Why are there "end times" for sous vide

Why can't you just leave stuff in indefinitely? I thought there was no risk of overcooking?

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While you won't "over cook" - temperature-wise, the texture of proteins change significantly with time. While this is sometimes desireable, depending on the product, it can be very unpleasant.

whenric

and sometimes for lower temp cooks (fish, rare steak...) you're not to pasteurization temps, and buggies could grow over time. But yeah, mushy chicken = no bueno

wolfiegirl

Si señor! Mucho yucko....😛

It would be equal to leaving a roast in the oven way past its done time. Overcooked and mushy.

hairyotter_273859

I'm guessing "end times" in recipes give you a reference point at which the food product in the bag is at peak doneness. But it's all a matter of taste and what you're cooking. Sous vide is a balance between temperature and time. I'm no expert still learning... but keep in mind that cooking at temps below 130' for a long time might give you food poisoning.

My experience has been that cooking beef steaks for a long period of time changes the texture of the meat to something like cured ham. Tastes fine, looks fine but feel... funky when you chew. When I buy a steak it's usually a 2 inch thick ribeye or porterhouse. My butcher calls them little roasts. I like my steaks to cook between 2 and 4 hours. The times I've left my steaks in for too long (8+ hr or so) was a mistake on my part, usually involved beer and my drinking buddies.

The last time that happened I saved dinner by chopping up my beautiful porterhouse steaks and made taco meat (carnitas) with them. Yummy yummy! If it looks like I'm not going to get them on the grill in time (blame the beer and my buddies) and I don't want to over cook the steaks I'll put them in an ice water bath, refrigerate and grill them in the next day or two. Not ideal but seems to work just fine.

Tougher cuts of meat seem to do well with long cook times without getting a funky texture. I cooked some skirt steak the other day, put them in mid morning, cooked them late afternoon, 7 or 8 hr's and they were not good at all texture wise. Something was way way off. Kinda reminded me of cadaver meat. umm I mean muscle. Sorry don't mean to be gross.

Most importantly have fun and see what works best for your unique taste.

These chicken thighs cooked about 3 hours.

naithaddi

Depend on what you're cooking and the temp at which you're cooking it at, even though meat cook at very low temp will not overcook, the prolonged exposure will start deteriorating the texture.