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Sous Vide Emergency

Pilarindia

By Pilarindia
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Pilarindia

Pilarindia

Posted
Posted
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

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Doofa

Doofa

Posted
Posted

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

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Pilarindia

Pilarindia

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

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.

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Anna N

Anna N

Posted
Posted

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.

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

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btbyrd

btbyrd

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Posted (edited)

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 by btbyrd (log)

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Anna N

Anna N

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Posted

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.

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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Anna N

Anna N

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Posted

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.

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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dcarch

dcarch

Posted
Posted

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

 

 

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Pilarindia

Pilarindia

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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

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Joe Blowe

Joe Blowe

Posted
Posted

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.

  • Like 1

So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money. But when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness."

So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

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Joe Blowe

Joe Blowe

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Posted

Thank you. 

 

(Let the countdown begin...)

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So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money. But when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness."

So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

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gfweb

gfweb

Posted
Posted

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...

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Pilarindia

Pilarindia

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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.

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