45 pounds of Tri-Tip with 1 Joule!?!?

Friends, I made tri-tip for 90 people on Friday night. 1 Joule, 1 huge ass plastic storage bin, and 45 pounds of beef. Used Costco tri-tips, each about 3.5 - 4.5 lbs. So maybe 12 tri-tips. I filled the tub with warmish water, set Joule to 134 degrees. Took about 45 minutes for the water to hit temp. Don't freak out but I left the tri-tips in their original packaging, which is vacuum sealed and leak-proof, but probably not high-quality BPA-free plastic. I just made sure to peel off any stickers so they wouldn't come free and jam up my Joule's innards. Didn't bother to clip the tri-tip packages to the side of the tub, just dumped them all in. I left them in for 4 or 5 hours, then unpackaged them and grilled them 5 at a time on the grill. They were perfect! Endless compliments from my clients.

I know there's been a lot of questions about how much volume Joule can handle. I can't say what the upper limit might be, but 45 pounds of tri-tip in one go?!

Not too shabby, little Joule. Not too shabby.

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Comments

wolfiegirl

Cool! I wish you had some pics of the giant tub 'o meat cooking away with uno Joule! Maybe??

pd3ski_278514

Wow! That's awesome Daniel. How did you keep them separated? Smart move with stickers that stuff is lethal to Joule.. no bueno!!

But....

Well not useless! ... but we need pichers ;-)

wolfiegirl

What he said....pichers...pichers...pichers....

Daniel_248863

I didn't keep them separated. Just dumped all 12 packages into the tub.

Sorry no pics. Next time I promise!

mattpope

Wow is right! Props to you!

Daniel_460177

How did you come up with temperature and timing guidelines for this??

Daniel_248863

Well, I sorta made it up on my own. First I found a few of tri-tip sous vide posts on-line. Those, of course, are for one tri-tip. Next I figured the basic principles of sous vide work regardless of how much mass you're cooking. So my thinking went along these lines... 1) Set the temp of your Joule for the final temp you desire of your food. 2) Assume the food temp cannot exceed the temp of the Joule no matter what. 3) Assume that 45 pounds of beef is gunna take at least a few hours to get to the right temp. 4) Assume that adding an additional hour or so won't wreck your food because of #2. 5) Assume that good things happen to good people.

pd3ski_278514

lol.. sounds like you're having your own interview! 😜

Mike_Nadelman_677955

We did 110 lbs of tri-tip in a 17 gallon cooler. 2 batches 1st was 70 lbs. 6 hours @ 130 degrees. Started with hot tap water (137 degrees). The steaks were then drained of juice from the bag and placed on a tray in the refrigerator to cool and dry all night. Then seasoned them up with a rub and BBQ for 5-10 minutes. It was fast and there was plenty or rare meat for those who wanted it. I'm thinking it might be better to do 10 hours @ 129 degrees to keep the meat softer and more rare. Once its was cut it was still rare but in a chafing dish the rare went away. Plus unless you cut it paper thin or on a slicer, the thick cuts were still a little tough.