# Sous Vide for reheating



## bmaddox (Jan 12, 2015)

A while back I built a temperature controller to turn a crock pot into a sous vide machine. It has worked great but I am always looking for more ways to use it. Yesterday I was working around the house and knew neither my wife or myself would want to cook dinner. I pulled out the sous vide machine, brought it up to 135 degrees, and dropped in some frozen packages of smoked pork loin (I had placed some mahogany sauce in the packages prior to freezing so they would be ready to go). Four hours later we had perfectly warmed through loin that was just as good (if not better) than the day it came off the smoker. I really liked the fact that I could just leave it in the water until we are ready to eat without worrying about overcooking it.













IMG_1330.JPG



__ bmaddox
__ Jan 12, 2015


















IMG_1331.JPG



__ bmaddox
__ Jan 12, 2015


----------



## tropics (Jan 12, 2015)

Nice job on the warming, any pics of the pot and how you did the mod?


----------



## bmaddox (Jan 12, 2015)

tropics said:


> Nice job on the warming, any pics of the pot and how you did the mod?


I don't have any pics of mine but here are the directions I used to make it:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Sous-vide-cooker-for-less-than-40/


----------



## azbohunter (Jan 12, 2015)

I just returned from a RV/hunting trip where I served 2 1/2 racks of spare ribs to 7 people that I had smoked ahead of time using the 3-2-1 method (minus the 1). I reheated them by putting them in the oven at 250 for and hour with sauce on them. I was thinking as I was planning this meal that leaving them in the vacuum sealed bags and putting them in a pot of boiling water would be super but I was afraid I would over cook them. Your system would have been great but not sure if it would have worked well on the amount of meat I had.

Any way, great idea!


----------



## nymjk (Mar 19, 2015)

azbohunter said:


> I just returned from a RV/hunting trip where I served 2 1/2 racks of spare ribs to 7 people that I had smoked ahead of time using the 3-2-1 method (minus the 1). I reheated them by putting them in the oven at 250 for and hour with sauce on them. I was thinking as I was planning this meal that leaving them in the vacuum sealed bags and putting them in a pot of boiling water would be super but I was afraid I would over cook them. Your system would have been great but not sure if it would have worked well on the amount of meat I had.
> 
> Any way, great idea!


My situation was that I had to cook my 2 racks of spares or toss them (loosing daylight, long story!).  So, 3 hours in the smoker, cooled, refrigerated and vacuum sealed the next day.
Third day, into the sous vide @ 150F for 12 hours (ready when I got home from work, woohoo!).  Texture was good: not too soft, still had some chew.  Flavor muted however.  I don’t think it had anything to do with the sous vide but that was a first.  I suppose I could go heavy on the rub or smoke (mix in some hickory with the apple or go longer) if I want to try this again.
Any thoughts?


----------



## frog1369 (Mar 19, 2015)

nymjk said:


> My situation was that I had to cook my 2 racks of spares or toss them (loosing daylight, long story!).  So, 3 hours in the smoker, cooled, refrigerated and vacuum sealed the next day.
> Third day, into the sous vide @ 150F for 12 hours (ready when I got home from work, woohoo!).  Texture was good: not too soft, still had some chew.  Flavor muted however.  I don’t think it had anything to do with the sous vide but that was a first.  I suppose I could go heavy on the rub or smoke (mix in some hickory with the apple or go longer) if I want to try this again.
> Any thoughts?


I've been using my Sous Vide to reheat all kinds of foods and have never had an issue with flavor.  I usually get home three hours or so before we eat dinner so I usually don't go a full day.  If I did go a full day I would probably lower the temp to 130 or so.  I pull vac-packed ribs out of the fridge, throw them in at 150 and go about my business.  At least an hour and they are ready to go, but it's nice to not be under the gun, we can now eat whenever we want and the ribs are ready.  We usually whip up some sides, when they are ready we unbag the ribs and eat.  Pulled pork, same deal, as good as it was the day we pulled it


----------



## nymjk (Mar 19, 2015)

frog1369 said:


> I've been using my Sous Vide to reheat all kinds of foods and have never had an issue with flavor.  I usually get home three hours or so before we eat dinner so I usually don't go a full day.  If I did go a full day I would probably lower the temp to 130 or so.  I pull vac-packed ribs out of the fridge, throw them in at 150 and go about my business.  At least an hour and they are ready to go, but it's nice to not be under the gun, we can now eat whenever we want and the ribs are ready.  We usually whip up some sides, when they are ready we unbag the ribs and eat.  Pulled pork, same deal, as good as it was the day we pulled it


Makes good sense to me.  Thanks for the info.

The only reason I went in at 150F for that length of time was that the ribs had only been par-cooked (only had 3 out of the 5.5 hours I normally cook them for).  Figured I could cook and warm at the same time.  I'd say it partially worked; good thing I had my sauce on hand (which I ordinarily use on my ribs very sparingly, no pun intended).


----------

