"Bathtub" Sous Vide Experiment

Submitted by crimfan on Tue, 09/07/2010 - 7:14am
Beef - Steak
Electric Kettle
Sous Vide

Yesterday I experimented with sous vide using only ordinary kitchen tools. In this case I used: Electric water boiler Large pot 3 ceramic salad plates (heat sinks and weights) Thermometer Stove I started with some prepackaged Korean style chuck steak, which came sealed in a heavy plastic. This was cut into stew sized pieces and had been marinaded in sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger, and some rice vinegar (usual stuff). I started with about a quart of tap water over a very low flame on the stovetop, in which I submerged one plate on the bottom, the package of meat, and put the other two plates on top of the meat. This prevented it from floating and also provided a substantial amount of mass to prevent the water from moving around in temperature. Then I boiled a quart of water and poured it over the top plates. The water bath maintained a temperature of about 165, more or less (my thermometer isn't all that accurate) quite nicely. This is hotter than one would ordinarily like for sous vide but I figured chuck steak could take it. The experiment stopped after about two hours when the package started leaking, but by that point the meat was up to 145. I let it rest to lose some heat and then finished it in a frying pan to add some crisp. The cooking liquid made for a very nice sauce and the meat was very tender.

Comments

Stuart Broz's picture

Submitted by Stuart Broz on Tue, 09/07/2010 - 8:29am.

Well, given the ceramic plates, there was certainly some pressure involved. Is that enough to call this method sous vide?

Seriously, though, what I'd have done to improve on this:

  • Use a ziploc bag. Get all the air out that I can. This will be water tight and provide even exposure to the "heating elements" on all sides of the meat.
  • Cook it lower. Heat the water in the pot to your desired end temperature of the meat. This is probably below 140. Using your electric kettle here is overkill. You can start out with tapwater and get it up to temp quickly.
  • Cook it slower. At a low temperature, the meat will need a bit more time to come to equilibrium. More importantly, though, the longer you hold it at above 120 or so, the more you are going to break down some of those tough proteins.

Submitted by crimfan on Tue, 09/07/2010 - 3:49pm.

Not a lot of pressure from the plates, just a little, as the ones on top were pretty small (saucers, really), while the one on the bottom was bigger to act as a heat sink/diffuser. Getting as much air out as possible is definitely necessary as the leaking happened due to steam working on the sealed package, but I'm not sure a ziploc is really necessary as this was a sealed plastic package, with the plastic being basically the same all the way around. .

Note that the electric kettle was used to generate boiling water but I added it to tapwater that was about a 50% mixture, i.e., I was trying to get it about 150 degrees. It ended up a bit hotter than that, which is probably why there was too much steam and hence a leak.

I think the beer cooler version is probably the best way to do it on the cheap. I should buy a beer cooler anyway.