Cooking and Dining

[MR25]

Probably should've asked before diving in, but for those of you that sous vide, is it a requirement for the water to preheat before putting your food in, or since it cooks for such a long time, it'll be fine?

I threw some chicken thighs in but did not preheat,

[NTP66]

Probably should've asked before diving in, but for those of you that sous vide, is it a requirement for the water to preheat before putting your food in, or since it cooks for such a long time, it'll be fine?

I threw some chicken thighs in but did not preheat,

Not a requirement, no. I always put my food in right away, and the timer never starts until the desired temperature is reached.

[robbiestoupe]

It doesn't need to preheat. The Joule has an option where you throw the food in while it's heating and it'll start the timer for you when the water reaches temperature

[MR25]

I believe that's what my Anova is doing right now. Timer still says 3 hours.

[MR25]

And another question:

How important is spacing within the vacuum bag? Was my first time bagging so it's definitely not neat by any means. I'm just worried I'm going to end up with a giant congealed chicken thigh out of the 4 I put in.

[NTP66]

And another question:

How important is spacing within the vacuum bag? Was my first time bagging so it's definitely not neat by any means. I'm just worried I'm going to end up with a giant congealed chicken thigh out of the 4 I put in.

Has never mattered for me, and I've cooked up to 4 at once using my Joule. Just make sure that the contents stay submerged. I've had to throw a metal tenderizer hammer on top of the bag at time to keep it from floating.

[tifosi77]

Re bagging

The most important part is making sure there's adequate circulation of the water around the entire product, and that you don't over-crowd the vessel. In terms of heat transfer, if you put two bags with 2 chicken thighs each, and they end up sort of bundled together in the bath, you've effectively created one large chicken thigh, and that will slow the cooking time. In terms of spacing in the bag itself, just make sure everything is in one even layer (for the same reason). That circulation is why I tend to not use a stock pot/Dutch oven, and prefer something more like a 12L Cambro.


Re pre-heating the water

It's a function of what you're cooking. If you are cooking something for, like, 8+ hours, starting with room temp water is not a concern. But for tender cuts like steak, chicken, pork chops, etc that you're cooking for an hour or so, I prefer pre-heating the bath.

The reason is cooking this way for me is about fire-and-forget convenience. So I like using timing as my metric, because that's totally passive and frees me up to focus on other tasks. Bit if you are using timing as your metric, pre-heating the water bath is important imo. Making the food safe to eat is as important as cooking it through, and the timing guides are calculated as a function of holding the product at a certain core temperature for a fixed amount of time. For example, in the Joule app they recommend 45 minutes @ 149F for a chicken thigh.... the thigh will hit 149 at core in only around 25 minutes, and technically be 'cooked', but the rest of that time is holding it at that temp to more or less Pasteurize it. If you go from room temp water, you'll have to monitor the internal temp of the chicken.

Now, if you have the option of cooking a steak for 90 minutes or 2 hours, it's sort of a non-factor what temp the water is when you put the product in the bath. But I don't like taking soft cuts like that beyond an hour or so if I can avoid it.

[tifosi77]

Speaking of, the last time I was at ChefSteps they demoed a new method that I don't think they ever ended up moving past beta testing. They called it 'Turbo mode', and it involved heating the water well past the target temp, and dropping it back to the target temp halfway through the cook. It would cut cooking time roughly in half; they needed some information specific to the actual piece of meat you were cooking - like it's exact dimensions and weight - and it would use an algorithm to determine the spike temp, elbow point when you'd lower the temp, and the total amount of time in the bath.

The Turbo functionality is no longer in the app, but the page on ChefSteps.com is still live. https://www.chefsteps.com/turbo

They don't have any of their guides live, so I do not recommend using this method. Just sharing it since it's sort of germane to the discussion.

[Shyster]

There are plenty of racks on the market to keep bags separated during cooking, and I've also used this scissor-type pot-lid holder to hold bags during cooking. Works pretty well, and it hasn't rusted on me yet.

[MR25]

Came out good. Extremely tender.

Do you change water every time? I've seen conflicting info online.

[Dickie Dunn]

Came out good. Extremely tender.

Do you change water every time? I've seen conflicting info online.

If I know I’ll be using it again in a day or two I keep the water in the container for another round.

[Dickie Dunn]

There are plenty of racks on the market to keep bags separated during cooking, and I've also used this scissor-type pot-lid holder to hold bags during cooking. Works pretty well, and it hasn't rusted on me yet.

This is what I use as well.

[tifosi77]

I use the same water for months on end. The only time I change it off-schedule is if we're having company and I'm not cooking indoors (I put the equipment away), or if I've done something with liquid smoke in the bag. (The aroma molecules of liquid smoke are actually smaller than the membrane of the plastic bags, so you end up with smokey water, and anything you cook in that same water will take on the smoke flavor).

[tifosi77]

BTW, discarded water goes to the garden.

[NTP66]

The Joule heats water so quickly that it rarely takes more than 10 minutes to get to temp if I fill the container with hot water. I have never left it full.

I use a 12qt Rubbermaid container for all cooking, and do use a lid.

[NTP66]

I’m genuinely surprised that you guys leave your sous vide stuff out on the counter all the time. My wife would kill me.

[mac5155]

I got a ninja foodi dual air fryer for Christmas.

Give me your air fryer recipes kids?

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

i don't think there are "air fyer" recipes that exist

you just take something you would normally fry and then throw it in the air fryer instead

so, like, put some cheese sticks in there and get after it

[mac5155]

Don't people do weird things like cook chicken breasts and stuff in there?

[skullman80]

Yeah agree. We use our air fryer as much as our instant pot which is several times a week.

Air fryer cheese sticks, french fries, chicken wings etc. All good stuff.

[willeyeam]

I asked the same thing when I got mine. Grab all the sht from the freezer section that you liked when you were 12 (chicken nuggets, fries, tater tots etc) and get after it.

I have made wings in there and they were very good

[skullman80]

Don't people do weird things like cook chicken breasts and stuff in there?

I've done chicken wings with a dry rub and they were bomb. I think we did pork once or twice as well.

[mac5155]

Gimme all the appz

[mac5155]

I wish I could find fresh (not frozen) split chicken wings.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

We tried chicken breast in the air fryer and it was no Bueno. Same with pork chops. Brussel sprouts? Meh.

Egg plant discs (which eventually went into a curry) cooked pretty well in the air fryer.

Tofu is good in the air fryer too. Helps keep its shape if you are mixing it with other items.