Sous Vide Supreme - some thoughts after owning a few months

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Sous Vide Supreme - some thoughts after owning a few months

Postby Jaunty » Sun Mar 27, 2011 10:18 am

Wallie sent me a PM as below asking about the Sous Vide Supreme, which I have had for a few months. I thought I'd answer via the forum for the benefit of anyone else.
"Hi Jaunty

I have been debating on the Sous Vide Supreme and would appreicate your comments on it.
I have been using a large rice cooker adapted for sous vide but the temperature is controlled by a seperate machine, and there is a seperate sensor which you drop in the bath.
It controls the water temperature pretty good with maybe a 2C variation.
But what I like about the supreme is everything is built in, also from what I can gather there is not much deviation in the water temperature.
So what do you think Jaunty, worth the money?
I have seen it in my local John Lewis for £349.
Regards
wallie"

To cook sous vide you need a vacuum sealer. I had a decent vacuum sealer already (a Tre Spade Takaje, which is great) so I did not need to worry about that as a cost. The Sous Vide Supreme when first launched in UK was c £450 direct but John Lewis do it for £349 which I bought it for. I had never cooked sous vide before, either with a rice cooker or any other way, but was keen to give it a go. I use it to cook things about twice a week, and enjoy playing around with it. I still love doing a slow cooked braise/stew as you get that amazing gravy automagically that you do not get with sous vide but I have had some great "hits" along with a few "misses". Some of the things I have done and my recollection of them [I must start writing everything down, I will start another thread about online recipe storage!]

Steaks - a really fat quality thick steak like ribeye or sirloin or a t-bone done sous vide then finished to crisp up is good, but not worth the effort for me really compared to one just seasoned and done on a smoking hot griddle or BBQ. I do not mind the outside being more done than the middle and am pretty good at consistently cooking a steak how we want them. A ribeye then I really want to crisp that fat up. If it is really thick, I do on the BBQ with a combination of direct/in-direct to cook through without overcooking. HOWEVER - I have not done skirt and flank/hangar steaks yet and reckon that these cheaper cuts done low & slow sous vide then finished on the griddle will be really really good.

Eggs - sous vide eggs have a lot written about them. The whites always seem a bit snotty to me, but the yolks are lovely. I would poach an egg before sous vide-ing one, but do sous vide the yolks

Chicken - easy to accurately cook and not over cook, texture can be a little over smooth (??) but nice and easy to cook a large batch well

Sausages - great, sous vide then grill fry or chill and freeze. Keeps all the taste in and no chance of bursting

Joints - great. Beef rib and topside done 48 hours at 53º fantastic. Topside joint comes out with a soft texture more like fillet and tastes fantastic. Pork, ham, salt beef is great too. You can cook these larger joints perfectly and no babysitting is needed.

Pork Ribs - Amazing, a real highlight so far. 57º for 72 hours, done with a simple dry rub.

Things to try - fish and veg. I can't wait to use this for thick cuts of fish which can be difficult to get perfect overtime. Veg is supposed to be good too.

Conclusion - I am glad I got it. It is very easy to use, with a temperature and a timer setting. I just use the temp setting as it does not matter if it cooks longer but I would not want it to turn off while I am out and food slowly cool down still in the bag. I could not be bothered to faff around with a pot of water and ice cubes or a rice cooker and PID. The construction could be a bit better, given the cost (the plastic gasket seal around the metal has "warped" a little. John Lewis sent me another but it looked the same). Our first microwave cost a lot more years ago, I have more fun with this than the microwave :D, and have lots of things I want to try out. Hope this helps, Sean.
Last edited by Jaunty on Mon Mar 28, 2011 9:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby saucisson » Sun Mar 27, 2011 6:24 pm

Thanks Sean. Nice write up.

Dave
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Postby Richierich » Mon Mar 28, 2011 7:59 am

Sean, thanks for the review, some good information there.

At what point does the time you leave a piece of meat in there deliver deminishing returns, 72hrs seems a long time for ribs.
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Postby Jaunty » Mon Mar 28, 2011 8:30 am

Too long is not really a major issue, because the temperature being constant means it is not overcooked. So something you can do in 2 hours it does not matter if you leave it for 8. The SVS does not take up a lot of room so I can stick something on the go on a Wednesday, happily go off to work and finish it up at the weekend, no trouble. So while it may be "done" in 48 hours it is no effort to just leave it another day. I have not done lots of timing experiments.

I have read that the texture of chicken can go a bit soft if you leave it too long though. The things I have done for 72 hours are tougher cuts where I have done at a medium rare temp but where I still want to make sure all the connective tissue is broken down. There are some recipes and temp guides with the SVS, and I have bought Douglas Baldwin's book.
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Postby wallie » Mon Mar 28, 2011 12:35 pm

Thanks Sean
I very good constuctive review.
I will will write a follow up when I get mine.

I have still seen it listed at £429 on quite a few uk website, so the John Lewis price is nearly £100 cheaper.

Many thanks
wallie
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Postby DavidBondy » Mon Mar 28, 2011 2:23 pm

I bought a SousVide Supreme along with a vacuum sealer from the SousVide Supreme website. I didn't know about John Lewis' price at the time. After I had a problem with a spot of rust inside, I sent it back and bought instead the Sous Vide Supreme Demi. This is a better size for my small kitchen.

Highlights for me are duck breasts, chicken breasts coated with BBQ rub, wrapped in bacon then cooked sous vide and finished in a frying pan. Any fish is also SUPERB! I did some salmon fillets which I very lightly hot smoked first then cooked through in the sous vide and they were the BEST EVER salmon that I have every eaten.

I really like cooking sous vide and recommend it. One thing ... buy Baldwin's book as the one that come with the machine is pretty crap!

DNB
Last edited by DavidBondy on Wed Mar 30, 2011 5:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Jaunty » Tue Mar 29, 2011 6:14 pm

Thanks for posting David. Have you done confit duck yet?
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Postby DavidBondy » Wed Mar 30, 2011 5:12 pm

No! I haven't tried confit duck in the Sous Vide. It's on the list!

Last time I made confit duck I just cooked it in the oven. I used a lovely mixture to cure it before cooking:

2 bay leaves, destalked
2 teaspoons dried thyme
5 tablespoons sea salt
1 clove of garlic, chopped

This was enough for four duck legs. I cured them in the fridge for 24hrs (turning once) before cooking in duck fat in the oven for a couple of hours. Obviously they had to be roasted before eating but they were superb!

Do you have a Sous Vide recipe?

DB
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Postby Jaunty » Thu Mar 31, 2011 8:00 pm

Hi. I only have recipes from the internet

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=sous+vide+duck+confit

Check out 54 degrees if you haven't already, really interesting blog if you are playing around with sous vide.

http://www.fiftyfourdegrees.com/lang/en ... hives/1158
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Postby DavidBondy » Fri Apr 01, 2011 2:39 am

Thanks. I love the 54degrees site.
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Postby Batman » Wed Apr 06, 2011 8:47 am

Just waiting delivery of Grant SV100 reviewed on the 54Degree site and looking forward to starting some sous vide cooking.

The best forum I've found for sous vide is the egullet one, the original thread has 108 pages but they've recently started a new thread from 2011, lots of expert advice.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/forum/3-cooking/
TonyB

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Postby gbguy71 » Sun Sep 18, 2011 5:47 pm

I ran acrossthese inexpensive Sous Vide temperature controllers. They have recommendations for cooking devices, from rice cookers to steam tables, that allow you get into sous vide at a reasonable cost.
/Ed
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Postby DanMcG » Sun Sep 18, 2011 9:50 pm

Not to change the subject, but isn't sous vide cooking the exact thing we don't want when cooking sausage and meats?
You have a moist warm oxygen free environment that just screams C. Botulinum, or am I missing something?

Sorry for the thread hijack but I had to ask.
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Postby Jaunty » Tue Oct 11, 2011 7:47 pm

Hi bit of a late reply. I am not sure of the science Douglas Baldwin has some great info online about cooking temps and safety. I think if you get the sausage to a given temp and hold it there for long enough you are fine, as long as you either a) eat straight away or b) rapidly chill in ice water if you want to store in the bag you cooked it in. I'm still here so mine worked out ok fortunately.

PS little footnote did some octopus in the SVS, very tender :D .
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Postby saucisson » Wed Oct 12, 2011 5:21 pm

DanMcG wrote:Not to change the subject, but isn't sous vide cooking the exact thing we don't want when cooking sausage and meats?
You have a moist warm oxygen free environment that just screams C. Botulinum, or am I missing something?

Sorry for the thread hijack but I had to ask.


I think that if something is at risk you are supposed to heat to 176°F for 10 minutes to destroy the heat labile toxin and hold it at 140°F to keep the bugs from growing (you need to boil it under pressure to destroy spores).

So I think the answer is, if you think it may be infected you should bin it, and definitely not sous vide it.
Curing is not an exact science... So it's not a sin to bin.

Great hams, from little acorns grow...
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