Thanksgiving en sous vide by Grant Achatz of Alinea

Hi all,

There's some highly entertaining and informative video posted at YouTube in which chef Grant Achatz and partner Nick Kokonas of Alinea prepare both Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing en sous vide in a home kitchen. It looks great -- especially the fob dark meat turkey -- which chef Achatz sears off before plating.

The video is in 2 parts. Here are the links:

Part 1

Part 2

I love that they just used ziploc bags and dispelled the notion that a foodsaver (or similar machine) is necessary. I wish I could prepare my Thanksgiving meal like this but I've got too many turkeys (not even counting my guests) and won't have any way to sear it all off in one fell swoop. But, if I ever host a Thanksgiving for 12 or fewer people, I'll definitely give it a shot.

=R=

Wow! Or would that be golly? Gee! What an amazing home video. Makes ya wanna run right out and buy a turkey and do it just like that. Thanks, Ron. I wouldn't have found this otherwise and it's fascinating--both for the technique/recipe and the video of Grant "relaxing"...

Has anyone tried this? I wonder without the temperature controllers and so for the sous vide bath, how they maintain precise control, or if they even worry about that. I'm definitely going to give this a shot.

You could have cooked a shoe in all that butter and it would have tasted good....
What got me was how much salt GA put into the stuffing! I'm not salt-phobic
but I was floored to see him use so much!

Thanks for the links!

mhill95149 wrote:You could have cooked a shoe in all that butter and it would have tasted good....
What got me was how much salt GA put into the stuffing! I'm not salt-phobic
but I was floored to see him use so much!

Thanks for the links!

From watching a lot of Gordon Ramsay, Top Chef, and other cooking shows I’ve noticed that they put a great deal of emphasis on seasoning and use quite a lot of salt. I think I’ve even heard Ramsay say that his food isn’t meant to be healthy but to taste great.

MikeW665 wrote:

mhill95149 wrote:You could have cooked a shoe in all that butter and it would have tasted good....
What got me was how much salt GA put into the stuffing! I'm not salt-phobic
but I was floored to see him use so much!

Thanks for the links!

From watching a lot of Gordon Ramsay, Top Chef, and other cooking shows I’ve noticed that they put a great deal of emphasis on seasoning and use quite a lot of salt. I think I’ve even heard Ramsay say that his food isn’t meant to be healthy but to taste great.

I remember watching the Jamie Oliver series where he takes over food operations for a school district (not sure if this was shown in the States). He wanted the students to eat healthier foods. Ironically, the school district staff who were responsible for overseeing the nutritional content of the food, said they could not serve his meals because they were oversalted.

Jyoti

I wish I could prepare my Thanksgiving meal like this but I've got too many turkeys (not even counting my guests) and won't have any way to sear it all off in one fell swoop.

Just do the turkeys in garbage bags in the hot tub.

Wheattoast wrote:Has anyone tried this? I wonder without the temperature controllers and so for the sous vide bath, how they maintain precise control, or if they even worry about that. I'm definitely going to give this a shot.

I know that when chef Achatz and Nick previously did sous vide cooking in a home kitchen (before Alinea opened), they used a consumer-level temperature probe -- which they hung over the edge of the pot, into the water -- to monitor the water temperature. They had to tweak the burner a bit to achieve the proper temperature but eventually, they were able to do so.

Mike G wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:I wish I could prepare my Thanksgiving meal like this but I've got too many turkeys (not even counting my guests) and won't have any way to sear it all off in one fell swoop.

Just do the turkeys in garbage bags in the hot tub.

LOL, it's the searing that would have been a problem. I could have used my turkey fryer -- filled with water -- to cook the birds en sous vide. Maybe I could have crisped it all up on my Weber kettle. Oh well, there's always next year, although, I do intend to try this way before TG 2009.

=R=

Check out this homebuilt sous vide rig*:

http://lakesidesmokers.blogspot.com/200 ... t-bbq.html

* Seems exactly the right term for when crazy BBQ guys become sous viders...