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Question about leaving bags open on one end

murray.sean.d

In a lot of the ChefSteps videos, I see them leave one end of the vacuum bag unsealed and simply hanging out over the edge of the container. This seems like a great idea for longer high temp cooks where the bag could potentially inflate. My biggest concern however is how sanitary it is. If any of the food comes contact with the part of the bag that ends up out of the water, isn't that just asking for bacteria growth? I assume any bacteria that grow would end up on the food when removing from the bag.

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Comments

tshewman

For long cooks, double bag, sear (anything but fish and lamb), blanch in the bag, have something on top of the product (rack, plate etc) to hold it under water.

murray.sean.d

Thanks for the general tips, but I'd still like some more info specifically on the practice of leaving the bags unsealed.

tshewman

If there are bacteria and such already on the food open or closed will not matter. By ensuring the bag is under the water does not expose the product to unsafe temps.

Steve_Dunham_145440

If the bag is open, part of it is not underwater. If the product brushed that part of the bag on the way in, you'd probably get some bacteria on it. I'm not sure how much it is going to multiply on the bag, without much in the way of food.

TBH, I've only ever done short cooks with the bag open. But I am curious what issues there are with the open bag technique. (I'd also like to know how it affects the heat transfer - should I be using a different heat transfer coefficient for open vs vacuum bags?)