knb53

Thanks very much for this... I will check it out. I'm fairly new to sous vide, having used my Sous Vide Magic probably 6 or 8 times now... but I'm one of these geeks who reads up a lot on things that interest me, so I've read a fair amount bought several books, etc. But book smarts and experience are two different things, so I look forward to experimenting more and learning more. Thanks again! Keith

Wow! This is great... (The above was my first post, too.) Really nice to have this feedback from fellow sous viders... I don't think any of the above conditions were present... It may, therefore, remain a mystery. One of these days I may invest in a chamber vac as opposed to the suction one I have. (The one I have is a pretty good one as these types go... I've seen it used several times on Iron Chef...) But the bags I use do have the extra honeycombed looking layer inside to make them seal. I'm cooking a tri-tip for dinner tonight as we speak... my wife thinks I'm the king now that I'm sous viding all this stuff... We tried vegetables for the first time last night... green beans and potatoes... turned out pretty good. Thanks again for the help and for the camaraderie! Keith

Recently I cooked some beef short ribs sous vide, 131.5F for about 2-1/2 days. They turned out great. Per a post I saw somewhere not too long ago about cooking ground beef sous vide then using the juice to make an intense broth, I took the juice from the ribs, cooked them to coagulate the proteins, strained the solids out, and used the broth to make a pan sauce of sorts. When I tasted the broth it had a good flavor... but there was also a hint (both taste and smell) of plastic. I use what I believe to be quality vacuum bags recommended for my Pro-2300 sealer. I seem to recall that this happened one other time when I cooked something for an extended period of time. Has anyone else experienced this? Should I be concerned about the safety of ingested molecules of this plastic, if indeed that is what's happening? Thank you.

Greetings! I am new to eGullet and this is my first post. I am also new to Sous Vide, having just completed a home DIY set-up within the last week... Just made poached eggs this morning... delicious. Made a tri-tip roast, also great. And just put in two chuck roasts (based on your recommendations re. this being one of your favorite cuts to sous vide) for company tomorrow evening. I have a question I hope you can help me with. My daughters bought T. Keller's book "Under Pressure" for me for Christmas... I had already devoured yours and one other. One of the things that TK states in the book in the section on safety is as follows: "The maximum time food sealed sous vide can safely remain in the bad in danger-zone temperatures (this includes cooking time if cooking below 60C (140F) is 4 hours.... If any vacuum-packed protein, either cooked or raw, has been in the danger zone for 4 hours or longer, we recommend that it be discarded." (Under Pressure, pg. 35) To underscore the point, in his chart on cooking times/temps., TK has very few listings longer than 2 hours, and the ones that do go longer are always at the higher temperatures. Understanding a bit about how bugs grow, pasteurization, etc., and having read other Sous Vide resources (including yours) it would appear that it really is ok to cook lower and slower... that given proper time,pasteurization will occur above 131F. Do I have this right? Any thoughts on TK's section on safety relative to this? Thanks so much... You have contributed greatly to my learning on this subject... Best, Keith "Chance favors the prepared mind." ~Louis Pasteur