Joule Fail!

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

30 hours into my 72 hour pastrami cook, the Joule stops circulating. I checked the propeller, changed the water, reconnected it to the WiFi, and even tried the vinegar cleaning. It wouldn’t start again despite about 20 attempts.

Now my poor pastrami is in the oven at 275 at 11pm at night. I guess I will stay up to see it to 203ish and hope that it comes out okay.

WTH Joule?!

Only bought it last week.

[SheilaAnn]

Oh snap! Dude, so sorry! Only a week old? I would totally get on the phone in the morning. Sending good cook vibes!

[Dewesq55]

Wow, that sucks! Technology is great until it's not. Good luck with it.

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

Well, hit 203 and probe tender at 2am. Putting in fridge in 20 minutes and calling it a night. Sigh.

[Bighorn Dave]

My first Joule failed also. You can contact them on their web site and register a claim. Mine was answered quickly and a new unit sent out that day. The new one has worked flawlessly. Good luck

[JakeT]

Definitely not been my experience with the joule. Got mine about a year ago and use it 2-3 times per week without issue.

[lostclusters]

Sounds like a burn in period of about a week is necessary.

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

I sent them an email, so we will see.

Another question:

I smoked the meat in the MB560 for about 2.5 hours until it hit 130 IT, but 30 hours in the sous vide essentially caused most of the rub to disappear, so now I'm left with a lot of brownish meat with fairly limited rub. I guess I'd be expecting the meat to look more like a black crust but soft due to the sous vide, not to completely disappear.

Is this due to the lack of vacuum sealing of the larger pieces of meat (4-5 pd chunks) in gallon-size zip lock bags? I'm wondering even if fairly limited air circulation caused this, as there was a lot of liquid in the bags.



Potkettleblack


Polarbear777

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

Thank you so much for all the advice!!!!

[Potkettleblack]

QVQ, in my experience, results in a better final result, both from smoke flavor and bark texture. Your mileage may vary. Since you've already completed the finishing step, more cooking is not liable to improve the result. Should be fine, any way.

Sorry to hear about your Joule, their customer service was great when my first Joule died after a couple years of use. Since they are now owned by Breville, I expect no fall off.

[shify]

I generally do SVQ but on occasion have done QVQ. I find the smoke a little stronger QVQ but generally not worth the additional effort. part of the beauty of SVQ is I can drop it in the bath at any time and smoke when I want to eat. QVQ throws that off a bit for slightly more than negligible results. 95% of the time I would dry brine, SV, shock/chill, then rub and smoke and serve

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

The kid and the wife said it tasted amazing so....success?

[Potkettleblack]

It passed the only test that matters... so, yes.

[rickgregory]

I had my Anova crap out on me 30 hours into a 36 hour cook (in the middle of the night, so the meat sat at 70F for hours... #tossedthat). It kind of soured me on long SV cooks. I've never tried a QVQ brisket because medium rare brisket doesn't actually appeal to me, but if I was going to, I'd get a cheap backup unit and have them both in the bath, set to the same temp so there's backup if one dies. Losing a $10 small pork shoulder was one thing but loosing a $70+ brisket would send me...

[Mosca]

I've had success with sous vide, but in the end I don't think it's any better than anything else. It's just different. That's just me, of course, but given the choice between things that make cooks longer and things that make cooks shorter, I'll take shorter. The Instant Pot is cool and useful. The Anova is cool and a PITA to schedule life around.

[rickgregory]

for meats, I agree that SV is just different. There's zero reason to do super long QVQ brisket unless you want a non-traditional doneness (Med-rare, etc) but if you do, it's great for that & really the only way to do it.

Where it shines for me is when I've got a bunch of steaks, chicken breasts etc that I've seasoned and vacuum sealed and I can just pop those in the water bath and boom, not have to worry.

of course I don't fine the IP worth the space either But I don't pressure cook.

[theroc]

Very sorry to hear about the failure. I also had a Joule stop working mid-way through a long bath. However, we had had the unit for the better part of a year. We contacted their user support and after a brief exchange they replaced the unit for no charge. I was very impressed with their service. The new unit has performed without a hitch for a couple of years since then. This all took place before Breville purchased Joule, though. Hopefully they will still be as responsive as before. Good luck getting it resolved.

BTW - one of the things I learned during the exchange with Joule's customer support was that it was a good idea to add a few teaspoons of white vinegar to the water bath when doing long cooks to help minimize mineral buildups that can freeze the impeller. That should have been an issue with your nearly-new Joule, but a helpful recommendation for your new/repaired device.

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

Joule said they will replace it! So I just set up the exchange via Amazon and a new one will arrive this week. I will drop it off at Kohls tomorrow.

Good job Joule/Amazon!

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

Here you go.

[Dr. Pepper]

Looks good!

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

I guess I managed to fail into success this time..

[Polarbear777]

Failure around here usually still means awesome. The bar is high.

[DogFaced PonySoldier]

I have 2 Joules that have been flawless for about... I dunno, 3 years now? I can't recommend them enough. Glad they took care of you.

I think that pastrami looks fabulous, bet it tasted the same.

[Polarbear777]

For QVQ I usually add more rub before the final smoke, since you do lose a bunch in the bath. I like having the rub there for the first Q step. If you aren’t doing a first Q, then just add the rub after SV.

[Polarbear777]

QVQ is easier if every time you finish an item, you start another while the smoke is still rolling. :-)

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

I think I will skip the first smoke next time and smoke it afterwards and see what the reaction is from the family. It would be good to see if they see more flavor from the rub versus the potential weaker smoke.

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

Doubled up on the Meathead Katz rub this time so would have been good to keep more of it.

I suppose I could have thrown everything in the fridge and smoked it to 203 the next day but the outcome would have been pretty similar I think.