Sous-vide cooking and vacuum sealing

Sure no problem!

I do have a probe so i'll test it tomorrow!

As for mine, i think ittook about 25 mins or so, to get to 55C and once it was there, it hovered between 54.8 - 55.4... from memory!

Will let you know the results. (i'll assume that my temperature probe is accurate! The one I have is this one)
 
That's very good of you to rise to the challenge - I appreciate it.

And any probe ought to do the job. There's a +/- 0.6º range from the cheapest one I've got to my Thermapen, but all are at least 1.5º off the readout on the SVS.
 
Yeah I know 32 hours was OTT, but by the time I realised, I just thought "meh, let's see what happens!" :D

I'll be doing the Sirloin for about 2-4 hours I imagine (depending on if I get distracted or not!). As for the joint, I was thinking 12 > 24 ? Seeing as it's very lean and not a particularly tough cut. Although I could be wrong!
 
OCdude said:
Yeah I know 32 hours was OTT, but by the time I realised, I just thought "meh, let's see what happens!" :D

I'll be doing the Sirloin for about 2-4 hours I imagine (depending on if I get distracted or not!). As for the joint, I was thinking 12 > 24 ? Seeing as it's very lean and not a particularly tough cut. Although I could be wrong!
Click to expand...

To be honest I don't think you'll get any benefit in a steak beyond about 45mins - it's not going to hurt but I don't see it helping much either.

From what I remember, the relationship between meat thickness/weight/temperature/time is non-linear, so whilst 45mins for a small steak might seem nothing compared to a large joint, it's surprising how long some joints take! 12hrs should be enough but I'd go with 24hrs to be safe
 
glitch - looks like my results are similar to yours.

The temp seemed to be off by closer to 2C as it was climbing from room temp, but as it reached the set temperature (which took around 35mins) it stayed around 1C off.

My probe doesn't give a measurement in the tenths of degrees.. so hmmmm don't think I'm too concerned (should I be?) :P

img0579ul.jpg
 
Got a SVS last month myself.
Apparently there are a few that are off calibration, although they are meant to be few and far between.
I will check mine out this week.
There definitely is a learning curve in terms of what temps to use for the textures you like but I have been impressed so far with chicken breasts, sirloin steak and eggs.
Next on my list to try is veg, fruit and some of the slower cooked tougher cuts of meat but I have to say that pork loin has me tempted as well.
I will dig out the link for a supplier of bags as well that was recommended in a few places for those with the SVS vacuum sealer or similar (they are a lot cheaper and come in 4 different sizes).
Really good to see a thread on here, especially with regard to translating the cuts of meat :)
 
Wellllllllllllllllllll my Sirloin steak was rubbish! I only put it in for two hours at 55C and it came out as chewy as anything and really NOT medium rare!

Also tried a smaller cut of the topside joint (for 24 hours at 55C) and that came out... well... it had a RANK green tinge on the outside (which is normal, so i wasn't too bothered.. but still... it's pretty off-putting!) So I cleaned that off and blow-torched the bad boy!

When I sliced into it, it was clear that none of the fat (what little there was) had rendered down, plus there was a really tough sinew going through it (which made carving it a nightmare).

So overall..... not a good experience so far :'(
 
What did it look like (any pics?), how did you prepare it (e.g. using what types of bags and how was it sealed) and how did you finish it (torch/pan/grill/length of time).
The good thing with sous vide is that once you figure out what is wrong you should be able to replicate perfect results every time, unfortunately you have not given us much to go on at the moment.

EDIT: I also tend to trim of the fat prior to cooking as sous vide does not render it well - one of the reasons why it works with the tough lean cuts of meat is that it can render those tender given the longer times for those cuts.
 
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Sorry, the only pic i have of said beef, is:

img0587dv.jpg


You can just about see it there lol

It was medium rare I guess (certainly wasn't grey/medium) it was just really tough and I wasn't expecting there to be sinew in there (maybe the temp needs to be at the 'braising' level for that to get broken down.... 60C+?).

As for how i sealed it etc, I used the vacuum bags that came with my SVS and i finished it off with a blowtorch.

The Sirloin was just very.... disappointing! I only had it in there for around 2 hours, but it seemed to be chewier than the rump I had earlier in the week! Most definitely wasn't medium-rare :/

Maybe it was just a crappy bit of meat.... poor quality and too thin? (was probably around 2cm thick).

I've frozen the other bits of the topside joint and the pork belly, until I know what the hell i'm doing wrong!
 
OCdude said:
Sorry, the only pic i have of said beef, is:

img0587dv.jpg


You can just about see it there lol

It was medium rare I guess (certainly wasn't grey/medium) it was just really tough and I wasn't expecting there to be sinew in there (maybe the temp needs to be at the 'braising' level for that to get broken down.... 60C+?).

As for how i sealed it etc, I used the vacuum bags that came with my SVS and i finished it off with a blowtorch.

The Sirloin was just very.... disappointing! I only had it in there for around 2 hours, but it seemed to be chewier than the rump I had earlier in the week! Most definitely wasn't medium-rare :/

Maybe it was just a crappy bit of meat.... poor quality and too thin? (was probably around 2cm thick).

I've frozen the other bits of the topside joint and the pork belly, until I know what the hell i'm doing wrong!
Click to expand...

To break down connective tissue you do need to be around 60C and you're looking at around 48hr cooking times

Did you salt the meat beforehand for a good deal of time? Did you rest it long enough?
 
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