Sous Vide a 14.5 lb smoked ham

I need this to be warmed up and ready to cut up tomorrow. Funeral is at 1200hrs. How long should I keep the ham in the dunk tank and at what temperature? I am using an Anova circulator. Currently, I have the temperature set at 135°F. Ham is not frozen but has been refrigerated and is fully cooked. The plastic wrap on the ham seems to be sealed. No leaks as far as I can see. 7.5 inches in diameter, cylindrical and about 12 inches long-ish. Thanks!

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Brandon_Byrd_40557

None of the charts I have consider meat that thick (including the Polyscience iPad app) but it will take longer than six hours to come up to temperature that way. Doug Baldwin's chart notes that a cylinder of meat that's 95mm thick will take 6 hours to move from fridge temps (5C) to 1C less than the bath's temperature (it takes forever for food to rise that final degree). Your ham is roughly twice that thick, so it's going to take a long ass time. 14.5 lbs is a lot of mass, and it's a pretty large chunk of meat. I don't know if SV is the right tool for this massive job (unless you're going to be somewhere that doesn't have an oven).

Sam_110429

Yep, that is what I figured. I knew it would take a long time. It barely fit in the popular container that seems to be the go to SV bath (4.75 gal). I thought that I might keep the temperature up high enough to be safe, perhaps 135°F to 150°F, for at least 12 hours or more. Either that or take it out of the bath and break it down to small chunks and vacuum seal them up and put'em back in the tank. That may be a better option.

Appreciate the reply.

Samuel_68313

That is a big ham! If it was cooked in a bag and left sealed and just needs reheating then you should have a good margin of error. Not sure Anova is the best tool for it but I would imagine around eight hours at 55°C would be fine.

Alex_Thomson_41278

I think cutting it a few pieces would be a good idea. Not only would this be an opportunity to replace the bag with something you trust, it would shorten the cook time substantially.

Sam_110429

Just to close the door on this, after a little more research, I upped the temperature to 140°F. I covered the Camco container to reduce evaporation and heat loss. I left the Anova going all night and into the morning. Total time was about 14 hours on the already smoked whole ham. The ham turned out great, this after leaving it in the shrink wrapping it came in. No leaks and it "warmed up' in it's own juices. Cutting it up was a snap. I didn't try it but I probably could have pulled the meat off the bone by hand. Put it all in a low profile Coleman 25 qt. cooler after inserting an aluminum pan in the cooler itself, with a little adjusting to the pan. Next time, I'll probably cut it up first, but I was able to fit it in the Camco food container (4.75qt) whole. Thanks everyone.