So, I’ve had the oven for a couple of weeks now and I’m slowly getting to grips with it but want to venture further into the world of sous vide. There are plenty of recipes out there but is there a rule of thumb for converting a bag recipe into a in the oven recipe?
Hi Maph, welcome, and thank you for bringing the Community such a interesting and challenging question.
Based on this cook’s experience, i regret to inform you that we are now living in a universe with two sous vide worlds. In the world of the circulating water bath sous vide cooking technique the energy transfer dynamics differ significantly from the world of heated moist air cooking that now also carries the sous vide appellation. Anova’s engineers have closed the gap with the APO’s highly effective temperature monitoring system, but that alone is unlikely to allow the development of a useable conversion factor between the 2 techniques. There may be one, but i have not yet discovered it.
It would be helpful to hear from the many APO users here to learn if anyone has successfully converted recipes from one world to the other.
Colour me doubtful because where the water bath SV cooking technique is universally consistent, i have experienced the need to adjust my cooking when switching to a new combi oven, even with one of the same brand.
Have you done any standardized testing to measure recipe differences?
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I haven’t done any testing as of yet, but am working on the theory that you should be able to do a bag recipe with the same temperatures and get the same sort of result over a similar amount of time, the probe will work well here to tell when meat has reached the correct temperature. Hopefully. Maybe adding different vegetables or meats at different times to the same cook for a mixture of different sous vide dishes!!
I’m thinking that The amount of steam to be used will vary depending on the meat and that bag sous vide cooking that takes a long time will require a greater amount of steam.
One of the main problems will be with added flavours. Vacuum sealed garlic and herbs will flavour the whole bag with a small amount. How to get all those flavours spread across something in an oven dish without over/under flavouring it may be more of a tricky adaption.
I am sure I’m literally just scratching the surface of what is possible with the oven and I’m probably trying to do to much too soon, but I love experimenting with new methods and dishes.
All just thoughts and ideas at the moment. I’m fairly confident that there are enough amazing chefs and cooks on here that will put their ideas and suggestions forward for us to work something out…
Hi Maph, your ambitious enthusiasm is impressive.
Please explain what you understand to be a bag recipe. It’s an unfamiliar term to this cook. Does it apply to cooking in both the water bath and steam oven techniques?
For steam oven guides check out the support material at Wolf Ovens and Cuisinart sites. Of course they don’t exactly match APO in performance but give you some starting recipe details.
Fresh garlic is not recommended for use in a low temperature anaerobic (sealed bag) cooking environment over extended times. Fresh herbs are largely a waste, better to add at the end of the cook.
Be sure to keep a complete and detailed record of each research batch you cook.
Do well.
Maph, I’m not an expert so I’ll let others chime in after me but if you are thinking about using the same temperatures and times in the oven as a water bath then I would be concerned that the food would stay at an unsafe temperature for too long since the steam will not be as efficient at heat transfer as the water bath.
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I am thinking of any water based sous vide recipe being in a vacuum sealed bag and probably rather wrongly calling these bag recipes.
That’s an interesting note with the garlic and wasn’t something I was aware of.
Thanks for the sites to visit, looks like I’m going to be busy at work not working for the next few days…
I will start recording my results, trials and tribulations and hopefully have some good food on the way.
Thanks gslater, I’ll look into times and temperatures, I’m sure I’ve seen a table somewhere. Thankfully I’m a big beef fan and that’s got to be the safest to start with.
Any more help and advice gladly welcome.
Hi Maph, i appreciate your helping me understand the bag terminology.
Low temperature cooking has its special food safety challenges, garlic and beef among them.
You should avail yourself of the useful information at the following site. His book is out of print and has become a collector’s item. However the web site is easily accessible and sufficiently complete.
Baldwins short paragraphs are loaded with important details. This is not material you can skim through and move on if you want to master the sous vide cooking technique.
https://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html
Stay safe and keep well.
I found this on the Anova FB page. Thought you might be interested in seeing it. Redirecting...
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