Quicksand Fans

One of the most important tools for making good Chicken, Pork, Beef, Emu, whatever is an accurate temperature probe. The first time I made meatloaf with a temp gauge I realized I'd been eating badly overcooked meatloaf my entire life (sorry Mom not sorry).

Mynock wrote:One of the most important tools for making good Chicken, Pork, Beef, Emu, whatever is an accurate temperature probe. The first time I made meatloaf with a temp gauge I realized I'd been eating badly overcooked meatloaf my entire life (sorry Mom not sorry).

Very true. However, it is possible to achieve the needed temperature, exactly, using a water bath. For example, the temperature for a medium rare steak is 130 to 131. Using the water bath all you need to do is submerge the steak in water of that temperature long enough that it is heated all the way through (it reaches equilibrium). That means at least two hours for a steak of typical thickness. However, if you leave it in for 4 hours instead of 2 it makes no difference in the degree of doneness. Most kinds of meat will become more tender, to a point. When I do a slab of St Louis ribs I used to keep it in the water bath for three hours. It was done but not quite falling off the bone. Now I leave it in about 18 hours and it IS falling off the bone.

For what its worth, a steak of this kind IS available to guests at my Studio, but at a considerably higher price.

My parents got one of those Sous Vide things years back as a gift, but I don't think they ever used it. Maybe next time I'm over there, I'll bring some steaks and say, "hey, why don't we try that Sous Vide thing on these?" But there's a 50/50 chance my Mom will say, "oh, that? I regifted it"

Although it's a lot of work (and much more expensive), I've done some really good steaks on a BGE with a grill grate. But lately, I've been pleasantly surprised by how well an air fryer does with steaks. I was skeptical at first, but after enjoying a dozen or so excellent steaks, I'm quite pleased. Prep work and clean up is faster, and another added benefit I've discovered about air fryers: they're relatively portable, and it works easily with a generator when the powers out.

Theo wrote:My parents got one of those Sous Vide things years back as a gift, but I don't think they ever used it. Maybe next time I'm over there, I'll bring some steaks and say, "hey, why don't we try that Sous Vide thing on these?" But there's a 50/50 chance my Mom will say, "oh, that? I regifted it"

Although it's a lot of work (and much more expensive), I've done some really good steaks on a BGE with a grill grate. But lately, I've been pleasantly surprised by how well an air fryer does with steaks. I was skeptical at first, but after enjoying a dozen or so excellent steaks, I'm quite pleased. Prep work and clean up is faster, and another added benefit I've discovered about air fryers: they're relatively portable, and it works easily with a generator when the powers out.

The thing about the water bath approach is it heats the meat uniformly. No part will ever get hotter than the water itself, so overcooking becomes impossible. I have an air fryer but it is part of a microwave, convective oven. I have never used it because it did not come with instructions and I have not been able to figure it out.

Fred588 wrote:I have an air fryer but it is part of a microwave, convective oven. I have never used it because it did not come with instructions and I have not been able to figure it out.

Have you tried Googling the make and model, for an instruction manual?

Fred588 wrote:The thing about the water bath approach is it heats the meat uniformly. No part will ever get hotter than the water itself, so overcooking becomes impossible. I have an air fryer but it is part of a microwave, convective oven. I have never used it because it did not come with instructions and I have not been able to figure it out.

Yeah it's an intriguing cooking technique for sure. One of these days I'll try the Sous Vide one way or the other.

I've often found that most things that do many things "all-in-one," rarely ever do any one of those things very well. My air fryer is just an air fryer, and it's pretty simple to operate (it'd have to be for me to work it ), just set the temperature and cooking time.