Water in Bag?

robert.c.brown15

So I'm doing 72 hour short ribs at 54C and one of the bags (3 ribs in a bag, cut short) seemed to have a lot of excess liquid in it with the oil I added. I know red juices come out when I do these cooks, but this bag had a lot (one of the ribs was completely submerged.

I can't tell if it is water because it has that reddish tint to it. I opened the bag and drained the excess liquid and put it back in the water bath. The meat looked fine (hard to tell though) and I definitely made sure it was sealed.

If it wasn't water in the bag, what would it be? Just a lot of melted collagen and juice?

Kinda dumb question, but if it is water, that is going to ruin those short ribs right? Really weird though.

Also, all 3 bags are a bit oily on the outside, but I attribute that to the stuff inside the bag slowly getting through the plastic. It has happened before so I'm not worried about that. Thanks for the help!

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Comments

SteveM_20803

First, are you sure water is getting in the bag? If water is getting in, then I would think the oil is leaking out. If you stop the circulator does it surface have a lot of oil on top. I know with ribs and steaks, I seem to get a lot of liquid out of them, but I mostly pack them dry(without oil). I recently did a 2lb chuck roast for 48hrs and got almost 2 cups of liquid out of it.

Unless the water in your bath has something in it, I don't necessarily think that your ribs are ruined. You are going to lose flavor; meaning you are going to have watery ribs. Worst case you can rework them into something else.

Ben_Johnson_34605

It definitely appears you have had a bag failure. Sometimes you won't even notice the smallest little pin hole. The oil in the bath and water in the bag is a sure sign though. Like Steve said, the ribs aren't necessarily ruined(unless you are concerned with contamination), and could like be repurposed.

robert.c.brown15

Steve and Ben, thank you! There may be a little leak. I'll definitely be checking again when I get home in a little bit. I'm not 100% sure it is water.

The water in the bath is a bit murky, but I've had that happen before with long cooks. It seems that liquid slowly gets through the plastic bags. I assume this because I can smell the ribs, even though they are sealed in a plastic bag. I also got oil on the outside of the bag (it was on my fingers) and then put it in the bag so right away some oil was floating in the water bath.

I'm going to check the bags, smell them, and take it from there. If it isn't anything awful, then I'm going to proceed with them. They are for myself, my fiancee, and my parents who are visiting tomorrow night. Worst case, I'll just serve myself the bad ribs.

Thanks for the replies and I'll be back later tonight if anything looks like a concern.

robert.c.brown15

So I got home and the bags all look similar. No one bag had a ton of liquid in it again. The water is definitely somewhat murky with oil floating on top. Oh well. It doesn't smell bad so I'm going to give it another 24 hours and see if it survives. I'm sure it will be obvious which short ribs were in the bag that may have leaked and which weren't so I can always make sure I am the one to eat those. Or not eat them and just throw them out.

HammeredChef_DEFINITELY_does_NOT_work_at_22134

What was the verdict?

robert.c.brown15

In the end everything came out fine. Everything was edible and tasted fine. I think the biggest issue was that they were all short cut short ribs. Not long cuts. Therefore after slicing the meat off the bone, searing it, and slicing it again for each plate, every piece was like eating an end piece of a steak or roast. The few middle pieces I did have went to my parents naturally, but I'm no longer buying short cut short ribs for this. My parents really enjoyed it though so that's all that matters.

I'm glad nothing was ruined as there probably had to be a sloght leak in one of the bags. So much oil was floating in the bath.