Sous Vide in the AS

[billrector]

So, what kind of power is required to sous vide? I assume you need to run the generator rather than an inverter? Since cook times are long, isn't this a serious constraint?

[rmkrum]

110 volt 60 Hz AC power. 800-1000 Watts or more. For hours at a time. Implies being on shore power to use it.

That said, it’s easy to cook some really good food with one! Brisket, in the SV for 21 hours, finished over charcoal and wood smoke. Tender, flavorful and really perfectly cooked....our team took second in the contest at work. We suspect it was ‘fixed’ because when they got ready to announce winner, the entire audience that had tasted our offering pointed to our team...

[joshjack]

Originally Posted by billrector

So, what kind of power is required to sous vide? I assume you need to run the generator rather than an inverter? Since cook times are long, isn't this a serious constraint?

What you have to understand about sous vide cooking is that it’s really not an impulse cooking style. The best (in my opinion) sous vide cooks take 24-48hrs, so there’s some planning involved.

But, once the cook is finished the food is in a sealed bag and will keep in the fridge or cooler very well. So the brisket for example, you could do the 48hr cook while you had shore power, or even at home. And then a few days later you can pull it out of the bag and finish on the grill.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

Well.... there's always an exception ...

I'm certainly *not* going to suggest that a chunk of beef or pork run for a day or two is a bad idea. I also happen to like doing that in a BGE. Cooking fish for a fairly short amount of time (salmon is a good choice) works very well. Finish it off in a *very* hot cast iron skillet for seconds on a side.

In the case of the big chunk of meat, you need to get it to the "right" temperature and hold it there while various bits liquify. That takes a while. In the case of salmon, you want to get it all (barely) to the right temperature. If you have friends who like RARE steak, the same principle works. You at least get it all to some temperature they will accept.

Even with the sorter cook cycles, you are heating up a bunch of water. That's not going to make batteries happy. It is something you could do on generator power.

If you are trying to do this on a battery, boil up some water on the stove. Slowly add that to your cooking pot until the thermometer on the SV gizmo reads close to the right temperature. Just let the gizmo maintain the temperature. With an insulated pot, you may not use a lot of power. The silly inverter idle current will still be an issue.

Lots of options.

Bob

[WaLee]

Originally Posted by urnmor

I am also thinking of buying a SV and have just finished reading the thread. It provided some interesting insight on whether or not to take it on the AS. I have also read the section on SV cooking in the book "the Food Lab" and how to use a cooler in lieu of a SV machine but I don't think that is for me. So now I got to decide if I would use it before i purchase one. I don't want it to go the say of the Instant Pot which is now in a closet collecting dust because it did not fit my style of hands on cooking.

Our son gave us an Anovo unit a couple years ago. He uses his more than we do. It’s terrific for meats that do best low and slow. Pork chops are amazing cooked thus way. I can see using it at home to pre-cook some items to take vacccum sealed on the road or maybe fir use at a rally with full hookups to cook a nice potluck dish. Otherwise when we are camping we keep it real simple.

At home though you can make some anazingly good food.

We decided against an electric pressure cooker and have an AllClad pressure cooker thats excellent and works on the propane cooktop.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

Regardless of doing it by SV or not, a vacuum bag sealer is a nice thing to have. Splitting things up into meal sized portions, adding your "usual spices" and sealing it up at home takes out a lot of fiddling on the road. Label them and freeze them. Toss it in the trailer freezer and it's a quick way to answer "what's for dinner?". Locally they sell these giant chunks of salmon for pretty good prices. The vacuum bag approach is about the only practical way to manage 5 lb of fish for the two of us ....

Bob