Sous Vide questions
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This last weekend I made 10 lbs. of snack sticks using both of my Masterbuilt 40 electric smokers. My snack sticks went into a stall and took over 13 hours to get up to 160 internal temp. So I am looking a getting a Sous Vide and trying to speed up the process. I have been reading and if I vacuum seal my sticks when I put them in the Sous Vide how will I know when the I.T. is over 160? If I don’t vacuum seal, will that hurt the taste or the texture of the final product? What would be the recommended wattage? I have seen both 750 and 1000 watts. Thanks in advance for helping an old man understand!
Freddie .There has been a lot of discussion about this topic. All I can add is what I do. I do not seal them up, I made a nice wide container out of a cooler that holds about 12 pounds of snack sticks. I just put them in the bath and bring the temp up. No lost flavor, no lost casings, no stall issues. I typically do this at around 140 degrees, then put them in the sous vide and run it up to 160, setting the sous vide at 170. This usually takes less than an hour. Then into an ice bath for 10 minutes, then they air dry. To me it is now my standard practice. I use an anova 1000 watt sousvide.
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I was running into the same problem with my MES 30. I bought the Vacmaster sv1 from Waltons. The first few times I struggled with finishing sticks in it. I finished them for 1-2 hours (which is way to long) without bagging them and they were waterlogged and soggy. After help from several people in this community I got it about perfect now.
I set the sous vide at 170 degrees. Pull sticks out of smoker between 135 and 140. Drop them strait into sous vide unbagged. At this time, do not wonder off and leave them. 15 minutes is the longest it has taken to finish them. I pull a couple ends out of the water at 10 minutes and check them. They will usually be at least 155 degrees in 10 minutes. I check them every couple minutes after that and pull them at 160 degrees. I do not water bath them. My sticks are 16mm so just laying them out on paper towels cools them down pretty fast. I leave them out for 2-3 hours, then cut to length and vac bag them.
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Just want to weigh in as someone who does Sous vide with my smoked items. I typically will smoke my items (for this example I’ll go with my last batch of snack sticks) at 125 for 1 hour, 140 for 1 hour, 155 for 2 hours at which point I will vac-pack them without a thermometer into the packaging I’ll eventually store them in (in my case, 8oz packages 4" length) and then pop them into a sous vide bath at 160 for 1 or 2 hours. Having checked one of the bags after 1 hour, I can confirm that the 19mm casings were small enough that they reached internal temp of 16 after 1 hour and had a lovely smoked flavor. After this, chill as usual and they are already packed ready for storage and anything nasty on the surfaces of them was killed at 160 and won’t infect inside the bag while they are sealed.
I hope this helps you out as that last 175 cook up to 160 internal can be a pig to wait for if it’s stalled out…
With regards to wattage, if you’re only doing small batches (10-20lbs) then a small sous vide device will do you just fine. I don’t want to mention any brands, but mine has the word nano in the name and is 750W and does the job a treat.
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This last weekend I made 10 lbs. of snack sticks using both of my Masterbuilt 40 electric smokers. My snack sticks went into a stall and took over 13 hours to get up to 160 internal temp. So I am looking a getting a Sous Vide and trying to speed up the process. I have been reading and if I vacuum seal my sticks when I put them in the Sous Vide how will I know when the I.T. is over 160? If I don’t vacuum seal, will that hurt the taste or the texture of the final product? What would be the recommended wattage? I have seen both 750 and 1000 watts. Thanks in advance for helping an old man understand!
Freddie The chart below is for meat at refrigerator temp 37-40 F heating to 140
You can see how fast sous vide is, a 5/8 snack stick can achieve a 100 F rise in 15 min
I set my sous vide at 160 put them in, walk away and pull them anywhere from 15-45 minutes because they cannot go higher than 160
If you set the sous vide higher than 160 the timing becomes more critical in proportion to the higher temp (over cooking)
Hope this helps
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Freddie I’m not a sous vide guy so don’t know if I should really be weighing my opinion on this one, however if you put your probe in one stick then vacuum seal around the flexible wire you will be fine assuming you have a metal braided wire instead of a plastic or rubber coated one. Also reading reports of people not using a vac bag and just putting the sticks in bare with no issues of flavor dispersement or texture issues. Only issue to think about is fat or small meat particles getting into your vide pump/circulator. But haven’t heard much of an issue on that as well.
I’d be more curious to learn on what your process was and why it had a 13 hour stall.
twilliams I did it per the Walton’s recommendations. I started a 125 for 1 hr, 140 for 1 hr, 155 for 2 hrs., then at 170 till I.T. was 160. I have no idea why I had such a long stall. I do know I had fat out but I didn’t use a binder but that little problem will be solved as soon as my next Walton’s order gets here.
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Freddie So, when we first starting playing around with this Parksider and I had a disagreement on whether it was important to vacuum seal or not. He claimed that it wasn’t but I just couldn’t believe it. Eventually, I tried it without and it absolutely did not make a difference. No taste or smoke was leeched out and it did not become soggy or have any noticeable negative effect on the meat. If you do decide to vac seal it, make sure you vac seal it as close to the end of the bag as possible, then you can cut it open, check it and then reseal it. If you have a sous vide circulator that sucks water in, heats it and spits if back out then I would recommend a bag to prevent any oil, fats or little particle clogging it.
As for how long to do it, 19mm snack sticks with 172° water will get to 160 in about an hour from 130°. Important to note, if you used Encapsulated Citric Acid make sure you leave it in the water for a full hour to allow the encapsulation to fully melt.
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This last weekend I made 10 lbs. of snack sticks using both of my Masterbuilt 40 electric smokers. My snack sticks went into a stall and took over 13 hours to get up to 160 internal temp. So I am looking a getting a Sous Vide and trying to speed up the process. I have been reading and if I vacuum seal my sticks when I put them in the Sous Vide how will I know when the I.T. is over 160? If I don’t vacuum seal, will that hurt the taste or the texture of the final product? What would be the recommended wattage? I have seen both 750 and 1000 watts. Thanks in advance for helping an old man understand!
Freddie I have a Meater wireless thermometer. I use it while the meat is in the smoker. When I take the sausage out, I vacuum seal the one with the Meater in it before putting it in the sous vide with the Meater still in place. It will continue to give you an internal temperature reading through out the sous vide cycle. I don’t usually seal the other sausages and haven’t noticed any difference in taste or structure. Hope this helps. I was going to take a picture of the sealed sausage before I put it in the sous vide last time but forgot
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Freddy look on offer up. There are great deals on sous vide unit. I got my anova bluetooth for 50 bucks (used once) in the box.
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Thanks to all who replied. As soon as I can find one in a brick and morter store I will own a Sous Vide machine. Thanks again!
Freddie said in Sous Vide questions:
As soon as I can find one in a brick and morter store I will own a Sous Vide machine.
Costco has an Anova kit that includes a water container as well in case you shop there.
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I found one at a Target for $100. I used it this weekend and the results were great. I brought my snack sticks up to about 135 then put them in the sous vide heated water (water was at 163) I left them in there for about a 1/2 hr, pulling one and checking it with my fireboard thermometers. When they registered 160 I put them in a cold water bath for 15 minutes. The only thing that I will do different next time is start my sous vide earlier so that the water will be hotter when I put the snack sticks in. I did notice that the sticks seem to taste a bit meater than before but that could be from my not doing it right the first time. I will be learning more the more I do. Thanks y’all!
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I found one at a Target for $100. I used it this weekend and the results were great. I brought my snack sticks up to about 135 then put them in the sous vide heated water (water was at 163) I left them in there for about a 1/2 hr, pulling one and checking it with my fireboard thermometers. When they registered 160 I put them in a cold water bath for 15 minutes. The only thing that I will do different next time is start my sous vide earlier so that the water will be hotter when I put the snack sticks in. I did notice that the sticks seem to taste a bit meater than before but that could be from my not doing it right the first time. I will be learning more the more I do. Thanks y’all!
Freddie
Great to hear! What vessel are you using for your sous vide? I’d like to try this for my 25lb batches and already have a sous vide. Guessing I’ll just need a big cooler and hope my sous vide unit can heat the amount of water needed. -
https://douglasbaldwin.com/index.html
I’ve posted this in the past, and it is still a good read. It explains the science behind SV The book is a waste but the site has everything about how SV works. Scroll down to the table of contents. You have to NOT use your normal meat processing skills. Example: i just SV’d 2 pork butts 7 & 10lbs. Temp, 145* 48hrs. Came out perfect. Chunky not pulled, and the taste was fantastic. Now i’ve over simplified, but that’s the end game. Could have pulled pork for 60hrs, or sliced 143* for 48hrs. Good luck… The more you know, the luckier you get
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Freddie
Great to hear! What vessel are you using for your sous vide? I’d like to try this for my 25lb batches and already have a sous vide. Guessing I’ll just need a big cooler and hope my sous vide unit can heat the amount of water needed.Jamieson22 I bought a plastic tub from the Dollar Store. It worked but I’m keeping an eye out for anything that might be a little bit better.
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Jamieson22 I bought a plastic tub from the Dollar Store. It worked but I’m keeping an eye out for anything that might be a little bit better.
Freddie I would make sure it was food safe. Look on the bottom and ck the marking. Leaching contaminants on your food is an unpleasant result. All plastics are molded in oil. Some made for food and some utility. Be safe
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Freddie I would make sure it was food safe. Look on the bottom and ck the marking. Leaching contaminants on your food is an unpleasant result. All plastics are molded in oil. Some made for food and some utility. Be safe
JoeB Another reason I like to bag the meat but my batches are usually no more than 10 lbs.
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Jamieson22 I bought a plastic tub from the Dollar Store. It worked but I’m keeping an eye out for anything that might be a little bit better.
Freddie
I sort of answered my own question but ordered a Coleman Party Stacker 48-can cooler. I already have two 24-can that I use to hold bbq and ice bath snack sticks. This bigger one should be good for 25lb batches. Will just hole-saw the lid to drop the sous vide in. -
Freddie
I sort of answered my own question but ordered a Coleman Party Stacker 48-can cooler. I already have two 24-can that I use to hold bbq and ice bath snack sticks. This bigger one should be good for 25lb batches. Will just hole-saw the lid to drop the sous vide in.Jamieson22 the party stackers are the best for the money. Drill a hole in the top and go for 48hrs without water loss. Also the tops are inter changeable. Only have to prep one top
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Tip…. Don’t drill a 2 1/2 whole. Measure. My SV was 2 1/4. Better fit less loss.
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