Just got my Anova and anxious to get started. All recipes give suggested cooking temp and time but never address the starting temps. What is the optimum meat or fish temp when placing in the water bath? Should it be straight out of the refrigerator, room temp, or somewhere in between? I would assume that the starting temp would affect the cooking time.
Many people start out with frozen meat; more commonly though the process is remove meat from refrigerator, seasoning it and vacuum seal then into the hot water bath. If you start out with a frozen piece of meat the thickness of the meat and volume water make a difference in added time. For example; if you are doing fish filets or boneless chicken breasts the defrost time is negligible. If you are cooing a 2 inch thick steak you need to add a bit of time for defrosting.
Timing is not as critical for most proteins as it is using conventional methods. When in doubt it normally does not hurt to extend the time a bit. When I cook larger frozen items I normally fill my 4.75 gallon tub with hot tap water and let the circulator bring it to my desired temperature. With the large quantity of water the temperature drop is minimized when the frozen item is added. I also use freezing with items like hamburgers to help them hold their shape when vacuum sealing.