sous vide cooking

[rmeador]

I was just marvelling at my own cooking skills as I cut up and stored away the pot roast I made during today's snow day, and it occurred to me that it looked almost rare in the middle. I cooked it in a crock pot on low heat literally all day long. I started wondering if perhaps it had cooked at a low enough temperature to be almost like sous vide cooking, which got me further thinking... has anyone tried sous vide on their boat?

It seems to me that it's an ideal way to cook while on board. The equipment to do it can be made quite small, and if it seals, then it will easily work while the boat is in motion. The low cooking temperature means very low power consumption, probably small enough that it wouldn't put a strain on your solar charging system. Since it takes a fairly long time to cook this way, you could start it cooking in the morning before you weigh anchor, and it will cook during the part of the day when the most solar power is available (meaning less power is lost due to storage and retrieval from the battery). The water shouldn't get contaminated, since the food is sealed, so it can be reused for later sous vide cooking or for other purposes. And, it uses a vacuum sealer, which many cruisers already have aboard.

This seems like a really good idea to me. Anyone tried it? Am I crazy?

[HDChopper]

'"as I cut up and stored away the pot roast I made during today's snow day, and it occurred to me that it looked almost rare in the middle. I cooked it in a crock pot on low heat literally all day long."


MmMmmmmm sounds perfect to me

I have no Idea of the rest you said lol I would bet your correct tho

[SoftJazz]

You might want to check this link out. I know it's Wikipedia, but after having read a few other links, it seems to be fairly accurate & has the pertinent information about this cooking method.

Sous-vide - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you're not afraid of botulism or any of those minor issues, I say go for it.

[chef2sail]

Be very careful on two fronts.

First it can lead to anerobic organisms like deadly botulism and secondly cooking food safety so as to kill everyday normal microorganisms require temperatures require different foods be cooked at certain cook to tempuratures as a function of time. The average ameteur cook has no clue to this and may posibbly create a "laboratory" for a food borne illness which will be ingested. Food posioning can at the least make you very sick....some organisms can kill you. Most of these organisms are killed by food being cooked and held at certain temperatures.

There is a reason why this technique is not used in great abundance by most culinarians as it is inherently more risky not to mention the quality of the food is less than desireable. It may be edible, but part of the eating experience is different tasting consistancies, as well as smells. Food cooked this way is mushy and soft. Its great for stews cassaroles etc and great for baby food. I will take my meat roasted or bakes..my veggies with some snap in them. Different cossistancies within the tasting a dish is one of the coponents for a positive eating experience.


Dave

[Sublime]

Originally Posted by rmeador

Am I crazy?

Yes.

Fear the botulism. It's not to be trifled with.

[chrisncate]

Any chance I can convince you to give up meat altogether?

[flyingwelshman]

I don't have the numbers at my finger tips (make sure to research them to be certain), but my understanding of the sous vide process is that, the time/temperature is sufficient to destroy any pathogens.
The concern with clostridium botulinum is more common with vegetables (the organism is found in soil). Make sure that any vegetables (herbs, garlic, potatoes, etc.) are washed thoroughly. Avoid contaminating any meat with the soil.
Once the food has reached the proscribed internal temperature for the required amount of time it should be safe as long as it remains hermetically sealed.
The problem with clostridium botulinum, clostridium perfringens, staphylococcus aureus, and e-coli is that they are intoxicating organisms. That is: they produce toxins that are pretty heat stable. The bacteria might be destroyed by the heat but the toxins are not. I think if you practice proper hygiene and sanitation (be very conscious of cross-contamination and proper temperature control) you should be all right.
With regards to the quality of the food produced by this method: you can develop some intense flavours; you don't need as much liquid so the natural juices remain concentrated. You can get less-tender cuts of meat very tender and still allow them to retain some colour and moisture. I had some short ribs that were medium and falling-off-the-bone tender. Heston Blumenthal is a big proponent of low-temperature cooking. (He strives to heat the meat so that the proteins just start to coagulate without evapourating all the water or melting out all the fat.)
A colleague has been playing around with sous vide for a while - he swears by it. I'm not convinced that it is ideal for every application.
The retherming of your meals would definitely be convenient.
Good luck.

[chef2sail]

Welshman, Good point about the organisms producing the toxins which are left no matter what the temp was. I agree that this application does have some merit in some instances. My concern ws that the average person (not a professional like yourself) gives very little thought to the correct cook to temperature vrs time. So few people use thermometers to test doneness of foods, or even when retherming them even know what the bare minimum temp of the food should be. Ill wonder if you took a poll of sailboaters how many even have a food thermometer on board.

Your points are very succinct and correct. and on target. One of the best products I saw cooked by this method were 22lb corned beef cooked in a cook/ chill tank. Almost 0% shrinkage, great pickling flavors, extremely tender. Obviously also a meat which would not loose anything in character or flavor by not being browned and having the sugars carmelized.

With the correct foods, sous verde is a great application.

dave

[sailingdog]

Yes, you're crazy. You haven't really thought this through very well. There are huge disadvantages to using the Sous-Vide cooking technique aboard a boat. First is the equipment that is required. Second is the energy usage. Third is the possible medical issues that could arise from using such a technique. Fourth is the whole logistics of the matter.

From the wikipage that was linked to above:

Sous-vide (pronounced /suːˈviːd/), French for "under vacuum",^[1] is a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bath^[2] for a long time—72 hours is not unusual—at an accurately determined temperature much lower than normally used for cooking, typically around 60 °C or 140 °F. The intention is to maintain the integrity of ingredients.

Another issue is that most boats are not designed to provide power for something like the cooker required for this type of cooking. It is hard to imagine cooking using this process without an electrical cooking appliance, and powering such an appliance for the relatively long periods of time it requires is not very feasible aboard most small sailing craft.

Please note, the cooking times for sous vide are measured in hours, often more than 12 hours at a time. A solar panel only puts out its maximum output for about the equivalent of FIVE HOURS PER DAY... and that is under basically near ideal conditions.

If the cooker draws 200 watts, which is pretty low as wattage requirements for a heating device go, and you need to cook for 14 hours, you'd need THREE 200 watt panels to cover the load requirements. Have you sized a 200 watt solar panel? They're pretty damn big, and most small sailing craft can't mount three of them well enough to have them operate unshadowed for the entire day. If you have a panel shaded, the output drops ridiculously.

If you needed to cook something for 24 hours, much less than the 72 hours quoted above, you'd need FIVE 200 watt solar panels...and your boat would look like CD's minus the BBQ grills.

Pressure cookers make far more sense, since you can often put one on the stove for a short period of time to get it up to temp and pressure, and then turn off the heat, allowing it to cook for the fairly short times a pressure cooker requires without using additional fuel.

Also, the persistence of some pathogens, like botulinus, makes sous vide much more risky. Do you really want to be using a riskier cooking technique when you could possibly be hours, if not days from possible medical assistance???

A final question is do you really want to have to plan your meals DAYS in advance of eating them? Most sailors I know are not going to be willing to have to start a meal, and then wait 8-72 hours to eat it. Also, how do you cook other meals while the sous-vide cooking gear is in use....that's right, you'd have to use a stove and pots or a pressure cooker... and they'd be using energy on the boat as well. Fortunately, they'd probably be using PROPANE or ALCOHOL, rather than the more precious electricity, which so many other systems aboard demand.

[Allanbc]

Just toss a can in boiling water.