Mine was very cheap. I just bought a controller for less than twenty bucks, and plugged an old slow cooker into it. It even included the temperature sensor for that price. The only problem with it is that it only reads out in Celsius, but that’s not a big deal (you can fix it by spending $35 instead). For bigger pieces (like the small rib roast I made last night), add an immersion heater for eight bucks (in my case, from Bed, Bath and Beyond) and use an insulated cooler. The only issue with that is that there’s no circulation, so I had to stir it occasionally to get it evenly up to temp. But it still beats hundreds of bucks for a fancy kitchen machine. And there are DIY guides for building circulators out of an aquarium pump.
12 thoughts on “Sous Vide”
I wonder if a little submersible pond pump could take the heat? This one pumps 44 GPH and is only $7.88, which would make a cheap experiment.
One option might be an aquarium *air* pump.
Run the pump air line into the water, and let the bubbles (via a sandstone aerator) provide the circulation. Major caveat, I’ve never done Sous Vide, so I may be totally wrong regarding what’s needed.
To be honest, I’ve never been inclined to try home sous vide. My preference for meat is well done, and for that, sous vide doesn’t seem to do it (especially the browning, but not just that) anywhere near as tasty as I can do with a frying pan, oven, or BBQ. My opinion is based on only two experiences eating sous vide in restaurants – I was underwhelmed; it didn’t seem tasty with either beef or chicken, so I didn’t try it again. Am I missing something, maybe based on an atypical sampling?
I never really used to get all that excited about Steak Night once or twice a month on Sundays growing up as a kid, because it was usually chewy or tough or dry. Once I got away from home and was introduced to the wonders of Medium and then Medium Rare steak, it actually made sense why people would spend money on slabs of beef.
Chicken, on the other hand, really doesn’t have any scale of “rare to done” because of bacterial concerns, so as long as I’ve gotten it up to temp, I’m good to go. Too much higher and it dries out in a hurry.
Am I missing something…?
I’ve never tried anything sous vide, so my gut reaction is that you’re missing out because you like your meat well done, which is about the surest way to ruin a steak (although Heinz 57’s Steak Sauce empire was built on overcooked steaks…)
The low cooking temperatures won’t produce the Maillard reactions that add a lot of flavor. But after the meat is slow cooked you can briefly throw it on a hot pan or grill to sear it.
I thought about using an aquarium air pump but the cool air being bubbled through the water might make more work for the temperature controller, although that may be insignificant. A low-speed motor running a paddle wheel would work, or you could use a domestic servant.
What is the actual perceived upside of sous vide, particularly for well done meat? The restaurant stuff I had was tasteless (but maybe I just had bad luck).
Hrmmm… the cool air might be an issue, but you don’t need much air to stir the water. Knock down the flow a bit; either an adjustable air pump, or a simple shunt valve or flow restrictor (adjustable vice grips work great for the latter). The cooling effect should be small as well as fairly linear, well within the range of the controller’s ability to handle.
A padle wheel sounds good… hrmmm, how about magnetically driven? I’ve got an old magnetic impeller and driver from an aquarium water filter system that might be just the ticket.
A servant sounds even better. 🙂
Or…. lets do this right; use convection currents to stir the water. Convection has a stronger effect at higher G’s, so I think doing the cooking at 15G would give us enough convection from the small temp differences to solve the stirring issue. 🙂
Fwiw, that controller is a thermostat, not a proper PID controller that adjusts to delayed response; those’ll run you maybe $30. May be ok if your bath has enough thermal inertia…
I added an external solid-state relay when I built mine; my controller (Mypin ta4) had a tiny Internal SSR. I’ve heard the mechanical relays are prone to wearing out eventually – don’t know what the internal relay on that unit is.
It does have some overshoot (maybe a degree C or so). I don’t think that, for the purposes of home cooking, it matters that much. For the cooler, with a gallon or so of water, it’s pretty stable once it hits temp. It’s the old small slow cooker that has a wider swing (as you’d predict), though it’s not that bad on the low (as opposed to high) setting.
One thing I thought about was adding a coolant loop of room-temp water in polyethylene tubing, because it has a cooling relay as well, but that would probably be overkill.
It does have some overshoot (maybe a degree C or so). I don’t think that, for the purposes of home cooking, it matters that much.
There are a handful of home techniques that require overshoot of less than one degree, but not many.
As for Maillard reactions, that’s why you brown the steak or whatever after sous vide cooking.
I wouldn’t worry much about an initial slight overshoot because when it occurs your food is probably at refrigerator or room temperature, still warming up.
I use a controller + slow cooker, and wrap it in a beach towel for insulation. This gives good regulation and draws less power.
Maybe you should wrap your cooker in mylar insulating bubble-wrap from Home Depot or Lowe’s and make your kitchen look all “space age”. 🙂
I own a Polyscience sous vide and a Sous Vide Supreme model. Most people don’t think twice about purchasing a microwave for close to $100, and almost everyone has an oven range that costs much more than that. So why not a “water oven” now that it can be purchased for $200? The financial justification for putting together cheeseballs hacks is gone. And sous vide will transform your cooking in magical ways.
I wonder if a little submersible pond pump could take the heat? This one pumps 44 GPH and is only $7.88, which would make a cheap experiment.
One option might be an aquarium *air* pump.
Run the pump air line into the water, and let the bubbles (via a sandstone aerator) provide the circulation. Major caveat, I’ve never done Sous Vide, so I may be totally wrong regarding what’s needed.
To be honest, I’ve never been inclined to try home sous vide. My preference for meat is well done, and for that, sous vide doesn’t seem to do it (especially the browning, but not just that) anywhere near as tasty as I can do with a frying pan, oven, or BBQ. My opinion is based on only two experiences eating sous vide in restaurants – I was underwhelmed; it didn’t seem tasty with either beef or chicken, so I didn’t try it again. Am I missing something, maybe based on an atypical sampling?
I never really used to get all that excited about Steak Night once or twice a month on Sundays growing up as a kid, because it was usually chewy or tough or dry. Once I got away from home and was introduced to the wonders of Medium and then Medium Rare steak, it actually made sense why people would spend money on slabs of beef.
Chicken, on the other hand, really doesn’t have any scale of “rare to done” because of bacterial concerns, so as long as I’ve gotten it up to temp, I’m good to go. Too much higher and it dries out in a hurry.
Am I missing something…?
I’ve never tried anything sous vide, so my gut reaction is that you’re missing out because you like your meat well done, which is about the surest way to ruin a steak (although Heinz 57’s Steak Sauce empire was built on overcooked steaks…)
The low cooking temperatures won’t produce the Maillard reactions that add a lot of flavor. But after the meat is slow cooked you can briefly throw it on a hot pan or grill to sear it.
I thought about using an aquarium air pump but the cool air being bubbled through the water might make more work for the temperature controller, although that may be insignificant. A low-speed motor running a paddle wheel would work, or you could use a domestic servant.
What is the actual perceived upside of sous vide, particularly for well done meat? The restaurant stuff I had was tasteless (but maybe I just had bad luck).
Hrmmm… the cool air might be an issue, but you don’t need much air to stir the water. Knock down the flow a bit; either an adjustable air pump, or a simple shunt valve or flow restrictor (adjustable vice grips work great for the latter). The cooling effect should be small as well as fairly linear, well within the range of the controller’s ability to handle.
A padle wheel sounds good… hrmmm, how about magnetically driven? I’ve got an old magnetic impeller and driver from an aquarium water filter system that might be just the ticket.
A servant sounds even better. 🙂
Or…. lets do this right; use convection currents to stir the water. Convection has a stronger effect at higher G’s, so I think doing the cooking at 15G would give us enough convection from the small temp differences to solve the stirring issue. 🙂
Fwiw, that controller is a thermostat, not a proper PID controller that adjusts to delayed response; those’ll run you maybe $30. May be ok if your bath has enough thermal inertia…
I added an external solid-state relay when I built mine; my controller (Mypin ta4) had a tiny Internal SSR. I’ve heard the mechanical relays are prone to wearing out eventually – don’t know what the internal relay on that unit is.
It does have some overshoot (maybe a degree C or so). I don’t think that, for the purposes of home cooking, it matters that much. For the cooler, with a gallon or so of water, it’s pretty stable once it hits temp. It’s the old small slow cooker that has a wider swing (as you’d predict), though it’s not that bad on the low (as opposed to high) setting.
One thing I thought about was adding a coolant loop of room-temp water in polyethylene tubing, because it has a cooling relay as well, but that would probably be overkill.
It does have some overshoot (maybe a degree C or so). I don’t think that, for the purposes of home cooking, it matters that much.
There are a handful of home techniques that require overshoot of less than one degree, but not many.
As for Maillard reactions, that’s why you brown the steak or whatever after sous vide cooking.
I wouldn’t worry much about an initial slight overshoot because when it occurs your food is probably at refrigerator or room temperature, still warming up.
I use a controller + slow cooker, and wrap it in a beach towel for insulation. This gives good regulation and draws less power.
Maybe you should wrap your cooker in mylar insulating bubble-wrap from Home Depot or Lowe’s and make your kitchen look all “space age”. 🙂
I own a Polyscience sous vide and a Sous Vide Supreme model. Most people don’t think twice about purchasing a microwave for close to $100, and almost everyone has an oven range that costs much more than that. So why not a “water oven” now that it can be purchased for $200? The financial justification for putting together cheeseballs hacks is gone. And sous vide will transform your cooking in magical ways.