Hi Alyssa, first time sous vide user, cooking chicken thighs as we speak. I have a FoodSaver and I already vacuum seal everything before it goes in my freezer. I read that I should thaw it, but do I have to put each piece of meat in a separate bag?
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@lisatwig Ahhhhh welcome to the magical world of sous vide! 
No, you don’t need to have each piece of meat in a separate bag. You may have them in one bag - best way to do this is to have them laying side-by-side so this does not affect cook time. How were they place in the bag? Stacked on top? Layered? Laying side-by-side?
Also, you can cook meats from frozen with Anova, you’ll just have to add some additional time.
You’ll get used to packing things in a single layer so that it is sous vide ready when you freeze it. Then just cook from frozen. Add 30mins to an hour to your cook time to allow for thawing on shorter cooks. No real need to bother adding time for longer ones (anything over 12 hours).
My “rule of thumb” or make that “rule of paw”, 
, is to always add 50% of the cooking time for frozen foods where the guide or recipe time is under 3 hours.
As a former teacher:
Total Time from Frozen = Cooking Time + (Cooking Time * 50/100)
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It’s a rough guide. But a bit of common sense needs to be applied as well. A 2 inch thick steak is going to take the same amount of time to thaw no matter how long you’re going to cook it.
If you want to get technical about it the temperature of the water bath will also have an impact.
Just bought my Anova and am excited to use it. I have been looking at recipes and I am confused at the cooking times. When the recipe says “cook for 24 - 36 hours”, which is it? When do I know when my meat is done? If I can’t overcook then why the maximum of 36 hours?
Thank you,
Corey
Time impacts the texture of your meat, whereas temperature selects the degree of done-ness.
For a better explanation here’s one I prepared earlier…
I love NY style tall cheesecake, but I hate the oven waterbath. Is it possible to cook cheesecake sous vide and then put it in the oven to get that golden brown?
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Can’t see why not. It’s be much the same as the post sear on a sous vide steak.
Michael, i imagine it’s possible, but i’ve never attempted it because i don’t have a problem with water-bath baking, the trick is to do it in a deep roast pan and double wrap your springform pan with HD foil.
If you have a favourite cheesecake recipe that’s stable and not prone to cracking or slumping, give it a try. If your recipe is delicate, i wouldn’t waste my time or money changing your method.
You can assemble and pre-bake the base while you cook the filling SV. Then pour/squeeze the filling from the bag onto the base in your springform pan. Top it, if you do, as usual and then pop it into a preheated hot oven, convection function on if possible. Using your broiler would be too intense for something that delicate.
I bake my 12" Austrian-style cheesecakes (no lemon) at 325F and it takes 90 minutes to brown lightly. At that point i turn the oven off and leave the cake to set for another hour with the oven door proper open just a crack with the handle of a wooden spoon. Then i let it finish cooling to room temperature on a rack before chilling. The results are perfect every time, but it is a long slow process to get it right.
Please share your SV results with our community.
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Hmmm, I’d say try it out.
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I’ve got a question. If I mechanically tenderize a tough steak, not by pounding it but with something like a Jaccard multi-blade tenderizer, would that help in cutting down the time it takes to sous vide, say a bottom round steak 3/4" thick? I’m wondering if I can get a great result in 4-5 hours vs 30+ hours. I tried 5 hours w/o the pre tenderizing and the steak looked great but was still quite tough. I’ve read that it probably needs 30+ hours. I’m trying that now as I write this - 129F for 30hrs. But I thought, “hey what if I Jaccard it first?” It would slice up the connective tissue and with all the pin holes maybe let the heat get in easier (though that wouldn’t be the main benefit I’d imagine, but could at least increase the surface area for the heat to attack the connective tissue) and get this done much quicker than 30+ hours?
Anyone try this? I think I’ll give it a go on the next go around, but I’m curious if anyone has tried this and cut the sous vide-ing time.
I"ve not had anything to do with mechanically tenderised meat, but I can’t see any logical reason why it would not work. You would definitely want to make sure you’re cooking the meat long enough to pasteurise it because you’ve increased the surface area upon which bacteria can reside as well as potentially introduced bacteria into the interior of the meat where it could not previously reach.
Mechanically tenderised meat will give you a completely different mouth feel to a piece that is cooked long enough for the collagen to break down.
Sayakat, you are very brave cook hoping to achieve a great result with a 3/4-inch thick bottom round steak.
For safety in a long cook, meaning over 4-hours, you need to Pasteurize the meat which requires a minimum temperature of 131F.
Using your Jaccard will not accelerate heat penetration. How did you get that idea? It only results in ruptured meat cells resulting in potentially increased moisture loss and some increased tenderness. You still require the long cook to sufficiently break down enough of that tough piece of muscle to make it enjoyable. Good luck.
If you do it next time you might first want to be certain your health insurance is in full effect. You are correct about the increased surface area inside the meat, but you might be adding some pathogens you don’t want in there and at that low temperature they could produce enough toxins to cause you a lot of GI woes.
I hope you use a 10% bleach solution to sanitize your Jaccard after cleaning it.
Every time.
Or a quaternary ammonium based sanitizing detergent followed by a thorough potable water rinse?
The bleach is easier on you and the tool.
Gentle Anova users, until recently sous vide instruments and Jaccard tenderizers were only used by highly trained culinary professionals who possessed a thorough knowledge of food safety and sanitation practices. These are not toys. They require a substantial amount of knowledge to use them properly. Please do the work and stay healthy.
chatnoir,
And that’s why I throw it out to the community so that people like you who are much more seasoned and experienced (and smarter?) will offer their knowledge. Thanks very much. I’ll keep all your caveats in mind. The Jaccard gets thrown into the dishwasher every time but your thoughts are certainly welcome.
So I guess I’ll have to rethink it. You’re right, I shouldn’t take this lightly as I may have and do more research and homework on food safety.
Much obliged - To all the folks that took to time to answer my post.
Sayakat, i am glad to be of assistance.
Not smarter, just seasoned. I’ve been doing this a long time.
Not all domestic dish washers have the mechanical strength and sufficiently high final rinse temperature ,-at least over 180F for a minutes, to eliminate or sterilize every spec of meat tissue on your Jaccard.
Placement in your dishwasher is critical too. Use the bottom rack and have the business-end of your Jaccard facing down to get the best impact possible.
That’s why i recommend using the bleach solution as it gives you the assurance of a 100% bacteria kill on the tool.
Chatnoir,
Got it on your sterilizing of the cooking instruments. You have definitely heightened my food safety awareness. Thanks.
Though, to further the discussion a bit, I’ve come across this passage from Douglas Baldwin’s sous vide book (ok, ok, I snatched it from my good pal google :wink )
“Since todays meat is younger and leaner than the meat of the past, many cooks marinate, tenderize or brine the meat before vacuum packaging.”
He goes on:
“Mechanical tenderizing with a Jaccard has become quite common. A Jaccard is a set of thin blades that poke through the meat and cut some of the internal fibers. The Jaccard does not typically leave any obvious marks on the meat and is often used in steak houses. By cutting many of the internal fibers that would typically contract with heat and squeeze out the juices, it can slightly reduce the amount of moisture lost during cooking. For instance, when cooking a chuck steak for 24 hours at 131°F (55°C) the Jaccarded steak lost 18.8% of its weight compared to 19.9% for the non-Jaccarded steak. In general, more liquid weight is lost the longer a piece of meat is cooked at a given temperature– however, this additional weight loss is balanced by the increased tenderness from collagen dissolving into gelatin.”
The point I guess, at least for me, and as you have already correctly pointed out is that it doesn’t really save time but does tenderize the steak more. What is interesting though is the fact that less juice is lost when one Jaccards a steak. Which should, I imagine help retain the flavor.
So the next time, keeping in mind all the safety protocols, I’m going to try and Jaccard the steak then sous vide at 131F for at least 6 hours, That 30 hrs killed the flavor and sapped the juice out. It was tender but very dry and bland. I suppose we can argue that a cheap cut will always be a cheap cut but I’ve had this taste a bit, albeit tougher, better. Although my instincts says 6 hours will be too short. But who knows I’m adding the Jaccarding, another factor into the mix and I may just like the result. Yeah, there’s no accounting for taste! (pun intended, lol).
I disagree with the ‘cheap cut will always be a cheap cut.’ There is a difference between a cheap cut that is poor quality meat (like an older milker) and a cheap cut which is cheap due to its position on the beast (eg. blade, shin, tail, cheek). The later are usually hard working muscle that is not naturally tender. These muscles, traditionally used for braises and other long slow preparation, because they are high work muscles contain a lot more flavour than the lesser worked, more highly prized steaks (usually situated around the rib cage).
Treated right, these secondary cuts can be so much more than the average strip or rib steak.
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@chatnoir: sounds lovely and delicious (and I’m not even particularly fond of cheesecake!). For those of us without a convection function, do you suggest any adjustment in either temperature or baking time?
Hi, when can I safely remove the device from water after usage? Is there a specified temperature?