Experiments in Sous Vide Part I

For some time now I have had an interest in the technique of cooking sous vide. In sous vide, food is vacuum sealed in a plastic pouch and then cooked in a water bath (I prefer water oven) at the exact temperature at which it is to be served. This allows the food to be cooked slowly and evenly without concern of overcooking and in theory preserving the integrity of the ingredient. This is in contrast to say grilling, boiling, etc where food is cooked at significantly hotter temperatures resulting in a temperature gradient from outside to inside. With sous vide cooking becomes less time sensitive - a steak should be able to be cooked for hours and end up perfectly medium-rare the whole way through.

Sous vide is all the rage and has been for some time (see: Under Pressure - New York Times), but has been slow to trickle down to the home cook because of prohibitive cost. Earlier this week I was salivating over descriptions of Modernist Cuisine by Nathan Myhrvold et al (40 lbs. of cookbook for just under $500, see Modernist Cuisine - review NY times) when I started to get excited about sous vide again.

A quick trip around the internet alerted me to a variety of 'poor man's sous vide setups' (nicely reviewed here Sous Vide Setups - Cooking for Engineers). So I purchased a Polder probe thermometer for $20 and decided to test out the cheapest sous vide possible. Below: First Experiment 63 Degrees Eggs.

Here is the new probe thermometer which seems pretty nice for the price.

And here is the setup which consists of only a pyrex container, a probe thermometer and a pot of
boiling water. Basically I just put the eggs in warm water and added boiling water until I reached a temperature of 63 degrees Celsius.

All I did was add small amounts of boiling water every time the temperature dropped to 62 C. Truthfully, I got nervous after I started that the eggs wouldn't be cooked so I started aiming for 64 C. All in all the bath temp ranged from 62 C to 65 C, spending the majority of the time at 63 or 64 C. My role in this is to act as the thermostat which is where most of the savings comes in.

Covering my vessel in foil seemed to reduce the frequency of having to add hot water.

I cooked the eggs for ~1.5 hours during which time I watched episodes of The Daily Show, Shark Tank and Celebrity Apprentice on Hulu. Cracking the egg was harder than I anticipated... but I found cracking it with the back corner of my knife got it started.

Then I just used my fingers to pry off a piece of shell and the whole thing slid out.

The egg had an unexpected appearance with a custardy/runny white and a perfectly spherical yolk. I was worried that the white would be underdone and disgusting and the yolk over cooked, but I was pleasantly surprised when I gained the courage to eat it. Although the white looked like it might not be done it tasted done and I found the texture quite pleasing. Similarly the yolk had the texture of a perfect ganache and I enjoyed it thoroughly though it might have been better slightly runnier.

Realizing what a stellar ingredient I had in these eggs I quickly set about making breakfast. First I made some grits, which I have never done before.

Then I sauteed some onions along with wild boar sausage (a gift from my good friend Justin who recently shot a 220 pounder).

I layered the grits in the bottom of a bowl and topped them with two 60 something degree eggs, wild boar sausage, adding some Cholula Sauce and finally a little pistachio cream I had made just for some extra experimentation in flavors.

Pistachio Cream

The result was fantastic in both flavor and texture. I found that the texture of the grits went well with the silky smoothness of the egg whites and kept trying to save bits of yolk til the very end of the dish. The Cholula was good, but the pistachio cream may have been a little overboard since I think having too much going on may have detracted from the egg as the star of the dish.

Conclusions:

1) Cheap sous vide setups can work, at least for eggs. However this one was pretty labor intensive and you can't really leave the stove even to go to the bathroom. Even without leaving the stove, there was significant temperature fluctuations from 62-65 C. A more advanced setup would be more precise and might lead to better product with less effort. 

2) Wow - sous vide eggs! The texture really is something special on these eggs and cannot be achieved any other way. I'm starting to be a believer in the ability of this technique to revolutionize textures. See soft boiled egg test - cooking for engineers, for a comparison of what can be accomplished without temperature control.

3) I will have to rethink the best use of my pistachio cream as an ingredient. 

From here I will definitely be further researching ways of cooking sous vide on a regular basis without shelling out $1000 on a scientific grade immersion circulator. Ciao! -S

Recipes:

Grits:

2 cups water

1 1/4 cups milk

1 cup quick grits (not instant)

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 cup butter

Boil water, milk and salt. Stir in grits. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally until smooth (20-30 minutes). Add butter at end to taste. 

Pistachio Cream:
Shelled unsalted pistachios
Heavy whipping cream
Salt or sugar to taste

I tried to peel off all the membranous bits, but good luck... Soaking the pistachios seemed to help, but in the end it didn't seem to matter how clean they were. Put pistachios in cream and let them soak it up for a few minutes. Blend together and add more cream and salt or sugar to desired texture and taste depending on application (savory vs. sweet).

Links:
Under Pressure - New York Times
Sous Vide Setups - Cooking for Engineers
soft boiled egg test - cooking for engineers
Modernist Cuisine
Modernist Cuisine - review NY times
Cholula Sauce