Robert Jueneman

Would pork jowls be a candidate for sous vide cooking? Or is the braising method better? Anyone tried both methods? Pork belly was hard enough to find, and I'm quite certain I never seen things like jowls, or a pork neck, in any grocery store.

Does anyone have a really killer recipe for sous vide vegetables or fruit -- something that can't asily be done using conventional cooking techniques? I could use one for an upcoming demonstration/class.

A couple of nights ago, I served some brisket I had cooked for 48 hours at 131F, using the same techniques I have previously described. The results were as delicious as they have ever been, even cold, the next night. For that reason, as improbable as it may sound, I have to chalk up my previous failures with the a flat iron steak and the beef cheeks as due to some kind of a bad meat problem, repeated twice. Maybe my freezer was not closed properly or something -- I don't know. Yesterday I bought a couple of individual flat iron steaks from Whole Foods, together with a pork shoulder, and carried them home in a cooler that had been turned on to prechill it or maybe 20 minutes. However, when I got home, perhaps an hour later, I saw that that the temperature of the steaks had risen to 51F, so maybe the cooler isn't all that great. The shoulder was still at about 41F, presumably because it was larger. I am inclined to simply discard the cross-rib roast that was part of the same purchase as the original flat iron steaks, as well as the remaining beef check package. Although I hate to throw away food, I don't want to cook something for two days, and end up with nothing to put on the table! Thanks to everyone for all of their input, as I tried to figure out what might have gone wrong. Bob

I would certainly hope not. But just to be sufficiently paranoid/skeptical, have you cooked that meat at low temperatures/long time after an extended period? Has anyone else noticed a smell coming from a sealed FoodSaver bag? Tonight I opened the 48-hour beef cheeks, and promptly stuffed them down the garbage disposal, because of the smell.

Nickrey, I think you may be onto something. Let's consider what we know. I have two different freezers, and I can't be sure which held which. At the moment, the upright is at 0.9F, and the portable (a great portable refrigerator/freezer that fills the entire cargo compartment of my Toyota FJ Cruiser and runs on both 12 vdc and 117 ac) is at -0.1F and has been running on AC. I was out of town for a week, and therefore cannot absolutely rule out the possibility that the power might have failed for a while, affecting both freezers, but all of the clocks seem to be right, and the frost that has built up in the upright hasn't turned into ice. (Note to self -- buy a min/max freezer thermometer freezer alarm!) NathanM, who says he has cooked beef cheeks successfully, uses a chamber vacuum (I assume) with different bags, whereas I am using a FoodSaver Professional III with their bags. I routinely SV bag my meat and then freeze it, so I can just plop the meat in the water bath and do something else for a couple of hours (like fixing a leaking faucet tonight). Things to consider/eliminate: 1. Contrary to FoodSaver's propaganda, maybe there is something wrong with freezing meat in FoodSaver bags. Perhaps the anaerobic environment actually encourages lactic acid bacteria, causing things to go sour "eventually?" What is "eventually"? A week, a month, a year, a decade? 2. In both cases, the meat came from recently opened Cryovac packaging. Perhaps this encourages (latent) spoilage bacteria that only manifests itself after an extended period of cooking at low temperatures? 3. At what temperature are the spoilage bacteria you mention killed or deactivated? Do they produce temperature-resistant spores? 4. The question of the smell permeating the water bath is very interesting, and perhaps revealing. I wish I had paid better attention in my chemistry classes 50 years ago, but what kind of semi-permeable membrane would keep water out, and apparently keep air out (the bag isn't floating), and yet let scent molecules (presumably much, much larger than say nitrogen or O2) escape from the bag into the water? Could some kind of crazy osmosis be going on? If the bad smell (or good clove smell) is escaping into the water, what is coming INTO the bag? 5. Our IT manager is also a caterer in her spare time, and she suggested I examine what kind of additives (presumably added to ensure a red color) might have been added at the packing plant. 6. I wish I had a chemistry set with some pH strips right now. Has anyone else had much experience cooking meat for 48 hours in Food Saver bags? Bob

Thanks, Nathan, for confirming my understanding about the temperature issue. As to your other questions, although I didn't weigh the meat, I would estimate it to be around 300g. Night before last, I started a second test, and so far I am getting the same results. I carefully checked the bag to see if I could find any lack of vacuum, pinholes, etc., I didn't see anything, but double-sealed the top of the bag, just to be sure. The still frozen bag was inserted into my 10 liter commercial rice cooker, which was already up to temperature (55.5C), using the Sous Vide Magic 1500B which regulates to 0.1C. I'm using a submersible pump to be sure that I'm getting good circulation. When I first started, that as the only bag in the cooker. Last night, I added a 1/4 of a still-frozen brisket. I didn't measure the thickness, but there were two separate pieces, side by side (not stacked), and I would guess it was about 20mm -- certainly no more than 30mm thick. So it should have come up to the final core temperature at some time between 24 minutes and 1:30. Although I don't like to use a precision thermometer for routine work, I left my thermometer probe monitoring the water bath temperature inserted through a hole in a Lexan sheet, and reset the max/min. This morning it was showing a maximum of 55.67C and a minimum of 55.28C. Even last night, I was beginning to see the same kind of dark red liquid on the beef cheeks as before. Oddly, I can sort of smell the same smell, coming from the water bath, so either the bags are not completely gas-tight (unlikely), or there was some kind of contamination outside of the seal, even though I cut off the remaining bag material and rinsed the 1/4" that remained outside the seal. This bag of beef cheeks was the second of three bags I trimmed from the same purchase as the last batch, so if the meat was old and beginning to breakdown, both pieces would do the same thing. I don't recall any odd smell when I trimmed and packaged them, but that might not prove much. If I hadn't cooked multiple pieces of brisket for 48 hours, and beef chuck for 24 hours, in exactly the same way, I would be having some real misgivings about the technique. And if it was only the beef cheeks, I would be happy to give up on them -- they are an ugly piece of meat in any case! But the fact that the flat iron steaks reacted the same way, when purchased from two different stores, is rather alarming. Anyone know a veterinary pathologist or a microbiologist in the San Jose area, who would be willing to analyze the final results? Could the USDA help? Bob

Oops! My fault! That was a typo -- I meant to say 134.8, or only 0.1F difference. Yes, if I found a 4 degree difference, I would indeed think that was huge! The purpose of the perforated metal disk is to ensure that neither the probe nor the meat is sitting directly on bottom of the cooker, and would instead be exposed to circulation above and below. Last night, when cooking a pork chop, I used the optional metal feet to lift everything about an inch above the bottom. (BTW, I cooked that one at 58.0C, compared to 60.0C the night before. Both had come from the same pack of nine chops, both had been brined, but the 60.0C version was a little dry, whereas the 58.0C version was tender and juicy, without looking pink.) Previously, I threaded the probe through the perforations, so that it was sticking up like a little finger. But last night, I threaded it from the top, so that the probe is below the disk but not directly touching the meat, because otherwise that might cool the probe too much, causing the water to get too hot. (I don't think that was what was happened, however.) I'm not opposed to using forced circulation. I have both a submersible pump and an aquarium air pump and circular air stone I can use. And when the PID controller is stabilizing, circulation can presumably help to achieve equilibrium faster. But for 48 hours, a thermal gradient doesn't seem likely. Even if the top were open, the evaporative cooling is more likely to cause convection than not, it seems to me. And leaving the top ajar for the pump cord increases the loss of water due to evaporation, and also wastes energy, so I'd rather not use the pump unless I really need to. I am inclined to favor Jackal10's thoughts -- some kind of oxidation, or some kind of funky enzymatic action. Too high a temperature does NOT sound plausible, however, and neither does a pinhole. Even if the bag was full of water, I wouldn't expect the dark-red color. As I said earlier, I am going to cook a second bag of beef cheeks that were bagged at the same time, but this time I am going to be meticulous in checking for any air in the bag, or anything that might indicate a bad seal; both before, during, and after cooking it. I noticed that when I was bagging the pork chops night before last, that even though the machine was set for a 5, it was sealing without completely evacuating the bag, and I had to redo a couple multiple times. I don't know if that is because I wasn't allowing the seal mechanism to cool down sufficiently. But I am now double sealing each store-bought bag, and I'm going to start to double sealing both ends when using a roll.

OK. I measured the temperature of the water bath, by inserting a candy/oil thermometer with a 10" stem through a hole in the Lexan plate. That thermometer is far from accurate, but it was at least precise -- reading to 0.1F. The temperature at the bottom of the pot and at the 2/3 point read 134.9F. The temp at the 1/3 point, and close to the surface (where there is some evaporative cooling) was 138.8F. I think that rules out temperature inconsistency as the cause of the problem. Any other ideas?

I use it all the time on french fries. Dump some in the paper bag you use to drain the fries, and shake it up a bit. Great!

jackal10 and dougal, I have carefully calibrated the probe of the Sous Vide Magic 1500B (which reads to a tenth of a degree) to an accuracy of 0.1C, using a reference thermometer which is itself accurate to +/- 0.018C. So I'm quite sure that the temperature at the probe was correct. However, you have raised an interesting quesiton about the uniformity of the temperature throughout the bath. At the moment I can't recall whether or not I was using my submersible circulator pump or not. I do know that the bag wasn't floating. My commercial (10 liter) rice cooker heats from the bottom, and the natural convection OUGHT to equalize the temperature. The probe was threaded through a 7" stainless steel disk that has about a 1/4" lip around it, so the probe was measuring the temperature of the water, and not the bottom of the unit. I can't completely submerge the probe of my high-resolution thermometer, as it isn't sufficiently waterproof. However, to satisfy our mutual curiosity, I will insert the probe from another thermometer through a hole in a large piece of Lexan resting on top of the cooker, and then record the temperature at various depths. Since the beef cheeks were cooking with the rice cooker's lid closed, I'd be quite surprised if there is more than 0.2C difference, but you never know until you try it. Even so, the cut-off temperature for bacteria growth (Listeria) is SUPPOSED to be 127.5F, and I was presumably four degrees F above that, at a temperature that I would characterize as medium rare. I don't think that cooking it at another 5 degrees higher would provide the desired taste, although it would speed up the melting of th ecollagen. If that bacteria growth temperature is wrong then a whole lot of sous vide cooking becomes suspect, so I certainly hope that isn't the case.

Bad smell after SV cooking beef cheeks for 48 hours. I just had my second sous vide failure after cooking something at 131F for 48 hours. The first was a flat-iron steak (previously reported), and the second was some beef cheeks. In both cases, as soon as I opened the just-cooked SV bag, I was hit by an offensive, sour smell. In the case of the beef cheeks, there was a rather unusual amount of dark blood-red juice, not at all like the usual meat juice. Despite my better judgment, we ate the beef in both cases, and so far have suffered no ill effects. There was a slight gamy taste. I have previously cooked four quarters of a brisket individually, and four quarters all at once for a birthday celebration, and also some short ribs, all for 48 hours with excellent results in every case. The beef cheeks were purchased from a large Mexican grocery store in San Jose (Mi Pueblo), and from Whole Foods in Los Altos in the case of the flat-iron steak (part of a whole shoulder clod.) In both cases I took them home in a thermionic cooler, and immediately put them in the refrigerator. Of course I can't say how the meat was handled before I got it, but I watched the butcher trim the beef in both cases, and didn't see anything amiss. In the case of the beef cheeks, I later trimmed them, and cut several horizontally to a uniform thickness of about 30 mm. I applied S&P, no olive oil, and I don't think I added anything else before sealing the bags with a FoodSaver Professional III and freezing them. A day or two later, I added the still-frozen bag of two beef cheeks to the 10 liter rice cooker, which was already up to temperature. The water bath should have rebounded within 20 minutes, and the center should have been up to 131F within an hour, so I was certainly well within all of the safety guidelines. I did notice a slight whiff of an odor in the water bath, but I didn't see any kind of a leak in the seal. My only explanation is that perhaps some of the meat got on the bag outside of the seal. I'm going to start trimming the bag after sealing it, to prevent this. The amount of time at this temperature should have been more than enough to kill any bacteria by pasteurization, long before any spoilage could have occurred. The only other thought I have is that some kind of strange enzymatic action could have been breaking down the meat, or if perhaps I didn't get all of the air out of the bag, the blood might have oxidized or otherwise broken down, but I'm really grasping at straws at this point. What other action could possibly caused the smell? I've never smelled bad meat before, so i don't have anything to compare it to. Has anyone else ever experienced this? If not, and it has happened to me twice, then I must be doing something wrong, but I don't know what. I plan to cook the second of three bags soon, just to see if it happens again, but I'll prepare something else as a backup in case it happens again. I'm also going to double-seal the bag.

The recommended temperature for such pork dishes seems to vary all over the lot. I liked my version at 145/62.5 for 24 hours, and you and others are using 180/82.2 for 8 hours -- about the temperature I wold cook asparagus! Assuming neither of us is completely crazy, it is hard for me to understand why such a wide range would both produce acceptable results, when the margin of error is so much less than for beef. I've seen the same kind of variation with respect to chicken breast. Perhaps is due to the "white" meat -- does anyone know? In any case, although both temperatures may produce acceptably pleasing results, it is very hard to imagine that they are identical, which makes me wonder which technique is "best?" I think we need a cook-off! BTW, I am assuming that you are preparing individual portions SV, otherwise it would take too long to come back up to temperature -- correct? Or do you cook the whole roast, slice it, and then bag it and chill? I forgot to slice the remainder of the shoulder, so I'm going to be faced with the reheating problem.

Nürnberger Schäufele (pork shoulder) sous vide I just fixed a pork shoulder, trying to at least recreate the spirit of a well-remembered "Schäufele und Rauch Bier" (pork shoulder and smoky beer) from when we lived in Nürnberg, Germany, back in 1967-68. I started with about 3 pounds of pork shoulder from Whole Foods (I didn't record the weight before putting in the SV bag, so I'm not entirely sure of the weight). I cooked it at 145F/62.5C for 24 hours. I probably violated Douglas Baldwin's recommendations for time/temperature, because the roast was nearly 4 inches thick, and according to some of the charts I should have cut the roast in half. But since I intended to cook it for 24 hours, I wasn't too concerned. (If I never post again, you will know not to do this!) For the side, I simmered some small potatoes, pre-peeled carrots, a large red onion sliced, and a little garlic salt for about an hour and 30 minutes in a carton (one pint) of store-bought pork stock, plus two cans of Guinness beer -- the closest I could come at the local grocery store to the dark, smoky beer I enjoyed in Nürnberg. When the sides were ready, I coated the pork with some Vineyard Pantry Roasted Onion Balsamic Grill Sauce (Raley's grocery store), and popped it in the oven at 500F for about five minutes to give it a little sear on the outside. I probably could have gone for a longer time, but I was getting hungry! The pork was excellent, and so were the sides. Even my wife, who is sometimes critical (unlike all other spousal units/partners, right?) liked it. The left-overs were immersed in an ice bath, and then refrigerated.

I have not used the Roner, PolySciience, or other laboratory controllers, so take this with a milligram of NaCl. A PID controller is particularly useful if the device being controlled is subject to overshoot, e.g., for a rice cooker, because the heat is delayed between the heater and the water bath. However, if the heating unit is inserted into the water bath directly, and the water is constantly circulated, it is unlikely that a significant overshoot will result. The P (proportional) control may not be necessary, or it might be built in. The I (integral function) of PID controllers is somewhat controversial, and frequently does more harm than good. Similarly, the D (derivative) control may help if you drop a frozen steak into the bath, but it may also cause an undesirable overshoot. I'm still trying to optimize my own PIC controller and rice cooker with respect to these measurements, but setting I=0 and D=0 is simpler and easier to use. A large volume of water compared to the mass of the food you are introducing will eliminate most of these problems, whether you are using a rice cooker and controller or a laboratory circulator.

Memorial Day weekend, we went shopping at a large appliance store in San Jose, to look at ga (propane) cooktop and ovens. I remain most impressed by Viking, which I had and loved in a previous house. Yes, they are more expensive than some others, but they are made here in the US (in Mississippi, of all places), and parts and service should be readily available. They are revising the look slightly to add metal knobs rather than the current black plastic. The one I want is a 60" unit with four burners and a 24" cast iron griddle in the middle, which can be turned down to a nice simmer with the largest pot I own, for making onion soup, etc. I don't see the additional value of a Wolf unit, for the extra cost. Gaggenau makes a nice built-in high-output wok burner, but you can probably pick up a portable unit at a store that specializes in Chinese restaurants for a whole lot less, and only connect it when you need it. I do like the Gaggenau electric oven, particularly the one with the built-in rotisserie and an electrically heated pizza or bread stone. I also like the big 36" Viking gas oven, which has the equivalent of a salamander with a two-burner broiler.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. After visiting six grocery stores in four days, I found glucose (a thick syrup rather than the powder I expected), and xanthan gum (which I don't need right now, but bought just in case I ever do) at Draegers in Los Altos. And I dropped a note to ChefRubber, suggesting that they offer a "Chemistry Set" of small quantities of ingredients that can't be found at your local Safeway. Who knows -- I might suddenly have a need for transglutaminisase -in case I fall down and tear up my knee! Tonight I tried some beef short ribs, cooked for 48 hours at 55.5C/131.9F. I poured off the juice from the packages, brought it to a hard boil and filtered out the scum, then added half a jar of Bone Sucking Rib Sauce (thick style) to the remaining juice and cooked it down for a while. Meanwhile, I seared the ribs on all four sides then added the sauce, while the fresh corn on the cob finished boiling for about 4:30 minutes. Delicious! However, both my wife and I agreed that the ribs were perhaps just little bit too rare -- a bit too chewy/stringy, although very melt-in-your-mouth tender. Next time, I might go up a two or three degrees F, say to 135F. Bob

International shopping day I started at 99 Ranch, a large Chinese /Vietnamese grocery store here in Milpitas, Ca. I didn’t find what I was looking for, but I did buy a frozen pheasant, and the thickest piece of beef liver I have ever seen. It will be tonight’s dinner, with bacon and onions, but I’m going to slice it in half horizontally first. I think I may have to thaw the pheasant and remove the gizzard, heat, and liver before butterflying it and cooking it SV, like I might a chicken or duck. Any suggestions? Then on to Mi Pueblo in south San Jose, a noisy, bustling Latino grocery store with loud Mexican music, and lots of chickens roasting on charcoal outside. I bought two pounds of beef cheeks, and about four pounds of pork belly. Now the question is how to cook them? Under Pressure has a recipe for cooking pork belly (AKA pork breast) sous vide after first brining it with Hobbs curing salt??? Does that add nitrates, or what? Obviously I don’t have any on hand. Does anyone have a substitute to recommend? Calling their number, I see that they deliver to San Francisco, Napa, and the South Bay (on Tuesday), but I have no idea of the minimum order quantity. Maybe I can find it at Whole Foods? Alinea has a recipe that that requires 250 g of sugar, 250 g of kosher salt, 40 g of smoked paprika, and 25 g of chipotle chili pepper for 200 g of pork belly, for two days in the refrigerator, but after that it is all down hill, with a smoked paprika tuile requiring 245 g of fondant, 125 g of glucose, 125 g of isomalt, 5 g of smoked paprika, and 3 g of cayenne pepper. I have already looked all over for glucose to no avail, I have no idea where to find isomalt, and don’t know about much about fondant, either. Help!

Ok, what is a Dexter tongue? The only well-known Dexter in the U.S. makes bowling shoes, and they do have a tongue, but I suspect it would take a lot more than 72 hours to tenderize them.

Sous vide chicken breast (originally posted on the sous vide thread): My previous attempt at chicken breast was rather unimpressive, but tonight was much better. I picked up a package of three chicken breasts, pulled off the skin, Jaccarded them for tenderness, applied S&P, and vacuum packed them with my FoodSaver Professional III. I then pressed them with my palm to make sure that they were less than 30mm thick. I froze two, and cooked one tonight -- one hour at 63.5C/146F. I was trying to follow a Julia Child recipe for chicken breast and mushrooms, so I took a big bag of white mushrooms (perhaps 2 cups?), cleaned them and sliced them, and threw them in a pan into which I had already put 1/2 a stick of butter and some chopped shallots, mildly sautéed. After the sliced mushrooms were nicely sautéed, I should have added some cream, but I didn't have any. Fortunately, I had some irradiated whole milk on the shelf, so I added a pint of it, plus another 1/4 stick of butter (almost cream, right?), added the juice from the SV chicken, reduced it a bit more, then added the chicken to the pan, and waited until the sauce seemed sufficiently reduced. A little smoked paprika finished it off. The results were absolutely delicious. I might use "real" cream the next time, but otherwise I wouldn't change a thing. --- Update, round two. Same time and temperature, but this time I measured the mushrooms (1 lb), and used some 1/2 pint whipping cream (instead of a pint of whole milk plus additional butter), plus 1/4 cup of sherry while the mushrooms were sautéing. I forgot the shallots, however. Contrary to my expectations, the results were not as impressive -- a little blah. Not enough cream, or not reduced enough, perhaps? It didn't seem to coat the chicken as well, and looked a litel gray. Perhaps the sherry diluted things too much? The side dish was a hit, however -- asparagus with sriracha mayonnaise. 1/2 cup of mayo, two generous splashes of Hoy Fung sriracha hot sauce (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/dining/20united.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all) and the juice of 1/2 a lemon, plus ground pepper. My wife loved it, and she doesn't normally like spicy sauces. Now, if I could just figure out how to post a picture, I would do so! Check back! Bob

Excellent chicken breast! My previous attempt at chicken breast was rather unimpressive, but tonight was much better. I picked up a package of three chicken breasts, pulled off the skin, Jaccarded them for tenderness, applied S&P, and vacuum packed them. I then pressed them with my palm to make sure that they were less than 30mm thick. I froze two, and cooked one tonight -- one hour at 63.5C/146F. I was trying to follow a Julia Child recipe for chicken breast and mushrooms, so I took a big bag of white mushrooms (perhaps 2 cups?), cleaned them and sliced them, and threw them in a pan into which I had already put 1/2 a stick of butter and some chopped shallots, mildly sautéed. After the sliced mushrooms were nicely sautéed, I should have added some cream, but I didn't have any. Fortunately, I had some irradiated whole milk on the shelf, so I added a pint of it, plus another 1/4 stick of butter (almost cream, right?), added the juice from the SV chicken, reduced it a bit more, then added the chicken to the pan, and waited until the sauce seemed sufficiently reduced. A little smoked paprika finished it off. The results were absolutely delicious. I might use "real" cream the next time, but otherwise I wouldn't change a thing.

That's exactly what I've been doing -- Jaccard, S&P. I've added Liquid Smoke to brisket, but not to these as yet. I didn't add any water, however. I almost didn't eat the 48 hour one, because the smell when I cut the bag and poured off the juice was just a little strong. Maybe the enzymes got a little carried away. Even the inside was a little less pink than usual. I have one or two left in the freezer, and I may let one thaw, Jaccard it again, and try 24 hours again. I also have a cross-rib roast from the same primal cut, sliced into three sections about 4" thick, and I'm trying to decide whether to SV it, or roast it conventionally. One more bad result, and I may pitch the entire lot.

Who knows? I was assured they were Choice, from Whole Foods, and I assume they are reputable. How else can one tell? Do I have to drive down to Niman Ranch and interview both the cattleman and the butcher, and ask for a sample? These were not "organic" or "grain-fed," but I don't know whether thatr would have helped or hurt the tenderness and flavor in either case. I did take care to rush them home, cut them up, and freeze them promptly. 48 hours was clearly too much. 24 hours was OK, although still a bit on the tough side, and certainly not a result that would have me forgo a good rib-eye, even at five times the price. What temperature have you been using? These were pink, although the outside was grayer than usual before searing..

Flat-iron steak, take four. 48 hours at 131F yielded a streak that was acceptably tender, but the taste was rather mediocre. Perhaps the enzyme activity was too much. So 24 hours or less was relatively tough, and 48 hours was too much. Assuming I don't give up on the entire shoulder clod, I guess I'll try 36 hours next time. I tried the suggestion of boiling the meat juice, then strain the residue and adding some flour to make a sauce/gravy. Marginal at best, I thought, with not much juice left after boiling it. Bob

I have been corresponding with a doctor in Switzerland regarding the calibration and optimization of the Sous Vide Magic PID controller. He just sent me two very interesting links from the Hospitality Institute of Technology and Management, a group dedicated to food safety in the retail food industry.: http://www.hi-tm.com/RFA/food-path-summ.pdf <http://www.hi-tm.com/RFA/food-path-summ.pdf> http://www.hi-tm.com/homeprep/titl-tabl.html <http://www.hi-tm.com/homeprep/titl-tabl.html> The first is a Food Pathogen Control Data Summary, which provides a useful summary of various bacteria and other hazards. Clostridium prefringens is cited as the fastest growing pathogen in foods, and it dictates the maximum slow rate of heating foods for 40F to >130F in <6 hours. Likewise, the time for continuous cooling from 130F to 45F must be within 15 hours. This also sets the high temperature growth standard at 127.5F (53C). The second link is a pamphlet that is directed towards consumers, and does an excellent job of educating them about safe food preparation. The last page is a convenient time/temperature scale that I intend to post on my refrigerator. Of course, the casual take away from all of this is that you certainly can't eat beef, pork, chicken, lamb, fish, shellfish, vegetables, fruits, or grain; nor can you drink the water; and breathing the air will certainly kill you, assuming global warming doesn't roast or drown you first!

What is a baseball steak? And how did you cook it?