11 hours ago, Porthos said:Based on something I read in an SV recipe I wonder if I am overdoing something. I am suspending my bag or bags in the water bath off of a wooden spoon. If I am doing just one bag can I just drop FoodSaver-sealed bag in the bath.
11 hours ago, Smithy said:
That's what I have been doing, but I am the newest of the newbies and may have been doing it wrong. As long as the temperature is constant (water circulating), why would it matter?
Suspension became common practice for two reasons. First was to deal with noncirculators, e.g., PID controlled crockpots and rice cookers, which was the state-of-the-art consumer rig until the SVS was introduced in late 2009. The SVS uses a rack rather than clips. Anyhoo, there's no need to suspend the bags in a circulator for purposes of heat transfer. Jo demonstrated this a couple years ago (ETA: see here) by measuring the temp between bags touching each other and finding no difference from the bath temp.
OTOH, suspension (or a rack) is a good idea with a circulator if you're using zip-top bags, as the seal on those isn't sturdy. Also, it serves the same function as Jo and rotuts are discussing by putting weight in the bottom of the bags, i.e., keeps the bags oriented vertically. Further, I use a rack in a circulator even with a vacuum sealer, but that's because my seals aren't entirely reliable (and I have a couple extra racks handy). With reliable seals, a vacuumed bag doesn't need to be suspended. This would include a FoodSaver.
