Sous Vide bags for oven cooking - max safe temperature rating?

[kitae]

I've oven cooked before with Turkey bags. I'm interested in purchasing some sous vide bags for low temperature oven cooking, but it's hard to find information on the max safe temperature rating of bags.

 

What I've learned so far:

• The "safest" bags are high-density polyethylene, low-density polyethylene, and polypropylene
• From wikipedia, the melting point of low density polyethylene is 239F+ as is the melting point of Polypropylene is 266F+ ... but I'm not sure if that's the same as the maximum safe cooking temperature

 

What I"m looking for is a FoodSaver compatible food bag with sufficient information for me to determine the safe temperature range so I can with confidence use it for low temperature oven cooking. I know enough to know good quality bags are "probably safe at 200F" which is about the max I'd use them for but ... I am not a huge fan of "probably" when it comes to food safety.

 

Now... I know that's not what they're intended for - and why not use nylon Oven Bags?  They are great and I do use them but you can't get the same kind of seal you can get with a food saver bag and I'd love to preserve as much flavor and freshness as possible when cooking.

 

Appreciate any info that could help me locate an appropriate sous vide bag! Or info on a technique for sealing nylon bags that is food safe.

[Martin Fisher]

You can seal oven bags if you really want to...buy some hog rings and some hog ring pliers.

[dcarch]

Oven temperature can be highly inaccurate. +- 30F is not unusual.

 

I don't think sous vide bags should be used.

 

 

dcarch

[btbyrd]

You could use a retort pouch, but they're more expensive and much harder to seal. But generally, you don't want to use sous vide bags unless you're working in something like a combi oven.

Edited December 22, 2014 by btbyrd (log)

[Shalmanese]

Any target temperature below 100C/212F, you can cook in a water bath, either in the oven or with a circulator. This will guarantee temps never rise above boiling so you can use any bag rated safe for boiling. All the foodsaver and freezer ziplocs are fine at these temps.

Any target temp above 100C/212F, you need to use a venting bag or steam will cause the bag to blow out so there's no point vacuum sealing anything. Just use a covered pot or turkey bag as you have been before.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Any target temperature below 100C/212F, you can cook in a water bath, either in the oven or with a circulator. This will guarantee temps never rise above boiling so you can use any bag rated safe for boiling. All the foodsaver and freezer ziplocs are fine at these temps.

Any target temp above 100C/212F, you need to use a venting bag or steam will cause the bag to blow out so there's no point vacuum sealing anything. Just use a covered pot or turkey bag as you have been before.

 

What about in a pressure cooker?

[btbyrd]

I'd advise against cooking in plastic in the oven for precisely the reasons dcarch mentions. Oven thermostats are notoriously inaccurate. But even if they're accurate, they are mostly "bang bang" varieties, where the thermostat "bangs" on when the temp gets too low and "bangs" off when it gets too high. The swing in between can be 20 or 30 degrees (or more), and even in a combi oven it can be 10 degrees or so. Unless you're cooking at super low temps (150-180) I wouldn't cook in plastic, and most ovens don't even go that low. Even if they do, they're probably not accurate. So use turkey bags, retort pouches, or parchment instead.

 

What about in a pressure cooker?

 

You need a retort pouch to cook in a pressure cooker.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

You need a retort pouch to cook in a pressure cooker.

 

I thought that's what we were talking about.

[btbyrd]

Ah. The post you quoted only mentioned Ziplocs, Foodsaver/SV bags, and "venting bags" (whatever those are). Retort pouches are different from any of these, as they're not made of (just) plastic, and they don't vent.

[pbear]

I've oven cooked before with Turkey bags. I'm interested in purchasing some sous vide bags for low temperature oven cooking, but it's hard to find information on the max safe temperature rating of bags.

 

I'm curious.  What do you want to cook and why do you want to use bags rather than an ordinary covered baking dish?

[tdatta]

just FYI:

 

There are some conflicting reports on the maximum temperature of bags:

For example the manufacturer (I think they are the manufacturer) says that the vacmaster bags can be boiled (no time limit stated): http://myvacmaster.com/cgi/ary.wsc/storagebags?p-item-num=10102000-Mesh

 

 

However a retailer says that the same bags cannot be boiled: http://www.webstaurantstore.com/ary-vacmaster-946220-8-x-12-full-mesh-quart-size-vacuum-packaging-bags-3-mil-100-box/120VBM946220.html

 

and sells another set of bags specifically for higher temperatures, which they say can be boiled for 30 mins:

http://www.webstaurantstore.com/ary-vacmaster-30749-10-x-15-cook-in-chamber-re-therm-vacuum-packaging-pouches-bags-for-sous-vide-cooking-3-mil-1000-case/120VPM30749.html

 

The same higher temp bags can be found on vacmasters site at, where they state that they can be boiled for 30 minutes: http://myvacmaster.com/cgi/ary.wsc/storagebags?p-item-num=10101000-therm

 

Interestingly both types of bags are BPA free and made of polyethylene and nylon (though the compositions are slightly different, possibly yielding the different characteristics). And, I cannot find the