r/sousvide • u/bakerdadio • 5d ago

Question Need Quick Advice

Was doing lamb shanks at 150º for 48hrs. Done same before and turned out great. Following this recipe.

Today after 21hrs, low water alarm went off & sousvide wand stopped heating. I missed alarm and for next 5hrs, cooking stopped. By the time I noticed, temperature had gone down to 120º. Upon discovery, I increased temperature to 156º for additional 21 hrs, because I need to finish for dinner at 5pm tomorrow. Just guessing fix will work. Any wise & quick advise will be most appreciated.

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2

u/InternationalLab302 5d ago

that's rough, better luck next time.

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u/mexta 5d ago edited 5d ago

The additional cooking temp/time won't help. It all comes down to how long the meat was at unsafe cooking temperature. You want the water at 130 or above for longer cooks. That being said, if the circulator was off for 5 hours and the water was still at 120° then the food most likely wasn't in the danger zone for very long. With the low water level was the food still fully emerged?

Edit: reading you post again I'm not even sure if you were concerned about food safety or just whether the shanks would be cooked to the preferred texture. My bad if I jumped the gun.

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u/bakerdadio 5d ago edited 5d ago

Was fully submerged the whole time. Planning to brown off by brazing in really hot cast iron frying pan an butane torch. FYI ~ shanks are koshered, so were in brine before packaging.

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u/mexta 5d ago

The only other thing to think about is the uneven water temperature since the circulator wasn't well, circulating. It could be 120 at one spot and cooler at another. I'd personally be fine risking it for myself.

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u/bakerdadio 5d ago

Thanks for that, my sousvide container is very well insulated, so I think the temperature was pretty even.

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u/bakerdadio 4d ago

FYI ~ lamb shanks came out great & with deliciously fall-off-the-bone texture. Finished cooking @ 156º till 7am, then lowered to 138º until 4pm, then browned off in hot cast iron and butane torch.

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u/mexta 4d ago

Nice! I'm sure they were delicious.

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u/bakerdadio 5d ago edited 5d ago

Both aspects, safety first always. Some other sousvide recipes for lamb shanks call for 131º, so I'm guessing it's safe, even though I screwed up. The salt brine process to render the meat kosher, gives me some more assurance that many harmful organisms have been killed off as well.

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u/selggu 5d ago

Way too long in the danger zone.

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u/bakerdadio 5d ago

Do you think the first 21hrs. at 150º was enough time to kill any harmful organisms. FYI ~ shanks were kosher so were in brine before packaged.