Sous Vide and overcooking

Jared_269041

I have a question regarding Sous Vide. In the recipes you have you mention 45 minutes at a certain temperature and then say it can remain in the water for 2 hours without overcooking. This is the timing given for your latest video on Steak Sous Vide.

If we are cooking to equilibrium what happens after the two hour window? Does it remain at the initial doneness, but just gets dry? Chances are I will pull it out as soon as it hits 45 minutes, but it would be nice to know what happens the longer the food is in the water as we might not always have a steak the exact thickness in your recipe so I may have to play with the timing a bit.

I can't wait for my Joule to arrive in May

Thanks,

Jared

tshewman

The proteins and connective tissues essentially continue to denature/break down and the texture is affected. That said, even the 2 hr window is +/- it's not a hard and fast rule. If you left it in for an hour, you probably wouldn't find a big difference in how well it was done (compared to 45min) depending on the thickness.