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Poor Man's Sous Vide

River Hunter

River Hunter

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2017
Messages
301
Location
Minnesota
If you have a crock pot, it doesn't take much to turn it into a sous vide water oven.



I came across this little gem on Amazon for $23.99.



tempcontroller.PNG



1. Plug the temp controller into the outlet.
2. Fill crockpot with water
3. Plug crockpot into temp controller and turn to medium (or high if your medium is quite low).
4. Set temperature on temp controller.
5. Put vacuum sealed meat in crockpot.
6. place temperate probe in the crockpot.

The temperature controller will send current to the crockpot if the temp is below what you set, then turn current off when it's above the temp you set. You can even adjust the acceptable deviation.
I've found it is consistent in keeping the temp +/- 1 of what i set it at.

Boom, you have a sous vide. And it fits in a drawer.
 
Very nice.

I am a huge fan of the Sous vide. I have one that clips on to the side of a pot / cooler that is pretty convenient.
 
My first venturing into sous vide cooking was using a cooler filled with water from my stove top using an electronic thermometer to monitor the temp of the water while adding more hot water as the temp dropped. After my second coolor run, I decided it was too good of a cooking method to keep doing it this pain in the A** way and to buy an Anova sous vide and a 12 quart food grade plastic bin with a top for the Anova machine to fit in and stop any evaporation. I've done 48 hour cooks on beef short ribs that were the best i've ever had. but i really love it for steaks / chicken / pork loin. you just can't compare the tenderness of a sous vide cooked steak in my opinion...
 
I do like SV for times when I don’t feel like paying attention. Then just throw a quick sear after from the cast iron and BLAMMO.
 
DelaWhere_Arrow said:
Come have some from my offset smoker...we’ll compare notes and food baby satisfaction.
Click to expand...
I love smoking meat, Owned an offset smoker for years when I lived in Tx, now i've been using my vision (Big green egg knock off) to do all my smoking. I'll tell you what, smoking ribs for a few hours than throwing them in the sous vide machine for a few more hours and back to the Grill to get a nice 1/2 hour crust is hard to beat... I'd love to compare notes and flavors...
 
dblomberg4 said:
My first venturing into sous vide cooking was using a cooler filled with water from my stove top using an electronic thermometer to monitor the temp of the water while adding more hot water as the temp dropped. After my second coolor run, I decided it was too good of a cooking method to keep doing it this pain in the A** way and to buy an Anova sous vide and a 12 quart food grade plastic bin with a top for the Anova machine to fit in and stop any evaporation. I've done 48 hour cooks on beef short ribs that were the best i've ever had. but i really love it for steaks / chicken / pork loin. you just can't compare the tenderness of a sous vide cooked steak in my opinion...
Click to expand...
I hear ya! I did a chuck roast for 48 hours...it was as tender as prime rib.

Some day I'll break down and get an actual sous vide cooker, but I kinda like the redneck engineering.
 
Guys what do you like to Sous Vide the most? I’ve done some ribeyes a few times and I’m not really crazy about the results. I like that it makes them more tender but I also like quick searing them so that the center is medium rare. We also slow cook beef roasts in the crockpot often with bone broth and I can’t imagine what could be better than this.

I’m just not really sure what would come out the best although I like the idea of setting the temp and just letting it go. Is mostly about the convenience?
 
Cajunshooter said:
Guys what do you like to Sous Vide the most? I’ve done some ribeyes a few times and I’m not really crazy about the results. I like that it makes them more tender but I also like quick searing them so that the center is medium rare. We also slow cook beef roasts in the crockpot often with bone broth and I can’t imagine what could be better than this.

I’m just not really sure what would come out the best although I like the idea of setting the temp and just letting it go. Is mostly about the convenience?
Click to expand...
Cuts that are on the tougher side are perfect for sous vide. I haven't found a reason to sous vide a backstrap, it's overkill. But I've done a chuck roast at 130 ° for 48 hours and you'd think it was prime rib. Pull it out of the back and give it a quick sear and it's perfect medium rare throughout. Deer shoulders are awesome when you put them in a vac bag with some bacon grease and herbs and let it go at 150° for 24 - 48 hours. Chicken and pork are also perfect candidates as it will keep it moist without overcooking it.
 
Hmm...this looks very intriguing!

I’m in the market to try this method of cooking, but haven’t gathered the tools yet.
Great innovation!
 
Cajunshooter said:
Guys what do you like to Sous Vide the most? I’ve done some ribeyes a few times and I’m not really crazy about the results. I like that it makes them more tender but I also like quick searing them so that the center is medium rare. We also slow cook beef roasts in the crockpot often with bone broth and I can’t imagine what could be better than this.

I’m just not really sure what would come out the best although I like the idea of setting the temp and just letting it go. Is mostly about the convenience?
Click to expand...

For me, sous vide makes the biggest difference with poultry. I broke down a turkey and did it sous vide once. It was a huge production. But I've never had a juicier, more tender turkey.

I'll use it for venison occasionally.

But for steaks, I honestly don't like it. It's a lot of work for just a steak, and I feel like you lose out on some flavor development. I prefer just doing a reverse sear on my charcoal grill with a 2 zone setup. Sous vide is harder to screw up though.
 
Cajunshooter said:
Guys what do you like to Sous Vide the most? I’ve done some ribeyes a few times and I’m not really crazy about the results. I like that it makes them more tender but I also like quick searing them so that the center is medium rare. We also slow cook beef roasts in the crockpot often with bone broth and I can’t imagine what could be better than this.

I’m just not really sure what would come out the best although I like the idea of setting the temp and just letting it go. Is mostly about the convenience?
Click to expand...

I think it is absolutely the best tool for cooking anything game except fish... and especially venison.

I sear with a searzall, so I don’t further cook any internal meat. I can get a hard crust on the exterior, and a full edge to edge medium rare on the inside. I also like that it is always essentially a confit. I have started saving and rendering any extra beef fat I cut off of whatever cuts I buy, and I often times use a few tablespoons of that in with my venison. It really cuts the minerally taste a lot of people find off putting.

I recently started doing a copycat version of Starbuck’s sous vide egg bites for my work trip breakfasts and they just can’t be beat.
My wife loves medium boiling eggs, I use it to make ghee, I’m planning to make black garlic.... it really is the most versatile cooking method out there.

I recently got a pellet smoker, and I see a LOT of correlations between the two. Precise temp control without any fuss. I’m excited to start blending the two cooking methods.


Edit: I also like that I have a couple hour window for plating the food. If guests are running late, or no one is quite ready to sit down to dinner, I just leave whatever it is in the sous vide until we are ready.
 
Sounds like you've got a good alternative. The cookers also circulate the water but I've often wondered how much that really matters.

I really like SV cooking but I don't do it as often as I'd like. It's not a quick meal after work for the family, that's for sure. It's the opposite of using an Instant Pot, which the wife loves.

We've done chicken breast, pork loin, beef steaks, pork ribs, various venison cuts, shrimp (really good but not worth the time), and lobster. I also experimented with egg bites. We've been pleased with everything except the chicken. It's just blah...
 
I bought my wife a sous vide several years ago. I bet we have not used it 3 times. Darn shame it does a great job. I may to break that out his weekend
 
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