Joule Sous Vide

I have been using a Joule Sous Vide for a few years now and forgot I never reviewed it despite recommending it in my Holiday Newsletter.  

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Chances are you have heard of Sous Vide. It’s a technique of slowly cooking food in water. There are numerous advantages to this. 

My main use for this is cooking frozen meat. We have purchased our meat from a company called Butcher Box. They deliver grass fed meat in dry ice and from there you place in your freezer. When you are ready to have steak you place the frozen steak in a vacuum sealed bag and then place in a container with the Joule for about 2 hours. Time depends a lot on the thickness of the steak. 

During that time the meat reaches 129 or 133 degrees which is medium-rare to medium. 

Then I take the meat out of the bag and finish on my Blu Skillet Cast Iron pans that are smoking hot and only have butter and some oil in them. 

The end result is what you eat in a restaurant. Perfectly cooked meat and finished / seared. 

Since cooking meat this way I have not used my grill. It just sits unused now. I cannot compare the results of Sous Vide to grilling and the benefits is doing 100% of this in my kitchen. The results are fantastically consistent.  

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For hard to cook pieces such as bone in cuts or 1 inch or more cuts this technique works great. This photo below are 1.5 inch bone in rib eyes. 

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There are many kinds of Sous Vide machines. I recommend the Joule because

  • ChefSteps - the company that makes Joule is Seattle based and makes fantastic educational apps and courses
  • The Joule software is 100% controlled via an App with built in guides and recipes 
  • They have great integration with Alexa

 Buy Now - Joule 

There are some accessories I have used with my Joule  

  • Joule big clamp for plastic containers  
  • Cooking containers. 12qt for every day and 18qt for large items.  
  • FoodSaver Vacuum sealed bags. I don’t love this device though. Doesn’t spark joy. 
  • Grape seed oil spray. Grape seed has a much higher smoke point than olive oil and as such is a great product to use with a carbon steel pan. 
  • Joule Ready sauces which make cooking easy 

The Joule is awesome. Serious Eats has a great review if you want to learn more.