Too much liquid in sous vide bag??

For some time now I have been experimenting with sous vide cooking . There is one thing that doesn’t seem right in my results: the amount of juices that come out of meat. eg just cooked a 2,5cm thick slice of pork neck which weighs about 300 gram. Vacuum sealed it in a chamber vacuum machine which has over 90% vacuum, seal is 100% ok, and the package is pretty snug. Cooked it with circulator for 6hrs @ 69⁰C meat was ok but there was about 75 ml of juices in the bag.

What do I do wrong?? With less liquid in the bag surely the meat would be juicier. Put the meat in as it was, not additional herbs, no salt or pepper and no oil of any kind.

Your input is much appreciated!

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Afonso_Tito_de_Morais_164825

You sure the bag hasn't leaked? Meat of lower quality usually leaves bigger amounts of juice aswell.

Jan_127651

@Afonso Tito de Morais , after cooking i can squeeze the bag in a cold water bath and no air is coming out the bag. It is the amount of liquid and the shrinkage of the meat that puzzles me. Just doesn't add up.

tshewman

We (and all animals) are made mostly of water and there's allot of water in muscle and the other tissues we are cooking. When the heat rises, the muscles contract, sarcomeres shorten (functional muscle contractile unit) and forces water/liquid out. A neck has allot of connective tissue 9which also has allot of water) and thus the amount of liquid does not surprise me (esp at 69C).

Jan_127651

thank you for your input Todd, what temp would you recommend for pork neck?

tshewman

I'm a bit of a low temp person. Yesterday, I finished a shoulder at 57C for 24 hrs and have a belly on the go at 58.5C for 36hrs so there's a bit of personal preference. Doing 6 hr cooks sv for a muscle like the neck can be challenging (the neck functions to hold up our heads all day long so it works hard!), so if I were to recommed something it would be to lower the temp (at least to 60C) and lengthen the time if at all possible (consider 18 hrs plus). The other item I've been reading about (but not addressed here as yet) is taking the meat out of the bath and letting it sit at room temp (yes you read that right) for ~15 minutes. This slows down the cooling period somewhat (but not drastically) theoretically allowing the muscles to lengthen and moisture to re-enter (over-simplified) and then plunge it into an ice bath. Hope that helps.

fisher23

Totally agree with Todd, I like my pork done just a bit more. I would go 61° for 24 hours to get the connective tissue to break down. The 15 minutes at room temperature I haven't tried but it makes sense giving it a rest period.

fisher23

@Todd_Shewman_38102 Do you recommend a rest period if you are going to finish and eat?

Jan_127651

Found out after much trial and error that the main reason for liquid in the sv-bag is the quality of the meat. Lamb hardly leaves any liquid in the bag as where cheap cuts of (cheap) pork (eg neck) leaves loads of liquid.

It appears to me that lamb isn't tampered with so much as pork. Less growth hormones and medicines and such like.

Leg of lamb, bone taken out meat cut in 3-4 chunks. Slice meat so it folds out flat. Sear on red hot grill and put in sv bag. Set cooker at 59 celcius for 1,5-2 hrs. Comes out pink and tender and hardly any fluid in the bag.

I use screen wiper antifreeze from the freezer (-20 celsius) to cool down cooked meat real fast.