Oven Moisture

[Paul Bacino]

I know they make cooking ovens with controlled moisture environments. What ways can one use to increase moisture in the oven. Say I would like to slow roast a rib primal in the oven @135 for 27 hrs?

Is a pan ( of water ) in the oven , enough?

Curious

[dcarch]

Degrees F or C?

Put it inside a covered Dutch oven with liquid, but not submerged in the liquid.

that will give you 100% relative humidity.

But if you are talking about degrees C, you will be steaming the meat in only 100 degrees C (boiling temperature of water).

dcarch

[Paul Bacino]

dcarch!!

I am talking F. Ahh I like the Dutch oven idea.

Cheers

Edited October 2, 2011 by Paul Bacino (log)

[Panaderia Canadiense]

The pan of water will work fairly well so long as you're not cooking in a gas oven - those typically have vents for safety that also allow the humidity to escape (a fact I learned much to my chagrin when adapting my bread recipes for gas ovens from electrics, which generally have a much tighter seal in the oven chamber... )

If you're cooking in a gas oven, the best method I've found is to actually open the oven door a crack and spray the oven walls with water - you get a nice humidity rise that way with very little trouble. Again, this is a breadmaking trick, and you won't get a whole lot of humidity from it.

So the Dutch Oven is probably the best idea, now that I've waffled on.

[rotuts]

currrent middle of the line gas ovens dont go lower than 170 F for some reason. my previous one went down to 140.F for some reason.

how low do electric ovens go?

when i got my current gas oven i should have gone with an electric oven with a fan with gas burners on the top.

then I discoverd SV.

[Paul Bacino]

Yeah.. Sous vide!! I do it, but I want to try something different.

My oven will do 135 F.. I IR gunned it, in the convection mode, opening and shooting a temp 150 on the digital outside set, is about 135 internal.

I will sear or blowtouch the final work up or before?

Paul

[Panaderia Canadiense]

My current gas oven, which is hardly a middle-of-the line (we got it in a package deal with the fridge) goes down to 140 F without any issues at all. My old electric one went down to I think around 120 F on its lowest setting.

What's going on with North American ovens, that they no longer have a "slow" setting?

[rotuts]

I dont know why the 'newer' gas limits to 170 F. its 5 years old and the other was maybe 15.

interested in what the electrics ones are like but wont be able to change mine.

i can imagine why a dutch oven low temp roast would be in anyway superior to SV at the same temp.

that bag keeps all flavor inside the bag, and an over will have under and over swings.

but please let us know what think.

the things that make Great SV Meat Fantastic are:

the cut and age and marbling of the meat (you can mimic some of this by age it in the refirg)

the herbs you put on the meat

and most importantly how you finish the 'crust' aftert SV

maybe it was changed to 170 min as the Food Police thought that would take care of the Local Flora and Fauna currently incharge of our food supply"

salmonella and that friendly E.Coli

Edited October 2, 2011 by rotuts (log)

[dcarch]

It is not easy for gas to stay on at low fire settings without having the flames going out.

It is not easy for electric ovens to stay very low. Most heating elements either go full on or full off. The thermostat will cycle on-off too often.

dcarch

[qrn]

when I bake bread, I put a cast iron pan on the rack below the stone and pour a cup of water in it as I load the bread on the stone,,,makes nice crust on loaves..would probably work on meat...

Bud,,

[Paul Bacino]

A little experiment:

Placed a 4lb Bone-in Red-Wattle Pork loin within a Romatoff, placed in the oven @210 F for 3 hrs ( this will get the pork to a safer temp faster ) , home for lunch, checked the roast temp @125 F.. will finish 5 hrs @145 F in oven.

Now the Romatoff has a bit of water in it, for high moisture environment. I rubbed the pork with a Spanish rub I made.

We'll see..

Yes my oven, will do , 135 F. I IR gunned the convection air temp and to get 145F.. I'm cooking @155 F

[Paul Bacino]

So here is a bit of my results!!

The finished Red Wattle Pork Product @ 135 F:

The plating: I am returning from vacation and worked late-- just my seasoned pork and a 4 cheese potato gratin.

The moist, low temp environment, actually renders the cap , providing a nice bit of texture in the dish. This pork was un-brined and un-smoked.