Alcohol to kill bacteria?

I have never heard of this. Where did you read this?

I didn't read it anywhere. It is just a thought...

Why then would you say " reading posts about meat basically rotting in the bag while on a long sous vide cook.....". This reads more like fact than "just a thought". If I was a new sous vide cook I would be scared a------s. Perhaps you should edit your post.

I'm talking about this thread (although this involves a rolled roast so simply treating the surface probably would not have prevented the problem): http://www.AmazingFoodMadeEasy.com/sous-vide-forums/Sous-Vide-Questions-Forum/topics/toxic-sous-vide-scare Should the author of that post edit it so as not to scare the newbies? Should people who advocate pre-searing meat to cut down on bacteria not post?

Heather, I meant no offense. My point was that you made a statement, I asked where you read about this as I was interested to read about this also, and you replied that you had not read it, that it was just a thought which prompted my second post. Only then did you refer to the thread. I have to agree, that thread which I had not read before, would scare the dickens out of me if I had not already read everything I could get my hands on about sous vide cooking. As a result, I know the importance of adhering to cooking times and temperatures so that what happened to that poor fellow who posted, does not (hopefully) happen to me. I am also a stickler for NOT cooking rolled up anything due to the surface bacteria that goes rolled up into the meat.

I have been greatly enjoying sous vide cooking since I got my equipment as a Christmas gift last year. I have had some things turn our better than others, yay steak, boo back ribs. Last night I tried cheap sirloin pork chops and they were amazing. Tonight I am doing strip sirloin steak.

Finally, I did not say that folks with a bad experience or who pre-sear their meat should not post. The more that people post their experiences, the better for all of us as I think that is how we learn.

I think it's key that people develop a basic knowledge of food hygiene and pasteurisation techniques when they start cooking sous vide. We're used to easy and quick pasteurisation at very high temperatures, and frankly, not thinking about it very much.

No-one would leave meat out in hot weather for 24 hours, sealed or otherwise, as they'd intuitively realise that it would only lead to incubation of bacteria. It's important to know when the heat is sufficient that (with enough time), bacteria is reduced rather than multiplying.

You don't have to pasteurise every piece of protein you cook, but if you cook below 130F, the cook time needs to be short enough that you're not incubating bacteria for hours on end.

I found Douglas Baldwin's site and book an excellent place to start...I'm sure there are a lot of other resources (including this site) available, but this link is somewhere to start: http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Safety