# Sous Vide re-heating question



## alvin chang

I have been reading about sous vide cooking for a while now and I have a question in regarding re-heating. We all know sous vide cooking takes much longer than regular cooking methods. For example, I have a big piece of pork tenderloin that requires 3 hrs in sous vide. I assume in a restaurant setting we would cook it in advance, chill, and re-heat when customer orders it. From all the books that I have been reading, we put the pork back in the water bath until the core temp reaches again for re-heating. However, it would take about an hour to do so. Is there any other way to re-heat so we can serve it right away?


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## kuan

I think you're missing the point of sous vide.   It's not a reheater, you can reheat in a microwave perfectly fine.  The point of sous vide is for getting your proteins up to the absolute correct temperature without losing moisture.  You can use sous vide to hold your pork loin for service and it won't get overcooked.

So either cook your pork in individual portions without much treatment, basically plain, then remove and finish it, or do it backwards.   Sear it with salt, pepper, or whatever rub you want, add herbs if you desire, brown it, then sous vide to temp for service.


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## alacarte

thats right what kuan said.. we do lots of things sous vide at my restuarant, alot for the flavour, and also consistency.. ex. we do our eye fillets so they come out just under med rare and in a busy service you just need to sear the crust and let it rest for a perfect steak everytime


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## chefbillyb

How is Sous Vide used for Prime Rib orders in Restaurants ?????????


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## kuan

ChefBillyB said:


> How is Sous Vide used for Prime Rib orders in Restaurants ?????????


Eye Fillet is Australian for filet mignon (or a cut that comes from the tenderloin)


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## alacarte

yes comes from the loin, cut the tail end off and keep for small kids steak portions, use the powder glue and roll the rest of the sirloin into a nice round shape


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## pirate-chef

in the restaurant right now 90 percent of the cooking is sous vide. depending on the protien and needed cooking times we break it down to reasonable sizes vac it and cook it to the time and temp that we need it for texture etc then ice bath, and set aside. when everything is the proper size you can have it ready to serve very fast.


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## alvin chang

Pirate-chef said:


> in the restaurant right now 90 percent of the cooking is sous vide. depending on the protien and needed cooking times we break it down to reasonable sizes vac it and cook it to the time and temp that we need it for texture etc then ice bath, and set aside. when everything is the proper size you can have it ready to serve very fast.


How do you reheat for service? Just sear them or put them back in the water bath?


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## pirate-chef

for service most of our first courses are not based on the sous vide so when a ticket comes i drop something back into the water. duck breast for instance i drop in the water then when its ordered it goes into a pan to finish the skin and off it goes. it has been cooked for 3 hours before to get it as tender as i want. for service i run the water bath at a lower temperature than my usual cooking temps so that i never overcook and i can handle multiple protiens. everything has been portioned and most cooked to the perfect time and tenderness before. the only thing right now not pre cooked is my dry aged beef and im just dropping it in for the center to get warm but searing it hard keeping it somewhere around a rare but warm throughout. does this make sense? the way you portion things makes a big difference. if items are thinner you can even have them frozen and reheated in the water to order with no loss of quality.


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## pirate-chef

so yes sorry to ramble in the short everything is reheated in the water at a temp below its origonal cooking temp so there is no chance to overcook then seared for texture and looks.


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## alvin chang

Yes, it all makes sense to me now. Many thanks!/img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif


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## kuan

Pirate-chef said:


> for service most of our first courses are not based on the sous vide so when a ticket comes i drop something back into the water. duck breast for instance i drop in the water then when its ordered it goes into a pan to finish the skin and off it goes. it has been cooked for 3 hours before to get it as tender as i want. for service i run the water bath at a lower temperature than my usual cooking temps so that i never overcook and i can handle multiple protiens. everything has been portioned and most cooked to the perfect time and tenderness before. the only thing right now not pre cooked is my dry aged beef and im just dropping it in for the center to get warm but searing it hard keeping it somewhere around a rare but warm throughout. does this make sense? the way you portion things makes a big difference. if items are thinner you can even have them frozen and reheated in the water to order with no loss of quality.


What temperature on the duck breast? What color is it coming out of the bag?


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## pirate-chef

I have been cooking them at 57c for about 3-3.5 hours to break them down a little then reheating at 57 also. i score the fat and sear it off so its perfect and after resting its still pink and beautiful. honestly i wouldnt change this method we have developed it on this dish and im really happy. if you give me your e mail i can show you pictures.


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## kuan

So score first?  The fat renders at 57 celcius I assume?


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## pirate-chef

it renders some yes. and i prefer to wait until right befor searing to score. i cook 3 hours, ice bath fridge or freeze and reheat o order. once they are warm through( try timing one so you have an idea for service) open the bag, ( there is a lot of fat and jus good to save ) score it quickly face down in a hot pan and i tilt it on something so the fat can run off downhill. i let it go until the skin is perfect, roll it over give it maybe 30 seconds while basting so the bottom has some color. rest a couple of min and slice


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## alvin chang

Do you use the fat and jus in the bag for pan sauce or something?


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## beckymckinley

I would love to have a picture of the duck.  I am working on a high end Christmas party.  I am a caterer and I would love to do duck breast and short ribs.  Any tips of pictures would be appreciated.  This is new for me!


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## hookedcook

I have a question, braised slow cook items (short ribs, pork butt, pot roast, lamb shanks  ect...), is there a reason to sous vide those or any benefit??  I understand the reason for all the other proteins.  I personally have never done it but I think I can convince the owner of the boat to buy a machine me but I have to give him reasons to buy one.  Do you just use a regular food saver bags or do you have to buy certain fancy bags and machines?


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## kuan

For reheating it makes sense for me.  For initial cooking it's all about getting the correct texture.  A low slow sous vide cook will give you a different texture than a slow braise.  But it takes a long time, like up to twelve hours.


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## chefbillyb

Sous vide ribs.....finished on the bbq grill......It all depends on the item you want to reheat. I make meatloaf Sous vide and pop it under the broiler to get some browning on the top.





  








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## chefbillyb

Sous Vide front line restaurant would be bring the item back up in the water bath. Then you would finish in a pan, char broiler or whatever your finish dish calls for. The thing about Sous vide is, it's not going to over cook the food. It will keep it at the exact temp in the water bath until needed.


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## phaedrus

The two main ways to use _sous vide_ are cook/chill and cook/hold. The former is great for some things, the latter for others. For instance you can cook a few Chateaubriands to get the internal temp perfect then hold them for several hours with no real change or loss of quality. It might take a few hours to get them to temp but then you can flash them for service compared to running a 40 minute ticket time. On the other end you can cook an airline breast to make sure there's no undercooked areas, then chill it to retherm later. Or do a filet and chill it to wrap in pastry for a Wellington. A variation on the latter would be something like brisket where you cook for days at low temp to break down and tenderize the meat, then chill it to use later (like Keller does with brisket steak frites).


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## phaedrus

ChefBillyB said:


> Sous vide ribs.....finished on the bbq grill......It all depends on the item you want to reheat. I make meatloaf Sous vide and pop it under the broiler to get some browning on the top.
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Nice! I sometimes smoke the ribs til I get the level of smoke I want, then cook them_ sous vide_ to get the precise level of doneness I want. I have found this results in moister, juicier meat than smoking it all the way.


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## chefbillyb

Phaedrus said:


> Nice! I sometimes smoke the ribs til I get the level of smoke I want, then cook them_ sous vide_ to get the precise level of doneness I want. I have found this results in moister, juicier meat than smoking it all the way.


I agree! I smoked some Copper River Salmon this summer. Every time I take a piece out of the freezer it reminds me of how good the fresh Copper river run is. We are going to process a few of these soon. I plan on smoking and Sous vide some of the cuts so I could freeze and take out as needed.





  








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## phaedrus

I smoked up a chunk of Copper River salmon in season, too.  Very good stuff!  Some say it's overkill if you're "just gonna smoke it" but it was divine.


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## harry k

Pirate-chef said:


> for service most of our first courses are not based on the sous vide so when a ticket comes i drop something back into the water. duck breast for instance i drop in the water then when its ordered it goes into a pan to finish the skin and off it goes. it has been cooked for 3 hours before to get it as tender as i want. for service i run the water bath at a lower temperature than my usual cooking temps so that i never overcook and i can handle multiple protiens. everything has been portioned and most cooked to the perfect time and tenderness before. the only thing right now not pre cooked is my dry aged beef and im just dropping it in for the center to get warm but searing it hard keeping it somewhere around a rare but warm throughout. does this make sense? the way you portion things makes a big difference. if items are thinner you can even have them frozen and reheated in the water to order with no loss of quality.


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## chef scoots

We will be serving pork pail and a chopped loin pork pastor. I'm sure I can do the full loins sous vide, but would we be able to marinate chopped loin and sous vide as well?

We want to do most of our proteins sous vide,
1/2 chickens for service
1/2 chickens for pulling, to mix w/ sauce for taco, nacho, quesadilla and on a salad
3 cheese stuffed breast
Pork pibil(loin)
Pork Pastor for taco(cubed loin)

Any suggestions?


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## benderlace

I'm running a pretty small kitchen and don't want to use a microwave to reheat things and I thought maybe sous vide might be the way to go about things. My idea is to pre-make a vegetarian lasagna and then reheat using sous vide... Will this work and if so about how long would it take? Any suggestions are great


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## someday

benderlace said:


> I'm running a pretty small kitchen and don't want to use a microwave to reheat things and I thought maybe sous vide might be the way to go about things. My idea is to pre-make a vegetarian lasagna and then reheat using sous vide... Will this work and if so about how long would it take? Any suggestions are great


I don't think that is a good idea.

You need to place the lasagna in a bag in order to place it in the water bath, which could lead to messy times trying to get it in and then remove it from the bag when warm. You don't want to vacuum seal the lasagna because that would most likely compress and squish the layers and make it difficult. So you would need to use some sort of ziploc style seal bag, which can be prone to leaking, and I'm not sure if the plastic is rated for use in cooking like that. It may be, I haven't researched it, but a grocery store ziploc style might leech chemicals into the food if it is not a bag that can handle heat. So just be careful.

Why would you invest in sous vide equipment for reheating lasagna? You could achieve similar results with bags and a pot of simmering water on the stove. I don't think it would really create any benefits over just reheating in an oven...sous vide is used for precise control over cooking temps for things like proteins and vegetables...it would be wasted on doing something like re-heating lasagna. I also don't think it would necessarily offer time benefits over an oven re-heating, as it can take a while for something in a water bath to reach a core temperature, especially something relative dense like lasagna.

Why not just use a traditional oven? What do you think the advantage of sous vide would be with re-heating lasagna?

Chefs have been re-heating lasagna without a microwave for a LONG time, I don't think the new-ish technique of sous vide would apply to re-heating lasagna.

Now, sous vide is a great technique that has lots of benefits, especially for small kitchens where space and man-power is limited, so I wouldn't discount your idea of using sous vide to streamline things entirely, I just don't think lasagna would be a good fit. But most proteins and vegetables can benefit from the technique. If you'd like to discuss that we're here.


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## alcides

Hi it's been awhile since you guys have started this thread, but I am still not sure about the sous vide process of reheating. Most of our meats are portioned and stored in the freezer when we get a ticket, can we just bath it and then cook/sear it? I heard that different meat sizes have different reheating time when reheating in a bath which could make the reheating too long...Can we bath it for reheating quickly?


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