Low temp (60c) one bag stew cooking?

Anova Precision® Cooker
1

Well, cooking in France was nice, with far better quality vegetables than in the uk (ie supermarkets grading veg as more acceptable at lower quality to the uk market) but home calls.

We eat and enjoy winter stews, but i’ve been very wary of cooking veggies at higher temps that risk plastic leachate regardless of “supposed” safety testing, which has thrown the wheel when it comes to cheap meat cuts, thick low & slow gravies & vegetable combo’s …you cannot imagine how it irks me coming from a family that had a farmhouse kitchen AGA running 24/7.

In a moment of curiosity I checked the Anova app for stews, and was surprised to see a burgundy stew at a mere 140 f / 60c (6 hours) BUT, I still cannot get my head around chunked steak sitting at that temp & not going past its best,

Here is an example (pork this time) 6-10 hours at 60c

I am still grasping around as to 1 bag stews (meat or meatless), I have just put in some chunked mature steak for 45 mins to cook (use it or lose it) but am really keen to break the back of properly cooked veggies that higher temps & shorter times (82-85c) have sometimes failed to deal with & achieve anything but hard veggie status.

What results have others had with no faff 1 bag stews here?
(i’d throw in meat last of all so it doesn’t tip over the edge)
Currently despite the higher temps here, i['m tempted to throw some veggies & bouillon in a bag & let it sit, but common sense says, ask first.

I am aware of pectin, cell walls etc, which are typically requiring of the short time burst of 82c so am curious as to the low & slow heat of 60c curve to achieve the same softer, cooked chunked, atypically potato’s peas, pulses, carrots, a smattering of oats, onions or similar, …typical stew items basically.

Thanks for any detail you can add by way of explanation that I am clearly not seeing.

2

Thanks for the link to the recipe. We recently put a bag of white beans in the pantry, and I love stews, and rosemary.

I cannot imagine what explanation you would accept “regardless of ‘supposed’ safety testing.”

3

Then you need to look at soft plastic leachate potential, for which ziplok (uk sold sous vide safe spec) are still deemed suspect for prolonged periods (ie over 30 mins at 85c from my conversation with one of their representatives on the phone previously)

They are not deemed a problem for long cooks at lower (atypical sous vide temps) which is why I use them.

4

Two personal communication anecdotes do not data make. I need to do no such thing.

5

So WHAT EXACTLY do you call an official of a company STRESSING the importance of the aceptance by the manufacturer of its materials potential to leach beyond a certain temperature & time then FFS?

After all the company rep HOLDS THE DATA, & IS encouraging the public to use a steady lower temp, correct!?

Yes or No?

Tell you what douglas, just keep your damned opinions to yourself on this, thank you in advance.

6

Hope this helps: Is Plastic Safe for Sous Vide Cooking? A Complete Safety Guide - 33rd Square

This article makes the point that plastic used in vacuum food saver bags is safer than a ZipLoc. Also they cite studies that plastic exposure is way below the EU suggested limits, but they also did not say what kind of plastic bag was used, unless I missed it.

Another internet article (proper skepticism applies) suggests ZipLoc bags not exceed 158 F.

7

Blockquote Can bacteria grow in vacuum sealed bags? No. Without oxygen, anaerobic bacteria cannot grow.

Early in the ‘page’ it was reported that various contaminants were found after cooking meats SV. Unfortunately a baseline was not established of contaminants found before SV cooking.

8

Right, lots of things are missing in whatever experiments were reported. 1. measure the contaminants before cooking, 2. measure contaminants after cooking, 3. measure a control (measure contaminants before and after sitting, unheated, for the same amount of time), 4. repeat to reduce the standard deviation, 5. have it peer reviewed. It may have been done but I couldn’t find it in any article.