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Restaurant or catering setup.

seijoed

Reading a bit about this - many seem to recommend running 3 or at the very least
2 baths. What are the normal temps one usually see for 3 baths?
I assume that when doing this core temp timing is the key critical issue and why
many professional recipes can seem a little "timing critical" as if the author was under pressure....

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michaelnatkin

I'm sure Chris and Grant will have more to say about temps etc., but one reason to have two circulators (or, more generally, two of just about everything) in a restaurant or catering setup is you have to be able to handle the situation if something fails at an innopportune moment.

trev_teich

I'm not sure what the question is.

seijoed

If you run a low / medium / high temp bath setup - what are you using as the average temps?

Mason_Perry_34060

Great question actually, hopefully Grant and Chris will chime in.

seijoed

With two baths I tend to run one 85 for veg - prep that well ahead of time, any garnish and so on that is easily finished in a pan.

Steak I want at 54C, fish you can do quick or slow - but I liked the 43C so much that I kinda have been stuck there.

Just interesting to see what is held, how long and re-supply and so on, for a catering or fixed people menu, sure it is much easier to prep.

Shannon_Barnes_68642

oh, I'd give my right arm for two baths, one for vegetables and one for steak. Or to do perfect poached eggs AND Hollandaise sauce at the same time.

Grace_95227

@Johan, have you seen this article? Bruno Goussault uses 3 baths at compromised temps - 58C, 66C and 83C. Check out the section heading "temperature".

Just an example, but depends what dishes you want to cook really

seijoed

@grace think that was one of the articles I read - and yes that is exactly what I was wondering if others had other ideas on.

seijoed

I think his low and med temps are quite high though and he doesn't pre-sear or blanch so in some ways I think it is missing the point a tad.

Mason_Perry_34060

@johan I agree the low temps seem high, what is he serving from those proteins?

seijoed

Red meat! (Which sounds like something my gramma would have said.) Anything not categorized as a stone of mass destruction was categorized that way.

Brendan_Lee_56950

The low temp is equivalent to what many restaurants (around here at least) equate to medium, medium-rare temp. It's also pretty close to the temp that people are advised to cook pork to by the talking heads on tv food shows. The medium and high are kind of strange to me though.

seijoed

It is way too high for beef - which would require measuring core, thickness and cut for it to be viable.

Brendan_Lee_56950

Well I think the point of the article was to point out that these were compromises that they made because there are only 3 baths in the restaurant.

Mason_Perry_34060

Hmm still seems too high if someone wanted medium rare or less, I do my medium rare at 133 or 132....

Brendan_Lee_56950

Me too, but I don't think we are the "norm" when it comes to that. I know my definition of medium rare compared to most of my friends is vastly different. Up until recently anything with pink showing was considered "rare" to my wife. This is why I hate using qualitative wording to do something that can be measured precisely.

Mason_Perry_34060

133F is my personal favorite, highest I will cook red meat sous vide is like 140F anything above that is like why bother...

Grace_95227

@Brendan, I get what you mean. Even worse is the word 'pink' - so subjective!

Mason_Perry_34060

"Warm pink center"

Brendan_Lee_56950

So many meanings..... most of them dirty.

lelferreira

The main difference between sous vide at home and in a restaurant, is that depending on how many baths you got, you got to sacrifice sometimes the temperature.

Example: at home, I like to cook my pork belly @ 60°C for 40 hours, and because I don't have any other thing to do, I'd spent all this time to cook it. At the restaurant, I have only one bath, so I don't have the time to cook it for 40 hours because I have other things to do. So I cook it around 24 hours @ 65°C. Still gives a very nice resultant didn't waste that much time cooking it.

Mason_Perry_34060

I am working on making a second bath for around 125 bucks, just for this reason.

Chris_Young_80640

@Johan — I do not advocate the same temperatures that Bruno suggests. Indeed, those temperatures are very hard to understand and I don't know any working chef (and I know quite a few successful chefs) who use baths set to those temperatures.

In general, I want two or three baths set to the temperatures of foods that must be cooked to order. These will all be tender and/or low-temperature items. If I have foods the must be cooked to a hotter temperature, I will precook and chill them. That way they can be reheated in a lower temperature bath, but the customer still gets what they want.

If I have three baths, I might use 113 °F / 45 °C for most seafoods, 129 °F / 54 °C for seafoods at a higher temperature and certain meats that are best served rare, and then 140 °F / 60 °C for poultry and meats that I want to cook to medium.

With only two baths it would probably be 113 °F / 45 °C and 140 °F / 60 °C. For cooking things to temperatures in-between, I would work out the timing so that I know when to pull them from the 140 °F / 60 °C bath and have them end up where I want them to.

Of course, you might choose slightly different temperature settings based on your personal preference or the demands of your menu.

Mason_Perry_34060

Thanks for the info @Chris what you explained makes so much more sense to me.

I would think cooking in advance then chill until needed would be way more efficient for service than cooking to order, since basically all you need to do is bring it with a serving temperature and sear if needed. I am trying to prepare as much as I possibly can in advance so all I need to do is reheat and cook maybe a sauce and the lobster, which means one bath for cooking and the other for holding.

seijoed

@Chris, thanks a bunch. That confirms I wasn't going insane (yet).

I then would have belly, confit or similar things marked - Depending on availability

Steak I can re-fill as suggested earlier, fish to order and finish in a pan, veg - well probably a 25% overhead since I can use that the next day too.

Mason_Perry_34060

@Johan I had pretty much the same in mind, with the option to refill steaks from the freezer ahead of demand if needed. I would be shooting for 3 baths ideally.

Chris_Young_80640

@Mason & @Johan — Yes, the thing to keep in mind (and I'm sure you both realize this) is that you want to heat at the lowest common temperature.

Bryce_67761

Interesting

seijoed

@Chris it is still as always really, really nice to be able to verify things I've been pondering, that is what I love about this forum.

It confirmed a few things for me that I've really been not liking in terms of "outdated" sous-vide instructions I've seen from "older" (It is okay to say that if you are above 40 but feel like 25) people, they never seem to want to take the time to comprehend what is happening, why things don't taste good or why many things we "assume" have no theoretical nor practical anchoring.

seijoed

@Mason for catering - what I usually do is line two roller bags (travel bags) with a hard shell with some towels, then I can pack about 10 peoples dinners in each bag, go out 1.5 hours or 2 ahead of time, fire up the baths, clean, make a mise en place, a plating station, a few areas where I can store things needing cleaning and whatnot else, if you do it right and have say a cold, hot, cold, dinner, cleanser, dessert you should be done with all cleaning by the cleanser and have your baths drained and back in the car.