Sous Vide Mega Thread - Fine Dining for Dummies

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

Was thinking this has botulism written all over it.

that's the danger specifically

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by DionTheDman

Well, follow some pretty simple, common sense rules about food and you should probably be ok. I mean, if you prepare chicken or pork at 45 celcius, then that's just your own fault. There are plenty of guides and instructions on what temperatures you should reach at minimum for various proteins. Having said that, there are SOME risks... with garlic for example.

my worry with sous vide is just the normal stupidity we all tend to, the kids unplug the machine to charge their IPhone then plug it back in an hour later without telling you or the like.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

Sous Vide is a technique that takes many many hours, the worry is the meat in the center, not the outside (as with all cooking to be frank) searing the outside isn't going to help with that at all, unless you cooked it so long you completely make the sous vide part pointless.

Ok... I might be slightly concerned about my purchase now...

But most of the videos and examples I see do around 2-3 hours at max. I would never want to attempt anything over 4-5 hours. Overall, I think I will be ok...

[Kjesse]

Actually the issue is more along the lines of e. coli, salmonella, or listeria. I've never heard of botulism with sous vide. I think botulism dies at much lower temps.

Handle the food like you would normally do, and you'll be fine. A long cook time is no problem.

I used to be freaky careful and take huge precautions making my own steak tartare at home, or even buying salmon and eating it as sashimi. I've learned you can take basic precautions and you'll have no problem. If you're concerned about how fresh the product is (which is wise, but know your butcher), freeze your meat/fish for a few days, thaw it and use it right away.

I did a quick google search, here's a great but perhaps overly detailed article about it: http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Safety

EDIT: When I said long cook time, I wasn't thinking 12 hours plus.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by Delgar

Actually the issue is more along the lines of e. coli, salmonella, or listeria. I've never heard of botulism with sous vide. I think botulism dies at much lower temps.

Handle the food like you would normally do, and you'll be fine. A long cook time is no problem.

I used to be freaky careful and take huge precautions making my own steak tartare at home, or even buying salmon and eating it as sashimi. I've learned you can take basic precautions and you'll have no problem.

I did a quick google search, here's a great but perhaps overly detailed article about it: http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Safety

I just named the first food borne illness that popped in my head. Pick your position.

[opendoor]

Yeah, sous vide relies on both temperature and time to kill bacteria, so you really need to make sure you have it at the final temperature for long enough. Normal cooking temperature guidelines kill bacteria immediately, so for chicken once it hits 165º you're good to go even if it does that for only a second or two. If you're cooking to 140º you need to make sure it hits that temperature and stays there for half an hour or so.

So you know it's safe to eat at 165º just by using a thermometer, but knowing that a piece of chicken is 140º doesn't tell you enough unless you know how long it was at that temp. Pretty much any recipe will account for this though and they build in a bunch of extra time for safety so in practice the risk is minimal.

[Kjesse]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

my worry with sous vide is just the normal stupidity we all tend to, the kids unplug the machine to charge their IPhone then plug it back in an hour later without telling you or the like.

Yeah, that's a very good point. But if used properly the device is not dangerous.

Kind of like a gas range. It could blow your house up.

[Kjesse]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

I just named the first food borne illness that popped in my head. Pick your position.

I picked salmonella and e coli but got listeria from the article. So I cheated.

Edit: I did get e coli once about 10 years ago. Thought I was going to die. Awful experience. Had to do with stampede food on the midway.

[Kjesse]

That reddit link is interesting, confirms botulism dies at a lower temp.

This being said I don't know I'd want to do a 24 hour cook in sous vide. I'll do a brisket or pork shoulder in the smoker for 24 hours no problem, but the target temp is around 190 F. Spores are all dead long before that.

I'd think twice and be very careful before doing a full roast sous vide for say 12 hours or more.

Beef, pork or fish in small pieces (i.e. steak) will take an hour to three, no concerns there.

I hadn't considered the above posters were talking about doing sous vide for 24 hours. That would concern me.

[Regular_John]

I've tried a few steaks using the sous vide technique with a beer cooler wrapped in a towel, as an experiment on the weekend it's fun, but hard to get precision temperature control that way.

I'm also intrigued at the idea of trying soft boiled eggs in the shell for dropping onto soup. But even with a fancy Anova machine it's hard to beat just boiling the eggs for 6 minutes.

[GGG]

I don't think you can soft boil an egg because the whites won't get hot enough before the yolks cook to some degree. Soft boiling relies on cooking the white before the yolk cooks.

You can poach them though and have a softer white and runny yolk

[fundmark19]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

Sous Vide is a technique that takes many many hours, the worry is the meat in the center, not the outside (as with all cooking to be frank) searing the outside isn't going to help with that at all, unless you cooked it so long you completely make the sous vide part pointless.

Do you even know anything about sous vide? It doesn't take many many hours unless you are doing something like a 24-36 hour ribs or roast but that isn't because the meat is cooked that is to tenderize it.

Take a look at the chart. The pros sweet spot for most meats is 1 hour.

https://www.chefsteps.com/activities...perature-guide

[Northendzone]

bear in mind I am at work as I write this - but is the idea here that you put your steak in a bag, drop the bag in boiling water and boil the steak for some period of time and then finish it off on the grill?

[Canehdianman]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

bear in mind I am at work as I write this - but is the idea here that you put your steak in a bag, drop the bag in boiling water and boil the steak for some period of time and then finish it off on the grill?

not boiling, just warm/hot (temperature varies for different foods).
but basically, yes.

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

bear in mind I am at work as I write this - but is the idea here that you put your steak in a bag, drop the bag in boiling water and boil the steak for some period of time and then finish it off on the grill?

When you BBQ a steak you are using a high temperature (400 degrees) to cook a steak to medium rare (120 degrees). Because of the heat and the flame you will have some unevenness throughout the finished product. The outside edges will be crusted. The inside will be one temperature, and as you progress to the outside it will be varying degrees of cooked. The picture earlier in the thread shows this well, even if it's a bit extreme.

By using the sous-vide process, you are cooking the steak at one temperature for the entire time. If you set your cooker to 120 degrees, and leave it in the water for an hour, it will come out with the entire steak being medium rare. You can leave it in as long as you want, because you can't overcook it. A steak gets overcooked on a BBQ because the flame is hotter than 120 degrees. If the water temperature doesn't get over 120 degrees, than the steak can't cook past this level. Again, the picture earlier in this thread shows this well.

Finishing the steak off in a cast iron pan, or on a BBQ will give it a much nicer presentation, and will add a great crunch on the outside that I prefer. Make sure you don't leave it on the pan too long, as the steak is already cooked. All you are doing is searing the outside.

[polak]

Originally Posted by chemgear

From what I understand (I just post the deals I see), it's a combination of the even cooking, keeping in all the moisture and flavor.

Interesting. Seems like something that's worth a shot.

Unfortunately I get home too late from work usually so I don't have hours to cook dinner during the week. I need a friend to get this set up!

[Kerplunk]

When I was first looking at sous vide cooking I was concerned about bacteria hanging around as well...I found this link that helped explain the safety aspect of the method:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/07/t...en-breast.html

Basically, we cook things like chicken to 165F to immediately kill anything inside, but this also tends to dry out the meat. However the same can be done at 145F, as long as the temperature is held for 10 minutes.

I've started to apply the same idea to the grill to get better results, but sous vide would make it easier to get the proper temperature for the required time.

[OldDutch]

As others have stated. Pathogens grow like crazy at room temperature, hence refrigeration. As food approaches 130F it is harder and slower for pathogens to grow. Above 130F Pathogens cannot survive and die. Every degree above 130F the pathogens die off more quickly eventually until you hit 165F where they die instantly.

So a hamburger cooked for 1 hour at 140F is just as safe scientifically as 165F cooked one.

With that said, we do not feed our young kids sous vide anything. Just to be safe. I char the crap out of all their food, since their palates really don't care.

[OldDutch]

I did 48 hours ribs and would not do again. They were safe to eat, but the texture of pork seems off when it is not well done. Juicy and flavorful yes, but just the texture has my brain screaming food poisoning due to the way I have always eaten it. Just ends up being a turn off.

[fundmark19]

Originally Posted by OldDutch

I did 48 hours ribs and would not do again. They were safe to eat, but the texture of pork seems off when it is not well done. Juicy and flavorful yes, but just the texture has my brain screaming food poisoning due to the way I have always eaten it. Just ends up being a turn off.

How did you finish them off?