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steam as sous vide


Asked by reg on Wednesday, July 28
I have a Gaggenau convection steam oven that cooks at temperatures as low as 85 degrees with humidities of 30%-100%. Would this be effectively the same as sous vide if I get the packaging right? <br /> <br />Thanks, <br />Reg

3 Answers to This Question

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You would have to see what the temperature variance in the steam oven is. Most sous vide equipment is .1C - .5C though you could probably get away with a 1-3C variance as long as you stay away from the lower cooking limits and times.
Answered by Jason Logsdon on Thursday, July 29
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I currently use my Cleaveland Convotherm combi <br />Oven everyday for sous vide both in <br />And out of the bag (low temp vapor) for <br />Roasts, fish, poaching, chicken etc. <br />Lots of people say it can't be done, but you have <br />To look at the avg temp throughout the entire cooking <br />Process. If you have a 3 deg +/- temp variation <br />During a 24 hour process it won't affect the final result <br />As much as what you would think. I even do my beef filets <br />The same way only I season with pepper only, seal chill vac, then cook @ 50 C till my internal reads 50C, then <br />Chill. During service, I rewarm in the water bath, remove, blot dry, reseason with Salt and pepper, seal in evoo, napè with butter, a slice of garlic and a thyme sprig to order. I get a perfect filet every time with only an 8 min pick up! Give it a try in your Gag, I bet it will come out great! Just be SAFE!!!!!
Answered by czerbe23 on Sunday, October 03
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I don't want to be overly negative, a steam convection has its uses. But that lower temperature limit is higher than the target temperature for most meats. This means that the meat would have to be removed from the oven according to precise time schedules to achieve a core temperature as desired. Because the core temperature is lower than the surface temperature during cooking, even removing the meat from the oven when the core reaches the target temperature according to a meat thermometer won't result in perfectly cooked meat. This is because the core temperature will continue to rise for a period after the meat is removed from the oven. <br /> <br />Well, that's not really tragic, but cooking with an 85 degree C oven is a lot like cooking with a standard oven and very different from sous vide techniques. When sous vide is used, the liquid contacting the cooking bag transfers heat much more effectively than a "gas-based" heat transfer can. If you could set your oven to 55 degrees C, then it would take so long for a big piece of meat to come up to temperature that it could spoil before it begins to pasteurize. <br /> <br />So you have to use your convection oven for slow cooking meats, etc., in the style that it was designed to be used, which produces fine meals but has little in common with the sous vide practiced by most of those on this blog.
Answered by Leigh Jones on Monday, June 17
You can also find a lot of sous vide information, as well as over 100 recipes, in our book Beginning Sous Vide which you can get at Amazon.com or as a pdf download.

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