Sous Vide Techniques & Equipment

[Pilarindia]

Sorry about the sideways pic.

[Pilarindia]

Thank you gfweb!  The ribs turned out great.  I'll report back with any symptoms of stomach difficulty tomorrow.  If anything, the ribs were nicely brined and I finished them off with a little Stub's BBQ sauce.  Served them up with white rice and it was a night. 

 

All of this said, I wouldn't recommend anyone do what I did.  I let instinct take over and drive this one.  Next time I do ribs, they'll be done with an overnight rub and no sous vide (as much as I like the method), and lots of hours in front of the grill.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Buy an Anova, don't look back.

[phositadc]

I am hoping to get started with sous vide this weekend, and have a general question about preparing and sealing meals in advance.

 

Is it OK to go ahead and put the meat and seasoning in a bag, vacuum seal it, and store in in the fridge for ~24 hours before actually cooking it sous vide?

 

For instance, Sunday evening I buy some salmon filets, put them in bag with salt, pepper, and a slice of lemon.  Seal bag.  Then cook it Monday evening.

 

Would that work, or does storing the meat for ~24 hours sealed with salt + pepper + lemon harm the meat?

 

Any advice appreciated.

[nickrey]

Salt+lemon will modify the meat, as it does in any marinade/dry rub. The acid in the lemon will "cook" the meat: this is the concept behind ceviche. The salt will brine the meat, which is not such a bad thing unless you use too much salt: the salt and liquid in the fish equilibrate to a set level, which is the concept used to cure meats (eg. bacon).

Edited February 27, 2015 by nickrey (log)

[Anna N]

I am with Nick and would definitely not even think of this with fish especially with the lemon and salt. I no longer season meat before I sous vide it but add a little oil/fat to the bag and would have no qualms about doing this 24 hours ahead of time although unless I was feeding hordes I'm not sure why it's necessary. It really takes very little time to bag a few steaks or chops or whatever.

[phositadc]

Thanks for the responses!

[EnriqueB]

If your product is very fresh you can go ahead, I do it from time to time and the result is good. Though you should avoid acid in the bag like the lemon, as others have said it can cook the meat or fish. With meat also avoid salting before bagging, as the texture will change and look (a bit) like cured meat. With fish, you can pre-salt as that firmness is actually useful in many cases. With fish you should not keep in the bag for long, but if it is extremelly fresh having it bagged for 24 hours will not be as good as the same day but still can be ok, and in fact a better option than keep it 24 hours non-bagged.

[rotuts]

make sure that fish is as cold as you can get it for the entire process.

[TdeV]

I can understand that putting the sous vide bag in a sink full of ice is important with meat, as one wishes to quickly lower the temperature of meat so that it's not dangerous.

 

But what about potatoes? Or green beans?

 

Why ice?

[scubadoo97]

To stop the cooking on the spot

[TdeV]

@scubadoo97, if the cook time is 45 minutes to 1 hour at 182F (I think that's what Baldwin says about green beens) and anova says 40 minutes, I don't see what leaving the beans "en plein d'air" at 72F threatens.

[TdeV]

Oh, in the case of green beans, one shocks them to keep them green.

 

But what about potatoes?

[mgaretz]

Potatoes are not immune from danger. I read somewhere (maybe McGee?) that potatoes are what cause most of the issues in potato salad, not the mayo.  

[Baron d'Apcher]

Sous-vide (reduced oxygen) cooking can be dangerous if the product inside is not cooked for sufficient time/temp to pasteurize/kill most pathogens and/or if chilled improperly pathogens can multiply and they are not good to have in your body.

SV safety is severely overlooked and underrated.  Douglas Baldwin explains the safety issues and consequences of improper cooling very well.

[mjbarnard]

I cooked two turkey breasts sous vide. This year had access to the Meater+ thermometer probe which I managed to vacuum seal in the bag without difficulty (it is small). Since it works wirelessly I was able to monitor and it records the internal temperatures at the thickest part of the breast.

I thought the results were interesting. I cooked at 60C for 8 hours. I have always used https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/a-better-way-to-turkey-cook-that-bird-sous-vide-for-the-best-feast-ever which gives long cooking times at lower temperature. I have found that as according to this page https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/11/sous-vide-turkey-breast-crispy-skin-recipe-thanksgiving.html that 55C gives turkey which is just a little too pink for most tastes. Over the last few years have increased the temperature up to 59/60 and I find it perfect - very moist and tender, but pale not pink.

See attached images. I changed my mind a couple of times and started at 58 then 60 then 59 again, so ignore the slight variations. The thing I found interesting was that the thickest part (of a large breast) reached 55C in around 1 hour 40 mins and target of 59 in 2 hours 30 mins. Now I appreciate that sous vide is a combination of temperature and time or duration, but the data make me think that around 4 hours would be sufficient, as per the seriouseats table. I have previously used the chefsteps 55-58 for their much longer advised times, up to 12 hours and the meat is still quite pink at the end, so I dont believe 55 for 12 hours would effectively be the same.

From now on I will watching the internal temperatures with interest. This has always been the (relative) unkown for sous vide amateurs. 

Edited December 29, 2019 by mjbarnard
Timings clarified. (log)

[gfweb]

NICE.

Any idea how thick the breast was?

[mjbarnard]

It was a high quality Copas turkey and the breasts are quite thick - around 7-8cm/3inches 

[mjbarnard]

Correction

Apologies I made an error in the original post. The middle of the meat reached 59 in 2.5 hours, although reached 55 in 1 hour 40 mins. 

[rotuts]

@mjbarnard

 

very nice work 

 

Ive done 142.5 ( 61.4 C ) for some time now , as 140  ( 60 C ) wasn't quire right for me and 145 F too high , w too much jus in the bag

 

I find that 6 hours works well , as i do not think the extra hour or so matters at these temps.

 

next TB   im going to give your 60 C temp a try , again 6 hours as its an easy number to remember

 

and i don't think matters in the Final Slice of the TB.

 

more time w 6 H for " Fluid Balance Therapy  "  and other stuff that really doesnt matter much

[FeChef]

The meater probe is not waterproof. Its a very bad idea to put the probe inside the bag as there will be a lot of juices in there. Sorry i couldn't get past that so i didn't read the rest of your post.

[rotuts]

i don't have one of the probes

 

may be one would put the probe in a bag and seal that bag 

 

then use that bag in the bag w the turkey ?

 

lots of bags , best to write this down w a diagram 

[gfweb]

1 hour ago, rotuts said:

i don't have one of the probes

 

may be one would put the probe in a bag and seal that bag 

 

then use that bag in the bag w the turkey ?

 

lots of bags , best to write this down w a diagram 

 

In the early days of SV probes were stuck through the plastic back with a self sealing foam tape. Sort of like what you use on a door to keep out the wind.

 

I have stuck in a long probe through the end of an unsealed bag that is clamped to the water bath. Works nicely too.

 

But I REALLY want this meater thingy.

[rotuts]

I also remember that

 

@PedroG  

 

did stunning work way back when w this.

 

i have an exceptional coffee roaster

 

no details , thank you very much.

 

very digital.   one can take a USB 2 or so Feed into acomputer

 

mac's much better on the feed

 

and watch all sorts of stuff going on :

 

drum temp   ( its a drum roaster }

 

air temp in the roaster   

 

bean temp  

 

whats on CNN  etc

 

right there on you comp screen !

 

this would have very interesting not that long ago

 

I prefer to taste the results  , more or less

 

Viv a Viv  ( or what ever )    I just keep track

 

in a Red engineering book

 

the final temp results 

 

and enjoy that way.

 

at some point , the data that is important

 

is the data,  not so much on your plate , nor the fork or spoon or wha ever you 

 

use for transport  to the Data Center that Matters :

 

your mouth.

 

no worries :

 

M.R. soon enough

 

but , Fun is Fun  , For Sure !

[mjbarnard]

5 hours ago, FeChef said:

The meater probe is not waterproof. Its a very bad idea to put the probe inside the bag as there will be a lot of juices in there. Sorry i couldn't get past that so i didn't read the rest of your post.

You are correct it is water resistant not waterproof. So they are happy for it to be wet - have checked. Doesnt really matter because not a lot of juices circulating widely in a  proper vacuum sealed bag until it is opened. At least not enough to compromise the outer part of the probe. It worked perfectly and by their own information the really sensitive part of the probe is the tip which conveys the continuous data stream. Think of it like getting your water resistant watch wet in the rain, but not soaked.

 

I will start recording all the data from different meats now. Instead of almost spamming with different threads I will put all the data from different meats in one new thread. I have accumulated 3 anova's over the past 5 years so plenty of opportunity.

 

To the others : someone else asked for the link, but I wasnt sure if a new member could post direct links to products so I deleted the post. It is the meater plus, easily googled and in my opinion works well. If the mods approve I will post the USA store links.

 

 

Edited December 30, 2019 by mjbarnard
clarification (log)