Home brew sous vide

All this sous vide talk got me to thinking that I might be able to get in the door on the cheap (it's how I roll). Searched and found a cheap temperature controller with a 10 amp relay contact. even was 110 volt ac and calibrated for Fahrenheit. $19 and free shipping from an Ebay seller.

I had most of the required parts in my junk drawer but needed a project box which I got from radio shack. 10 or 15 minutes with the dremel tool had the required openings cut in the box for a test fit.

Here it is ready to be buttoned up.


The test run. I am using my small crock pot just to give me a feel for what I've gotten into. my initial thoughts was that there might be some over run with the heat going through the crock hitting the target temp and then continuing on even though the controller shuts down the heating element. But I thought for a total of less than $25 it was worth a try.

One of the biggest challenges was trying to understand the included manual. Eventually I just powered it up and experimented with the controls until I figured it out.
I rigged it up with my Acurite probe thermometer in the water next to the controller probe. I found that the two stepped up and down very closely as it heated and cooled. this controller allows you to set a slew rate down to 1 degree which is where I set mine. it also allows you to set a ceiling temp and a floor temp. For sous vide I suspect you'd need to set all three when ever you wanted to set it up. with the slew at 1 degree, the ceiling at 131, the set temp at 130 and the floor set at 129 I watched anxiously. I found that set up this way the instant the temp hit 131 it shut down the power to the crock pot. this was not solidly at 131, it went back to 130 almost instantly fluctuating from 130 to 131 for about 30 seconds until it stayed at 130 for a few minutes. Again when it dropped to 129 for just an instant, the power was back on and it spent about 30 seconds fluctuating between 129 and 130. It seemed to me that it was never getting very far past the ceiling and floor temps and as such might work in this application. that concludes my tests so far.

I now need to educate myself on sous viding before proceeding to actually cooking food. Suggestions for first attempts are welcome. Suggested reading material is also appreciated.

I know it is not as convenient as other units. Might end up being a deal breaker. we'll see.

Thanks for looking and I will keep you posted.
Oh yeah, it also works in cooling mode, so thought it might turn a refrigerator into a wine cooler
Mike

 

Mike, you’ve have been watching too much Red Green Show mixed in with the Food Network.

I am far from knowledgeable of sous vide cooking but have been reading up on it. I use our crockpot, pressure cooker and bread machine quite a bit during the hectic fourth quarter retailing season. So another way of unattended cooking is always welcome. This will be an interesting thread to follow.

It sounds like the plastic you use to seal the food can be a potential problem with leaching. Even among some of the vacuum food sealer plastics, as the plastic was not intended to be the cooking vessel too. Read some good things about the reusable silicone bags. Especially a brand named Lekue. (available on Amazon and lots of other places).

Fish sounds like a good place to start experimenting since it cooks fairly quickly and would be easy to monitor.

I would avoid using raw garlic initially. It can contain traces of botulism spores, which can grow in the absence of oxygen, especially if you are cooking below 55 °C (131 °F).

Nancy

 

Awesome build Mike! Whats on deck for the test run.

 

Thanks Nancy and I think you will find the absence of duct tape conspicuous

Jim
I don't know as I am ignorant of the particulars but have embraced the big concept. I think there must be inherent dangers (like those pointed out by Nancy) associated with this type cooking so probably need to educate myself before going too much further.

 

A guy named Dougls Baldwin seems to have been at it for a while. Even a cookbook. Lots of info and youtube videos on his website.

http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Safety_Summary

 

Nancy
Wow that guy seems to know it all! I have a lot to learn.

thanks again.

 

I have a book on kindle by Jason Logsdon called Grilling Sous Vide. I think he is associated with the Modernist. Just getting into it but seems like a good read. He does recommend Baldwin's stuff.

 

I just googled that book... sounds interesting. Several others popped up too. One thing I found odd was that you Sous Vide first then grill. I would think it would be hard to sear, say a steak, that had already been cooked. Brings to mind a comment often made by my husband about grilled vegetables: carbonized vs caramelized.

In another thread I mentioned using a stove top smoker to get some smoky flavor in ribs that I finish in the oven, during the cold dark winter months, when outdoor grilling is not possible. One of the drawbacks to stove top smoker cooking is the presentation. About as visually appealing as microwave cooking. If I do something like chicken breasts in the ST smoker I sear them first in a cast iron grill skillet then put them in the smoker. Using the smoker first just doesn't produce an attractive product.

 

My first experiment was not a success. I cut a chuck roast into steaks. seasoned and sealed in food saver bags. set my target at 135. cooked them in the water bath for 27 hours. as far as I could tell the temp never varied much from 135 and never dropped below 134 after the first half hour or so. I expected the temp of everything in the crock to be 135. Sadly, when I checked the internal temp of the steaks upon their removal the internal temp was 124. So I feared that instead of killing pathogens, I had been incubating them for 24+ hours. I was afraid to eat the steaks. It was clear to me that they had tenderized and looked like pretty good steaks. but Baldwin says that they must be above 126 just to begin killing the pathogens and doesn't really want you cooking them below 131.

My plans were somewhat foiled by the discovery of a crack in my big crock pot when I had planed to kick it off, so I had to crowd my small one to get the 4 steaks in. I see that some crock pot sous viders use an aquaium bubbler ot keep the water circulating.

even after checking the steak internal temps upon removal from the water bath, I used the same thermometer to check the water temp and found that it exactly matched the temp displayed on the temp control unit.

thoughts?

 

I cannot wrap my head around that 10 degree difference Mike. It does not make sense to me at all. Where the packages submerged the whole time?

 

Jim
I have a hard time with it as well. I was surprised.

I was checking them frequently, after about 5 hours I noted they were starting to rise so I set a pyrex custard cup on them to keep them sunk. After that they stayed submerged the whole time. The next morning I switched their positions around just to rearrange the inside to the outside.

does your unit have a circulator? Or does it rely on thermal currents to move the water around? In my mind there should be a steady flow of water rising up the sides in the crock. In the spirit of keeping it simple I did not want to use a pump, but may reconsider.

Once I get the replacement crock for the bigger cooker, I will try again with more space between the steaks.

From what I can tell the control unit worked like a champ.

ideas welcome.

 

My home brewed unit had a pump, the sous vide extreme I have now does not/ I still cannot see how you could have that much difference. Perhaps someone who has more experience will weigh in on it.

 

As I think of it, It might have been one minute before I checked the temp, but the steaks were around 1.25 inch thick and I can't see losing that much temp in the center in that time. If so, I wasted some good steaks I did not need to. I wasted them anyway I guess. My dog did not think so though.

 

Mike,

The ten degree temp difference doesn’t sound possible after 27 hours. Not that I doubt your word.

You didn’t say... were all the steaks the same internal temperature or were some higher than others? That might be a good indicator if you need to add something to circulate the water.

I suspect your thermometer is not reading accurately. If you are using that digital probe thermometer (pictured earlier) take a look at the probe. Most of those probes are far from “instant read.” And, they don’t read from the pointy tip of the probe either. There is usually a small dimple on the probe. That dimple must be inside the steak (chicken, or whatever) to get an accurate reading. They designed those probes for cooking big chunks of meat or the Thanksgiving turkey. You are supposed to put quite a bit of the probe into the meat. So.... you might want to check your temperatures with a real instant read thermometer. There are lots of styles. Most people seem to like the ditigal ones. I still prefer the old school one that most chefs have stuck in their jacket pocket, although I switched to the one with a bigger dial because I find it hard to read the small one.

If you go out a buy one, the manufacturers now clearly mark the packaging on the models that have a quick read tip. They did that because too many customers were trying to check the internal temperature of something thin, like a chicken breast, and getting inaccurate readings from not sticking enough of the stem into the meat.

One other thermometer thought. I am assuming your crockpot has a transparent lid. You could pick up a couple of those cheap candy/deep fry thermometers that are a simple glass test tube shape with a mercury rising thermometer inside. You could position them in different parts of the crockpot and they would/could be readable by just looking through the lid of the crockpot. That might help determine if the temperature is consistent in various places in the water bath.

Nancy

 

good ideas Nancy. Thanks

 

My new crock should be here shortly and a brisket is sealed up and waiting for its turn in the geek sous vide for 2 or 3 days. I will keep you posted. an aquarium air pump might enter the picture.

 

Good luck. I am watching (reading?) with interest.

 

thanks Rami
I am now wondering if I messed up on my temp check and that it really was ok. My dog was happy though. pondering at length, it does not make sense to me that the temp at 135 for 27 hours could be 10 degrees different. a couple degrees I could get my head around but not 11 degrees. I will be watching more closely on my next attempt.

M

 

Agree, note that the temp reader always advice to put in thickest part of roast so might be an issue with accuracy with steaks. I got one Thermapen from warrenb on the way just for that reason. Worth the investment if that means not throwing steaks out.

 

The thermapen is a good tool in that way.