Sous vide slow-cooked egg with Noodlecat ramen noodles, veg dashi broth.
Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.
Yep, the good folks at Sous Vide Supreme are doing a promotional giveaway of one of their superb sous vide appliances—and a vacuum sealer! (Details below.)
About ten years ago, sous vide cooking (cooking food at low precise temperatures) entered the professional kitchen in America. It’s now solidly in the home kitchen with various devices for sale. For the best price/quality ratio, Sous Vide Supreme has, since its arrival in 2009, been my favorite tool. It’s fabulous for home use. I slow-cook beef ribs for 48 hours for tender and juicy ribs. You can transform eggs in ways no other method can. I love putting a soft-boiled egg into soups, as in the above ramen dish. I use it monthly to make a big batch of yogurt. It’s a great water bath for cooking custards, meatloaf, and its supercilious brother, pâté en terrine. See below for three of the key techniques and recipes.
Do you need one to survive? Of course not. Can you do endlessly creative and awesome dishes with it? You bet. Want to win one? Enter a comment below, telling me the way you’re most eager to use it. (Winner will be chosen randomly, one entry please on pain of disqualification, and the company can ship only to U.S. or Canadian addresses—sorry, UK and Aussie readers!) I really am eager to hear why people want to own a sous vide machine—slow cooking of tough meat, hitting the perfect temperature every time, egg cooking? Other?
Hell, I’ll throw in a signed copy of my book Ruhlman’s Twenty: 20 Techniques, 100 Recipes, A Cook’s Manifesto to sweeten the pot!
Looking for sous vide recipes? Check out the Sous Vide Supreme Holiday Cooking Guide, Modernist Cuisine, Modernist Cuisine at Home, and Under Pressure.
(HINT: the best way to seal the food for cooking is some kind of vacuum sealer; but you can also use Ziploc vacuum seal bags from the grocery store.)
Follow Sous Vide Supreme on Twitter @sousvidesupreme or on Facebook.
You can also sign up for the Sous Vide Supreme newsletter.
WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED NEXT WEDS; COMMENTS WILL CLOSE MONDAY AT 9AM.
The giveaway includes a both a Sous Vide Supreme and a vacuum sealer.
BBQ Sous Vide Beef Short Ribs
Beef short rib, cooked sous vide for 48 hours at 140°F/60°C, finished on the grill.
Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.
I made these last January for the sailing crew in Key West. Short ribs cooked sous vide are amazingly juicy and tender and tasty, a quintessential example of the value of sous vide. You’d have to braise these to get them tender, in which case you’d need to rely on the sauce for succulence rather than the meat.
This recipe also defines a great general rule: all tough cuts of meat, braising meats, from brisket to pork belly to short ribs to lamb shank, can be cooked sous vide in the exact same way: 48 hours at 140˚F/60˚C. Then flavor the outside by searing, grilling, saucing, or a combination. They can be cooked sous vide and chilled in an ice bath and refrigerated for days or frozen for months before finishing.
It’s an amazing technique for cooking ahead, whether for weekday cooking or for cooking for big groups. And it results in tenderness and flavor that can’t be achieved any other way.
I’m going to make this as simple as possible. Salt and pepper the meat, seal it in a bag (get out all air so they don’t float), cook, chill, finish.
- 8 meaty beef short ribs (or however many you’re serving)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Barbecue sauce of your choice
- Give the ribs a generous seasoning of salt and pepper
- Seal them well in plastic, using a food saver or Ziploc vacuum seal bags (you can also put them in a regular ziptop bag and submerge it in water to get the air out and seal; use common sense).
- Sous vide the ribs at 140˚F/60˚C for 48 hours, give or take.
- If you are not going to finish them right away, submerge them in an ice bath until thoroughly chilled, at least 20 minutes or more.
- To finish, remove them from the bag and allow them to come to room temperature (if serving a large crowd, leave in bag and re-sous vide at 120˚F/48˚C for 30 minutes). Slather them with barbecue sauce and grill till charred and smoky and beautiful, a couple minutes on each side. You can also broil them to caramelize the BBQ sauce if you don’t have a grill.
- Use one rib per serving.
Homemade Yogurt
I always have this on hand and eat some most every day. The bacteria are good for the gut and if you have a stomach bug, eat this and it may help (it always does for me). This will be loose yogurt; when you dip into the thick, creamy stuff it will be soft but hold its shape. It will weep whey, which is also tasty and good (I pour it on granola with the yogurt). For stiff-thick yogurt, Greek style, strain it through cloth for an hour, then refrigerate.
- 1 quart/liter whole milk
- 2 tablespoons Fage Greek yogurt or any yogurt that notes on the label that it contains a living culture (or if you have a wonderful Indian neighbor with a live culture as I do, ask for a little of hers—thanks, Tripta!)
- Pour the milk in a pot and bring it to a simmer (at least 180°F); careful, it’s easy to forget and leave yourself with a mess on the stove it if boils over; stick around. (Donna gets really mad at me when I leave the kitchen and she hears it boil over.)
- Pour it into a 4-cup glass measuring cup or appropriate bowl. Allow it to cool to at least 120˚F/48˚C or room temperature.
- Stir in the yogurt with the live culture, thoroughly.
- Cover with plastic wrap and sous vide at 104˚F/40˚C for 24 hours. (Some people suggest going as high as 120˚F; feel free to test for yourself.)
- Allow to cool then refrigerate.
Soft-Boiled Sous Vide Eggs
- 1 egg per person
- Sous vide at 144.5˚F/62.5˚C for 45 to 60 minutes.
- Crack each into soup or stew, or on grits or beans.
For professional kitchens, who need to sous vide a lot of food in a big Lexan tubs, the BMW of immersion circulators is made by PolyScience.
The shopping links for the week:
- OpenSky Favorites
- Big-Ticket Items
- Small-Ticket Items
- Cookbook picks of 2012
- My Books
- Dalton-Ruhlman Products
© 2012 Michael Ruhlman. Photo © 2012 Donna Turner Ruhlman. All rights reserved.
I have been curious about this technique after seeing it on various food shows on TV. I like that it goes against our every day mentality of wanting food very quickly. I primarily want to slowly cook meats to the perfect temperature and would love to try it with eggs as well. I would love to own one but never seem to have the extra cash.
I’d love to make soft boiled eggs for the Momofuku Ramen recipe.
I’d love the Sous Vide system to prove to my in-laws that I’m not crazy for wanting to cook our camping steaks in a hot-water filled insulated cooler followed by a sear on the open grill!
Short ribs for sure.
eggs, definitely!
A long list of things to sous vide – starting with pork tenderloin, short ribs, eggs – probably anything I could get in the vacuum bag. Plus, my daughter is currently in culinary school. That would be a great surprise for Christmas break!
2 reasons:
1. I want to do a big steak the way I saw Heston Blumenthal do one on YouTube. Pre-sear, sous vide for 24 hours at 120 F and then sear again.
2. perfectly cooked veg. No one seems to talk about this but sous vide is a great way to get perfectly cooked veg while you are focused on other things.
I would say short ribs, though my wife (who eats no mammals) would heartily disagree. I guess eggs are good too. Only one way to find out!
Would love to try making my own yogurt, plus some of the leaner beef cuts.
Eggs, Michael. Eggs. It’s all about the eggs.
The best egg I’ve even had in my entire life was done sous vide. I’ve been chasing that experience ever since. No other technique has come close. I’m beginning to think that egg was just a dream!
I would have said “slow cooked meats”, but now I’m really curious about the eggs.
I guess the question really is what I wouldn’t use it for. If I had one, I’d experiment like crazy, and probably have a whole new feature on my blog … and I’m curious if the yogurt would be any better than my current method … and eggs!!!
That short rib is where I would start
I would use it in all sorts of ways, but look forward to using it on tougher cuts of meat.
My husband has been attempting to rig his own sous vide setup for a while. I’d love to see what it could do to veggies. And pork belly. Mostly pork belly.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiibs!!!
Steak, eggs, steak and then some fish. I’ve got a hand-built PID based temp controller that I hook up to a slow cooker to do lower temp stuff now, but I would LOVE to have something that could reliably go over 140º – 145º. It really struggles at the top end, so I’m yet to get a proper egg out of it.
Since I already have an immersion circulator, I would use the SVS bath for washing dishes at the perfect temperature. Michael, you should sweeten the deal by giving a chamber vacuum sealer – one of the most useful kitchen gadgets there is.
I want this to try cooking the sous vide turkey that I saw Grant Achatz do on video a Thanksgiving or two ago…
Short ribs! But those eggs…
From sous vide egg yolk croquettes to sous vide duck confit – I would rock the hell out of that Sous Vide Supreme!
I’ve got my fingers crossed!
-Monica (@lobese)
I would start with ribs and tenderizing less expensive cuts of meat but would love to experiment like mad.
72-hour short ribs!
Sous vide Turkey, duck, salmon, pork, steak, you name it… I WANNA make it!
I think I might just make those short ribs…. looks rad.
The tough meat cuts are great using this method, but the ability to perfectly cook vegetables at 185 degrees with out exposing them to outside ingredients like boiling water that can leach away the flavors is a huge bonus. I have a rigged setup that I use and this year’s turkey was broken down and the dark meat was confit’d in duck fat while the breast was cooked to a medium and held to pasteurize (also in duck fat). Cranberries were cooked at 80 degrees C and maintained their integrity and tartness because they never reached a boiling point to cause them to explode. Best Thanksgiving yet. It takes planing, but it can result in wonderful and perfectly prepared foods. I’d love a “real” set up.
It sounds like eggs are the way to go. That said, I see this being used on tough cuts of beef around my house…
All the game I bag on my various outdoor expeditions
I’d love to be able to take the same, exacting approach that I take to temperature in cooking food that I can with portioning out ingredients using a kitchen scale.
This is exactly what my hens’ eggs have been asking for. We use them for everything already, but this is some next-level stuff.
A porterhouse (searing it afterward)!
What wouldn’t I use that thing for? But among other things, I’m getting into making my own bitters and I hear sous vide is great for that.
I’d do the short ribs, following the 48 hour short rib recipe in Momofuku.
Nothing like a skirt steak Sous Vide and then onto a hot fire for a minute.
Eggs sound like a good place to start. I’ve got some Berkshire pork belly that would like to take the happy bath.
Would bathe on perfectly cooked soft boiled eggs!
I’m most excited by eggs. I think it would be amazing to see how the structure changes at different temperature markers. Damn I love science.
Definitely short ribs. They are one of my favorite things on this earth.
I’m hoping to do my st. Pat’s corned beef for about 18 hours at super low temp…
Dulce de leche, short ribs (I always burn them), pork belly ( which I’m dying to try), vegetables from my garden (cook and freeze), perfect poached eggs (soft boiled, hard boiled, etc – it’s all or nothing with me right now). I am exuberant, creative and adventerous but move too fast and sous vide would be like kitchen yoga for me.
I’m most eager to use one to start cooking for the weekend on a Thursday. I really want to play with it! I want to take cheaper cuts of meat and turn them into gourmet wonders. Better yet, I want it to be as simple as I perceive.
I can’t think of what I wouldn’t want to try in it but my first meal would be a perfect medium rare ribeye
The reason I *most* want one? Meat, in all its forms. But I like to experiment, and the experimentation factor is pretty high here…
I think I would make my son do his science fair project on different temperatures of sous vide eggs.
I’d love to try doing a London Broil to get a consistent temp over the entire cut of meat and then use it for some delicious sandwiches with crusty bread and some creamy cheese.
I really want to sous vide a filet, but I would definitely be wearing out the Thomas Keller sous vide cookbook.
I can think of ALL sorts of ways to incorporate the SousVide into my weekly cooking routine… But mostly, I can’t wait to get a thick, juicy porkchop out of the water bath and onto my plate.
I would be interested in doing confit with it to comparre to the regular method.
I’ve been experimenting with goat lately, and I’d love to sous vide some goat. Could be interesting.
Eggs for sure, and I’d love to see how fish cooks with this. What a fantastic giveaway, my hubby would love to win this!
I want sous vide because I adore cooking and am always exploring new techniques and this also will enable me to cook delicious food slowly while I get on with my artwork. Its absolutely awesome!
I’d like to experiment with pork chops and duck for sure!
I would do all the things I can’t pull off with my cooler solution. So basically anything that takes more than an hour.
Steaks with no grey ring.
I love everything about the concept–but I have to admit the idea of perfect temperature control is the most appealing to me.
Steak, baby. I have repeatedly found I can cook a better-tasting steak at home, but I can’t hit a perfect mid-rare the way the pros do. But after reading some of the comments, I’m really curious to mess with some eggs, too.
Short ribs, Steaks and anything that allows me to just hang out in the kitchen for a long period of time.
I would like to experiment with all kinds of foods at either end of the textural spectrum – things that are delicate or lean that cannot be overcooked without ruining them, and things that are tough that cannot be undercooked.
Two things I would love to make.
-Beef Short Ribs
-Hollandaise (from MC at Home)
I would try it all!
Fish and eggs.
I am super eager to win so we can enjoy hiking and snowsports all day, but come home to perfectly cooked proteins!
I would like to start with lamb shanks. Mmmmm, lamb shanks.
Something normally braised to death: oxtails or shortribs!
slow cooked meat, all of the meat.
Comfort food – My first use would be to take steak and eggs to a whole new level. I know it may be pedestrian, but the two recipes I most want to perfect first in sous vide is a perfectly rare ribeye and a poached egg.
Definitely some pork belly, with maybe a nice miso glaze and a quick sear to finish.
Simple ingredient elevation. Not for any one item but to have a safe, not poorly rigged, home constructed way to apply the technique to my everyday cooking. A reliable way to cook just about everything in a healthy and flavor amplifying way.
I’m going to say ribs. The eggs sound good too though!
I’ve never thought of Sous Vide as make-ahead cooking, but with two kids, it sounds perfect!
Definitely for braising, but also for the perfect egg every time.
Don’t have any experience with it but would love to try it out and see the posibilities. Shanks and beef obviously come to mind but I had never thought about eggs before.
I just heard about these in Four Hour Chef and would love to have one. We want to give those ribs a try!
This will sound lame, but I’d use it in a way to cook ahead. Sous vide steaks, keep them vaccuumed in the freezer, then bring them back up to room temp, and sear them off for dinner.
After eating at Roe here in Portland, I am excited to try sou vide salmon. As part of their prix fixe, there was one (of eight) courses which included a morsel of sous vide salmon which was ridiculously good.
The best bacon wrapped pork tenderloin I’ve eaten in my life was cooked Sous Vide so that was going to be my answer until I saw the 48-hour beef short rib. Now I’m wiping drool off my keyboard.
If I could have a SousVide Supreme (which I would love, haha!) I would cook a whole turkey (cut up, of course) sous vide with some garlic, herbs, and lots of butter. Then deep fry the turkey parts until nice and brown and crispy! OMG, delicious!! Or some chicken breasts with lemon, garlic, and thyme. Wow!
We had some steaks sous vide to a medium rare then finished off in a hot cast iron pan. It was pink edge to edge. I would love to be able to recreate that!!
Two words: Pork. Belly. That perfectly gelatinous fat mixed with the ultra tender lean meat might be the best thing I’ve ever eaten and I need to be able to do that at home!
Those ribs look delicious. That’s proably the first thing I’d try to cook with a sous vide supreme.
Short ribs definitely short ribs. Been hearing about them for years.
I’m a few years behind the fads, but read Herve This’ molecular gastronomy recently and would love to try making a 65C egg.
Allways wanted to try it out, but the price!!!…..
A perfect egg!
It’s 8 months away, but my dream sous vide would involve Copper River Salmon!
My husband has been wanting to build his own since my chef-brother made his (and is a pro at it!), but he’s in PA school and hasn’t had time (sob…). This would be a great surprise. He would have a fancy apparatus to show up the bro-in-law, and I would get outrageously good meat!
All things pork!
God I would love to have one. Seeing your Ramen dish, I would love to try this on Japanese sukiyaki with short ribs. I wonder if you can sous vide cellophane noodles.
I would sous vide everything, but would love it so I can try duck confit without all the needed duck fat. Would also love to try lobster tail,poached pears,infused spirits, My list goes on and on!
Replace my DIY rig (crock pot and temp controller) with the real deal!
This would be perfect for duck confit without the need for a quart of duck fat.
Butter poached lobster!
Steak, steak, steak. I would cook steak.
And beets. Mmmm. Sous vide beets.
I’d be interested in trying duck confit in the sous vide.
Real corned beef!
eggs, yogurt, I wonder what beets would be like cooked that way?
I can’t say anything anyone hasn’t already said above. I am interested in experimenting with the technique and trying out a number of recipes from the Ideas in Food Book. But most importantly, winning a Sous Vide Supreme wouldn’t upset our household moratorium on new kitchen items.
I really want to try making a 63 degree egg.
I would love a sous vide supreme so I could cook my duck pastrami (duck breast with a modified version of the pastrami recipe from your book) at the perfect temperature for hours.