Trying another Chuckie.


 
I may look into this. But, keeping meat at 130 for that long makes me a tad nervous. Many food born bacteria that cause pretty severe illness can still thrive at that temp. As someone who's been hospitalized twice with severe food poisoning it's not a fun time I want to try again especially now at my age, and overall state of health.

One of the many things I've learned from being a member here is that food safety is a function of not only temp, but time. I don't want to start quoting stats, as I'm sure I'd be incorrect, but as an example, the USDA suggests cooking chicken to a temp of 160F. If I'm not mistaken, chicken only needs to be at that temp for 30 seconds to be safe. But it could be kept at 155 for a longer period and be just as safe. I'm not an expert on this by any stretch, so don't go by my advice. But that's my simplistic understanding.
 
There is a vast wealth of knowledge available on the internet regarding food safety and sous vide, but basically the rule is that the lower the temperature the longer the food needs to be held at that temperature to destroy any bacteria, It is generally agreed that any food cooked to a temperature below 130F needs to be consumed immediately. Here is a typical discussion of sous vide cooking and food safety:

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Looking at these numbers, for my desired degree of doneness, I cook meats for a much greater length of time than that required for food safety. Sous vide has a very wide margin for doneness. For example, I might go 16 - 24hrs for a rack of ribs at 143F. Someone else may do 135F for 30 - 36 hrs. If overdone, meats begin to lose mouth-feel and texture and can become mushy. Like I said, there is a wealth of information on cooking times and temperature for sous vide.
 
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