Sous Vide

I read about Sous Vide on a boating forum. My interest was peaked when they suggested one needed  precise temperature control for cooking. I have been messing with temperature controllers for years and thought this might be another application, so I did a little research.

Sous Vide is putting stuff in a vacuum pouch in a container of water, then cooking it at a precise temperature. Commercial units can be over $400 - no way was I gong to spend that kind of money -  I'd use my crock pot and my temperature controller.


I don't know much about meat - every time I cooked a steak it was disappointing. Even putting a roast in the crock pot was far from satisfying so the only meat I've been buying for the last several years is cheap hamburger. I was skeptical of ruining an expensive cut in my Sous Vide experiment so I bought what appeared to be some midrange hunks of beef.

I put it all 3 pieces in a zip lock bag.

You're supposed to vacuum bag the stuff, so I zipped up the bag leaving about an inch, inserted a straw, pinched the area around the straw lightly and sucked.

It seemed to get the job done. So I plunked the bag into a crock pot full of the hottest water I could get out of the tap.

The bag floated so I reinserted the straw, did the gentle pinching, sucked and zipped...the bag now would now submerge in the water.

I plugged the temperature controller into the wall, then plugged the crock pot into the controller. I set the controller to 136° as recommended by recipes on the internet. Then I stuck the controller probe into the vent hole on top of the crock pot, making sure it was well into the water.

I set the timer on my phone for 1 1/2 hrs, a little longer than recommended by the recipe because the temp in the crock pot was somewhat below the suggested 136°.

The temperature of the water soon rose to 136°. After an hour and a half, I removed the bag from the crock pot.

The meat had changed to a pastier color and was heavy with juices. I put the meat in a pan for the final operation.

The final operation is to brown the surface. Some like to use a red hot frying pan, but I thought I'd try the blow torch method. This way one can get small 'burnt' areas like on the outside grill.

First one side, then the next - the amount of flavor you want to 'brown in' is easily accomplished.

So, how did it eventually turn out?

I've never had a better plate of meat (in any restaurant or anywhere else) no matter what the cost...it was tender, juicy and oh so flavorful. No more burgers for me!