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Boiling Pre-Dip in lieu of Searing Water

James_McNulty_367565

Read a hundred posts on per-searing meats to reduce surface bacteria load.

Some years ago, I heard a Japanese Chef say that before serving raw beef, that Japanese Chefs dipped pieces of raw beef into boiling water for 20 or 30 seconds (can't remember exact time) and then immediately plunged the beef into an ice bath to stop the cooking. That would destroy 99% of surface bacteria.

After cooling in the ice water, the piece of beef was dried an sliced for consumption with no further cooking.

My question is why we don't take cool pre-cooked meats that are cooked under 130 or 140 F degrees, and just give them a quick boiling water dip (most bacteria on outside of the meat) followed by a quick ice cool followed by low temperature sous vide final cooking.

Seems like a much faster method for reducing the bacteria load rather than searing. Don't tell me we sear because it tastes better. I am particularly interested the "boiling water dip" method. If you are familiar with it, how many seconds did that Japanese Chef told us all so many years ago? Does it really work? Would it work better (all flat surfaces AND edges an surface fissures would be heated uniformly)?

Thanks in advance if you know the answer to this question.

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Comments

tshewman

Yes, it works and some of us use a similar method (or combine the two you mentioned). For any long cooks, I blanch as you describe above. I also presear on many ocassions. This is in an effort to both kill bacteria and ad flavor (which the blanching does not).

douglas_bd

For long, low temp cooks, I often do a blanch step for security prior to cooking. After vacuum packing the meat, drop into boiling water for 10-20 seconds. Then directly into the low temp bath. I don't know why you would do this on a precooked piece of meat though. If you pack and chill correctly, there shouldn't be any need to do this before rethermalization. I'm not sure off hand of exactly how many seconds you'd need to kill surface bacteria, but it should be very short at boiling temp.

Brandon_Byrd_40557

Yeah, I'm confused by the "pre-cooked" part of the question as well.

At any rate, my favorite method of pre-searing/blanching is deep frying. It has all the advantages of the water dip method with all the advantages of a pre-sear.

dancurren

You should read up on thermal pasteurization curves. For example, Salmonella is pasteurized to safe levels at 72C after 15 seconds, but that doesn't mean it is only pasteurized at these temps - it's a function of time and temperatures. If memory serves correctly, all pathogens are paseurized at anything gtrater than 46.7C (115C) if held for long enough durations. Salmonella is pastureized at 50C after 1.5 hours.

Of course you could also sterilize the surface of your food with UV radiation and eliminate the cooking all togwther. Basically, depending on what you are cooking and for how long in sous vide, boiling and or pre searing is irrelevant for food safety. It does make a big difference for taste however, both due to the maillard reaction that occurs with searing and the fact the water - especially boiling water - is a powerful solvent tjat will leech flavour and nutrients from your food.

fisher23

Here is a graph, it doesn't even need to be boiling to be effective in less than one second.