Having recently tried to follow Hestons methods to cook beef rib roast at 55 degrees for 20 hours using our gas oven, I have moved on to using a water bath. (The oven method worked fine, but the dog seemed to be taking so much interest in the luke warm oven with it's door propped half open that chairs had to be stacked around the oven to stop pilfering....) I have sucsesfully built my own water bath by stealing the technology (such as it is ) from the home brewing industry. My water bath consists of a food grade 25 litre container with an old style kettle element fitted into it's side. An exterior thermostat controls the temperature within one degree and it cost me about £27 to rig it up. Most home brew shops in the UK will have a similar item on sale ...I believe it's commercial name is a "Brewheat boiler, and it will cost you about £70. Three suitable mugs are placed in the container and a suitable mesh is rested on top of the cups. This holds the mesh above the heating element. You then simply fill it with water and set the thermostat to the desired temperature...... then check it is acurate with a digital thermometer probe, or whatever thermometer you have. (A vital check) I use a probe fitted to my digital multi meter to do this....most high end multi meters have this function...probably £30 upwards. Once up to temperature the un-insulated apperatus is cycled by the thermostat and is approximately on for 6 seconds and off for 6 minutes, so it is realy cheap to run. The joint is put into a self seal zip style bag and lowered onto the mesh. The water pressure squeezes out the air and you then seal the bag, leaving the zip portion up above the water level, out of harms way. I have tried providing water circulation with both an immersed aquarium water pump and an aquarium air pump (and small airstone) to give both an air bubble column style circulation method or a moving water circulation method.. Both work, but are un-necissary as the container provides adequate circulation via convection currents, So now I just leave it to circulate itself. The water temperature does not drop when the meat is put in as the 25 litres of water is a large amount by comparison to the joint. Remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder...and don't laugh...well, not for too long at least. Rog, Birmingham, UK.
