re: Center cut 2in bone in pork chop - sous vide (pics)

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It was just three short years ago when I was getting absolutely ridiculed for posting results on this method of cooking. People actually thought I was a fool. Now look at everyone loving it.

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I've got a pork tenderloin in the hot tub at 142.5 degrees.

Looks good!

I've said it many times before on this board that pork is the one thing that will change your life after you do it sous vide.

What I don't understand is why it is so much more kind to reheating as leftovers. It's like once you sous vide it you can't mess it up. I mean, not even microwaving it too long the next day can screw it up. One of life's great mysteries...

Oh, there's beer. The friends start showing up at 6. They'll be gone by 6:30, though.

I must suck using ziplocks bc it's no where near vac sealing. I think it gets the job done but there is air in ziplocks using that method for me

Yes, or the other way around. You can cook things that take a long time (my 72 hour short ribs or 40 hour baby backs), then simply drop into a hot bath then grill or apply whatever heat.

You must know that you simply can't put sous vide items directly into the fridge after cooking. They need to go into a 1/2 water and ice bath to plunge it into a safe temperature zone. That's the one thing I worry about peeps starting out with sous vide, that they will cook something and then simply place it into the fridge. The ice bath is a very important step.

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You must know that you simply can't put sous vide items directly into the fridge after cooking

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why?

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You must know that you simply can't put sous vide items directly into the fridge after cooking

why?

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Just to clarify, you don't just throw hot sous vide items still in the bag in the fridge.

Though sous vide will kill bacteria like salmonella and pasteurize to a level that's safe to eat immediately, it doesn't sterilize. If you plop your sous vide food directly into the fridge, while it's cooling it's going to spend a lot of time at a temperature where bacteria can flourish and all that pasteurization may all be for naught if you don't properly chill.

See, sous vide does nothing at all to kill botulinum. Sous vide gets the temperature up pretty quickly and C. botulinum will go into a spore state at sous vide temperatures and become dormant, so it won't be able to multiply during the cook and sicken you. But, it does require well over 212 degrees to actually kill it and over 185 to denature its toxins. This is the reason why we have to use pressure canning; boiling water at sea level can't get hot enough to kill C. botulinum, but boiling water at about double atmospheric pressure can. This is not usually necessary for most cooked food as botulinum cannot grow in the presence of oxygen and there is oxygen everywhere around the food items. However, canning creates a low oxygen environment where botulinum can thrive, so it requires the higher temperatures of pressure canning (or other chemical methods, like low pH) to kill or retard the botulinum.

Now, guess where you're creating a low oxygen environment, but you AREN'T getting anywhere near hot enough to kill botulinum...

That's why you quick chill down past the range of temperatures where bacteria can quickly multiply. It's not terribly likely that you'll give yourself food sickness, but the low oxygen conditions mean that some of the nastier ones are in play and you really don't want to screw around with them.

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What if I SV several pieces of meat, sear them, then put away as food prep? Still risking death?

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Once you open the bag up, any pasteurization that you got during the cooking process is gone, so you would still need to use the normal food safety rules you would with any other cooked food. Also, once you open the bag, the anaerobes that survive sous vide aren't really a concern anymore because they're exposed to oxygen at that point.

I'd treat the food like a normally grilled steak if you want to sear it, then hold it for a day or two before eating.

That looks amazing!

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Only if I'm putting in fridge straight from SV, right? If I'm grillimg several to eat for a few days, no ice bath needed?

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Correct. If you're pulling it out of the SV bath and going straight to searing, you treat the food just like you'd treat any other leftovers and you should be good to go. Not only did it not sit in the bag a long time in the range of temperatures that cause problems, the heat of the sear is going to be more than enough to kill off any nasties sitting on the surface of the meat.

It's the sitting in the bag for too long between 40 and 128 or so that is the problem.