ChefKevin

I am not concerned with the safety of it as much as I am afraid I will somehow cook it to death by having the temperature too high. I would like to cook an entire Foie Gras this way, but again Iam afraid it will turn into a melted mess. If anyone can give me some advice, it would be appreciated.

The temp. of the water should be set at 148F which is why you need accurate control over temp for certain items such as a $70 Foie Gras lobe. You will be trying to achieve an internal temp of around 140F which should take between 20 to 30 minutes depending on the size. After removing from the bag brown the outside quickly in a very hot pan. Here is a picture of my water baths which I consider a nessasary piece of equipment for Sous Vide cooking. The average stove top cannot possibly be as accurate as this lab equipment which will maintain temp within 1/2 a degree. If cooking an item such as duck breast the difference between 131F and 136F is extremly noticable when using extended cooking times to make the duck breasts tender. I have cooked shortribs for 38 hours at 154F and they were awesome.

I picked up some frozen wild-caught sockeye salmon at Trader Joe's the other day ($6/lb.), and the vaccum-packed plastic container it arrived in got me thinking: Why can't I just sous vide this thing in the original packaging?

I defrosted the salmon in the fridge overnight, then brought a pot of water to a boil on my stovetop, then reduced the heat to its lowest setting.  I let it sit there for about half an hour, and then put the salmon in.  The water at this point wasn't hot, but a little more than tepid. (I'm getting a digital thermometer this weekend to get this part down.)  I cooked the salmon for about ten minutes, removed it from the bag, and placed it on top of a bed of some pasta riso (with romano and saffron). I made a little shallot butter sauce for the salmon and added a bit of fresh dill, and it worked pretty well.  The salmon, once defrosted, wasn't completely vaccum-packed and air-free, so there wasn't the concentration of juices that I'd hope for from the real thing (just got my foodsaver vac yesterday, so that's about to change).  But it was very tasty, and I preffered the texture over baked, broiled or poached salmon.

I wonder if you could do this with other Trader Joe's products -- I bought some lamb shanks for this purpose, which I'll try out this weekend. The downside to this approach is the extra air in the packaging (but not enough to make it float to the surface) I already mentioned and the inability to season and flavor the meat before cooking, an admittedly giant flaw.  But for those without a foodsaver, might this present a viable alternative for cooking meats sous vide?

Job well done on the salmon. When you get your foodsaver, sweat some shallots in butter, when soft add some white wine and cook off the alcohol. Chill the mixture in the freezer till it gels. That will prevent the liquid from getting sucked up into your new foodsaver . Add the semi frozen sauce, fish and some fresh dill to your vacuum bag and seal it. I cook salmon at 116F for around 20 minutes in my water bath. For presentation purposes you can brown the sufaces of the fish quickly in a hot pan with a little butter.

Mark,

Can you share any pointers on how to get a probe into the bag without it losing air? Someone at the Squires BB (Robertparker.com) suggested using close cell weather striping. Is this what is used at Citronelle?

You only need to probe your food when you are establishing cooking times based on internal temperatures that are lower than higher waterbath temps. If you are cooking the food in a waterbath regulated to the exact internal temp. of the food than carefull timing is not critical. If you need to check the internal temp than you need a very fine thermal-couple used in the food processing industry for thin prepared foods such as hamburgs. They are available on the web but usually sell for around $80.00 just for the probe not including the readout equipment. The probe is fine enough to penetrate the closed cell square adhered to the bag without releasing the vacuum.

Seriously, does anyone have any good recipes for beef cheeks. I think I am going to order the beefcheeks from the above website.

After tasing the cheeks at Corduroys, I want to make something similar. Does anyone have any idea what they use in their recipe and theier method of cooking, (besides slow)?

Thanks all.

Beef cheeks would be awesome done Sous Vide.

We are considering re-doing our kitchen with some IKEA kitchen cabinets. Does anybody have any experience with them, both good and bad? We would be going through the Potomac Mills location. Any recommendations for installers?

We have Ikea cabinets in our pantry and love them! If you are handy at all and own a screwdriver you can assemble your own cabinets. The uppers install on a metal rail, once you install the rail, hanging the upper cabinets is a piece of cake. The cabinets come in 3 inch increments and the design department will help you with your order. The drawers are full extension which is great. Then all you need is to have someone do the countertops. Good Luck.

Although a stove top or oven at low temp. might work your best bet is to check out the many used lab equip. websites for a precision water bath. They will maintain a temp. within .5 degrees. If you are serious about Sous Vide cooking then having the right equipement is nessasary for sucsess. Many books and articles will mention a circulating water heater but a water bath will work fine as long as you do not overcrowd it. I have 2 waterbaths which I run at different temps. for multiple items at once. Proteins are a natural for Sous Vide but veggies require higher cooking temps that can be acomplished on any stove top. The other thing that is nice about the water baths I have is the stainless steel lids to prevent the evaporation of water during long cooking periods. For all you non-believers out there if you have not tried Sous Vide than you don't know what your missing. Please do not refer to it as "BOIL A BAG".