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The Need to Preheat Water

Michael_Houang_415811

Ordered my Joule a couple days ago and cannot wait for it to get here. As a college student, I think this will be very easy and convenient for me to be able to cook food while going to classes and whatnot.

When cooking sous vide, I assume that one should preheat the water bath first before introducing the application into the bath. However, since sous vide deals with lower temperatures than, say, an oven, could I just introduce the application (ex. eggs) into the room temperature water and start Joule up to the desired temperature anyway? What would be some of the reasons why this would be a bad thing, or advised against? The only thing I could think of was that it would sacrifice the precision of cooking time, but with larger applications (ex. roast, turkey) it would seem negligible.

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Comments

meyer8863

Eggs are actually one of the few proteins that will not be an issue leaving unrefrigerated. Other proteins like beef, chicken, and fish start to grow bacterial as soon as their temperature reaches the "danger zone" which is between 40 and 140 degrees F. At these temperatures, bacteria grow at an exponential rate. While this bacteria may be killed during your cook, it is quite possible that your food will have an "off" smell. Similarly, you would have to cook the food even longer to kill a higher level of bacteria than usual, which will effect texture. If you want to leave things around (unrefrigerated) to cook later, I would stick to eggs and vegetables. For more info on sous vide and bacteria, check out this site:http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html

HammeredChef_DEFINITELY_does_NOT_work_at_22134

What @Michael_Meyer_123524 says.....Joule will heat so fast you might as well wait 5 or 6 minutes to get it in the safe zone. this is NOT like waiting on an oven to preheat....

meyer8863

What I understood him to be asking, is if he could leave a prepared meal in the water bath in the morning, then turn on the bath on his way home. If that isn't what he was asking, I apologize for the misunderstanding.

fisher23

The wonderful thing about sous vide is precision. Being able to cook at the perfect temperature. By introducing the food prior to the correct temperature you are short cutting that presision. With all that being said, Joule heats water remarkably fast. With eggs precision makes a big difference, one degree will make the difference between a silky runny yolk or a warm custard yoke. With a lot of other proteins it probably won't matter much, as I said Joule heats water so quickly that you shouldn't have a problem as the food won't be in the danger zone very long. There has been talk of even putting ice in the bath with the food and being able to start Joule remotely start early enough that your food will be cooked when you get home. I haven't ran any tests yet to see how long it will take to warm the water, melt the ice and get to temperature. Chris Young mentioned it a while ago that they were working on a few recipes where the food could be left in an ice water bath. I hope that answers your question.

Matthew_Snyder_68770

I missed or have forgotten that bit about the ice water bath. You mean set up Joule in an ice bath with your pork chop (or whatever) when you leave for work, then fire up the Foodarackacycle from work before you head home, and by the time you get there all the ice is melted, the water is 62°C, and your food is tasteh delicious? Or something else?

fisher23

Yes, you got it right. Here was one of the links, and here is the one from Chris Young, reiterated the same.

HammeredChef_DEFINITELY_does_NOT_work_at_22134

shit....drunk again..

Dat_Phan_279256

I think @Michael_Houang_415811 wants to know if it's ok to add food to a bath that has a circulator turned on but is still in the preheating phase versus waiting till the water temperature is at the target temperature. I don't think he is asking about leaving food unattended and starting remotely.

I don't think it does any harm as long as you're still waiting the full cooking time, with the clock starting after the water has actually reached the target temperature. This is assuming you are using a smaller bath + circulator setup that will reach temperature in a reasonable amount of time so food doesn't sit too long in the danger zone. My 800w Anova heats my 2.5 gallon bath up fast enough from cold. An Anova in a 16 gallon cooler probably would not work great. With the more powerful Joule it should definitely be ok to add meat while the water is still heating up in a smaller container.

You can also make the preheating phase negligible by starting with hot water from the tap. Going from 120+ F hot tap water to a safe 130F will hardly take any time. It will definitely safe if you throw meat in at 120F while you're preheating.

Matthew_Snyder_68770

Bueno, thank you for this.

artstype

Some other equipment you might want is a good instant read thermometer (and in induction burner with an appropriate pan!). I always preheat the water by using hot tap water. Measure its temp with your instant read thermometer and then use it to monitor the temp as you fill up whatever you are using to cook in. You will use less electricity and get started sooner. You only start timing your cook from the point that your product is in the correct temperature bath, BTW

ps2rocksout

Ordered a Joule and can't wait for it to show up. I've been an avid sous-vide chef for 5 years now and haven't stopped yet. Started with a Polyscience Chef Series (long term investment) and haven't looked back. I have the mind of a chef and I have learned to time things. That cannot be said about the rest of the world. So when it comes to convenience of sous-vide cooking it still has some bumps. A couple of years ago a kick starter program went up, supporting the love for sous-vide but with a person having too busy of a life style to cook. Its called Mellow Cooking and I just love the program. Check it out at https://www.cookmellow.com/ . Great looking product - thought of buying one myself, but I'm a chef on the go and need something more portable for my work. Also it is one unit so the bath size doesn't change so I can't use it for big productions. The reason for this post is that they built this device with a built in cooler to keep the water at refrigeration temperatures. So you can leave the product prepped inside the sous-vide until your ready to cook it. It is a 600 dollar machine (currently at 400 dollars for the early bird special, won't last much longer) so if your willing to buy it for that kind of lifestyle I would recommend it. But if you are a chef on the go I think Joule is a better choice. Cheers