Homemade Sausage Making

While it is drummed into our heads to Never smoke, dry cure, meats within the temp range of 40-135°f without using nitrite/nitrate cures.

Why is it ok to cook meats within that temp range say (120-130) for extended periods of time sous vide ?

Good question. I know my inspector got all concerned when he saw I had purchased a vacuum sealer and asked a bunch of questions on how it would be used. He said they DID NOT like them. However, I am also inspected by the dept of ag and they seem to be more thorough than the health department. (don't mean this negatively just their people seem to have more education and don't just concern themselves with cleanliness but also look at processes)

There were many restaurants in California where health inspectors came in and shut down facilities due to the sous vide process. A lot of them are not aware of the process, so they have a concern of the time period that product never hits 140 degrees. As far as I know about the sealer bags, they are food safe and sous vide safe. The "foodsaver" product does not specify sous vide safe, but in order to state "food safe", the plastic must abide by the temperatures within the sous vide process. I was told that if you are going to sous vide, do not mark anything on the plastic for labeling in the freezer. You are better off using a masking tape for marking and removing the masking tape before the sous vide process,,,,,or you should rebag the product. These were instructions from my brother who is a regional sales rep for gaggenau products. Their in house steamer oven is phenominal. You can combine, oven/convection and steam simultaneously. You also have the option for oven only or steam only at a specific temperature. It is very easy to set the steam only at 135 degrees at 100% steam and sous vide is incredible. The bag is steamed and not thrown in a bath of water.

Gees Lou your brother could get you a demo wine cooler unit and you could field test it for Charcuterie....open up a new market

I cook steaks Sous vide, especially since AU whole tenderloins are on sale for $4.99 lb. I love the results of a perfectly done steak, but always wonder on keeping meat in the 120-130°f range for 2+ hours.

Bob K,
Douglas Baldwin does an excellent job answering your question in his Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html and the article he wrote in the International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 0X11000035.

HTH

Martin-

Thank you. Yes I read that. Still to me a lot of grey areas, and much of that seems to be geared towards the commercial sector and resale.

I have nothing against curing meat or the Sous vide method. Just the different safety guidelines spelled out for slow cooking methods.

I am talking about statements like this from that article-

"While pork can be safely cooked at 130°F (54.4°C), many people find the slightly pink color of pork cooked at this temperature to be unsettling."

I already have 4 wine coolers and each one holds 250 bottles made by eurocave. They will not go low enough in temp for dry aging unless I disable the stat, which I am not doing on these units. You can buy 4 refrigerators for the same price as one eurocave. As far as food safety, if abiding by restaurant standards, food must stay below 40 or above 140. There is a 4-6 hour total time to which you are allowed to be within 40 and 140. Based on that, there's nothing out there other than a whole 7 bone prime rib that you would ever sous vide more than 4-6 hours.This is a restaurant food safety law. As far as in house, I remember my mom making homemade sausage pizza and they would stay on top of the oven all day and night after they were done. I've even seen people keep their easter eggs on the dining room table for days. Smoking is quite different as a lot of it is much longer than 4-6 hours and you're dealing with ground meats along with exposure to air instead of a bag under water?