Plasticless sous vide...?

I will start this off by saying...not for me. I'm not insane.

My step-mom, bless her, is a charming soul, but she has the ever popular notion that anything that involves any heat and any plastic will give you cancer and kill you. What this means is that it limits my options for cooking for her.

I'm wondering though...I was inspired by the creme brulee in the class and the mason jars...practically speaking, one should be able to have the main bath at a certain temp and have your protein or other food in a mason jar or even just a suspended container of poaching liquid (stock, for example) and have that sitting in the bath.

I'm not sure what you would cook that way...I wouldn't do strip steaks in chicken broth, but I presume you could do something like a blade roast in a braising liquid of some sort but fully submerged or even boneless skinless chicken breasts in broth...?

Anyone have any thoughts?

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Brandon_Byrd_40557

Just circulate the food directly in clarified butter or duck fat. Sure, it'll cost a fortune. But you won't have to worry about any plasticizers. Unless you circulate in a Cambro, which is made of plastic. Just don't tell Mom.

Brandon_Byrd_40557

On a more serious note, MC@H has a recipe for tuna confit in mason jars, so it's definitely possible to do proteins in containers that aren't bags. But I don't know what you'd do for something as large as a blade roast.

T__2156

I've seen this done on restaurant scale with olive oil for scallops...

tshewman

Smaller cuts can fit in jars (just take longer to come to temp) and the circulator can be put in a stainless steel vessel. Though I watch the BPA toxins and such there is likely more damage on a daily basis if your step-mom goes near a PC (they give off toxins too). The research actually shows that for he temps we commonly use for SV with the proper bags, no Estrogenic Activity (EA) was found. It actually has to be autoclaved and had the crap beaten out of it before this happens. Cook with the right plastic and the right temperatures and your step mother has nothing to fear. I spent many a month worrying about the same thing. Ironically doing allot of research from my PC. :-)

Brendan_Lee_56950

What kind of circulator do you run? If it's a polyscience you are immersing a plastic housing in the water to begin with anyway.

Brandon_Byrd_40557

The French Laundry circulates lobster directly in beurre monte.

Dave Arnold's Sous Vide primer over at the Cooking Issues blog shows a big hunk of lamb being cooked this way, as well as a 36" long striped bass.

Everyone I've seen use this technique uses the Polyscience classic series circulator with the metal casing. That seems like a good move, since it can be a pain to thoroughly clean other models.

Michael_93748

I have a few Anova PCs and a Dorkfood DSV + slow cooker (which could obviously do poaching liquid, if it won't harm the thermocouple reader, which I don't know why it would)

Michael_93748

Yeah, Anova specifically stated not to use the circulator in anything but water. I guess it's not meant to get gummed up with junk....

tshewman

I've used a mock bain marie (except the metal sits in the water bath) for lobster a few times. Similar to the perfect egg yolk (http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/perfect-yolks) which means you use MUCH less butter (in the case of the beurre monte-but try the EMP recipe :-)...) or oil (the yolks are wonderful with salmon mousse BTW. You can hang a measuring cup over the sides for small pieces of whatever (have done this with one yolk when "playing). So Brandon's recommendation may be the easiest and can be slightly modified to keep costs down (think cooking in beef suet for a steak....OMG!).

Michael_93748

Thanks Todd. Unfortunately, logic, research, and science have nothing to do with anything in this instance and so are valueless in having a conversation about it. I've tried.

I kind of like my idea of making a bain marie of some sort (for instance a pot with higher sides than the bath and filled with liquid up to the level of the water in the bath). It could work...but what would I cook like that? Hmm. She's making it so hard.

Michael_93748

My bain marie (see reply to Todd's post).

Brendan_Lee_56950

What you really do is cook her's ahead of time in the circulator and then while yours is cooking reheat her's in the oven so she doesn't notice what's going on.

tshewman

Lots of confit. :-)

T__2156

and lots of eggs.