Sous Vide Techniques & Equipment

[lordratner]

May I suggest that you look at the sous vide topic index. It has many suggestions for cooking temperatures.

 

The bottom line is that cooking sous vide is a function of temperature and time and both need to be adjusted to achieve your desired outcomes.

 

For proteins, the only thing I'd cook at 62C is dark chicken meat.

 

Even if you use probes, the temperature is important as it affects the uniformity of the product. Using a higher temperature gives you a gradient on the product (more cooked on the outside layer, less in the middle). This means for a steak that you might wind up with medium well on the outside and medium rare in the middle. Good for conventional cooking, perhaps less so for sous vide.

 

If you want a good, practical, way of looking at cooking temperatures and time, check out the sous vide dash iphone app. 

Short ribs and baby backs come out divine at 62C.

 

But I'm with you on most others.

[pbear]

Different temps produce different textures.  Especially for long cooks - what conventionally would be braises - preferences vary widely.  Personally, I'm mostly using 60C/140F for those these days.  In the past, I've used 65.5C/150F to good effect,, so 62C/144F doesn't seem unreasonable to me.  OTOH, 50C/122F seems low for a holding temp, as it leaves lots of room for thermophilic spoilage but non-pathogenic bacteria.   I'd use 55C/131F (not bullet-proof, but better).  That's also the temp I generally use for short cooks, lower for seafood (albeit only product I'm confident doesn't need pasteurization and is parasite safe).

[EnriqueB]

Wondering what temperature most kitchens cook there food at sous vide? Most places I've worked cook at 62c and hold at 50c wondering what everyone else does? And why?

Also is there a difference if u cook at 60c or 70c apart from speed. We probe all the food so would it make a difference?

 

Holding at 50ºC is unsafe unless it is done only for a very short period and consumed inmediately. Generally considered safe would be to hold at a minimum of 54,5ºC (which, considering potential measure errors and the like, should be increased to water at 55,5 or 56ºC)

[nickrey]

Short ribs and baby backs come out divine at 62C.

 

But I'm with you on most others.

Having said that, I did some oxtails at 72C and do duck confit at the same temperature. I was thinking more of less cartilaginous and fibrous cuts.

[Pilarindia]

Good morning!

 

I set my oven to 160 degrees F last night, to sous vide pork ribs over night. This morning I noticed that the oven had turned off (I've never had this happen before). I immediately pulled the ribs out of the water, which was at this point luke warm, and put them in the fridge. According to the appearance of the meat, and the color of the liquids in the bag, it looks like the ribs cooked through. That said, I'm not sure if these are a total loss, or if I can bring them back to heat and then sear them on the barbecue.

 

Thoughts? Thank you all! JT

[Doofa]

Hello. From one relative new poster to another. I have learned vast amount from these forums and the wise people on them. If in doubt throw it out, it's really not worth the risk. Bin it, buy more and enjoy your dinner. If it was me, it's what I would do.

D

[Pilarindia]

Hello. From one relative new poster to another. I have learned vast amount from these forums and the wise people on them. If in doubt throw it out, it's really not worth the risk. Bin it, buy more and enjoy your dinner. If it was me, it's what I would do.

D

Yep, that's my mother always says! Gonna have to look in to why the oven shut off.  Too bad.

[dcarch]

1. How do you know your oven where you had the pork was at 160F? Oven temperature can be off by more than 40 degrees F.

 

dcarch

[Anna N]

1. How do you know your oven where you had the pork was at 160F? Oven temperature can be off by more than 40 degrees F.

 

dcarch

I think since the oven is the sous vide bath then the temperatures should not be doubted too much.

[BKEats]

i would say that you should eat it.  

[btbyrd]

I think since the oven is the sous vide bath then the temperatures should not be doubted too much.

 

Oven thermostats are notoriously unreliable, especially at low temperatures. My oven is garbage and I'd never dream about using it for sous vide work. If you have a combi oven or a higher-end consumer model, this is not really an issue. But if the OP was using such an oven, I doubt it would have randomly shut off in the night.

 

My vote is squarely in the "when in doubt, throw it out" camp. If there aren't any off-smells and you're feeling adventurous (and you have decent health insurance) then go for it. But I wouldn't serve it to anyone else.

Edited February 17, 2015 by btbyrd (log)

[Anna N]

Oven thermostats are notoriously unreliable, especially at low temperatures. My oven is garbage and I'd never dream about using it for sous vide work. If you have a combi oven or a higher-end consumer model, this is not really an issue. But if the OP was using such an oven, I doubt it would have randomly shut off in the night.

 

My vote is squarely in the "when in doubt, throw it out" camp. If there aren't any off-smells and you're feeling adventurous (and you have decent health insurance) then go for it. But I wouldn't serve it to anyone else.

We need the OP to chime in. My understanding was the reference to an oven was a water bath oven since the words sous vide were mentioned. If the reference is to a normal oven then of course temperature is very temperamental even in the best of them.

[btbyrd]

Ah. My understanding was that he was cooking in bags inside a water bath inside an oven set to a low temperature.

[Anna N]

Ah. My understanding was that he was cooking in bags inside a water bath inside an oven set to a low temperature.

And you might well be right. We need him/her back to tell us what he/she meant.

[dcarch]

If that is in a water bath, depending on how big is the bath, and ambient room temperature:

 

It takes a short while for the water to go down from 160F to 140F. It takes a little while for the water to get down from 140F to "lukewarm". Lukewarm to me means about a 105F, warmer than body temperature of 98.6F .

 

How long will it take for water in a few gallons to go form 140F to 105F? Very short, possibly much less than 4 hours, less than 4 hours in the 40F to 140F danger zone.

 

To begin with, 160 F for a few hours in a bag probably pasteurized the pork. 

 

dcarch

 

 

[Pilarindia]

First off, thank you all for the replies.  And to address some doubts, the meat was indeed bagged and in a lid covered water bath.  As for temp control, I've found that when heating the water on the stove top to target temp plus about 10 degrees and preheating the oven to the desired temp reveals pretty good results.  Sure, I wouldn't try anything really delicate with this method, but with ribs and roasts and things like that, this works well for me.  I do use a thermometer to make sure things are where they need to be at.

 

All of that said, I suspect that our very well intentioned house guest from Lyon, France, may have unknowingly turned off my makeshift 'under vacuum' machine.  Not her fault; she did the right thing in light of no prior knowledge as to what I was up to.

 

As another poster pointed out, 'you should eat it'.  If I bring the bags back up to, say, 170 degrees for half an hour and then build a really hot fire in the grill, I'm sure I could kill off any nasties.

 

But maybe not...  At least this serves as good discussion.

 

Humbly,

 

JT

[Joe Blowe]

Pilarindia,

 

Please describe the oven in question.  Does it, by chance, have burners on top?  Is it convection?  Does it have multiple racks?

 

It does not sound like you have one of these units.

[Pilarindia]

It's a regular oven with burners on top, and a pizza stone on the bottom.

[Pilarindia]

And no convection.

[Joe Blowe]

Thank you. 

 

(Let the countdown begin...)

[gfweb]

First off, thank you all for the replies.  And to address some doubts, the meat was indeed bagged and in a lid covered water bath.  As for temp control, I've found that when heating the water on the stove top to target temp plus about 10 degrees and preheating the oven to the desired temp reveals pretty good results.  Sure, I wouldn't try anything really delicate with this method, but with ribs and roasts and things like that, this works well for me.  I do use a thermometer to make sure things are where they need to be at.

 

All of that said, I suspect that our very well intentioned house guest from Lyon, France, may have unknowingly turned off my makeshift 'under vacuum' machine.  Not her fault; she did the right thing in light of no prior knowledge as to what I was up to.

 

As another poster pointed out, 'you should eat it'.  If I bring the bags back up to, say, 170 degrees for half an hour and then build a really hot fire in the grill, I'm sure I could kill off any nasties.

 

But maybe not...  At least this serves as good discussion.

 

Humbly,

 

JT

 

Maybe its safe. But some toxins are heat stable...

[Pilarindia]

Fire's lit...

[Pilarindia]

Still going...

[Pilarindia]

And the fire that's keeping me warm...

[gfweb]

cool grill