Sous Vide & BBQ

In the General Sous Vide Questions Forum
I'm considering using sous vide to enhance my BBQ's this summer, but wanted to check something.

First, I only have one water bath, so I can only ever be cooking at one temperature. I understand the concept behind cook-chill or cook-freeze, along with the potential health pitfalls if done incorrectly, and would like to avoid it altogether if possible.

What I'm considering is doing a 'long cook' recipe such as 72 hour ribs at 62C, then on the day of the BBQ, some shorter cook recipes such chicken breasts, steaks.

So, I formulated a plan:

Day -3 = Set waterbath to 62C, put ribs in.
On the day -4 hours = Put chicken breasts in
On the day -2 hours = Set waterbath to 55.5C, add steaks.
0 hour = Take everything out and finish on the BBQ.

As the waterbath never dips below 55C in the above process, I'm figuring I'm not 'undoing' any of the pasteurisation that's been done on the ribs and chicken, so I don't think I'm adding any risk obviously thickness allowing for pasteurisation of the chicken breast within 2 hours at 62C and the steak within 2 hours at 55.5C), and as the higher temperature ribs and chicken are cooked before lower temperature steaks, they should remain perfectly 'done' at whatever temperature they were primarily cooked at.

This plan came together so easily, I'm convinced I've missed something (size of sous-vide vessel not-withstanding). Have I?


4 Replies So Far

I agree that normally when things seem to come together that easily there's a problem but I don't see one here. Your plan looks great as far as I can see!

One thing to remember about cook - chill is that if you are going to eat it within a few days and want to completely eliminate the dangers you can just let air into the bag once it's done sous viding. That will turn it into normal "leftovers" and can be safely stored in the fridge for a day or two.

Have fun at your BBQ!

Jason
Sous Vide Grilling
I just did my first BBQ ribs this weekend, 2 slabs of baby back ribs, with dry rub and vacuum sealed, 48 hrs at 60C. I then took them out, put BBQ sauce on them and finished them off in a very hot grill for about 3 minutes on each side.
They were absolutely perfect. The meat was perfectly tender but not overcooked.
I'd concur this is an excellent way of doing BBQ. I was also somewhat worried about doing cook-chill but having taken the plunge I'd heartily recommend it. The main precaution I took to make my anxiety dissipate was to buy a thermopen to ensure the cooling was going as planned. Use it all the time now and freeze a lot of cooked items for reheating later.

For a BBQ I just pulled a load of stuff out from the freezer, quick 30mins in the bath and then onto the grill. 3 mins later, all done. (Almost) instant BBQ!
Thermopen ordered - now I just need to get my jam maker - Lidl was out and Westfalia currently quoting 14 days for delivery.


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