Question About Sous Vide & Meal Prep For A Week

I know a lot of people like to sous vide and then add ice to the pot.

After that, they use a blow torch somehow or another.


Hope this helps.

So food has to be kept either under 40 deg or above 140 deg. to reduce the risk of bacteria or food poisoning. So if you Sous vide the chicken breast at 140-155 range for an hour or two they would be at that temp. If you chuck them in the fridge it could take a few hours before the got below 40 deg the safe zone. Leaving them in the danger zone of 40-140 for that time period is not recommended. This is why they need to get dunked in ice water to bring them down below 40 quickly then put in the fridge.

Nope its ok because you dont leave it at that temp long enough for stuff to grow. Before you eat it. It has to do with food left in that Danger Zone for more than 3-4 hours.

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So food has to be kept either under 40 deg or above 140 deg. to reduce the risk of bacteria or food poisoning. So if you Sous vide the chicken breast at 140-155 range for an hour or two they would be at that temp. If you chuck them in the fridge it could take a few hours before the got below 40 deg the safe zone. Leaving them in the danger zone of 40-140 for that time period is not recommended. This is why they need to get dunked in ice water to bring them down below 40 quickly then put in the fridge.

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Using your logic, how would we ever eat leftovers? You don't drop other foods (non sous vide) in an ice bath before refrigerating, do you?

The "danger zone" is for raw foods.

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Using your logic, how would we ever eat leftovers? You don't drop other foods (non sous vide) in an ice bath before refrigerating, do you?

The "danger zone" is for raw foods.

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No, the danger zone is for all foods. Raw or cooked, if you introduce pathogens to the food and hold it at a temperature where bacteria can thrive, you run the risk of getting yourself sick if you eat it. If it's food held in the danger zone in an anaerobic environment (sealed foods, some infused oils, wrapped baked potatoes, etc.), you run the risk of killing yourself if you eat it. This, particularly, is why sous vide foods need to be chilled as quickly as possible. The temperatures don't get high enough to destroy Clostridium Botulinum's spores or toxins and you've got everything vacuum packed and sealed. C. Botulinum will only produce its toxin under an anaerobic environment like the inside of your sous vide bag. Sooo, you either eat it right away or chill it down as fast as humanly possible because you don't want C. Botulinum to have a chance to produce toxins. Just for shits and giggles, botulinum toxin is the most lethal toxin known to man and minute amounts on the order of nanograms of toxin to kilogram of body weight will kill you.

This kid doesn't seem too thrilled with the botulism he got. He's fully conscious, too.

Food borne illnesses ain't nothing to mess with. They're fairly rare, but they can frick you up royally.

The only problem i've run across searing refrigerated sous vide meat is that you will either have to sacrifice temp or texture. You can sear it quick like you would if you had just cooked it, but it won't get very warm all the way through. Or you can sear it longer to get it warmed through, but lose the texture you were originally aiming for by cooking it sous vide.
Usually people recommend putting the meat back in the water bath after taking it out the fridge and then searing it. But this doesnt really save you any time.

Sometimes i'll fill my sink with very hot water and throw the bag in there while I work on other parts of my meal. I turned up the temp on my hot water heater just for this and to save time preheating my water baths.

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No, the danger zone is for all foods. Raw or cooked, if you introduce pathogens to the food and hold it at a temperature where bacteria can thrive, you run the risk of getting yourself sick if you eat it. If it's food held in the danger zone in an anaerobic environment (sealed foods, some infused oils, wrapped baked potatoes, etc.), you run the risk of killing yourself if you eat it. This, particularly, is why sous vide foods need to be chilled as quickly as possible. The temperatures don't get high enough to destroy Clostridium Botulinum's spores or toxins and you've got everything vacuum packed and sealed. C. Botulinum will only produce its toxin under an anaerobic environment like the inside of your sous vide bag. Sooo, you either eat it right away or chill it down as fast as humanly possible because you don't want C. Botulinum to have a chance to produce toxins. Just for shits and giggles, botulinum toxin is the most lethal toxin known to man and minute amounts on the order of nanograms of toxin to kilogram of body weight will kill you.

This kid doesn't seem too thrilled with the botulism he got. He's fully conscious, too.

Food borne illnesses ain't nothing to mess with. They're fairly rare, but they can frick you up royally.

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This! Ice bath after unless consuming immediately.

Ice bath is totally unnecessary. 140F for two hours then transitioning to the fridge will absolutely not put you at risk. For a spore-forming organism to reproduce and produce enough toxin to make you sick would take far more than the time it takes to cool food to <40F in the fridge.

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Ice bath is totally unnecessary.

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