A thorough trial of the new VESTA SOUS VIDE IMMERSION CIRCULATOR,

by our own Jayce, Orenco Station Store

On tonight’s episode of Kaboodle Test Kitchen, our Orenco Station Store crew made some decadent treats to test the Vesta Immersion Circulator. To best show it off, we made a perfectly-tender flank steak and safe-to-eat cookie dough.

For the steak, we sealed it with a little garlic and herbs in the Vesta Vac N’ Seal using the manual vacuum mode (as to not pull steak juice into the machine and ruin the seal) then sealed it off at the top. After that, we downloaded the Vesta mobile app but realized there was no way we were getting Wi-Fi on the sales floor so we just used the simple touch interface to cook at 125°F for 2 hours. We also dropped two eggs into the stock pot to pasteurize for the cookie dough.

COOKING

SEARING

PLATING

After two hours, we took the steak out and seared the outside on cast iron the best we could on an Induction Burner. Since the steak was fully cooked and the muscle fibers weren’t tense from prolonged cooking at a relatively high heat, there was no need to finish off in the oven or tent-and-rest. As you can see from the plate, there still was some juice loss but I think that was because our cooktop would only get to 460°F. At home you would likely have better luck carving right in if you can get your skillets up in the 600°F-700°F range (safely, of course!).

We deglazed the pan with red wine and topped the steak with the Jacobsen Pino Salt, cause we’re adults.

We then increased the heat on the Immersion Circulator to 135°F for another hour for the eggs and the result: liquid eggs that were at a safe eating temperature. We just mixed them into Bon Appetit’s Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe and dug in!

Our next mission: Sous Vide Fried Chicken. I’m excited to try this because I can seal the meat with salt and it will have the same effect as a brine to keep the chicken moist and delicious. Another benefit of doing the sous vide for this is that it will only need to fry for about 3 minutes so (hopefully) it will absorb less oil during cooking. Not that it will be healthy but at least it will prevent some tummy aches.