[QUOTE=China Guy]
A big pot of water in a low temperature oven works well for up to 4 steaks. The other night I tried with about 7 steaks and it didn’t work so well. I had to crank up the oven temperature about 50 degrees above the target water temp. I stirred the steaks around a couple of times but should have done so a lot more. A couple of steaks came out beautifully, a couple were good but very very very rare.
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I’m in the process of reading Modernist Cuisine, and they are very firm that standard ovens are totally inappropriate for sous vide. From page 207 of Volume 1:
[QUOTE=Modernist Cuisine]
Domestic ovens tend to swing in temperature and can be off by as much as 5% at any given point. At 205 C/ 400 F that 5% isn’t a big deal, but for cooking at sous vide temperatures, such as 60 C/140 F, 5% can be the difference between safe and unsafe cooking. Ovens, therefore, should never be used for very-low-temperature sous vide cooking. They are simply unreliable, with temperature swings that are way too big.
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It makes sense to use that pre-vac industrial meat for this.
I was wondering, at home should you would blanch the meat in boiling water for a few seconds or broil the out side to kill vermin prior to vac-pak or zip-baggie for freezer?
I get the warning and see the risk in a basic electric oven. Then again, I’ve got a really nice Miele oven with convection that works with an even temperature and low temperature setting. I’ve also monitored the temperature and don’t see big swings.
I don’ have the book with me to quote it, but they are also very strongly of the opinion that quite a few thermometers are nowhere near accurate enough, especially dial oven types. They had a chart that specified the accuracy range of each of the common types, from glass bulb to a type that uses a coil of platinium that I’ve never even heard of. One of their points is that a lot of them just don’t respond quicky enough to accurately ensure safe sous vide. If memory serves, oven dial types vary over a twelve degree range.
What type of temperature measurement system are you using?
Have a dial type that’s reasonably accurate. Bought a ThermoWorks RT600C specifically for sous vide sanity checks. Cooks magazine choice for best value for money thermometer…
A pocket temperature probe? Seriously, invest in, at the very minimum, a thermometer with a remote probe that you can put into the water, inside the oven. They can be had for $20.
Huge disappointment. We did a tri-tip for 4 hours as a first try, it came out fine (though I’d done beer-cooler sous vide with that cut before, no surprise). So I decided to do this, short rubs sous vide for 72 hours.
At the end, the meat was covered in green slime and smelled faintly like an underarm. It may have been fine, but it didn’t look at all like the pictures in that article and I didn’t feel safe going further. The interior of the ribs were pink, tender, and smelled good, but the outside look and smell made me feel unsafe, which isn’t a good place to be with meat. I did spot-check the water temp a bunch of times over those three days, and it was the right temp (134F) with a thermometer which agreed with the controller. I’m not sure if I was being too cautious with the final look of the meat, or if I did something wrong getting there.
EEEew. I have never had my meat go green and funky like that. What was in the rub? Maybe it reacted badly? Is it possible that the bath got turned off or something for a few hours early on?
That definitely sounds odd. I wouldn’t have eaten it either.
Maybe try the short ribs again, but less time? I don’t remember if I’ve done anything as long as 72 hours, but I’ve definitely done ribs in the 48-52 hour range, and never had issues.
I think those ribs were on the verge of developing sentience … :eek:
I asked mrAru and the last time he did ribs for us no rub, all he did was pat them dry and seal them into the plastic in 3 rib sections [one portion. great for portion control!] and pop them in at 135 for 24 hours. He took them out, hit them up on the grill outside to carmelize the exterior and give them a nice baste with sauce.
I think perhaps the temp got wonky or perhaps a tiny air and water leak in, or perhaps a bit of both?
It’s gotta be temp. The ribs were in individually sealed packages; if one leaked they wouldn’t have all gone bad. All of these were bad.
Maybe it’s time to just buy a goddamn sous vide machine. A shame, I like the notion of doing sous vide in mad-scientist fashion with a controller. Not to mention being able to do larger batches than in an SV Supreme.
I’ve been using mine to make yogurt. It’s nice being able to have the milk come up to 180, then cool to 125, add the culture and let it stay at 115 for 8-12 hours.
So did you eat it??? You should start a thread like this one and see how many people would have.
Any chance you’d be open to posting that pic over on the eGullet forums? There’s lots of smart people over there who sous-vide, and I’m curious if anyone could tell us why your ribs turned green. If anyone could figure it out, they could.
