I just got my vacuum sealer. I didn't make the bags long enough to be pinned and at the same time be fully submerged.
So I put each sealed bag in a Ziplock but then they floated. So I added water to the bags. They now are submerged however. Because the waters inside and outside the Ziplock aren't mixing, is that going to cook uneven ?
Any tips on how to improve ?
by 2vivicious
11 Comments
Cus a hole in the lid? You can shut the door and it will really keep evap to a min.
putting this setup together to get that photo was more work than i would be willing to put in for a joke.
Just drop the vac sealed bags in the cooler. Stir around now and then
you put water in the bags? as opposed to dropping something like a stainless steel butter knife or spoon in each bag? is the water on the far end of tue circulator staying at the right temp?
Use a weight instead of water would be my first thought. Some people use coins, pie weights, or heavy butter knives. I personally use small ball bearings. I have some that I have in their own sealed bag so I can put the bundle in the bag with my food, but I could also seal the food by itself, then put *that* bag in another bag with the weights so the weights are on the outside. Heat transfers just fine through the double bags, and the ball bearings are stainless steel so they’ve held up to everything I’ve put them through so far
Personally I’d probably fully submerge the bags unless it’s something like a long cook on pork that could leak through the plastic. But something like steaks just submerge them and use some dinner plates or bowls on top if they are trying to float or put the bowl or plate down then put a jar of water on top as a weight or Kenji says lay some towels on top and the weight of the soaked towel could keep it submerged.
What size of SV circulator do you use?
So, for a first time setup, I think what you’ve done is really great. You’re missing some hacks the sous vide hobbyists have worked out over time though. Some things to look into:
– if you’re using a long roll of plastic bags with your sealer, you can cut a length, put a seal line in the middle, then vacuum seal your meat on one side and a weight (eg pie weights, whisky stones) on the other side of the seal. You end up with a two compartment bag with built in weight. This might overcome the floating bag problem for you.
– I like your oven rack. People also use stainless steel dish drying racks at the bottom of the tank. If your get the right cut thickness you can even find a dish rack steaks will wedge into, solving your floating problem.
– you have a lot of exposed water surface if that lid doesn’t close. If you can’t close it, you can buy miniature pingpong balls that create an insulation barrier to minimize evaporation loss. This may not be an issue for steaks done for a few hours, but is a life saver for longer cooks.
– I think the water in your clip lock bags should equalize temperature with the water bath around them, but might run 1-2 degrees cooler as there’s no direct fluid exchange. Definitely monitor temperature *inside* the clip lock bags during this cook.
– I don’t cook super close to rare temperatures so I don’t have much risk, but I don’t generally have big issues with water circulating around all my steaks even if they’re next to each other. A half inch of space is plenty IMO, but checking with your thermometer is a good idea.
Rearrange and submerge the wire rack to the bottom of the cooler. If necessary, use weights or any other required method. Then use cheap large binder clips to attach each of your sous vide bags holding them down to the wire rack.
Edit: Cut a hole in the lid as suggested. If not, then large-size reusable heavy duty aluminum foil with a beach towel on top of it will work as well to minimize evaporation and heat loss.
Odd that your steaks float. I sometimes get that with pork, especially the fattier cuts, and chicken breasts, but never beef. When they do float, 1 or 2 butter knives per bag fixes that. I also leave a slight amount of air in the bag. It moves to the top and keeps the seal above the water without needing clamps.
For longer cooks, I would like to close the lid of my cooler to limit evaporation but for steaks, it probably won’t matter.
Have you checked the temperature on the other side? J had the old Anova and anova nano; the Anova couldn’t deal with that much water at once.
I don’t know the depth but with that many layers of bags, I could worry about circulation.