# sous vide help



## Diana Lewis (Nov 11, 2017)

Hello I just got my first sous vide cooker. I need help. I raise my own pigs for food I had a sow slaughtered her bacon and (160 lbs of lard) are excellent most of the meat was ground but I have bone in loin roasts I want to cook they are about 5 pounds I cooked one today for 24 hours at 140 it was very good and tender but it was dry.(I did not temp it till I had browned it and rested it 134F) I would like to know where to get a good cookbook and any help from here would be appreciated. I work all the time so this seems like a blessing toss it in the cooker in the morning then in a red hot cast iron pan to finish it off. Thanks in advance for any help


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

For a loin which is already tender, I think you over cooked it. 2-3 hours would have been plenty imho. Save the long cooks for tougher cuts.

Read your owner's manual and look at remote start options. For this, you set up your food in ice and some water. Then start the sous vide over the internet or maybe from a timer feature. Add about an hour to the cook time for the ice to melt and the water to come up to temperature. You might need to experiment a bit with insulation to keep it cold long enough. So wrapping the container in towels or using a small ice chest is popular.


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

Skim the website SousVideLife.

Thomas Keller has a book, Under Pressure.


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## dueh (Mar 4, 2015)

Chef steps published a sous vide "map" that I like to reference when using sous vide.


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## The Nosey Chef (Nov 10, 2017)

ChefSteps also has a cooking temperature and time guide that I find very useful. As an aside, I use a water circulator in a stock pot for sous vide. Because the circulator is probably made in China, I cross check it with a brewing thermometer supported by a retort stand. It looks like chemistry class, but it works.


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## Diana Lewis (Nov 11, 2017)

phatch said:


> For a loin which is already tender, I think you over cooked it. 2-3 hours would have been plenty imho. Save the long cooks for tougher cuts.
> 
> Read your owner's manual and look at remote start options. For this, you set up your food in ice and some water. Then start the sous vide over the internet or maybe from a timer feature. Add about an hour to the cook time for the ice to melt and the water to come up to temperature. You might need to experiment a bit with insulation to keep it cold long enough. So wrapping the container in towels or using a small ice chest is popular.


okay no remote start my book said how to turn it on and off and set time and temp and how to clean it. I just want a book that says i have this cut of meat and it weighs this much and cook it this long. The sow was 3 years old and not something you buy in the grocery store Her meat is red not pink. why would i want to put it in ice
so how do you know how long to cook it


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## The Nosey Chef (Nov 10, 2017)

Diana, I would go with this guide: https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/sous-vide-time-and-temperature-guide. Weight is not a huge issue with sous vide. Just think about it in terms of is it a steak, a chop or a joint. Joints go in for ages, steaks for an hour or so. Everything else is guesswork. You just need the centre of the meat to reach the required temperature.


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