Time meat can set in SousVide at 130*

[Backpacker Brown]

I'm new to sous vide cooking, and am wondering how long you can leave meat at temperature in the water bath. The other day I loaded several ribeyes into the sous vide and they sat at about 140degrees for several hours before I took them out and seared them. Something tells me that that is not the thing to do. So then how far in advance can you turn it on to vicinity of 130 degrees and let them meat set. By the way, the meat went from solid frozen to 140 in about 60 minutes, and I let it set for another hour or so.

[Jerod Broussard]

Brisket is done for up 72hrs. I set mine at 131.5-F just to make sure I'm hitting that 130 mark.

[grantgallagher]

Everything you wanted to know about sous vide steak. In a nut shell, you dont really want to hold a steak more than 4 hours. When i say steak i mean a strip, ribeye etc. Not the afore mentioned brisket.

https://www.seriouseats.com/food-lab...ous-vide-steak

[Sid P]

One of your member benefits is free copies of Meathead’s six "Deep Dive" Ebooks, and one of those books is about Sous Vide. I bet your answer is in there, in addition to a whole bunch more of useful info.

https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/forum/free-deep-dive-guide-ebooks/free-deep-dive-guide-ebooks-aa/1157845-paid-members-can-now-download-our-6-deep-dive-ebooks-for-free

[ssandy_561]

I just did a large sous vide cook. I had my Ribeye at 130° for about 2.25 hours. They hit 135° after about a 3 minute total sear. They turned out good but I have had better results reverse searing 2” Ribeyes than sous vide them. I like the fat better when they are reverse seared.

Now the Tri-Tip and Flank I sous vide at 130° for 5 hours were incredible.

[TripleB]

I found the same thing when I SV'd some steaks. The fat is not as rendered as much when SV'd. I like the fat texture and taste better when the steaks are grilled.

[jfmorris]

I will say we have had some nice SV steaks, but my wife informed me she much prefers the steaks I reverse sear on the Weber to the steaks I SV. She doesn't know what a reverse sear is, just that I cook the steak the entire time on the grill is what she prefers.

[Donw]

As others have said your meat will change texture if kept in the SV machine too long. Great for briskets and other tough cuts but for cuts like steaks you generally only want to cook until done. Periods beyond 4 hours will start mushing up the texture of your steak. Also remember that the steak will continue to cook once removed from the bath. I stop this process by a quick ice bath, especially if I’m holding the steak for later searing.

[Backpacker Brown]

Thanks guys for the good info. I think I'll follow all of the suggestions. They are great, Thanks

[Alan Brice]

I just did a four bone rack of pork. Been in freeze since March. Took it out put it in a big ziplock, not even sealed. Chip clipped to top of the pan. 24 hours at 135. Ice bath right after. Went to MIL n seared very hot on a standup George Foreman. Great results n soo tender.
I will have to look. Not sure if there are any pics,found them MIL made spaghetti, didn’t think pork from a hot tub sounded very appealing. IT was incredible! One of my first Sous vide, love it!

[Backpacker Brown]

Thanks Alan, for the reply. BTW: your CI griddle looks about the same as mine when I finish a cook. Do you have some "easy" way of cleaning all the gunk off the griddle. Also, and I'm not being critical here, don't unwanted bug grow rapidly when save for that long a period?. I help mine for about 2 hours and nobody got sick. Just trying to learn. Don't want to learn from some pal winding up in the hospital.

[Backpacker Brown]

I just reread my message. Lots of errors in it. Proof reading would help - sorry.

[Alan Brice]

Sal good here my Bro. Balled up alum foil is an excellent cleaner fr CI to grill grates. BTW: read Meathead’s latest book on Sous vide. Bug will not populate in temps above 131, as far as I have been led to believe. Some briskie can bathe for 72 hours.

[DaveD]

You can always hit Edit on any post you make and go back and clean up...

[rickgregory]

Some key things about SV...

1) PREHEAT THE WATER. Never put the meat in cool water and then turn on the SV circulator. Heat the water to temp then add the meat. Why? Because the very efficient energy transfer from water to meat means that the meat will move from its temp to the water temp very quickly, spending little time in the danger zone where germs grow.

2) Cook long enough to pasteurize the food. Use accepted recipes for this, but usually ~60-90 mins for a chop or steak will do this. Err on the longer side from frozen.

3) But don't leave steaks in too long (over 3-4 hours) or the texture can get mushy.

Finally, it's one method. It's not the best in all cases for all results (for example, slow reverse searing over indirect heat with a little wood gets you a smoky flavor that SV flat out cannot).

PS: Don't cook meat below 130F. That's where bugs will die if left in long enough (food safety is a matter of time and temp... and low temps require more time). Below 130 just isn't hot enough to kill things regardless of the amount of time.

[jerrybell]

As others have said your meat will change texture if kept in the SV machine too long. Great for briskets and other tough cuts but for cuts like steaks you generally only want to cook until done. Periods beyond 4 hours will start mushing up the texture of your steak. Also remember that the steak will continue to cook once removed from the bath. I stop this process by a quick ice bath, especially if I’m holding the steak for later searing.

Why would a few extra minutes of cooking at SV temps once you remove the steak from the bath make a difference?

[rickgregory]

Usually you'll SV the steak to close to your done temp (e.g. you'll SV it at 130 if you want it to end up at 135 post sear). If you ice it a bit, you can do a harder sear without overcooking.

You can also ice it for searing later. Say you have a party and some like rare, some med-rare, some medium. You can do steaks at those diff temps, ice them, warm them to a rare temp, then sear.

[jerrybell]

Thanks rickgregory. I don't SV, so my knowledge of this cooking method is very limited. I appreciate the explanation.

[Backpacker Brown]

Hey Rick, if you got steaks at 130 and then ice them for next day down to about 40* How long does it take to go from 40 back up to 130*? And the searing only takes a couple of minutes. So how much would you expect the temp to rise from the 130 mark to put a niece sear bark on them? You have any idea what temp you CK griddle is when you sear. Do you use clarified butter or what. Then I guess to clean up you CI griddle you use tinfoil and a paper towel?

[Backpacker Brown]

Hey Rick, THANKS for the reply. Good suggestion, Rick. How do you ice it - put it in a bag and pack ice all around it? Being the beginner that I am, I don't quite follow your strategy. You say warm them to a rare temp, how do you do that - in the SV? And how long does that take? What temp of the searing plate do you strive for and how long a sear do you give them?

[pkadare]

The steaks are already bagged coming out of the SV. You simply drop them in a bowl of ice and water. The goal here is to rapidly drop the temperature to well below the danger zone (below 40*F). To warm them to a rare temp again, yes, put them pack into a SV. As far as searing goes, you want whatever you're using to sear them to be as screaming hot as possible. The length of the sear depends on what you want the outside to look like. Keep in mind that you do not want to continue to cook...

[pkadare]

..the inside so it really helps to flip them frequently (every 30 seconds to a minute) while searing.

[Backpacker Brown]

Hey pkadare When you sear, do you have any idea what temp your griddle is.. Do you use Clarified butter to sear them with or what.Typically, what kind of temp rise do you get in the sear>

[rickgregory]

Hey Rick, THANKS for the reply. Good suggestion, Rick. How do you ice it - put it in a bag and pack ice all around it? Being the beginner that I am, I don't quite follow your strategy. You say warm them to a rare temp, how do you do that - in the SV? And how long does that take? What temp of the searing plate do you strive for and how long a sear do you give them?

to add to what pkadare says above...

1) you don't need to ice things if you're searing directly out of the SV. What most of us do i that case is to remove the steak from the SV, unbag it and pat dry, then add any seasoning we want (Montreal steak seasoning, etc). Heat a pan screaming hot, sear for ~ 60 seconds per side. This gets you a crust but doesn't raise the temp too much.

2) So why the talk of icing? Mostly, convenience for a party etc. If you are doing a bunch of steaks to different doneness levels for a dinner party or even just a family dinner, you can heat the water to various temps, do the steaks and then ice them down and refrigerate and do all of this the day before which is nice for a party - you're not messing around with food during the party, etc. Then you heat the steaks back to the lowest temp a half hour before searing, sear and eat.

[randy56]

From frozen I go 130 for 2.5 - 3 hours