I am planning in cooking about 10 steaks at once, while I understand the need to bag and seal each steak individually. Once the bag steaks inside the water pot. I am curious about the effect of having the bags touching each other.
Will the bags stick together or it’ll be ok?
Any advise it’ll be highly appreciated.
You don’t NEED to bag each steak individually. Just make sure that they’re in a single layer in the bag rather than stacked. I’ll often put two to a bag (half as much work bagging and un-bagging).
Ok, the other part of the question remains, the bags in the pot will be next to each other, will the plastic bags stick together during cooking the using the Anova?
Basil, to cook 10 steaks in a batch you will need to ensure you don’t overcrowd your water bath allowing for ample circulation. Many here use telescoping racks to keep bags separated during a cook.
Good point, I need to keep in mind the water circulation. Thank you.
Basil, i neglected to mention that if you don’t have some means of separating bags during the cook you can gently tumble the bags so all surfaces have water flow.
As long as you can keep them flat and not on top of one another, you should be able to use a larger size bag and get 2 steaks in 1 bag. More space means better water circulation for more even cooking! If you don’t have a rack for your pot, you should get one! hope this helps!
Thought provoking question & answers. Would you consider the following: We are cooking in a Constant Temperature Water Bath. Assuming that your Anova device is working- circulating the water and keeping it at a constant temperature, ALL packaging and contents will reach equilibrium with the set temperature, depending on thickness of items being cooked. The exception being that if it is in contact with the side or bottom of the container, it will take longer to reach the set cooking temperature. When you consider the dynamics of cooking a thick roast, I don’t think it matters much if 1.5-2" steaks are in one or multiple bags, and if they are touching. Just consider the time cooking in the Water Bath and adjust to a longer time based on what is being cooked, its volume, doneness level, or for tough/excessively fat meats- how much you want to reduce or eliminate it.
Can, you make a good point. We want to ensure water circulates around the products be they steaks or roasts.
I’m uncertain about your exception and consideration of volume. Circulating heated water flows around the products being cooked and prevents substantial contact with the container. Circulating water and conduction heats the container’s inner surfaces to approximately the set point so it doesn’t impact cooking time.
Our assumption in SV cooking is that the equilibrium attained is about 1ᴼC below the set point. The longer the cook the closer the temperature gets to the set point, but it will never exactly attain it.
Volume doesn’t much matter and what is it that you want to reduce or eliminate?
We’re on the same page, in agreement. If you consider that the process used is essentially the same each time, variables such as contact with sides or bottom and how close (-/+ 1 degree) shouldn’t be a consideration, since you can adjust future cooking times to suit. Thickness of each piece of meat cooked can be a consideration. To illustrate: If you Sous Vide a 1.5" steak and a 3 lb roast (which might be 4: thick) for 1.5 hours, one will be cooked and the other will not be completely cooked. The thickness of meat (measuring in one dimension) or the volume of meat- a 3D measurement) is one consideration in cooking time. Practically, the primary concern should be thickness because that is what determines the time it takes for meat to reach the set equilibrium temperature. The other point I made was that once SV cooking food reaches the set cooking temperature and the extent of cooking is complete (rare, medium, well), continuing the process does NOT make the food any more well done. That’s one of the great advantages of SV cooking. However, the longer the duration of cooking beyond done the greater the additional loss of fat and connective tissue within the meat being cooked. End result: a more “tender” texture or a “mealy” texture. We can take this into consideration when determining cooking time for meat cuts with more fat, such as Prime or lower quality cuts. Also, increasing time is a consideration when cooking “tougher” cuts of meat- such as beef brisket. As we know, longer cooking times for meat, such as 30-120 minutes is used as a convenience for the preparer, but often doesn’t result in a degradation of what has been cooked. So, getting back to the original question that prompted our initial comments- I haven’t seen any “proof” that racking stakes, putting them in single or multiple bags, tethering them under the Bath lid, letting them float freely, etc. makes any difference in the finished product. If anyone has done any objective “scientific” studies, it might be helpful to share those results with us.
The “proof” is in the practice. As long as the water circulates freely around the products being cooked there’s no difference.
Considering displacement or volume isn’t useful in the SV technique. Thickness matters, volume doesn’t.
You’re right, volume of product and its resulting displacement of water are not factors, thickness is the variable we need in determining duration of cook time. Now, consider this: As long as water is circulating and held at a constant designated temperature, It may not be relevant that water must circulate freely around the entire bag of product being cooked. The reason being that heating of cooked product is by extension inwards from the ambient surface temperature. So, if two cooking bags are in direct contact with each other (no water moving between them- even to the extent that they are tightly tied together, not that anyone would do this under non-experimental conditions), all product in the bags will still reach the equilibrium temperature and the end result will still be a product that is cooked uniformly as SV so aptly accomplishes.
You’re right too, - given an appropriate length of time the combined packaged products will be cooked uniformly.
And active circulation is not required, particularly for long cooks. Back in the last century domestic SV devices heated water in a rice cooker. They accurately maintained temperature using convection currents as heated water rose in the vessel.
After 25 years my Sous Vide Magic controller still silently and reliably maintains water temperatures at +/- 0.2ᴼC without the use of a telephone.
Thanks so much for participating in developing this thread and bringing it to a logical and, I think, scientifically provable and valid conclusion. It might reduce frivolous and probably erroneous recommendations for SV packaging of goods to be cooked and also how to place- configuring one or more bags containing food to be cooked in an SV constant temperature water bath. And, kudos to you for your years of SV experience and your level-headed advice!
My pleasure, and happy cooking.