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 Post subject: Budget Sous Vide - Sorta
PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 7:29 am 
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Joined: Thu Mar 31, 2011 6:55 am
Posts: 516
Location: Cordillera, Luzon, Philippines
Lacking proper sous vide equipment has not deterred me from attempting simple recipes. Auber's Instruments sells a fantastic little PID controller for turning your basic slow cooker or rice cooker into a sous vide unit. Since I am in the Philippines, even that simple unit is not easily obtainable. I chose to use my trusty old thermapen and employ my young sister-in-law as my "once-every-five-minutes" PID controller".

The recipe: deep fried egg yolks. Simple and called for a temperature of 148F degrees for 1 hour. Luckily that is close to my slow cookers low setting. Plus no requirement for a vacuum pump or machine with eggs. The results were, if not perfect, still quite amazing. We've done this twice now and the results improved each time.

First time: 6 eggs, of the best quality available. Cook 1 hour at 148 degrees Fahrenheit. We accepted a range of 146 to 150, but adjusted the temperature every five minutes by turning on or off depending if the at or above the target temperature. If it was below 148 we simply turned it on to low unless the temperature fell below 146, then we turned to high.

We broke the cooked egg very carefully and gently rubbed the somewhat cooked but very moist egg white away with our fingers and a very very light stream of water from the tap. What we ended up with were fantastic small round balls of gold.

Rolled in flour and baking powder, then an egg wash, and finally fresh bread crumbs, we deep fried them for 30 seconds.

Bingo! Great little appetizers that seem like a bit of magic! The recipe came from http://seattlefoodgeek.com/2010/09/deep-fried-sous-vide-egg-yolks/

Attempting an even more basic approach, I tried the "Beer Cooler Hack" version, which simply requires filling your small beer cooler with water at the appropriate temp and ingredient (eggs here, of course). It didn't come out quite so good, but looks promising provided I get a replacement probe for my kitchen oven thermometer and modify the cooler so I can continuously monitor the water temperature. We checked on the 15 minute schedule, but I think if I could watch it closer without opening the cooler top, it would work fairly smooth for doing larger amounts of eggs, say for a party.

We've done brined pork chops once too, with the slow cooker, and they came out pretty darn good. Amazed my Filipino brother-in-law who is going to a local HRM (Hotel Restaurant Management school with a focus on cooking). The meat tradition in the Philippines would put my Midwest and Southern ancestors to shame in terms of "well done" I use the term twice or thrice killed when talking about how well done meat is traditionally cooked in the province, as a joke at home. (Note: actual use of twice dead here is for sick animals that die of their illness and are still used as a food source, generally a no no, but not unheard of.)

Down the road I hope to have an Aubers unit plus a couple of home made sous vide immersion heaters. Importing commercial units is prohibitive both in terms of shipping costs and the tariff on electric devices. Thus an assembled unit from disparate components is quite attractive.

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Ancient Amerikano Adventuring Abroad: another fat guy up a mountain in the Philippines


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 Post subject: Re: Budget Sous Vide - Sorta
PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 8:03 am 
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Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2009 7:50 pm
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Hey Tatoosh! Welcome! I've been toying with the idea of doing a similar hack. The new slow-cooker that I'm getting has a little hole for a temperature probe and I can set my thermometer to warn me if the temp gets too high or too low. Eggs sound like an excellent starting place. Thanks for the info.


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 Post subject: Re: Budget Sous Vide - Sorta
PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 8:50 am 
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Location: Cordillera, Luzon, Philippines
Thanks. They are a fun alternative and we did 20 plus in the second attempt, 12 or so at a time.

The pork chops were cooked a la sou vide, not traditional slow cookery. Semi-vacuumed sealed, using the dunk in water method to remove air, something that another site suggested as a good approach to removing air for sous vide without crushing ingredients (such as a hamburger) and a technique CI recommended years ago as a way to package items and prevent freezer burn. It worked well on the chops. I expect to try it as a sort of low temperature marinade on pork ribs next. Finishing the ribs will be more traditional. We usually use a pressure cooker and charcoal grill, but will amend that depending on the done-ness of the ribs when I pull them from slow cooker sous vide water bath. It runs, as I said, about 150F on low. I will give the ribs a good dry rub, package, remove air as best I can, and immerse for 24 to 36 hours as a "pre-cook". This should let the rub work, perhaps augmented with some very light moist marinade. I'm still uncertain about how to approach that.

If your slow cooker has an entry for the probe, that will be very handy. And if it is not electronically controlled (automatic by degree settings) then Auber's has a controller with probe that should turn your new slow cooker into a very handy sous vide unit.

Aubers Sous Vide Controller (basic)

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 Post subject: Re: Budget Sous Vide - Sorta
PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 10:27 am 
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Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2008 10:45 pm
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Location: Ottawa, ON
Very interesting sounding dish! I am going to try that out.

I use the unit from Fresh Meals Solutions. Slightly more then the Aubers one, but the dual display is quite nice. The currently have free shipping to Asia ... they might do the Philippines.


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 Post subject: Re: Budget Sous Vide - Sorta
PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 10:38 pm 
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Location: Cordillera, Luzon, Philippines
Thank you for the pointer to the Fresh Meals unit. It looks very interesting indeed. Perhaps a better buy than the one I am looking at. Aubers has a similar unit, but not dual display (I think) that goes to 3300 watt for a 220/240 volt supply. It is about $180 dollars plus shipping. Aubers will ship to Asia and it isn't quite so expensive as larger, full-blown sous vide units, shipping being in the 30 dollar range I think. But what sort of whacks me is the likely customs hit upon arrival. Up to 50 percent of the price of the unit as custom's figures it, not necessarily the declared value. So the 140 to 175 dollars can easily become 200 to 250 dollars, plus shipping. The Auber's Deluxe Unit: Deluxe Sous Vide Controller

Still, my sous vide itch is pretty strong. I found a twelve dollar beach pump for blowing up beach balls, small inflatable pools and the like. It is built to either inflate or deflate. So I will use it as a poor man's vacuum pump for the time being. I want to get a better quality vacuum sealer system, maybe the one sold by Cabela's since it seems to be pretty well built and you can get replacement parts such as seals for it. Not the ideal full on vacuum station, but it is half the price of those, so it might suffice.

In a few months I will get the necessary parts to build a couple of sous vide units shipped over from the States. Component parts are not so pricy and do not seem to draw the attention of customs quite so much. Usually a fifty dollar charge is the maximum. Once more Seattle Food Geek provides an interesting and detailed description of a "home made" sous vide unit: DIY Sous Vide

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 Post subject: Re: Budget Sous Vide - Sorta
PostPosted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 11:26 am 
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Location: Ottawa, ON
For sure, all you really need is a PID unit, Solid State Relay and probe, all under $50 each. I used the FMS solution quite a while with a rice cooker (no pump or bubbler) and it worked great. Internet wisdom says side heating (like slow cookers do) needs circulation but I've not tried it myself.


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 Post subject: Re: Budget Sous Vide - Sorta
PostPosted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 7:38 pm 
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Location: Cordillera, Luzon, Philippines
While I've haunted a number of sous vide websites, I had not run across that bit of information, Paul. The rice cooker versus slow cooker heating aspect. I have been concerned about thermal layering when using the slow cooker and we check temperature at both top and bottom each time. I suspect an inexpensive aquarium bubbler would be an appropriate fix, if necessary. I am looking at using a pressure cooker's sealing ring to lift the slow cooker's lid up half an inch and let me run a thermometer probe inside for the PID controller. It would allow me to run a bubbler hose as well, I am sure.

Of course, fortuitously perhaps, our rice cooker just died. Which means I will be hunting a new one. I will look for a larger version that would work with a PID controller and that may be the most appropriate solution to the thermal layering question. Thanks for bringing it up, I wouldn't have thought about it otherwise.

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Ancient Amerikano Adventuring Abroad: another fat guy up a mountain in the Philippines


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 Post subject: Re: Budget Sous Vide - Sorta
PostPosted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 11:23 am 
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Location: Cordillera, Luzon, Philippines
We are trying ribs again for friends. My wife and I have a slight disagreement on which makes the most moist precook for ribs, pressure cooker or slow cooker sous vide. Having recently acquired a small supply of quart sized ziplock freezer bags, we tried out the new vacuum pump, which resembles an oversize bicycle pump and is intended to inflate and deflate air beds, inflatable kids pools and such. Using a basketball needle, I vac'd most of the air out. So they will sit in 150F - 160F water for 15 hours, about half the time Dr. Baldwin recommends . Not enough to cook them through, but they should have a good start. We will finish them on the BBQ grill over charcoal.

Our first try was very tasty (as far as I was concerned), but the bags didn't hold a seal for the whole time they were immersed. However they didn't open up to the point that the rub and flavor all dissipated throughout the water bath, though they were definitely wet from the bath, so my first rib attempt was sorta half sous vide - half braise. I wasn't able to remove enough air to in the first attempt (using multiple layers of thin plastic, some air remained in between the outer layers) to keep the meat from floating, so we used a wight to keep them submerged. This time, with my vacuum/beach pump, they sank without help.

My wife prefers the pressure cooker to cook the ribs in a fairly short time but leaving them pretty moist. We have four racks of ribs, two racks are sitting in the slow cooker, vacuum packed and two others are chilling in the refrigerator, basking in rub before meeting the pressure cooker tomorrow. I am not the right guy to do a really good cook off/comparison but there are three approaches that come to mind when trying to make meat tender and moist. Braising, Pressure Cooker, and Sous Vide. They are not, quite admittedly, true BBQ ribs, those wonderful racks cooked low and slow for hours over indirect charcoal, but regardless of the approach used, it usually produces something that is definitely edible.

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Ancient Amerikano Adventuring Abroad: another fat guy up a mountain in the Philippines


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