minimum temp thawing water bath

Matt_207680

If the water starts colder than the desired temperature (ice cold perse), what is the lowest temp that Joule can be set to? If the temp rises above the desired temperature programmed, will Joule continue to circulate the water without heating it further? Could Joule be used to maintain a water bath below 40 degrees while things thaw? I am not asking it to chill the water, but asking if a water bath in an insulated cooler starting at at 35 degrees with frozen items added to it could joule be programmed to somewhere between 38-41 degrees and used to thaw items in a controlled environment and without new input of running water.

Brandon_Byrd_40557

You can do that with the Polyscience units, so I don't see why you couldn't do it with Joule (unless they impose an artificial temperature floor for some reason). But unless you're thawing out a huge hunk of meat (or are thawing large batches of smaller items like steaks or chops), it makes more sense to just use hot water from the tap to thaw things out. Or so says McGee. But for large roasts, your proposed method seems like a good idea. I'd keep an eye on it though, just to make sure that you don't need to add ice to keep the water bath below 40 degrees.

On a related note, Dave Arnold has "served thousands of shots" of booze chilled to 0F (-16C) by putting bottles of liquor in a circulator bath that's filled with cheap vodka (which has a very low freezing point) and then adding blocks of dry ice. If the dry ice drops the temp below 0F, the circulator kicks in to regulate the temperature. Seems pretty baller if you need to serve a bunch of consistently chilled shots over the course of an evening.