e_monster

So, it sounds like you and Nathan think that a roughly cylindrical (more like a tapered cylinder -- i.e. a cone with the pointy end chopped off) that is about 4.5 inches in diameter and 4 inches roast cooked in a 132F water bath should be relatively safe. When vacuum-packed, the cross-section is likely to flatten quite a bit. The flattening is likely to make it wider but less thick. I would think that this would make it even safer. Does that seem reasonable? I tend to err on the side of caution. Would you both feel comfortable cooking something like that for 24 hours? (I think you already answered that but want to double-check.)

On Doug Baldwin's great website, the section on roast beef indicates that the meat needs to be less than 2.75 inches thick for safe cooking (at 131F). Can anyone (Doug or Nathan) comment as to whether 2.75 inches is indeed the maximum thickness for a piece of beef to be cooked sous-vide. I'd love to try cooking a cross rib roast but the smallest I have found is about 4 inches thick -- and I'd hate to cut it into smaller pieces because I'd like to sear the outer fatty side after cooking. I have a note in my notebook that 5 inches or less is safe. The source was this list but I haven't been able to find the posting that I got that number from -- so maybe I jotted it down wrong. Thanks. p.s. Doug, I followed your instructions for a flat-iron steak and my guests were blown away and wolfed it down. I served it with a brandy cream sauce made using the bag juices and the crispy bits that stuck to the pan during the searing.

Your pictures look like the meat was delicious. I recommend trying at 135F some time so that you can compare the results. From the pictures and temperature, I would guess that the taste texture was along the lines of a braised brisket. Certainly yummy but quite different from what you would get at a lower temp. At 135F (more so than 147F), the texture will be radically different. The texture will be more like fork-tender roast beef than it will be like brisket--fork tender but with the meat maintaining its 'integrity' for lack of a better word--very tender but not falling apart. Just a thought.

Tabletop roasters hold a lot of water and are quite inexpensive. I use a Hamilton Beach that I picked up for $10 at a thrift store for large cuts of meat. The temperature drop is pretty minimal as long as you are using the appropriate volume of water.

Your information is incorrect. There is a link somewhere in this thread to the FDA guidelines. 135F for a sufficient time is sufficient for pasteurization of poultry. The time at 141F is much shorter than at 135F. my understanding was that 141f was the minimum safe temperature that you could cook any poultry to (with proper times allowing for the appropriate 5D/6D reduction in salmonella). that being said I would cook the white meat at 140/141 and confit the legs. ←

Has anyone sous-vided a cross-rib roast? I am wondering if a 48 hr 135F cook might work wonders on this cheap cut as it does on short ribs? Thoughts?

The pulse option has a button that you press that vacuums while it is held down. So, you can 'pulse' it for a second. And then pulse again and keep on doing that until the air is out and little or no liquid has been pulled out of the bag. When the bag is vac'ed to your liking you then press the seal button. Even if some liquid gets pulled out, my FoodSaver has no problem making a seal. Mine is maybe a year old. My old foodsaver did not seal well when the bag in the sealing area had liquid in it. So, I think that they have made some improvements in that respect. Does the liquid prevent your foodsaver from making a good seal?

I have a foodsaver pro 2 (and another older,completely manual one) Is there something like that I am missing with these things to do SV??? Any direction would be appreciated... Bud ← What is it that you'd like to know? If you don't have the pulse option on your FoodSaver then you probably want to freeze any liquids that will be in the bag. If that is the case, then either seal one end of the bag and put the liquids in the bag and then freeze before vacuuming and sealing. Or, freeze the liquids in ice cube trays and add them to the bag before vac'ing and sealing. If I totally misinterpreted your question, re-phrase.

I am guessing that it is because they lack some of the delicious character (and rendered fat) of juices created by higher temperature cooking. I occasionally do use the juices but they lack both the flavor and characteristics of the juices created by higher-temperature cooking. The texture is different from 'standard' juices and heating them sometimes results in some interesting 'curds' (for lack of the technically appropriate word) forming.

I have a FoodSaver that has the Pulse vac feature and removable drip tray. I sometimes freeze the marinade in ice-cube trays BUT I usually don't. With the pulse feature, you get only a little liquid (which goes into the removable drip tray) when you get the air out. It works well-enough that I rarely free the marinade ahead of time.

Sous-vide salmon seems to be a love it or hate it thing. Some people love it but some people HATE it. I think beef short ribs for 48 hours at 135F, cut from the bone after sous-vide and then seared for 20 seconds per side in a super hot pan are a great first dish. Very easy. Very satisfying. A nice thick ribeye cooked sous-vide for an hour or two at 127F and then seared 30 seconds a side in a super hot (i.e. leave it on a high flame for ten minutes beforue using) is very satisfying. Pork tenderloins cooked for a few hours at 135F are great too. I would cook them with some marinade in the bag. I use a mixture of olive oil, cider vinegar, sugar, soy sauce with a few drops of liquid smoke. It is my neighbors favorite way of eating pork and they request it whenever they come over for dinner.

The plug-n-play PIDs from Auber Instruments or Sous Vide Magic work great and are probably the only way to turn a crockpot or similar into a reliable sous-vide tool. *bump* I am now in the unfortunate position of being able to report on this particular slow cooker. (Hamilton Beach 6-qt Set 'n Forget Programmable) The temperature setting is a cruel hoax. The cooker only has 3 thermal settings: high, low, and keep warm. In temperature probe mode, you set the desired temperature - and when the probe senses that temperature, the cooker turns down to "warm". Which is pretty low. You can set the cook time under timed mode, and when it reaches the end of the cook time it will turn down to "warm". That's all the "timed cook" mode does, though: you can't program it to turn on at a specific time. I still don't know the set points of the 3 heat settings, and it isn't worth trying to work it out. This cooker will not maintain a specified temperature. It's going back. Edited to add the make and model, in case the link I quoted above quits working. ←

The required time depends on the thickness of the meat. With turkey breast you only need to heat it long enough to bring it up to temperature for long enough to be food safe -- and that time is determined by the water temp and the thickness of the neat. See Nathan's great tables to determine the time to get the meat to temp and then add on enough time for it to be food safe (you can download the FDA tables -- I think there is a link somewhere in the forum). I like 140F for turkey breast. I cook it with some duck fat in the bag, a little salt and pepper and a thin slice of orange with the peel/pith removed. There is no advantage to cooking longer than needed to make it safe since it is a tender cut.

Just a reminder that a tabletop roaster ($40 to $50 new but often found for $10 to $15 used) or hotplate plus slockpot (about $20) or ricecooker coupled with a $100 plug-n-play PID controller (from Auber Instruments or Sous Vide Magic) and a $10 aquarium air pump will do a great job for 99% of one's sous-vide needs. In many cases, the aquarium pump isn't needed either. While a nice immersion circulator is more convenient, these other options work great if money is an issue. They really do work well athough they may seem less elegant.

After a number of tri-tip experiments, I finally came up with a time/temp that to my palate (and those of my dinner guests) yields the perfect tri-tip. I put a frozen tri-tip into a 135F bath and let it cook for 12 hours before removing and searing (20 seconds per side in a super hot pan -- at least 700F). The result was fork tender meat that was not TOO soft/tender. Nice crust, and nice pink/juicy interior. In the bag were a couple of ice cubes of marinade made to the following specs: 2 tbsp garlic olive oil 1 tbsp balsamico 1/4 tsp salt 1 tsp sugar 1 tbsp soy sauce 1 tsp lemon juice 1/4 tsp cayenne 1/2 cap liquid smoke 1/2 tsp black pepper

I think you just have to go to the site and jot down the features. Also, keep in mind that Costo may have slightly different model numbers than appear on the Tilia site. I think that any version that has the Pulse option would be acceptable. With the Pulse feature (and removable drip tray), it is ok to have liquid in the bag. You will 'pulse vac' until some of the liquid gets sucked out of the bag and then seal.

Since I upgraded from my 5 year-old FoodSaver to a new one with the Pulse option, I haven't had a problem with liquids or too much air in the bag. The removable drip tray means that it doesn't matter if some liquid gets sucked out of the bag. My old FoodSaver sometimes left more air in the bag than I was happy with (which sometimes resulted in enough air to float the bag.

While some people think salmon mi-cuit is to die for, there are a lot of people that don't seem to like it. Richard served salmon done at 113F on Top Chef and none of the judges liked the texture. I like it but my wife isn't thrilled by it. If people like rare steak 126F won't seem cold them, but if they don't like steak on the rare side of med. rare than 126F may just not be to their liking. Did you sear the steak after cooking or serve it straight out of the bag? (If the steak wasn't seared after cooking that might contribute to their sense because the texture of non-seared sous-vie steak is missing something One other thing -- and perhaps you already know this -- make sure to warm the plates before putting the food on it. 126F steak and 113F salmon will VERY quickly lose their heat on a room temperature plate. (This is true of most sous-vide). Anyway, that is my opinion.

Have you tried searing after you sous-vide the steak? Searing after cooking is the solution -- not just for looks but for flavor and texture. I have done it both ways and find that searing after sous-vid-ing is best. If you sear afterwards, the color will be beautiful. Also, I wouldn't sear on a grill, I would do it on an actual pan -- you get a much nicer crust. At least that is my finding.

At 52C (125F), I am surprised that the meat is looking grey. Did it look grey to start out with? For searing, (this is for flavor as well as coloring), you want a VERY VERY hot pan. I put my pan on high heat for about 10 minutes before I sear (which gets the pan to around 700F). I then sear for about 20 seconds per side. That is a short enough time that the heat does not penetrate to the interior of meat but long enough to get a nice crust (if the pan is hot enough). You can also use a propane torch for searing if it has a strong enough flame (not one of those mini torches that are sold as creme brulee torches).

Two questions: Has anyone done garlic confit sous-vide. If so what temp did you use? I tried 160F per a recipe I saw but the garlic didn't soften or sweeten the way I would have liked. I was thinking about trying 180F next. Also, there have been recommendations that for duck breast sous-vide that one remove the skin prior to cooking and cook it separately to have crisp skin. One recommendation was to put it between two silpats in a 350F oven. Since it will be between silpats it won't be easy to observe. Any ideas on how long it would take to cook the duck skin to crispness? Thanks, E p.s. Tonight, I did chicken breasts at 139F and put a tablespoon of butter in the bag with a fistful of chinese fermented black beans. It turned out great. If you like chinese fermented black beans this is a very easy way to go.

My experience so far leads me to think that if the temperature is high enough to render away the solid fat of untrimmed fatty cuts (like brisket and short ribs) that you also lose the special (sometimes sublime) textural qualities that makes sous vide technique so attractive for cooking meat at low temperatures.

I don't think that increasing the time will be much help where fat rendering is concerned -- when I do briskets for 48 hours at 64C there isn't much difference where the fat is concerned from how it is after 24 hrs (however the meat itself is more tender). Fatty cuts cooked at temps like this need to be trimmed of fat more than when using conventional methods since there does seem to be a threshold below which the fat won't render much at all even when left for a long time (collagen on the otherhand will break down at these lower temps when left long enough).

True Atlantic salmon, as found (or used to be found) in Scotland and Norway, are often called "true salmon," whereas Pacific salmon is not regarded as really being salmon at all, but rather as "sea run trout." Farmed salmon, often called "Atlantic Salmon" on restaurant menus, is (to my knowledge) some sort of hybrid and not the same thing as the true wild Atlantic salmon. I personally regard it as inedible however it is prepared and have tried every which way to avoid eating it for a number of years. What sous vide might do to it I have no clue. I'm no expert on salmon taxonomy and I'm just repeating what I learned as a former resident of Alaska and someone who has read a lot on the subject, never claiming to really have understood it. Anyway, nice picture, and glad it turned out well. ken ← Pacific salmon are not Atlantic Salmon but they are salmon (Family Salmonidae). They are a different genus than Atlantic Salmon but salmon nonetheless. They aren't "true salmon" only if one considers the Atlantic genus to be the only true salmon. Fishery scientists consider the genus to which the Pacific varieties belong to be salmon. "Sea trout" is a common name and is applied to various completely unrelated fish. For example coho salmon is sometimes called sea trout -- as is a completely unrelated fish found in Norway. As an aside, farm-raised salmon is responsible for the collapse of wild salmon everywhere that there is salmon farming and wild salmon. The decline of viable waterways and for salmon migration and overfishing also contribute but even with viable migration routes, salmon farming decimates the salmon runs. This has been known for a long-time by marine biologists and fishery scientists (I first heard about it in the early 80's in a documentary about the decline of wild salmon). A web search will provide a plethora of articles documenting this This is one of the reasons that there is no commercial Atlantic salmon fishery. Those that care about the continued existence of wild salmon will stay away from farmed salmon.

I have found a few different models of Jaccard online -- could you all recommend a particular one?