Hi SV community, i recently experienced excessive cooking fluids in the SV bag after cooking. One time with a 450gr Pork Loin (Cooked at 62C 3hrs) and another time with a 800gr Tbone steak (Cooked at 57C 2hrs). Both according to anova recipes.
The pork loin lost 15% in weight and had a full cup of cooking fluid in the bag after SV cooking.
The Tbone steak had about 3 cups or 24oz or 0.7 litres in the bag after SV Cooking, and was also still not cooked/very rare.
The SV Bag was not leaking. The meat was not frozen
The amount of fluid looked excessive, it was like broth. It looked like i was cooking in a soup rather than SV-ing a steak or loin.
Something is not correct here.
What could be the reason for the excessive fluid and how can we prevent this to normal small fluids.
Can anybody shine their light on this?
First I would like to thank you for providing such precise details. Your results seem almost impossible. Three cups of fluid from a 1.75 lb unfrozen T-Bone steak? Wow. Unless there was an abnormal amount of marinade or water injected prior to cooking, I can’t think of a reason for this. Sometimes, vendors will inject extra water into a cut of meat in order to add to the weight and bring up the price. Still, this seems very excessive. You are cooking your steak a bit higher than I do - I cook T-Bones and tenderloins at 131.5 for about 1 3/4 hour. I usually get about one forth to a half cup of broth from a choice cut. You can rule out the possibility of a leak (which you apparently did) if your water bath does not appear contaminated by the beef broth. This is a mystery I would like to see solved by one of our more experienced members.
Did both pieces of meat came from the same source? If so, I’d suggest that you try another retailer. As stated by Dru some retailers inject water to increase the volume and the weight to increase profit.
With the amount of water given out after cooking, your meat must have shrunk quite a lot which normally does not occurs (or to a minimum) using SV cooking. Water injection is probably the culprit, it may not be the retailer but his supplier.
Try a local butcher who prepares his meat himself, you are less likely to pay or water…
Injection, most often refered to as “seasoned” on packaged meats, cannot be the explanation for Robert’s mysterious experience. Only steaks from low grade or ungraded beef are seasoned. We may never know as Robert did not reveal any details about the meat and has been absent since his original post here.
The solution injected is a brine, not water, and is usually limited to approximately 17% by weight. By law the amount must be disclosed on a product’s label.
Community has recently discussed another potentially para-normal SV experience and Robert’s may be one more. Since the prior occurrence and to help prevent these unexplained events i have made an aluminum foil pyramid and placed it on top of my Anova during cooks. It has been totally successful in preventing occurances similar to Roberts.
