Food risk? Did the PC lose power?

Anova Precision® Cooker
1

I kicked off a cook for ribs yesterday at 1:45pm (that’s what time they were placed in the bath).


I woke this morning at 4:50am to the PC beeping 3 times every 5 seconds.

And, before you ask, no, I didn’t connect the PC to a UPS yet (kicking myself for not doing so now).

We have the other thread were people are complaining about the PC turning off when power is lost, so I’m guessing it didn’t lose power, as it’s continuing to cook?  Set and current temps were still 152F and the PC was still working.

I have two notifications on my iPhone:

2 h ago (4.50 am, so 2:50am)

The water is now ready.  You can place your ingredients in the pot.


23m ago (4:27am)

Congrats!  You just cooked the best meal ever.  Do your thing & we’ll keep your food warm for you until you’re ready.



The "The water is now ready" one has me concerned - that suggests that the PC started the cook over - which also suggests that the temperature of the bath may have gotten cooler - possibly dangerously cool.


I've reported this to the support e-mail, but that's only 9-5, mon-friday, so I'm hoping others that have had PC's longer can shed some light on 3 beeps.  From what I've read of other circumstances, it sound like the PC may have been subject to steam from the bath?  


I only went to bed at 11:30pm and the PC was working fine when I did.


I unplugged and re-plugged the PC and hit the start button to resume the cook, to eliminate the beeping.


Planning on having these ribs for supper tonight (figured I'll pull them out and plunge them into an ice bath around 4pm, then let them rest a couple of hours before finishing them in the oven).

I had 24hour+ to play with, so was hoping to replicate the results here:  http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/09/the-food-lab-complete-guide-sous-vide-pork-ribs.html


So, my question to the community is (those with experience PC cooking) - is there a danger that the bath may have cooled enough to make the meat dangerous??



2

It is hard to say with any real certainty. If the unit was not heating for over 2 hours or so you have reason to be concerned. Without knowing the temperature of the bath over time it is difficult to say.

3

@john.jcb said:
It is hard to say with any real certainty. If the unit was not heating for over 2 hours or so you have reason to be concerned. Without knowing the temperature of the bath over time it is difficult to say.


As the delta between me going to bed and the notification saying that the bath was at temperature was 3hrs and 20 mins apart, I wonder how much it could have lost temperature in that period of time.  (the Cambro 4 3/4 gallon bin is sitting on a carpeted floor and the bath is covered).

I’ll do an experiment when I pull the ribs out (it won’t be 100%, as they won’t still be in the bath), but I’ll have the bath in the same condition, then stop the cook and see what temperature the bath drops to in that amount of time, then gauge the risk from that.

4

Since it was at 152° F when you checked it and the time span was just a little over 3 hours I doubt that there will be an issue. I have not read where any unit has stopped working then started again without some manual intervention. I don’t bother with the apps since it is so simple. I use them to look at recipes. One of my units does not have the ability to use Bluetooth and on the other I never use it because I am always leaving its range.

5

Ooh, more fun!  I just got home to find the PC saying that there’s 1 hour and 36 minutes left in my cook.


I never set a time.

Sooo, the PC decided all by itself to impose a time limit.  (Anyone else think that’s pretty buggy?)

I really hope the firmware in these units is customer upgradeable!!!


6

Did you try the ribs? How were they?

7

@john.jcb  The ribs were awesome! :slight_smile:  I forgot to include the spritz that I normally use when I smoke them.  (I would smoke them with hickory and mesquite on the side burner of my bbq - 1 1/2 hours, spritzing every 30 minutes).  Need to include that, so I get the apple cider and jack daniels flavours into them.  Also need to do some more testing with how much liquid smoke to add.


btw - I’ll leave feedback for the guys that wrote the article, but telling people to bake the ribs at 300F is just silly.  Sugar doesn’t caramelize until 340F - if you’re using sauce (as I do), you really want them to caramelize, until they’re this delicious, sticky, almost black in colour. :slight_smile:

I used to make my own sauce (maybe I’ll get back to that), but the bullseye BBQ with Guiness is so good, it just didn’t seem to make any sense to go to the effort. :slight_smile:

Oh, and to close the book on temperature loss.  After 3 hours and 20 minutes, the bath had reduced in temperature from 152F down to 114.5F.  By my reckoning, even if that had happened, it’s still been warm enough that micro organisms wouldn’t have had ample opportunity to procreate and create a health risk.  (but, yes, next time I’ll have the PC on a UPS - already got it out) :slight_smile:

I think maybe my next experiment will be with chicken…need to look at some recipes. :slight_smile:
8

Chicken is great. It takes some people a bit to get use to the texture. When you have become accustomed to overcooked dry chicken is is a bit of a shock when you try sous vide. I keep frozen breasts on hand and slice them after cooking for my salad. Hanger steak is another of my favorites. I posted pictures some time ago. I also like carrots sous vide. Anova has a new recipe for Italian sausage that looks interesting.