The First 5 Things You Should Do With Your New Immersion Circulator

Posted on December 10, 2020 by resourcefulman

If you recently purchased or are considering purchasing an immersion circulation pump, the decision of what to cook with a new toy first can be overwhelming. Luckily,we do a fair amount of video footage around these parts and are pretty good at understanding what will and won’t happen.

If you’re new to the cooking method, I suggest checking out our tutorial on the topic , which explains how it all works, as well as the pros and cons of this increasingly popular culinary hot tub. Once you understand what sous vide cooking is, you are ready to cook and we have many delicious suggestions.

Meat that dries or overcooks easily

Sous vide cooking allows precise control of the final temperature of the food, so that overcooked food practically disappears. Unlike oven or grill cooking, which heats food well above the set temperature, leaving the steak in the sous-vide tub for another 10 minutes or so will not transition from medium to well done. Plus, it’s an extremely humid cooking environment as nothing evaporates from the vacuum bag, which means dry, dull pork chops are a thing of the past.

Best of all, it’s very simple. Just select the temperature you want, seal the meat in a bag and place it in the tub. Set the timer and when the meat is cooked to the desired degree of doneness, remove it, pat it dry with paper towels and let it cook. ChefSteps has an extensive time and temperature chart that includes just about any protein you can imagine, but these are some of my favorites.

Steak: Season with ribeye salt and then sous vide at 130 ℉ for an hour. Fry in a hot skillet to get a crust. (I like duck fat, but butter will brown faster.)
Duck breasts : Season the duck breasts with salt, seal them in bags and place them in the bath for two hours at 130. Carefully peel the skin off the breast, then fry it on both sides using a metal spatula to keep it as flat as possible. Cut the breast into slices and place the crisp on top.
Pork chops : I ate them last night and I definitely love them. One hour at 140 ℉, followed by a quick frying in oil, will result in the juiciest pork in your life.
Turkey and Chicken Breast : I like 140 ℉ for an hour and a half for a chicken, 149 ℉ for 3 hours for a turkey. (Season the meat well and add some extra fats and flavors for the most flavorful white meat bird you’ve ever seen.)
Seafood: Anova has many great recipes for all sous vide marine life, but you’ll probably want to start with lobster or tuna .

As you can see, there are a lot of options.

Meat with lots of connective tissue

Anything high in collagen benefits from slow and slow cooking in very humid environments, and your immersion circulator is the perfect tool for that. Just be sure to use special sous vide bags or vacuum bags – Ziploc bags can fall apart at temperatures above 150 ℉ – and cover the tub with a lid, a little plastic wrap, or packing bubbles to prevent evaporation. Some of my juicy favorites from this category:

Chicken legs : Get a harsh pedicure (trim your nails) and then toss them in a bag of your favorite marinade. Let everyone lie for 24 hours at 180 ℉, then take them out, dry and deep-fry.
Oxtail : fry it, add seasoning, then let it hang in a 185-degree bath for 24 hours to get the juiciest, most appetizing meat.
Beef tongue : You can season it before submerging it in the bath, but it doesn’t really need to be. I prepared a whole tongue with great success in its original sealed packaging . All he really needs is 170 for 24 hours. Remove the foil, chop the meat, season the tacos.

Of course, other more traditional meats will also benefit from extended stays in our culinary hot tub. For the toughest cuts of beef, 24 hours at 149 ℉ is fine, and six hours at 140 ℉ will give you perfectly cooked medium-rare meat with little or no trouble.

Eggs

With the exception of fried eggs , you can use a submersible circulation pump to cook almost any type of egg . Not all apps are completely worth dragging and dropping a water bath, but these are:

Omelet : This is not your regular scrambled eggs. Not only are they much, much less cottage cheese than a scrambled skillet, but they are creamier – almost like custard – and are best served in a bowl. You can also cook a whole bunch at once. When placed in a bath at a temperature of 167 degrees, a batch of three eggs takes 15 minutes, a batch of six eggs – 30, a dozen eggs – 40, and two dozen – 50 minutes.
Pasteurized : Looking to make perfectly safe raw cookie dough ? Or maybe you have young children who tend to experiment with raw eggs ? Either way, you probably want to pasteurize them (no cooking) – and it’s very easy to do. Simply place the eggs (no plastic bag required) in a 135-degree bath for 75 minutes, take them out and use as you wish.
Poached: Last Easter I cooked the perfect eggs Benedict for a crowd of 15 – a feat that would have been impossible without my Anova. This recipe from ChefSteps might tell you how to cook a whole meal, but all you have to do with the eggs is set the circulator to 147 ℉ and then let them sit in the tub for about an hour.

Trust me, this cooking method is really all you need.

Some vegetables

Okay, to be honest, I only cook two sous vide but they are really very good.

Carrots: I was skeptical at first, but Kenji from Serious Eats convinced me to try this carrot-carrot (cooked at 183 ° F for an hour) and I must admit I was amazed.
Asparagus: Cooking these yummy copies at 185 ° F for 12 minutes results in perfectly tender crunchy asparagus every time.

Okay, cool, now let’s talk about desserts.

Custard desserts

Anything good in a water bath will work well for sous vide, because they are basically the same thing (and this thing is a water bath). This means that any custard-based treat will work here, and some are especially good.

Pumpkin Pie : Set the circulating pump to 176 ° F and divide the hot pie filling into small jars. Put them in the bathtub and cook for an hour and a half. Remove them from the bath, removing the lids to prevent condensation from forming during cooling, and then transfer them to the refrigerator to cool for at least four hours. Top with whipped cream before serving.
Cheesecake : I honestly refuse to prepare cheesecake any other way. These rich wonder pots are made in the same way as pumpkin pies, only two hours instead of one and a half, and they are amazing . The sous-vide cheesecake is not only the silkiest and creamiest cheesecake you will ever put in your mouth, but it also comes in small one-serving jars, which is a lot of fun.
Creme Brulee: I thought about coming up with my own method for this, but it doesn’t make sense. The guys at ChefSteps have perfected the sous-vide crème brulee and you should just make them.

Hope this all keeps you busy (and satiety). If not, you can always check out Hot Pocket . In all fairness, this will be the best Hot Pocket you have ever owned. This article was originally published in 2017 and was updated on December 10, 2020 to bring content in line with the current Lifehacker style.

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