Ghetto Sous Vide//How To Sous Vide At Home

  

This post has been completely written by Hamish

Bless his heart

Thank you so much H!!!!

SORRY TO THE VEGETARIANS!!!!

^_^ ^_^ ^_^

 Flash frying the meat pre sous vide

I've seen 'home sous vide' questions all over the internet lately, people want to know how to do it at home but I haven't read a concise, proper response anywhere. 

The last straw was Masterchef the other night when a contestant asked how to sous vide at home and George said 'with a zip lock bag'. 

GREAT ANSWER GEORGIE

But completely useless

Hamish has been doing the whole ghetto sous vide thing for ages now and it works!

Meat is MUCH more tender, he's even done it with sausages and the results were quite amazing.

At first I was reluctant to eat the meat because I thought it would make me sick (it didn't I was being dramatic).

If you're adventurous give this a go - you might surprise yourself!

Anyway, here it is, zip lock bag and beyond*.

Take it away chef Hamish!

 Meat in the bag with seasoning and butter

The principle of Sous Vide is quite simple. basically food cooks when it reaches a certain temperature, if you hold something at a particular temperature for long enough, eventually the whole thing will reach that temperature. Usually this is done in restaurants with fancy circulators, cryovac machines and temperature logs.

Not only is this expensive and exclusive, it's elitist! 

Why should only the hatted restaurants have all the fun?

Pop the straw in and grip the straw a little 

with your teeth and

suck ALL the air out

I decided to work out an easy way to sous vide at home, without all the expensive science lab equipment.

• Firstly, you need to have an accurate thermometer (I have a digital one that I bought for less than $20 at king of knives) this is a MUST.
• Secondly, you need a way of keeping the water at a constant temperature. At first I tried using a pot of hot water and regulating the temperature using a slowly running tap a la David Chang Now not only is this labor intensive and inaccurate, it's downright difficult, annoying and wastes water.

 

I noticed that the thicker the pot and the greater the volume of water, the easier it was to control the temperature... and then it hit me... the ESKY (at this point, if you feel like pointing out that it is called a "chilly bin" feel free to write your own blog... about sheep)

Air out

Straw out

 

So I have found the easiest way is to chuck an esky in the laundry sink and fill it with hot water. I have found my tap to pump out around 58 deg, so if i want it hotter, I add a little bit of boiling water from a jug and for colder, a little from the cold tap. Remember to fill it until it is overflowing.
 

Once you have your exact temperature - you are good to go. with the lid on, I have found my esky to drop temp by less than 1 degree per hour (yours may differ) for a medium rare steak you will want 54 deg Celsius. 

Next, add whatever flavours you want to the meat (salt, pepper, herbs, butters, chilli etc)  and then throw it into a ziplock bag with a straw hanging out the top. Seal the bag right up to the straw by sucking all the air out! It is important to hold the straw in your teeth as well so you can remove and seal the bag quickly. Remember to try to get out every last bit of air possible. Once this is done, simply place the bag in the water and trap the end of the bag in the lid so it doesn't sink.
Remember, hot water rises, so you want to have the steak sitting at the same depth that you took the water temperature from. 

Hang the bag from the side so it's in the hottest part of the water

Hold it with the esky lid

You now simply leave it there for an hour or so and you are done. When it's time to get the steak out, you want to chill it rapidly, so throw the whole bag into a sink full of cold water if you aren't eating it straight away and then into the fridge, still in the sealed bag If you do plan to eat it straight away, simply let it rest for 10 minutes or so and then sear quickly in a HOT pan to caramelize the outside and heat the meat slightly. 

If you don't do this it will look and taste TERRIBLE Another method I employ is to sear the meat quickly BEFORE I sous vide it, so that I can then take it to work sealed in it's bag and give it 1 minute of microwave loving and then a few seconds in the sandwich press! This works a TREAT! Then you have a perfect medium rare (or whatever temp you chose) steak AT WORK! 

Temperature of the water after sous vide

Meat in a cold bath to reduce the temperature quickly

Remember food pathogens are actively multiplying whilst below the danger zone threshold of 60deg Celsius (as advised by FSANZ) 

HOWEVER at temperatures above 40deg Celsius they take longer to multiply, and above 50, it is literally days. 

This it is not a method of cookery recommended for pregnant women.

For more information on temperature regulating in cooking go HERE.

*Hamish flash fried his piece of meat BEFORE putting it into his ghetto sous vide then took it to work and did the sandwich press thing to caramelize the outside more. 

I know this post has probably been boring for the non food people but if the food people have any questions feel free to ask

:) :) :)