Hello Friends!
My name is Unai Samsó and I write you from Spain.
This friday I have to prepare a Beef Entrecote or Sirloin to some friends. I want to make it at 55 celsius.
First I have to cook Red Tuna cutted in little squared pieces. I want to prepare this confited at 42-43 celsius.
The meat is going to be cooked sous vide but the Tuna is going to be confited in spiced oil in somme hermetic glass jars.
I have only one Anova and I want to know if i can put all together to 43 celsius and after 30 min when the Tuna is ready start eating it and finish the meat with some other 30 min to 55 celsius.
How do you see that? Do you suggest any alternative?
Thanks for all your help and sorry for my english.
Com esta Unai?
Your English is far better than my Spanish.
It is not possible to give you an accurate answer without having more information about the size of the products you are cooking. However, i think you are cooking your meal backwards.
The Entrecote cooked at 55ᴼC will be Medium-Rare, the way most people best enjoy it. The length of cooking time will depend on the steak’s, or roast’s, thickness starting with the time your water bath attains the 55ᴼC setting. Steaks 25mm thick require 75 minutes, and if 35mm thick require 2 hours.
For the Red Tuna your temperature choice is exactly my choice too. However, unless the jars are very small, less than 125ml, 30 minutes may be a little too short for complete heat difusion. Consider that you are cooking the oil as well as the tuna in calculating your cooking time. The heat has to penetrate the glass and oil, and then to the centre of the tuna.
When cooking several different items continuously i always begin with the menu item that requires the longest cooking time. If all are about equal, then i start with the item requiring highest temperature. In your meal, that is the Entrecote.
When the Entrecote’s cooking time is complete, reset the Anova’s temperature and the water to 43ᴼC by adding cold water or ice. Then add the room temperature, not cold, jars of Tuna. (Cold glass may break from thermal shock of the hot water.) The steaks will not cook any more at that temperature and will stay warm as the tuna cooks.
You can also hold the steaks in the warm water while enjoying the Tuna. Then sear and serve, - and enjoy.
Thanks so much for your answer Chatnoir ; )
The Entrecote is more or less 20-25mm and the tuna is going to be in a 550ml glass jar.
I have no much experience so i apreciate a lot your help.
I like your idea; so yo suggest to cook first the meat at 55 degrees and after refresh the water bath and make the tuna at 43 degrees while i keep warm the entrecote until i sear it?
75 min for the meat it will be right? Around 60-75 min for the Tuna?
Thanks so much again
Unai, you have the correct proceedure. 75 minutes for the meat.
Now, about the tuna. I have never cooked food in a 550ml jar so i can’t give you much assistance with a precise length of the time to cook in one, but the thought of doing it scares me.
Below 50ᴼC the heat difusion into the tuna is going to be very slow. My guess is that in a oil and tuna packed jar with a 75mm diameter you are going to need as much as 4 hours, maybe more.
The size of the jar is working against you. And cooking fish for that long at a low temperature is hazzardous. Don’t do it unless the tuna has been frozen below -20ᴼC for at least 24 hours, and then handled in an impecably clean and sanitary environment. First wipe anything that will come in contact with the fish with an alcohol swab or towelette.
You have a few other choices.
- Select smaller jars for the tuna to reduce the time required. The tuna in 125ml jars will need 75 minutes.
- Abandon the jars and cook the cubes of tuna in a few flat vacuum sealed bags with 15 to 30ml of the spiced oil. That’s what i would do. Tuna in a vacuum sealed package requires just 15 minutes at 43ᴼC, and serve immediately.
Enjoy your meal.