That looks awesome, Peter!
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Yep...preceded by a "few olives" I bet that didn't suck!...Nicely done!! Was the timing of 7.5 spot on, or more/less time, next "time"?
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No olives. A couple of Manhattans, though.

7.5 hours at 133 was perfect, IMO.
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Man, when I grow up...:-)
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Who the hell said I grew up?!?!?!?!
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Peter, that looks so great I wanna use swear words! Nicely done.:-)
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A+, will be doing again soon. Thawed in the fridge, took them out of the bag, let them drip off most of the juices and put on the cast iron grill pan. These turned out amazing, they looked great and tasted on-point, made a little sauce with some leftover mango chutney and sriracha to complete it. I first did this because one of our go-to quick meals is the frozen mango chutney chicken skewers from trader joes, but they were out last time so I just bought the sauce and did them myself (no skewer), I won't be buying the frozen version again.

In fact, I might pre-cook another one or two just to keep in the freezer. Does anybody know if there's an "expiration" or an amount of time cooked chicken like this could stay in the freezer before reducing in quality? I would think no if it stays frozen, but I've been wrong about things before :-)
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If it's cooked and in the still sealed vacuum bag, I would guess that it's probably good for at least 3-6 months.
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So I have a couple of unrelated questions for the vets/experts here.

I always preheat the water to the desired temp. And then add my food.
I saw this pic from a website and wondered if it is advisable to put food in room temp water and bring food and water up to temp.
Image




The other question I had was about multiple packages contacting one another. I know a rack is preferable. But could I place another package directly on top of the one shown here? Or would it be better to rotate them 90 degrees with some space in between?
Image
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I don't know about starting with room temp water -- i always wait until the water is at temperature before putting in my food.

However, I read somewhere when I first got my Anova, that it's good to have a little room between the bags; even circulation around the bags promotes more even cooking. Having said that, I am not able to find the source of this info, so take it for what it's worth. :-). :-)
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Neither do I. That's why I'm asking.

Certainly that is ideal. I was wondering if there was a significant negative impact with the bags in contact with one another.
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Peter, I always bring the water up to temp. I don't see any reason to put the food in before. I'm going with the if it isn't broke theory.
I know Adam has done some stepped temperature cooks. He might have more insight into why or why not.

One reason could be that the size of the roast coupled with the size of the container wouldn't allow for heating the water first.
If you fill up to the min line on the Anova, bring the water up to temp, then add the roast it may bring your water level above the max line, or overflow the pot.
If you fill the pot to the max line, with the roast in the pot, then take it out you might fall below the min line.
The only solution in that case would be to add the roast, fill up the pot, and press start.

Also, the photo may look as though the meat was placed in the water and then the water is being brought up to temp.
It's just as likely that the water was at temp, the meat was added, and the temperature dropped.
I know my water temp drops 4-6° when I place a decent sized steak in it. I'm cooking in a Cambro with close to 5 gallons of water in it.
In fact, my water drops a degree just from opening the lid.
That looks like a pretty big roast in a 10-12 quart stockpot.
That could've easily dropped the temp.


Space in between is better.
I did 2 porchettas for the 4th of July holiday. They pushed the capacity limits of the Cambro.
I had them on a rack in the water, next to each other, but they were pressed up against the sides and were touching.
When I woke up in the morning the sides that were touching the walls were clearly a different color then the tops.
When I opened the lid the sides that were touching each other had the same color variation.
I rotated the roasts, and checked again later. The sides that were now touching had the same different color.
Rotated again, and then the next time I checked the roasts had shrunk enough that I was able to get some wire racks between them.
The water is what cooks the food. You want as much water as possible circulating around the food.
The whole reason for vacuum sealing is to get the water as close to the meat as possible.

I hope this helps.
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That helps a lot, Dom.
Thanks.
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For step cooking meats to tenderize them I've always used 103F, then increase to 120F, then finally increase to the desired "Done" temp. I don't know offhand about any particular enzymes at 116F. Based on the set temp, I think the bath was increasing in temp, but from what initial point, I don't know.

You can start from room temp water, but if it doesn't climb at a decent rate, you are risking bacterial contamination / spoilage of the food.
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My kid wanted hot dogs the other day, so I decided to throw some jumbo all-beef franks in the sous vide for science and because I hadn't had a chance to use it lately. Did one normally, one with some IPA and salt in the bag (I read on Serious Eats that putting salt in there will lead to beer-flavored meat rather than meat-flavored beer), and one with ketchup in the bag all at 155 for about 2.5 hours. Normal one was great, beer one was slightly better if you like beer, and ketchup didn't seem to do anything at all except maybe add a little sweetness. Not the fanciest of cooks, but it was kind of fun and it did lead to a perfectly-cooked hot dog--though I'm not sure it's worth the extra two hours and fifteen minutes :-)
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Do you do anything to deal with the carbonation in the beer? I know it came up in a discussion here some time ago, but I'm curious, I figure maybe it needs to be shaken up or something.

Traveling this week again so I'm going to do more mango chutney chicken today to make when I get home Thursday night, since I have leftover chutney. Also gonna do some bbq chicken the same way with some of my sauce to put in the freezer after being cooked, I get nervous using my sauce for long cooks because of the high sugar content, it's caused issues with the crock pot before but I think it will be fine with the temperature control here. I currently use it more for a finishing step like I've recently done with SV pork and lamb, but if something goes wrong I'm only out about $3 worth of chicken so it's worth a try :-)
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Borrowed this idea for a lamb sirloin roast over the weekend (the thing being that they are both very lean cuts with little intramuscular fat). Small cut, like 2/3 lb, about 1 hour or so hot smoked at 170F on the pellet grill, then bagged and SV at 134 for 4-5 hours. Same butter/cast iron finish. Came out quite good.

Just now noticing that you also used a coffee rub, FROM HAWAII. Too funny. I used Pele's Smokey Coffee rub from Aloha Seasonings.
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My vac sealer kicked the bucket so I ordered up a food saver from groupon, it was $8 less a few days ago. Don't know how well the moist and dry functions work, but I was having issues sealing when there was anything remotely wet on the old one so hopefully this helps
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:-) :-)


That's the same sealer that I have been using. I've had it for about 9 years and it's still working great.
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I have two of the predecessor model to that one, the V24xx's. I run probably about 800-1000 bags a year on them, and I still have not managed to kill them yet.

The "moist" function just runs the sealing strip at a higher temp or longer time (or both). It works (most of the time) to overcome a small amount of non-oily liquids. Any oils and you can just about forget the seal.
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