Hi, newbie here. Just tried my first recipe - beef short ribs. I found a recipe online where I only needed to cook them for 36 hours as opposed to 48, at 150 degress. When I came down to the kitchen this morning, the anova was beeping loudly and the temp had gone down to 86 degrees as it had turned off due to evaporation. i didn’t know this was an issue.
My concern – is the beef still safe to eat? I filled water and put it back on to 150, but I don’t know how much time it spent at a lower temperature and am concerned about bacteria. Any help greatly appreciated.
I regret it’s too hard to tell Lulu, at least without more details. Please don’t ask the Community to guess. We are a precision oriented users forum.
I won’t ask why you would select a potentially long and challenging recipe for your first cook from an unidentified source.
When swimming in new waters would you dive in head first?
A more trustworthy recipe source might have alerted you to the evaporation issue in long duration cooks. All you can do is address the food safety probabilities using the facts only you know. They would be facts such as the meat’s thickness and starting temperature, and either frozen or refrigerated.
You should be aware of the start time of actual cooking. If you can, estimate how long it cooked once the water temperature reached your set point of 150ᴼF before low water level occurred. Knowing that you will know if Pasteurization had been achieved giving you some margin of safety.
It’s a long way from 150ᴼF to 86ᴼF even in a small amount of water. You might have been cooking in too small an uncovered vessel.
If there is any chance unpasteurized meat’s internal temperature was below 130ᴼF for more than 3 hours it could be hazardous to consume.
You clearly have some work to do gaining knowledge of the SV technique.
Thanks, chatnoir. I appreciate you taking the time to answer and all the info you provided. As someone not used to having on online presence nor going on forums, I could have done without the
“Please don’t ask the Community to guess. We are a precision oriented users forum. I won’t ask why you would select a potentially long and challenging recipe for your first cook from an unidentified source.When swimming in new waters would you dive in head first?”
Rather unnecessary. If you were trying to be somewhat helpful but at the same time try to keep me away from the forum, i think you succeeded.
Not at all, Lulu. Please understand details are of the utmost importance in problem solving. Too many cooks don’t understand the importance of disclosure when asking for help.
I was merely attempting to get your attention and stimulate your thinking and understanding about the facts that need to be considered when adapting to a new and potentially hazardous cooking technique.
I regret offending you. SV short ribs can be the most delicious you have ever enjoyed.