How About Extra Time?

Lots of sous vide recipes say "but it's fine to leave it in for another" X minutes because it won't overcook. This is great. But they leave out one little detail: if you leave it in the water beyond it's suggested cooking time, are you supposed to leave the Joule circulator unit running, or let it stay off and thus allow the water to slowly cool?

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Comments

meyer8863

The assumption is that you leave the unit on. If the water were to drop into "danger zone" (40-140 F) temperatures, the cooked product could still be in danger. There are still spores in the food that are not killed at pasteurization temperatures (like botulinum) that could cause issues in the danger zone. This is also why dropping the bags in an ice bath for fast cooling (assuming you plan to consume the product later) is emphasized. Obviously the water bath wouldn't cool into the danger zone immediately... but better safe than sorry. Leave the Joule on.

Hope that helps!

pd3ski_278514

Unit on... circulating.

fisher23

Yes, just leave it on and circulating, Joule's light will flash green telling you the initial time is up and will remain circulating until you stop with the app or manually stop by holding the top button for one second. Most things have a huge window. Sometimes I will drop the temp 5° or so after it is done just so it doesn't continue cooking but usually even that isn't necessary. With the exception of eggs, if you want a soft yoke egg timing matters.