Owly055
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- Feb 28, 2014
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Everybody says it won't work........... I'm undecided, or I wouldn't be doing it.
I will shortly launch an experiment in which I will cook two steaks using sous vide, at about 132F for 24 hours. Both steaks will be flame seared with a very hot propane torch before being dropped into vacuum seal bags...... not afterward. The purpose of flaming them with 2500 degree flame briefly, is to kill any microbes on the surface. After searing, they will be sealed and cooked in the sous vide.
After cooking 24 hours, one will go in the freezer, and the other in a warm dark cupboard for an extended period of time........ 90 days is the target. I will examine the one in the cupboard daily at first, and perhaps less frequently later on, for any signs of spoilage. Change in appearance, or swelling of the package
What I am trying to do is determine how effectively the 132F for 24 hours will kill bacteria. It will kill botulism but it will NOT kill botulism spores which are formed when botulism is subjected to an environment where it cannot normally exist. It's actually a sort of "hibernation" mode. Flame searing for an extremely brief period of time should destroy anything on the surface. The meat will be held in stainless steel tongs, which will be preheated. What I cannot control is what's in the air and the bag. We are not talking about "sterile procedure" here.
I submit that spoilage of any type will be evident in some observable way. It will likely result in swelling as a result of bacterial respiration, odor, or some change in appearance.
At the end of 90 days, if both steaks survive that period of observation, I will bring both back to 132, open them each on it's own plate, and cut them up as if to eat them... I'll eat the one from the freezer. The other will be subjected to comparative observation that does not involve actually eating it.
I'm not confident enough of my observations to actually eat the room temp stored meat, though I do suspect that if there are no signs of spoilage, it is probably wholesome.
The idea here is that if meat can be preserved in this way, which depends entirely on the ability to determine if it is wholesome, it offers a way to enjoy great medium rare steak on an extended sea voyage when others are enjoying Bush's Canned Beans.
I recall reading an article once about a hamburger unearthed in a dump, where it had been entombed for many years..... perfectly preserved. Seems a bit preposterous under the circumstances, but what I propose is a far more controlled environment where observation is possible.
I have no real expectations of success.....just hopes. But I do know that decomposition is a microbial process, and if you can arrest that process things do not decompose. I know that you can pressure can meat and it will last virtually forever, but it is not that lovely medium rare steak I love so much, but rather something that has lost all character and depends on spices, gravy, etc to be palatable. I have to admit that I know people who actually eat things like round steak, rump roast, and ground beef, and consider it "edible" and even seem to enjoy it. I don't and I don't. If there's no "moo" left, it's not fit to eat in my book. That goes for beef and lamb. I don't eat pork except ham and bacon if I can help it, though ribs slathered in barbecue sauce can be edible, and I've even been known to eat chicken (don't tell anybody please). When I eat meat, I want it to look and taste like meat. Stringy tenderized garbage like "pulled pork", or "Swiss steak" belong to the class called "white trash". I obviously appear really really opinionated. If you are "white trash", please know that some of my best friends are "white trash".
As a "disclaimer", I'm single with no children....... I can afford to eat what I like because I'm not feeding 4 or 7 people on one income.
H.W.
I will shortly launch an experiment in which I will cook two steaks using sous vide, at about 132F for 24 hours. Both steaks will be flame seared with a very hot propane torch before being dropped into vacuum seal bags...... not afterward. The purpose of flaming them with 2500 degree flame briefly, is to kill any microbes on the surface. After searing, they will be sealed and cooked in the sous vide.
After cooking 24 hours, one will go in the freezer, and the other in a warm dark cupboard for an extended period of time........ 90 days is the target. I will examine the one in the cupboard daily at first, and perhaps less frequently later on, for any signs of spoilage. Change in appearance, or swelling of the package
What I am trying to do is determine how effectively the 132F for 24 hours will kill bacteria. It will kill botulism but it will NOT kill botulism spores which are formed when botulism is subjected to an environment where it cannot normally exist. It's actually a sort of "hibernation" mode. Flame searing for an extremely brief period of time should destroy anything on the surface. The meat will be held in stainless steel tongs, which will be preheated. What I cannot control is what's in the air and the bag. We are not talking about "sterile procedure" here.
I submit that spoilage of any type will be evident in some observable way. It will likely result in swelling as a result of bacterial respiration, odor, or some change in appearance.
At the end of 90 days, if both steaks survive that period of observation, I will bring both back to 132, open them each on it's own plate, and cut them up as if to eat them... I'll eat the one from the freezer. The other will be subjected to comparative observation that does not involve actually eating it.
I'm not confident enough of my observations to actually eat the room temp stored meat, though I do suspect that if there are no signs of spoilage, it is probably wholesome.
The idea here is that if meat can be preserved in this way, which depends entirely on the ability to determine if it is wholesome, it offers a way to enjoy great medium rare steak on an extended sea voyage when others are enjoying Bush's Canned Beans.
I recall reading an article once about a hamburger unearthed in a dump, where it had been entombed for many years..... perfectly preserved. Seems a bit preposterous under the circumstances, but what I propose is a far more controlled environment where observation is possible.
I have no real expectations of success.....just hopes. But I do know that decomposition is a microbial process, and if you can arrest that process things do not decompose. I know that you can pressure can meat and it will last virtually forever, but it is not that lovely medium rare steak I love so much, but rather something that has lost all character and depends on spices, gravy, etc to be palatable. I have to admit that I know people who actually eat things like round steak, rump roast, and ground beef, and consider it "edible" and even seem to enjoy it. I don't and I don't. If there's no "moo" left, it's not fit to eat in my book. That goes for beef and lamb. I don't eat pork except ham and bacon if I can help it, though ribs slathered in barbecue sauce can be edible, and I've even been known to eat chicken (don't tell anybody please). When I eat meat, I want it to look and taste like meat. Stringy tenderized garbage like "pulled pork", or "Swiss steak" belong to the class called "white trash". I obviously appear really really opinionated. If you are "white trash", please know that some of my best friends are "white trash".
As a "disclaimer", I'm single with no children....... I can afford to eat what I like because I'm not feeding 4 or 7 people on one income.
H.W.