Someone gifted me a tomahawk ribeye with a giant stupid bone on it.
This will not fit in my regular SV tub. I saw someone else use a drawer from their fridge but my wife shut that down real quick for fear of warping the drawer.
This is a small turkey fryer pot. My concern is, it's thin aluminum so I worry about retaining heat and the SV device doesn't reach very deep into the water. I don't know if that matters or not.
Thoughts?
Worse case, I cut open the vacuum seal pack it came in, remove it from the bone, re-vacuum. I'd love to not go through that hassle, but I don't want to ruin this steak.
by DCar777
43 Comments
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There is no reason why it shouldn’t work. I would however pre heat the water to make it easier for the pump to handle the load
It will work but will waste a LOT of heat making the heater in the SV stick run a LOT. To help the SV stick work less hard to keep the temp up I would wrap it in towels or put it on the warming burner on your stove and turn that to medium or high.
That should work fine if the whole thing fits and the cooker has the water level in it’s operating range. I’ve used pots often over the years.
Wrap the pot in towels to help preserve heat, including something underneath it like a cutting board or heat resistant trivet. Also, unless the packaging that the steak came in is marked as safe for sous vide, repackage it.
Just don’t leave it on your stone countertop or it might crack.
If you’re worried about heat retention wrap a blanket or so ething around the pot and use saran wrap, etc. for a lid. Put a trivet or something under the pot so you don’t fuck up your countertop.
Skip to 1 minute 40 second mark cos she’s trying to be funny. https://youtu.be/W-368DmUJf8?si=q28ix2o1Ic3kBXag
Is that the INKBIRD? I’m not familiar with those circulators and couldn’t quickly find their capacity, but it ought to work – I’ve certainly put my circulators through worse. I would recommend: first, heating up the water a bit (so the circulator has some help); second, cover the top with plastic wrap (so less heat escapes). If you’re concerned during cooking time, you can always temp the water.
The biggest heat loss will be the top. Put something over the top that won’t be hurt by water vapor. Like plastic wrap. Also, preheat over the stove.
Lots of comments about tinfoil or saran wrap on the top. Make the one time investment and get a bunch of beer pong balls and use them on top of the water instead. Helps with heat retention and water evaporation and will last a lifetime.
My big all clad pot is primary sous vide container and I have had no issues with it getting hot etc.
Just put something under it so it doesn’t crack the countertops and you are good to go. You can also use a little foil to wrap around the top to keep in more heat but I rarely do it.
You could always put it on the stove and set it to low to supplement heat.
Just make sure the stove heat isn’t exceeding your set temperature. Also great for getting the water to temp fast.
Pot just like this is my normal driver. I preheat, then insulate the top. I’ve done 36 hour cooks in it with little issue.
I use a pot all the time. Though, the pot isn’t that large. I usually put it on my induction cooktop and get the water up to temp quickly, and then just let the circulator maintain the heat. I also put plastic wrap over the top. For very long cooks you can add a towel, but I haven’t found it necessary for what I do.
That’s how I do it. I also use the stove to heat up the water to about 10⁰ less than my target temperature.
Put a trivet underneath and put something on the top to limit evaporation. If you’re doing 135F or less for like 2 hours or less, you’ll probably be fine, just inefficient. If you were asking if you should regularly do this, the answer would be no because of heat loss, and trying to maintain a high temp would probably be impossible unless you did something like leave it on the stove burner at low temp and used the two combined to maintain where you want to be at…. not ideal by far.
For a single cooking session at lower temps, should be fine.
That should work, but do you have a cooler you can use? Would be more thermally efficient.
Will be fine. Its low enough temp for steak cooking that thermal loss won’t be a huge issue.
I only start insulating my bucket when it goes over 180
I would put a head pad underneath the pot so you dont warp or crack your table though
If you don’t want to ruin it, take it out of the vacuum seal, salt the shit out of it and let it sit open on a rack in your fridge for at least 6 hours, up to 24 hours. Then reseal and pop it in the sous vide for 4 hours or so depending on thickness.
As others have said don’t leave the pot directly on the countertop, but otherwise it’s fine. You’re only doing it for one cook so I wouldn’t worry too much about insulating it with towels and stuff. Your sous vide will work harder than normal to maintain temp but it’s fine unless you’re using this setup all the time.
It’s fine. I do the same for short cook. Watchout for evaporation. For longer cook, like 8/12Hrs, I use cling wrap to wrap the top to minimize water loss.
Put in cooler in addition to wrapping with newspaper/towels. Even with the cooler top open/ajar, it will improve heat retention.
I have this exact pot and have used it multiple times. I bought a silicone cover from Amazon to cover its smaller, standard sized mate and used that to minimize evaporation. I filled it with hottest tap water which for me runs close to 125. I’ve done pork roast for carnitas and the charles roasts that dont fit my smaller pot.
I do that all the time with my big gumbo pot, I cover the top in foil and sit it on a wood tray. I haven’t had any issues.
Aluminum doesn’t keep heat well but air is a terrible conductor so you’re not going to be dumping heat as much as you think. I’d worry more about evaporation and would cover the top as best you can. It’s not ideal with the pump being at the top but as long as the water heats and can move, it should be fine.
I used a pot like that until I bought a regular sous vide container, it worked fine. I just set it on top of my stove since I didn’t want it on the counter.
I primarily use a lobster pot with my SV work. It’s a great, and remember that bigger pots hold more latent heat, so it has an easier time maintaining heat after you add big pieces of meat. Ive done many tomahawks. Note that I cut the bone down a bit if it’s too long. Still looks amazing.
The SV has ample power to heat the water in the thin metal pot and there isn’t enough air convection such that a ton of heat is lost to the air around the pot. No worries on the pot.
The bottom needs to be insulated – a wood cutting board is more than enough.
On the top, you need to insulate it a bit. I’ll add a quick layer of saran wrap for projects under 4 hours. Over that… a tea cloth + Saran held with clips for long projects to prevent the Saran from stretching. All you need to do is trap any air over the liquid to slow evaporation and heat loss.
Here is an example with two bone in pork chops. (Amazing if you buy the high end stuff and yes.. some pork cuts at 141-142 are awesome and still pink with the right marbling.)
Enjoy.
https://preview.redd.it/2zlyum6k7ybg1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a693382abed843340533fea11c5f246e90643314
My setup is a large stockpot with bubble wrap style insulation wrapped around the side and secured with a binder clip. I always put a towel, folded in half, underneath. I also cover the top with plastic wrap if it’s a long sv cook to limit evaporation.
There has been at least one report of a granite countertop that cracked under a long sv cook, so always use a towel under the pot.
I do this all the time, it works fine. I use the stove top to pre-warm because it takes forever otherwise.
Cover the top in foil or plastic wrap. Heat loss due to evaporation is much more of an issue than radiant heat loss.
I use my tall stockpot exclusively for souse vide. Works great. Loosely cover the top with foil to mitigate evaporation. My stove has a cast iron top. That’s where it sits when in use.
Why wouldn’t it work?
I used to use a stock pot like this before I got a dedicated tub. Never had an issue. That said, you should still be taking it out of the vacuum bag it came in and rebag it. You don’t know if the bag it came in is appropriate for sous vide and also the steak isn’t seasoned.
A cheap igloo cooler will work fine too.
If you have a band saw, you can just cut the “handle” portion of the bone off.
If you are determined to sous vide this cut, then unwrap it, cut off the excess bone, salt it, let it dry brine on a racked roasting sheet in the fridge for 5 or 6 hours, then vac seal and sous vide. The long bone is strictly for dramatic effect. If you want that, then skip sous vide, and just grill it.
I’ve taken out a saw and cut the bone to about an inch.
Also, put foil or cling film to keep the water from evaporating too quickly.
I put a stock pot on the stove and plug the sous vide into the stove plug. The stove is designed for hot pots after all.
Put something under the pot otherwise you might damage your counter. I am saying this as someone who made that mistake.
Cut the bone off with a hacksaw.
I do all my sous vide in a giant soup pot. Works just fine. Put something underneath it to protect the counter and to keep heat from leaching out that way. But it should be fine.
Don’t ask us. Turn it on and check.
Can it get up to temp? Can it stay there? Pour some cold water that weighs as much as your steak in and see how long it takes to get back out of the danger zone. If it works, it will work. If it doesn’t, it won’t.
All the other advice here makes sense if it can’t. Insulate it, separate it from that countertop, put a lid on. Use aluminum foil as a lid if you don’t have anything else.
I use the exact same type of pot. I just put it on my stove top.
I know people say to wrap it in towels and cover and all that bullshit but I’ve never had an issue with the way you are doing it.
https://preview.redd.it/pf3prorksybg1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=38517476204913d13fc2d07613e06bb8b725ae6a
I use a plastic food grade bucket. Cut a hole in the top to accommodate the device and some slits to pull the top of the bags through. Good for tall cooks. Never have to refill with long (2-3 day) cook times. Works great.