I got my Anova today!

[DrPizza]

Did my first burgers the other night; 130 degrees for 2 hours, then the sear. Used 93% lean beef. I hate 93% lean beef, because all you get are hockey pucks, the meat is dry and tough. Not this time, omg melt in your mouth goodness. Yum!

 

[Howard]

I do my steaks at 129 for about an hour.

I have to point out (as usual) that this isn't enough to pasteurize the entirety of the steak, or maybe even the surface out.

Copy at one's own risk.

 

[HN]

maybe a dumb question, but do you guys take the meat direct from fridge and drop in bath or do you let it sit out first (and for how long)?

say if i want to do chicken breast, and the recommendation is 149F for 1 hour, that's 1 hour direct from fridge?

 

[echo4747]

maybe a dumb question, but do you guys take the meat direct from fridge and drop in bath or do you let it sit out first (and for how long)?

say if i want to do chicken breast, and the recommendation is 149F for 1 hour, that's 1 hour direct from fridge?

yes... you can go directly from fridge ..no harm in adding an extra 5-10 mins cooking time ..remember the food is surrounded by water and will quickly conduct heat and to up to temp

 

[Rakehellion]

Had to run off for a work-related issue, so batch 2 & 3 ended up being 9-hour cooks @ 135F:

D:

9 hours at 135F is probably not safe to eat. That's about the same as leaving it on the counter for 9 hours.

 

[HN]

yes... you can go directly from fridge ..no harm in adding an extra 5-10 mins cooking time ..remember the food is surrounded by water and will quickly conduct heat and to up to temp

Thx! Gonna give it a shot now. If I mess up, no harm, no fowl

 

[Imported]

I have to point out (as usual) that this isn't enough to pasteurize the entirety of the steak, or maybe even the surface out.

Copy at one's own risk.

Serious question here. Does pasteurization matter if it's getting seared after? I mean, I know some who simply like their steaks blue via a quick sear and I can't imagine many pathogens are killed that way.

 

[notposting]

D:

9 hours at 135F is probably not safe to eat. That's about the same as leaving it on the counter for 9 hours.

Your counter is 135°F?

Looking on Douglas Baldwin's site, at 135, the pasteurization time for beef, lamb, and pork is 36 minutes in the government table. Looking at the picture of the first steak Kaido made, it's hard to guess but I went with 1.25". If you look at the total time pasteurization tables, which include heating time for various thicknesses and temps, it probably puts that at around 90-120 minutes.

As for sub-130 cooking, like someone else mentioned, you can do it, but for safety you do not want to cook longer than 4 hours, or save the left overs.

The site is a bit dry but his site (http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html) has a ton of info you should start skimming through from the food safety/temps/times angle. Recipes, I would probably go elsewhere or just wing it though.

 

[notposting]

Serious question here. Does pasteurization matter if it's getting seared after? I mean, I know some who simply like their steaks blue via a quick sear and I can't imagine many pathogens are killed that way.

I kind of mentioned it just above, but basically it depends on the time and temp combined.

If you were to bring it up to 125 and leave it there for 10 hours while you went off to work and then came home...um...ewwwwwww.

Searing that dead groundhog Sho'nuff had under his house wouldn't make it any better.

If you came from work, popped it in the bath at 125, or 129, and then cracked it open 75 minutes later and seared it - probably perfection.

Also take into account who you are serving, the product you are serving, etc. IE, older people, children, pregnant women...pork, you want to hit time/temp long enough to take out any trichinosis concerns. (Surprisingly, quite a low temp, and not very long.)

One thing I have found is that you can go higher than you think with this style of cooking - ie a perfect medium rare, edge to edge, cooked at 135 this way, with basically no resting required, will screw up what you think a cut of meat should be.

 

[echo4747]

I know many here are still using ziploc bags and sucking the air out as much as you can and that works just fine. I purchased a food saver vacuum sealer primarily to cook with the anova. I must say the foodsaver has become one of my favorite/useful gadgets for the kitchen. I rarely throw any food in the trash now due to spoilage. Lately I've been playing with a new smoker recently purchased. After smoking like: a couple racks of ribs.. I vacuum seal the leftover ribs and drop the bag in hot water to reheat and eat leftovers a couple days later. It tastes just like the day they were smoked. Anyone considering a foodsaver or similar, go for it! It is very handy

 

[notposting]

Thx! Gonna give it a shot now. If I mess up, no harm, no fowl

Yeah, as mentioned above, check out Douglas Baldwin's site. Tables for 41F to xx F cooking times, including pasteurization.

Even makes pretty easy things like simple chicken breast dinners even easier. Drop a couple in around 4pm, and I have a window from 6-7:30 where I don't even have to worry. Safe and not overcooked on either end.

Will just cook up the other stuff (rice, start a pan sauce, veggies, corn on the cob, whatever) and then pop the chicken when needed. A little egg wash and flour and quick toss in the skillet and boom dinner. But none of the hovering and protecting that overly delicate little hunk o'meat from drying out.

 

[Howard]

Serious question here. Does pasteurization matter if it's getting seared after? I mean, I know some who simply like their steaks blue via a quick sear and I can't imagine many pathogens are killed that way.

Yes and no.

In theory, a whole piece of meat that hasn't been perforated or cut into will have pathogens only on the surface of the meat. That means that the inside does not have to be pasteurized in order to be "safe". However, you run the risk of being wrong about whether or not pathogens are below the surface of the meat... you also need to determine whether the surface of the meat has an "open grain" or is ragged.

Additionally, a sear may not be 100% effective at pasteurizing or sterilizing the surface, especially on the sides of the steak which many people neglect. The safest bet is to pasteurize the whole thing above ~130F, with a distant second being pasteurizing at least the first 5 mm or so.

 

[HN]

So I just faced a little dilemma -- when putting the meat in the bag, it touched a lot of the bag. So the part that was hanging over the edge wasn't in the heat at all. How do you get the cooked meat out without touched those parts of the bag? Just be really careful or what's the work around?

 

[Spoooon]

So I just faced a little dilemma -- when putting the meat in the bag, it touched a lot of the bag. So the part that was hanging over the edge wasn't in the heat at all. How do you get the cooked meat out without touched those parts of the bag? Just be really careful or what's the work around?

Depends. I'm not all that particular because I sear the crap out of the meat afterwards. I do try to very carefully place the meat in the bag though.

 

[Howard]

So I just faced a little dilemma -- when putting the meat in the bag, it touched a lot of the bag. So the part that was hanging over the edge wasn't in the heat at all. How do you get the cooked meat out without touched those parts of the bag? Just be really careful or what's the work around?

Roll over the edge of the bag before putting the meat inside, so that the unheated portion is safely hidden.

Also, as Spoooon mentioned, searing will destroy most/all surface bacteria.

 

[HN]

Thanks for all the advice and tips fellas!

(Rolling the bag over seems so obvious now, I'm embarrassed to say it never even crossed my mind )

 

[echo4747]

Did my first burgers the other night; 130 degrees for 2 hours, then the sear. Used 93% lean beef. I hate 93% lean beef, because all you get are hockey pucks, the meat is dry and tough. Not this time, omg melt in your mouth goodness. Yum!

Think I'm going to give this a try. Did you season the burgers with anything more than a little salt & pepper?

 

[DrPizza]

I know many here are still using ziploc bags and sucking the air out as much as you can and that works just fine. I purchased a food saver vacuum sealer primarily to cook with the anova. I must say the foodsaver has become one of my favorite/useful gadgets for the kitchen. I rarely throw any food in the trash now due to spoilage. Lately I've been playing with a new smoker recently purchased. After smoking like: a couple racks of ribs.. I vacuum seal the leftover ribs and drop the bag in hot water to reheat and eat leftovers a couple days later. It tastes just like the day they were smoked. Anyone considering a foodsaver or similar, go for it! It is very handy

I have 3 food savers (and this year, I better remember to put 2 back into my camper for storing some of the fish I catch). So far, I haven't considered it to be worth the bother. I've been using gallon ziplock bags, and I've used little wood kabob skewers to go through the bag above where the seal is. That way, I can position the meat in the center of the water bath so that water is circulating around it and the meat doesn't end up lying on the bottom of the water bath.

If you check out the SeriousEats site, it's recommended not to use a food saver for burgers - it compresses them too much. By submerging about half way in the water, and giving a few light squeezes with my hand to move some bubbles around, I can then suck (by mouth) any remaining air out of the top corner before finishing sealing the bag and letting it go the rest of the way into the water.

 

[Kaido]

I have 3 food savers (and this year, I better remember to put 2 back into my camper for storing some of the fish I catch). So far, I haven't considered it to be worth the bother. I've been using gallon ziplock bags, and I've used little wood kabob skewers to go through the bag above where the seal is. That way, I can position the meat in the center of the water bath so that water is circulating around it and the meat doesn't end up lying on the bottom of the water bath.

If you check out the SeriousEats site, it's recommended not to use a food saver for burgers - it compresses them too much. By submerging about half way in the water, and giving a few light squeezes with my hand to move some bubbles around, I can then suck (by mouth) any remaining air out of the top corner before finishing sealing the bag and letting it go the rest of the way into the water.

I have a Foodsaver as well & have not bothered to use it yet. Ziplocs are just too convenient. Although apparently we're both going to die:

http://community.anovaculinary.com/discussion/459/plastic-safety

:awe:

 

[Kaido]

D:

9 hours at 135F is probably not safe to eat. That's about the same as leaving it on the counter for 9 hours.

Kenji cooked them up to 48 hours for testing. His only note was this:

Steaks cooked under 130°F (54.4°C) should not be cooked longer than two-and-a-half hours at a time for food safety reasons.

 

[Howard]

I have a Foodsaver as well & have not bothered to use it yet. Ziplocs are just too convenient. Although apparently we're both going to die:

http://community.anovaculinary.com/discussion/459/plastic-safety

:awe:

I've looked into this a bit and I feel fairly confident that LDPE, the material from which Ziploc bags are made, is safe to use in contact with food at sous vide temperatures. I have not seen any evidence that LDPE contains (or can leach out) any of the bisphenols, nor any other toxic or poisonous compounds.

 

[echo4747]

I have 3 food savers (and this year, I better remember to put 2 back into my camper for storing some of the fish I catch). So far, I haven't considered it to be worth the bother. I've been using gallon ziplock bags, and I've used little wood kabob skewers to go through the bag above where the seal is. That way, I can position the meat in the center of the water bath so that water is circulating around it and the meat doesn't end up lying on the bottom of the water bath.

If you check out the SeriousEats site, it's recommended not to use a food saver for burgers - it compresses them too much. By submerging about half way in the water, and giving a few light squeezes with my hand to move some bubbles around, I can then suck (by mouth) any remaining air out of the top corner before finishing sealing the bag and letting it go the rest of the way into the water.

I can see that the food saver may squish the burgers too much. there are quite a lot of foodsaver models too choose from. The one I have does have a setting for gentle or normal vacuum. I will try the gentle setting to see if its "gentle" enough. I do like the assurance that the heat sealing the foodsaver provides for things like chicken,steaks,roasts etc (especially when cook times are long)

 

[Kaido]

I've looked into this a bit and I feel fairly confident that LDPE, the material from which Ziploc bags are made, is safe to use in contact with food at sous vide temperatures. I have not seen any evidence that LDPE contains (or can leach out) any of the bisphenols, nor any other toxic or poisonous compounds.

I'm not too worried about it, to be honest. I have a cell phone strapped to my hip 12 hours a day, cook everything in the microwave, stay indoors nearly all day breathing recycled air, looking at a screen that is probably melting my eyes with radiation...meh, I can handle a plastic baggie for cooking

 

[echo4747]

I have a Foodsaver as well & have not bothered to use it yet. Ziplocs are just too convenient. Although apparently we're both going to die:

http://community.anovaculinary.com/discussion/459/plastic-safety

:awe:

Unless you don't want or have dedicated counter space for a foodsaver I dont understand how using ziplocs are more convenient. with the foodsaver just place the items in the bag insert it into the machine 20-30seconds and its vacuumed and heat sealed. Ready to either cook or store it.

I buy vacuum bags on ebay that you only need to seal the one end. I do think the roll of plastic (that comes with the foodsaver) that you have to size,cut,seal one end put the food in the vacuum /seal is a pain in the butt

 

[Howard]

Unless you don't want or have dedicated counter space for a foodsaver I dont understand how using ziplocs are more convenient. with the foodsaver just place the items in the bag insert it into the machine 20-30seconds and its vacuumed and heat sealed. Ready to either cook or store it.

I buy vacuum bags on ebay that you only need to seal the one end. I do think the roll of plastic (that comes with the foodsaver) that you have to size,cut,seal one end put the food in the vacuum /seal is a pain in the butt

I only have the vacuum bags that come on a roll, so yes, I have to size and seal before I can do anything with them. I suppose if you had pre-made vacuum bags, there wouldn't be any difference in time or convenience.

The big leg up that the immersion seal has over the vacuum seal is that you can safely seal liquids in the bag without having to resort to freezing them or buying an expensive chamber vacuum.