Sous vide

[T.G]

Originally Posted by pnoon

So I've been doing a crapload of reading about sous vide. So eager to get started but still have some questions based on my research. Hopefully the "vets" here can help me out.

1) The times stated (here and in recipes) are minimums. Correct? So if a steak calls for 45 minutes at 129, an hour or even two won't make a huge difference?

2) Seriouseats.com is associated with Anova. There is a recipe for steak on their site that states the following: "When the cooking time has elapsed, remove the steaks for finishing. (At this point, you may also quick chill the meat submerged in its pouch in an ice water bath for at least 30 minutes and refrigerate for up to 48 hours or freeze for up to a year.)"
What do you all think? And have you done this? If plausible, would it work for pork as well?

3) I bought a bunch of thick boneless pork loin chops. Put them in Foodsaver bags. Half went in plain and half were seasoned with a dry rub. Thoughts about dry rubs prior to cooking?

4) Most of the stuff shown in this thread is for meat. Anyone done fish - specifically salmon?

I'm sure I'll have more questions once I start cooking.
Thanks in advance for your help.

My 2-cents

1) As Bob says, to a point it makes little difference if you exceed the cook time. To elaborate, I've found that it depends on what you are cooking and how long. A 2" ribeye cooked an hour over or even two, probably won't hurt it at all, probably won't notice, might even make it better. A 2" ribeye cooked for 24 hours will be destroyed. Just as shrimp cooked an hour, heck even half an hour, will be wrecked.

2) I've done that with boneless skinless chicken breasts. But I didn't reheat them, I just broke them out of the vacuum bags a few days later and sliced them up cold for sandwiches. Logically, to me, if I were reheating, I would aim for a few degrees lower than my final initial cook temp, so as not to cook them more, and only just reheat them.

3) The amount of flavor that herbs and rubs can impart during the long SV cook times is immense. Do not be afraid of this. Remember, that is your only flavor being imparted, there are no flavors from the cooking process itself. It can be phenomenal. I've found that, for the way I do things, no salt in the rubs or bags is best. For short cooks it sometimes doesn't make a difference, but for long ones, it pulls a lot of moisture out, so for me, it's simpler to avoid altogether and just add at the time of searing. Go overboard on the spices, it doesn't matter - I went overboard on tri-tips one time, now, I'm stuck making them that way for that group forever, they freaking loved it.

On a side note, you mention pork chops... I have long struggled with getting grilled pork chops right, often resulting in a dry chop. No more with this process.