I have access to a M3 Lauda water bath which would be pretty fantastic for sous-vide cooking. i dont have a vacuum sealer, but would consider buying one if anyone here has had experience with the technique and believes it has benefits over conventional stovetop cooking for certain recipes; basically, is it worth it for me to drag this thing home, clean it, get a sealer, and cook with it (and experience the juiciest meats and veg, so they say), or should i just forget the idea?

its a little bit out of the blue, but hopefully someone knows.

I've never used one, but I can see them taking a lot of trial and error to achieve perfection.

I've always wanted one to experiment with, but they're just so expensive. I would go for it if I were you.

It's always fun to experiment

You'll never know unless you try, just do some basic research

Those who aren't prepared to be wrong, will never be creative

ive never used an M3 Lauda water bath, so i dont know how that would work out for it, but i have done sous vide a few times now. if you do something like a corned beef (done that twice) it usually comes already vacuum packed so you dont have to worry about doing that. ive also done briskets, one at work, one at home. the one at work was a full one which came sealed, although it leaked a bit. the one at home i stuck inside 2 ziploc bags, getting as much air out as possible. there was still a bit, but i just used some pot covers to weight it down. (i first tried using the start of a chainmaille coif im working on which was supposed to be stainless steel, but some of the rings started oxidizing anyway. i also forgot that there were some brass rings here and there and those started majorly oxidizing. oops. switched it out for the pot covers.)

for the water bath, i used the largest pot i had available, as the larger the pot, the lower the temp will be, and put it on the stove on the lowest flame possible without it going out. this kept it at about 140-150. not ideal for sous vide, but its still below a well-done 160. you just need something to keep it off the bottom of the pot, which gets much hotter. either a small pot or silicon trivet. youll also need to refill the water periodically. the brisket i made at work i wasnt able to leave long enough for it to really get soft (couldnt leave it overnight, but i started it about 430 am and had someone take it out when they closed about 12 hours later.) but i could definitely see the potential. the ones i did at home i left for 36-48 hours and those were great, especially the corned beef, where it wasnt as noticeable that it was more well-done. all were nice and soft and juicy though.

theres some videos on youtube about doing this, search 'stove-top sous vide'. (not mine.)

if you look around, you can also find blueprints for a controller you build yourself (for about $75) that you can use to control a crock pot or rice cooker to maintain a constant temp.

Lauda water bath is an immersion circulator? I worked with that before and will do magnificant job at cooking meat.. yes a sous vide machine is quite expensive but if u want have some fun go for it.... just cook ur meat for a while sous vide at low temp and then sear it real quick witu butter and oil... perfect for filet mignon and other pieces like that...

This post was edited by hofx2 on Apr 8 2013 07:33pm

yeah, the M3 Lauda is a research grade water bath and immersion circulator and this one is lab equipment, so i'll have to really scrub it clean before i try anything, although for the most part i think this one was for nonhazardous materials only. goes up to 120C according to the dials. i'll also have to read the user manual lols.

i just might buy a pre-sealed piece of meat or fish then and give it a try. i need to research the temp for them first.

thanks, i'll update if/when i get the results.

(i enjoy a good experiment, but unfortunately i have no test subjects other than my own GI and i might be putting myself at risk here lol)

edit: so the idea for sous vide is that cooking meat at low temp, for a long time, breaks down all that tough protein while keeping the juices inside to "baste" at all times, right? after its cooked, you then sear to create the malliard reaction for extra lovely taste.

This post was edited by winterschapel on Apr 9 2013 07:38am

yes, thats the idea of sous vide. normally to break down all the connective tissue in tougher cuts you have to really over-cook them. this lets you keep it less well-done. also, it cooks it the same doneness all the way through, whereas with conventional cooking, by the time a steak is done medium in the middle, the outside is well done.

for a sec i was gonna say that 120 is too low for sous vide, but then i realized it was C. as an extra precaution against contamination you could put it in an extra ziploc bag so its sealed twice.

okay, i finally got around to testing the system and here are the results:

materials and methods:
4 bone-in pork chops brined for 1 hour in a 7% salt solution
transferred to vacuum bag and sealed until tight
M3 Lauda with mt immersion cycler with temp set to 59 C
immersed for 2 hours

all pork was finished in a hot pan with olive oil for a couple seconds each side.

results:
pork with no marinade - came out fine, but no real difference from a well cooked pork chop done in a pan in terms of taste, other than maybe the softness of the meat.
pork with marinade - really good once i adjusted for the right amount of seasonings and spices; used some pepper, soy sauce, sugar, ginger, and coffee.


perhaps next time i'll lower the temp even more (i believe 55 C is the lowest recommended) and try different marinades.
you can pre-seal 3-4 bags and leave them in the fridge/freezer and then pop them in when you get home and prep some rice or something in the meantime or do whatever, clean up is easy too.

for the no marinade one, the softness of the meat is one of the main benefits. isnt pork already somewhat tender, though? i dont know why, as i dont eat it, but i have that impression for some reason. if so, youll notice a larger difference if you cook some beef in it. especially if you do a tougher cut of meat for a longer time.

i just picked up a few corned beefs (on sale) which i plan to cook sous vide. gonna do one next week.

pork might be a bit more tender than beef i think, but it also goes by cut. in my experiment, both porks from sous vide are significantly more tender (soft) than their pan cooked counterparts. both were also more consistently cooked. we have a shear press in a lab so maybe next time i can quantify it for you

the main reason i went with pork is because i would recognise the pork flavour easier (one of the advantages is never losing the juices of the meat, i think), and that cooking something like a fillet of beef or ribeye seems redundant. same reasoning for tougher cuts of meat, which i usually braise.

upon your suggestion i might try a skirt/flank steak, no marinade, and see if i can turn it into a fillet