a little crunch to fit in. This thing was super tender, just enough fat to keep things interesting but once sliced I didn't even need a knife to cut further, just the side of a fork. The juice from the bag made a great pan sauce while the steak was resting with just a little shallots, extra garlic, white wine and a touch of cream. It was a lot of time/effort for such a small piece, but it was a generous portion for three people, or in my case two people and leftovers for lunch :-)
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Next mini-project is bourbon infused cherries, probably don't need to do it in the SV but not gonna let that stop me. From what I gather it's just take the pit out of the cherries, put in a mason jar and cover with bourbon, let it sit in a water bath at 135* for a couple hours. Cherries were looking good at the store last week so I got a big bag of them, and took a hand full out to de-pit. These are now sitting in a mason jar in the freezer, gonna pick up some bourbon soon and will just cover them then put in the bath. This should also yield some cherry bourbon, not the intended output but it should be fun to experiment with in small amounts mixing into drinks. I'll probably take a separate mini mason and put some maraschinos in following the same process just to see what happens
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:-)...interested to see how this comes out....recent cooks sound great, especially the belly
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I'm not the best about remembering to take/post pictures, but I'll keep updating with anything interesting I try. I'm going to do that 48 hour bacon one day (or days), even if it kills me :-)
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Another weekend of good food, had a few people over for a cookout on Saturday so I decided to take out a ~4lb pork shoulder I've had in the freezer for a month waiting to be used. I made pulled pork sammies, loosely following the process/recipe here. I cooked it for 22 hours in the SV at 165*, then pat dry and applied another healthy coat of the dry rub. After that two hours in the oven at 300/325*, with five minutes at the end under the broiler to get the brown sugar in the dry rub to really start glistening.

Made a sauce out of the juice from the bag, mixed with a half full bottle of some pineapple bbq sauce that I had in the fridge and a few other ingredients from my honey bbq sauce, it was amazing, poured most of it over the pork after pulling. I'm not sure if it's possible to recreate that sauce without a ton of pork juice, so it might be the type of thing I only make as one-offs to go with the bbq, but it's really good.

The article I was going off mentioned that you can "make a smoke ring" by using curing salts, anybody try those? I don't care about the asthetics too much, but it seemed interesting, might keep an eye open for some for the future.
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I've heard stories of guys using it for hacking a smoke ring in bbq competitions by mixing it in the mop sauce. Don't know anyone who actually claims to have done it though, competition or not.

Prague #1, aka Instacure #1, aka Heller's Modern Cure #1, etc... is the one you would want for that. You wouldn't need much, for dry mixing, like for summer sausage, the dosing is 1oz per 25 lbs (1:400). Morton's tender quick would also work (different application rate), but it's insanely salty.

Thinking it would be applied in the initial dry rub, but I'd be worried it might make everything taste like ham instead of pulled pork.


BTW - I started messing around with the melting salts for cheese, neat stuff. Just have to remember to never use cheddar with it for a cheese sauce or everyone will think it's velveeta.
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Got a question: I need to cook 3 steaks medium-rare and one medium. I cook my medium rare steaks at 129 degrees and the medium at 135 degrees -- all for an hour.

I was thinking that I would cook the medium rare steaks first, then take them out of the bath and heat the bath up to 135 and then cook the medium steak. This means that the MR steaks will sit out (in their bags) for a bit over an hour and I don't know if that's OK. And, I'm loath to refrigerate the MR steaks as they may not heat up enough from the quick sear...

Is there a better way to do this?
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