Sous Vide

[LuvOrlando]

I have a new instant pot for Christmas and want to do the Sous Vide with a pork loin. Trouble is I'm nervous about food poisoning and there isn't much out there that looks reliable on this style, yes there is info bt is seems so random so it feels iffy. Should I bother? Anyone know the ins and outs?

 

[mjkacmom]

I sous vide pork tenderloin all of the time, often frozen (Costco 2 pack, just toss it in the plastic wrap). Pick the temperature for how you like it, 3 hours or so, take it out, dry it, sear it, delicious every time.

 

[Skippy918]

Sous vide is awesome. I recommend trying it with filet mignon. You can’t mess it up.
Since it’s at temp for a decent amount of decent amount of time, the bacteria gets neutralized. There’s some info here.
https://www.amazingfoodmadeeasy.com.../more/is-sous-vide-safe-key-safety-guidelines

 

[JimMIA]

Here's a sous vide pork loin recipe that calls for 140F for at least 45 minutes, up to 4 hours. https://recipes.anovaculinary.com/recipe/pork-tenderloin

Most of the info I've seen on food poisoning has to do with anaerobic bacteria, and the common theme is don't cook below 130F for more than two hours. I'm not an expert by any means, but that's what I've read.

 

[JimMIA]

I'm still in the experimenting phase with sous vide, and I've had some successes and one meh outcome with steaks. I'm actually kind of caught in the middle between marinate and grill or season and sous vide.

Last night was my meh outcome -- I marinated a tenderloin in Dale's, then dried it, and then did sous vide (135F for 50 minutes). I got zero of the wonderful Dale's flavor. The steak was still good, but it would have been better grilled.

Prior to that, however, I used sous vide for some Costco NY strips. Just simple salt/pepper seasoning, SV at 133F for two hours (steaks were almost 2" thick) and then seared on the stove. They were amazing!

The great thing about sous vide and steaks is that you get the same doneness edge to edge -- which should work well for filet, as @Skippy918 suggested above. Here's what the NY strips looked like.

 

[JoeA]

I am surprised you're not finding lots of info. The style has been out there for a long time, and is becoming more "mainstream" over the last

I'm still in the experimenting phase with sous vide, and I've had some successes and one meh outcome with steaks. I'm actually kind of caught in the middle between marinate and grill or season and sous vide.

Last night was my meh outcome -- I marinated a tenderloin in Dale's, then dried it, and then did sous vide (135F for 50 minutes). I got zero of the wonderful Dale's flavor. The steak was still good, but it would have been better grilled.

Prior to that, however, I used sous vide for some Costco NY strips. Just simple salt/pepper seasoning, SV at 133F for two hours (steaks were almost 2" thick) and then seared on the stove. They were amazing!

The great thing about sous vide and steaks is that you get the same doneness edge to edge -- which should work well for filet, as @Skippy918 suggested above. Here's what the NY strips looked like.

View attachment 635558

I find the best way to do anything with SV is to cook to about 5 degrees of desired temp and then throw on the grill for a quick sear on each side.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Never heard of it, had to look it up. Sounds like low temperature crick pot?

 

[disney4us2002]

I didn't know you could use the instapot as a sous vide. We have a sous vide wand (looks like a wand) that we insert into a large pasta pot with the meat in a sealed bag. Steaks and pork chops are fantastic.

 

[lal9184]

we sous vide a lot, everything tastes better

 

[LuvOrlando]

I didn't know you could use the instapot as a sous vide. We have a sous vide wand (looks like a wand) that we insert into a large pasta pot with the meat in a sealed bag. Steaks and pork chops are fantastic.

Yes, mine has a setting but when I was looking for info I found a lady on You Tube with a hack on how to set one up without the setting, it was Paint the Kitchen Red I think.

I'm still in the experimenting phase with sous vide, and I've had some successes and one meh outcome with steaks. I'm actually kind of caught in the middle between marinate and grill or season and sous vide.

Last night was my meh outcome -- I marinated a tenderloin in Dale's, then dried it, and then did sous vide (135F for 50 minutes). I got zero of the wonderful Dale's flavor. The steak was still good, but it would have been better grilled.

Prior to that, however, I used sous vide for some Costco NY strips. Just simple salt/pepper seasoning, SV at 133F for two hours (steaks were almost 2" thick) and then seared on the stove. They were amazing!

The great thing about sous vide and steaks is that you get the same doneness edge to edge -- which should work well for filet, as @Skippy918 suggested above. Here's what the NY strips looked like.

View attachment 635558

That looks spectacular!


The time and temp thing is what is throwing me most, I have no context of how long it takes to tweak a food cooked like this.

 

[JimMIA]

That looks spectacular!

Thanks. I have one leftover NY strip vacuum-sealed in the freezer, and it calls my name every time I open the freezer and see it waiting there!

The time and temp thing is what is throwing me most, I have no context of how long it takes to tweak a food cooked like this.

There are tons of sous vide recipes online, and they will give you time and temp.

For steaks, what I've heard is to go by thickness, not weight -- 45-60 minutes per inch of thickness. For other beef dishes, cooking times will get much longer than for individual steaks depending on the density of the meat. So a 4-5 lb prime rib might cook 4-6 hours; a brisket might take more than 24 hours!

One good thing about sous vide is that if you cook something a little too long it will not get more done. If you cook steak WAY too long, you might get some connecting tissue breakdown which will make the meat a little mushy, but that's really cooking it 3-4 times as long as the recipe says.

When you sear a steak, you're going to sear on a really hot grill or pan, so you're going to get a nice crisp sear but you won't change the doneness at all.

That's the benefit of sous vide for steaks -- edge to edge doneness to temp, rather than overcooked on the edges, cooked a little more than you want moving inward, and finally the way you like it in the center. You can see that consistency of doneness in the pic above.

 

[Skippy918]

I'm still in the experimenting phase with sous vide, and I've had some successes and one meh outcome with steaks. I'm actually kind of caught in the middle between marinate and grill or season and sous vide.

Last night was my meh outcome -- I marinated a tenderloin in Dale's, then dried it, and then did sous vide (135F for 50 minutes). I got zero of the wonderful Dale's flavor. The steak was still good, but it would have been better grilled.

Prior to that, however, I used sous vide for some Costco NY strips. Just simple salt/pepper seasoning, SV at 133F for two hours (steaks were almost 2" thick) and then seared on the stove. They were amazing!

The great thing about sous vide and steaks is that you get the same doneness edge to edge -- which should work well for filet, as @Skippy918 suggested above. Here's what the NY strips looked like.

View attachment 635558

I season my filets with salt and pepper. Then after I plate it, I put a small pat of butter on top.
I don’t have a pic of the filet, but this was a prime rib roast that was sous vide at 133. It took an hour and a half.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Oh my, I'm regretting the pork loin and thinking steak is in our future. Question, for 4 steaks would I wrap each separately and cook all at once or maybe 2 bags of 2 each?

 

[JimMIA]

I season my filets with salt and pepper. Then after I plate it, I put a small pat of butter on top.
I don’t have a pic of the filet, but this was a prime rib roast that was sous vide at 133. View attachment 635577

That looks amazing! Another great example of the uniform doneness from edge to edge with no possibility of overcooking. Prime rib is my next sous vide project (once I do the haunting NY strip!)

My SIL seasons his prime rib with Ray's Rub and then sears it in a 500F oven. He also cooks his at 133F.

Agree about the butter on the filet. I added a bit of garlic butter to the NY strips during searing.

 

[JimMIA]

Question, for 4 steaks would I wrap each separately and cook all at once or maybe 2 bags of 2 each?

I vacuum-sealed ours separately. If you bag them together in ziplocs using the water displacement method, there is a chance they could slip around and overlap.

 

[Skippy918]

Oh my, I'm regretting the pork loin and thinking steak is in our future. Question, for 4 steaks would I wrap each separately and cook all at once or maybe 2 bags of 2 each?

I do 2 and 2 in my food saver bags which are vacuum sealed.

 

[JimMIA]

I do 2 and 2 in my food saver bags which are vacuum sealed.

Yeah, vacuum sealing will keep them apart -- Ziploc bags, not so much. I assume you leave a little space between the pieces?

Also, I cooked 3 NY strips, each vacuum sealed separately. I had a little bit of difficulty keeping the bags apart while cooking, so I'll try two to a bag next time.

 

[Deb]

we sous vide a lot, everything tastes better

what's been your favorite?

 

[LuvOrlando]

So a bunch of people seem to use ziplocks, I haven't used a vacuum sealer in ages. Worth getting one just for this? Any inexpensive small ones?

 

[JimMIA]

So a bunch of people seem to use ziplocks, I haven't used a vacuum sealer in ages. Worth getting one just for this? Any inexpensive small ones?

Here's what I bought from Amazon for less than $50 on the recommendation of my SIL: https://www.amazon.com/GERYON-Machine-Automatic-Starter-Indicator/dp/B07B4W5PMB/ref=sr_1_6?crid=1YAM2M7QC4X2A&keywords=vacuum+sealer&qid=1641255436&s=home-garden&sprefix=vacuum+sealer,garden,640&sr=1-6

It's been fine so far.

It comes with a few bags and a very small roll, but I also bought a 2-pack of 8"x50' and 11"x50' for less than $30.

@Skippy918 uses FoodSaver, which is top of the line but more expensive.

I've also read that in some cases, ziplocs may work better for some foods. For example I was just looking at an awesome Scallops Miso recipe, and the poster said they prefer ziplocs for scallops because their unknown brand vacuum sealer squished the scallops sometimes on Moist setting.

However, if you are going to use Ziplocs, be sure you use something like freezer bags with a very strong seal because you absolutely cannot have the seal leak.

With my setup, I can position ziplock bags so that the seal is above the water but the food is still underwater -- but I don't know if that's possible with what you are using.

But I prefer the vacuum sealer (with possible exceptions for soft stuff). And just FYI, I double-seal everything to prevent horror stories.