Thinking about giving SV—Q a try as a new challenge for the new year, but before I make the investment I have what is probably a rookie question... how in the world do you sous vide large pieces of meat? I do a lot of cooking for 8 people, and I just can’t get my head around how to SV a monster size pork butt or a full packer brisket.
What do you use to bag them... something with Hefty on the side of it? LOL And the plastic container... beer cooler or what?
Look forward to words of experience to help me get excited about this idea again - the more I read and watch videos, the more I’m talking myself out of the idea.
I have easily fit one of the 2 pork shoulders that comes in a pack at costco in a foodsaver bag. Usually people modify a cooler for larger cuts of meat. I have a sous-vide, but i have only combined that and grilling by putting my grill grate on top of my chimney starter to get some great browning of food.
I have SV'd 2 or 3 butts so far in the 9 lb range. I modified the lid of a Coleman 24 qt cooler to accommodate my Anova SV device and it worked out beautiful. They were injected then seasoned with MMD then frozen. I SV'd them at 155 for 36 hours straight out of the freezer then I put them in a cooler mixed with 50/50 ice and water for 2 hours, after that I put them in the fridge until I was ready to cook them. The first one I didn't purge the juices from the bag so they congealed during the cooling period but the second one I cut a corner off of the vacuum bag to pour the juices out into a bowl to save for later, of course I had to reseal it before I put it in the cooler. After all this I cooked them on my Lang for around 4 hours for some smoke. They were both very tender, juicy and falling apart and also had a good smoke favor.
Thanks for the feedback folks, and I hope to hear more. Really like the idea of cutting pork butts in half - mo bark, mo better! :-) I wonder if cutting a brisket into smaller pieces (or ribs for that matter) is the answer there too.
Will work fine for brisket. Rib, at least pork ribs, have enough surface area uncut that I would be afraid you would be risking dry ribs for a little extra bark by cutting them. Beef ribs, maybe...
I cut racks of ribs in half to sous Vide all the time. It’s probably blasphemy, but I sometimes cut them down to two-bone portions. They cook faster that way, and there’s more area for smoke to adhere to!
Weber Summit Kamado with SnS and Vortex.. Broil King Baron, Primo Oval Junior. Primo XL. Love grilling steaks, ribs, and chicken. Need to master smoked salmon. Absolutely love anything to do with baking bread. Favorite cool weather beer: Sam Adams Octoberfest Favorite warm weather beer: Yuengling Traditional Lager. All-time favorite drink: Single Malt Scotch
The insulation will help keep your water hot. Just modify the lid to accommodate your SV device. Foodsaver makes a line of pleated bags that are expandable for larger cuts of meat.
Last edited by Thunder77; January 12, 2018, 12:05 PM.
I've done the Sous Vide hack on the cooler in the link above gdsim1 (cut the lid in half and a hole for the SV device in the corner) and it works great for large cooks.
Just an FYI, there is a search box on the upper right hand corner of the page header above along with a button labeled advanced search. Go to that and type in either 'sous vide coolers' or 'sous vide accessories' or sous vide immersion devices', you get the picture. That will return all of the posts and threads that have to do what what you are asking. There are lots of guys here who have custom built large sous vide baths out of coolers and advice on where to get larger bags for doing large cuts of meat.
Good luck and show us, with pictures, one of your successful SV-Q cooks !!
Like you read my mind sir, thanks. If I take the plunge on SV-Q (double entendre fully intended lol) I will be sure to report back. Thanks for the help.
If not cooking outdoors, I am cooking on the stovetop with my 14" carbon steel wok, 12" CI skillet, or in the oven with my two Lodge CI pizza pans, or two dutch ovens. I've also got a nifty Lodge carbon steel grill pan that rocks for veggies outdoors.
If you don't want to cram it in a foodsaver bag - I think an 8# butt would be hard to do - they do sell 2 gallon Ziplock freezer and storage bags that should easily work. I did a 5# bacon wrapped pork loin sous vide for New Year's lunch, and I put that in a foodsaver bag.
I am just using pots I have already so far, and I have a 2 gallon and 5 gallon stock pot that should fit anything I need to cook, but those rectangular plastic containers or a cooler work great too.
I use 2-gallon zip locks, but am looking into the pleated foodsaver rolls. They were recommended by people on a SV forum.
As to containers, I have a 6qt and a 12qt container I use for breadmaking and pizza dough, as well as sous vide. If I'm cooking anything over 145, I put it on a trivet, and if I'm cooking for more than a few hours, I plastic wrap most of the top, to keep evaporation from dropping the water level.
Coolers work really well, also. But I find my round containers are perfectly adequate, and multi-taskers, whereas a large square one would be a unitasker.
I wouldn't use a trash bag. They aren't rated for use at temperature, and they aren't rated as foodsafe.
I’m back peeps! :-) Soooooo THIS just happened... 1 1/2†thick sirloin from Costco, perfect doneness, pretty much melted in my mouth. Got some equipment upgrades to get done for searing before I’m ready to call it perfection, but for a first shot at Sous Vide? I’m pretty darned happy.
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