Posted by mike9 : " How large of a cooler do you recommend? " How big a cooler will depend on how much food you try to sous vide. Since the components of my system are portable, I have several container sizes, from a small one to cook a few eggs to a good size cooler for large roasts. "How much power do i need? " The pump is less than 10 watts, the rest depends on the electric heater. Remember the heater use not much power to keep the water at the set temperature. "If i had to raise that the temperature of the cooler 30-40 degrees above hot tap water then its going to take a long time with 300w. I'd have to pull out the pans boil water on the stove etc. Could say a 1500w heater be too much and have problems with overshooting? I plan on using a PID and solid state relay. " I always use boiling water to get the water bath temperature high enough. 1,500 W heater will not overshoot if you have a good enough circulator. PID controller with a solid state relay, I believe, but not sure, throttles the heater from low to high. PID will, using self-tuning, self-adjusting to compensate overall equipment overshooting. "How much power does it take to sustain the equilibrium temp after everything has been cooking for many hours? " Depends on the insulating property of your container and the size of the container. "How much power does it take to maintain the set water temperature after a bunch of frozen food has been dropped into the bath? That could be important if i have an item already cooking and then later throw something frozen in there, if the temp of the water dropped for a long time it could mess up the cooking time of the first item. " Just keep an eye on the temperature reading, add more boiling water if needed. "I was looking at these heaters. http://www.amazon.com/NORPRO-559-Immersion-Warming-Liquids/dp/B000I8VE68/ http://www.amazon.com/Bush-CH-101-Energy-Saving-Immersion-Heater/dp/B003DLB5KW/ http://www.amazon.com/Reliance-9000129-045-Electric-Heater-Element/dp/B000H5W1TQ/ " The first two not too good: 1. they are not long lasting. 2. They are not completely submersible. The third one is very long lasting, but requires you to build something around the exposed terminals to waterproof and shock-proof. ------------------------------------------- I would like to say this to those of you who may be reading this thread, do not worry about any of these tech stuff. They are not what sous vide cooking is all about. A ready-made sous vide cooker is not that expensive anymore, plug it in, set the temperature and enjoy the superior food. That is all. All these annoying tech stuff are for crazy folks like me, who hasn�t quite outgrown his toy playing delinquencies yet. dcarch

Posted by annie1992 "I don't like lamb in any form, so won't conjecture on the proper cooking of it. (grin) ----" Annie, I didn't use to like lamb at all, until they start charging a lot of money. Expensive = taste good ? LOL FOAS, thank you. I look forward to seeing more of your sous vide creations. Alexa, at the risk of being accused of anti Occam's Razor law, let's take a little time to chew the fat. First, the pictures might be a little misleading. I take food pictures using only the auto setting on my camera to save time. Depending on if the light is from the window (day) or from the CFL (night) or if the shot is wide-angle or close-up and the predominant color of the food item, the camera's built-in software takes charge and determines the red/white/blue balance for each picture. The colors on the first two are closer to the real thing. Rack of lamb, very expensive. If you take away the fat, and the bones, and shrinkage, it probably comes to $60.00 a pound here in NYC. Meat, bones and fat have different thermal conductivities, adding to it, the small size and the shape of a rack of lamb, it makes it very difficult to cook it perfectly unless you prefer the whole thing well-done. It is challenging to find a way to maximize perfection to every tiny morsel of this wondrous victual. At the temperature I set at 135F, it is too low to render the fat. Since I don�t eat the fat, it does not bother me just to scrape the fat off while I eat. But if I were to serve others who are not followers of the Paleolithic diet, I probably BBQ the fat a little longer and that will make the issue go away. No, you cannot make Schmaltz using a sous vide cooker. I think it needs to be emphasized that sous vide is merely a particular way of cooking with a special appliance. There is really no recipes for sous vide, no more than recipes for microwave, or cast iron frying pan, etc. It is unfortunate that the French word "sous vide" gives this concept a lot of unjustified mystique; the fact that top chefs and upscale restaurant use it makes it appearing un-approachable. It makes it seem like practitioners of this way of cooking belong to some religious cult. The truth is this: sous vide is just a water oven that can keep constant temperatures. If I were to name this appliance, I would call it "Cookware For Making Perfect Meats For Dummies" If you show a 10-year-old kid how to set the temperature, the kid can cook the meat sous vide just like a top chef. A sous vide cooker simply will not allow you to overcook or undercook, it makes no difference if your piece of meat is frozen on one half and the other half at room-temperature, thick on one end and thin on the other end. No doubt, sous vide is going to go thru similar fade as the microwave oven did. First microwave oven was scosting like $5,000 and there were many myths and fears surrounding these bizarre new electronic "radar ranges." By the seventies, more and more people were finding the benefits of microwave cooking to outweigh the supposedly risks, and none of them were dying of radiation poisoning, going blind, becoming sterile, or impotent. As fears ebbed, acceptance began pouring into the kitchens. dcarch

5 oz steaks can easily be overcooked. Sous vide is definitely a good way to enjoy venison. I can't tell you how to season them. It depends on where they are from. Sometimes they are nice, and other times they can be gamy. I have done mine around 129F to 132F, 6 hrs to 14 hrs. Tenderloin only one hour. dcarch

I just noticed you asked for 'expert' advice. No one here is an expert. We rely on the real experts on-line, not here. But we share our collective research and experience. Time and temperature. The amount of time it takes to come to temperature and the time at that temp. Even at 130, once it hits that temp, (interior) all is fine as longs it remains at that temp for the time recommended. And why we keep our proteins in the bath longer. The FDA uses the basic 40-140 to be 'basic' safe for common cooks. The length of time in a sousVide bath falls into another category by 'length-of-time'...your 'tips' in a flat pack will reach that internal temp faster...more surface area...unless in a ball heap. (like a giant meatball) It will not cook further at your desired temp, but will be a safe temp at a longer time. For example, your tips from frozen, flat packed, with lots of surface area might take an hour to come to interior temp. Safe is an extra hour. I would go three hours from frozen depending. And a bit lower temp. Time and temp is SousVide. ...and why I'm not an 'expert' but I know and have wrapped my head around the basics.