# Dry aged, Sous Vide, and first time for every thing



## ktownskier (Aug 22, 2018)

My wife went into to the big cities (if you can call Dillon, Frisco and Silverthorne, CO big cities) last week to get some groceries. She wanted meat loaf so I had her pick up some Ground Pork as we already had the ground beef. There wasn't any at the City Market in Dillon. (Not surprising as it gets picked over quickly by all the tourists) So, I had asked her to stop by Whole Foods in Frisco to pick up whatever they had dry aged at the meat counter as well as the ground pork. 

Thankfully they had some nice inch and a half thick Strip sticks. And she picked up two. She also picked up a shrimp cocktail platter, dipped strawberries, and a few other goodies. 

As it was VD weekend, we had the shrimp cocktail and dipped strawberries, but were too full to have the steaks. We had the meatloaf in the middle of the week and finally tonight, I got around to making the steaks. 

A couple of month's ago, I got a Sous Vide machine and hadn't used it yet. I watched a bunch of videos on you Tube on how to do it. So, I thought I would try it out on the Dry aged Strip Steaks. I have a vacuum packer, a sous vide cooker container, the sous vide cooker, the steaks, vacuum packer bags, the steaks, the seasonings, and finally the knowledge. 

Well, I have to say, it turned out DAYUM tasty. 

I made a side dish of oven roasted potatoes seasoned with garlic, butter, olive oil and rosemary. Roasted at 450. They were nice and crispy and quite tasty. 

I can't wait to try my sous vide again. 

Any suggestions on what I should cook next? I have a pork roast, sirloin roast and some other things vacuum packed in the freezer. Should I defrost those and do it or should I do it from frozen?


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## J. V. (Jun 1, 2007)

I have been considering a sous vide immersion probe for some time now. Prices are pretty good.
However my concern is it will reside in the bone yard (basement) with all the other things I have bought for the kitchen.
I have been holding off on a blender for this very reason. You see I always buy the best stuff possible. So to buy a $150 blender to sit down there is not exactly a good move. I know they sell higher priced blenders but I have received some excellent suggestions on this particular blender. 
When we are gone, someone is going to hit the jackpot. I hope they appreciate cooking and the quality that awaits them.


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## ktownskier (Aug 22, 2018)

J. V. said:


> I have been considering a sous vide immersion probe for some time now. Prices are pretty good.
> However my concern is it will reside in the bone yard (basement) with all the other things I have bought for the kitchen.
> I have been holding off on a blender for this very reason. You see I always buy the best stuff possible. So to buy a $150 blender to sit down there is not exactly a good move. I know they sell higher priced blenders but I have received some excellent suggestions on this particular blender.
> When we are gone, someone is going to hit the jackpot. I hope they appreciate cooking and the quality that awaits them.


I bought my sous vide cooker for about $40 from Target. It was from the Strata Home Collection by Monoprice I bought just the cooker first and then I bought a tank to hold it that came with some pieces to hold the bags of food. I realized after watching some of the videos, you really don't need a tank, anything that holds water, like a stock pot, will do. And a vacuum packer isn't required, just a zip lock bag. Immerse the bag into the water filled pot, it will force the air out as you drop it into the water. Just make sure to seal it. Fold it over the edge of the pot and clip it to the edge. 

Here is a link to the one I bought, it is now $65 but it worked great and it is quiet.


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## Startingover (Apr 18, 2012)

Never heard of that before.


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## ktownskier (Aug 22, 2018)

Startingover said:


> Never heard of that before.


Sous Vide?

It is the latest and Greatest way to cook meat. You can't overcook things. But you can under cook things, but that is easy to remedy. 

I cooked the steaks for 2 1/2 hours. I could have left them in for a couple hours more if I wanted. Even longer but the meat would have toughened up a bit. But, they wouldn't be overcooked because the water was heated to 130* (I kept checking and my instant read was close at 128)

For a larger cut of meat like a roast, 7 hours to overnight is the norm. 

If you take it out and it is under cooked, you can either put it on the grill, under the broiler, etc for a bit longer than a minute a side like I did to get the crust most people like. Or, you can put it back into the bag and use the immersion method to get rid of the air, and let it go for another half hour or so.

Any meat you Sous Vide should be dry, you can oil it if you want to help it slide in the bag and to make seasonings stick but any liquid/moisture should be patted with a paper towel. 

If you have fresh herbs, use them as they are more fragrant. Also, if you dry brine your steak, there is no need for it with the Sous Vide method as being in a vacuum or partial vacuum helps draw the salt in.


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## wooleybooger (Feb 23, 2019)

Sous Vide has been around at least 6 years. Been talked about and used on a couple forums I know of and at least once on Iron Chef. It's possibly even older.








The Colonel In The Kitchen: A Surprising History Of Sous Vide


Cooking food in a vacuum-sealed bag in a hot water bath is the height of haute cuisine. But an ex-Army colonel testing tastier hospital food seems to have had a lot to do with developing sous vide.




www.npr.org




.


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## ktownskier (Aug 22, 2018)

@wooleybooger very true. It has been around a long time. I didn't mean to imply otherwise, I guess it did though. It just is becoming more popular and more approachable due to the much lower prices of the sous vide cooker. 

Costco has a sous vide cooker set for $199 that goes on sale for $149. 'that was tempting for me but still too expensive for something I haven't tried yet. When I saw the unit I bought for the price I paid for it I thought I would give it a try. But I thought I needed a a sous vide tank to do the cooking in. And I finally bought one on Amazon a few months later. 

It took a few more months to actually try it for the first time. It was in our pantry, behind a rolling rack. Prior to that it was on top of our fridge. Out of sight, out of mind....

One of the greatest things about the Sous Vide Cooker is clean up. Since the bags are sealed, and hopefully you have washed your hands after putting the meat into the bags, you can just dump the water, let every thing dry out and then put it away until the next time.


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## wooleybooger (Feb 23, 2019)

ktownskier said:


> [B]@wooleybooger very true. It has been around a long time. I didn't mean to imply otherwise, I guess it did though. [/B]It just is becoming more popular and more approachable due to the much lower prices of the sous vide cooker.
> 
> Costco has a sous vide cooker set for $199 that goes on sale for $149. 'that was tempting for me but still too expensive for something I haven't tried yet. When I saw the unit I bought for the price I paid for it I thought I would give it a try. But I thought I needed a a sous vide tank to do the cooking in. And I finally bought one on Amazon a few months later.
> 
> ...


Yes, it did to me. Guess that is why the say English is such a difficult language, even for native English speakers. Oh well, Iearned something.


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## ktownskier (Aug 22, 2018)

I just saw a great deal on the Today show this morning (4/20/22) for a complete Sous Vide starter set. It includes a cooker, bags, vacuum pump and a few other things. A $140 kit for $66. To take a look, go to Today.com/deals (or something like that) and check it out.


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

That's not a bad deal. IDK about the reusable bags though. It's kind of a PITA to clean out plastic bags for reuse, especially if previously used for meat.


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## ktownskier (Aug 22, 2018)

huesmann said:


> That's not a bad deal. IDK about the reusable bags though. It's kind of a PITA to clean out plastic bags for reuse, especially if previously used for meat.


I agree about reusing bags. After having had food poisoning, I am ultracareful. There are a lot of different bags you can use though. Even zip-loc bags work. Just use the immersion method. Put a straw in (Metal of course) and close the zipper so that all that is open is the straw portion. Submerge the bag slowly into the water fill cooking vessel up to the zipper portion but NOT above. You don't want any added water!!. When the air is all gone, slowly pull out the straw and finish closing the bag. You can also use the straw to help suck out the air. 

Zip-Loc used to make vacuum bags of their own, not sure they still do. But, any bag that has a one way valve on it that is food grade will work. Or you can just use your regular vacuum packer, if you have one. 

Before you seal it, add herbs and spices, sliced garlic, flavored oils, etc.. to the bag. Since it will be cooking for several hours, the more flavor, the better. 

If you have a propane torch, a heat gun, a broiler, etc.. you can give it that GBD finish if you want. Or use your gas/charcoal grill. For charcoal, just make a small but HOT fire as you don't want to cook the steaks, just brown and give them a crust. For Gas, turn on one or two burners on HIGH and let them heat up the grate until they are very hot, then put whatever you cooked on the grill just to give it that Golden Brown and Delicious exterior. 

Depending on your grill, you can also use it to heat up a cast iron pan and use that to give your food that GBD and crispy crust.


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

We just use the vac seal bags, like the advertise for freezing food. I hate tossing them out in the garbage, but... I've tried regular ziplocs, and they just don't seem to be watertight.


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## RockyMtBeerMan (Dec 12, 2018)

My electronic 8 qurat pressure pot has a sous vide setting on it, so I'm going to try it this summer with half of a brisket. I can get usda prime briskets, so it should fall off the bone (if it had a bone):


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## ktownskier (Aug 22, 2018)

RockyMtBeerMan said:


> My electronic 8 qurat pressure pot has a sous vide setting on it, so I'm going to try it this summer with half of a brisket. I can get usda prime briskets, so it should fall off the bone (if it had a bone):


I like watching Guga's video's. They are entertaining, often instructional, and hilarious. He does give a different view point though. 

Some times he likes grill marks, other times he calls them burnt food. Go figure. 

Can't wait to hear how how the prime brisket turns out. But, isn't that kind of an oxymoron? Fatty MARBLED brisket?


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