Pork ribs 24 hours sous vide cooking with SousVideMagic 1500B
by jean-francois on Jun.29, 2009, under Equipments & Accessories
Yesterday I bought in supermarket pork ribs and found interesting 24 hours pork ribs cooking recipes on internet. As soon as my girl friend came back home I share with her my excitment doing a 24 hours cooking experiment! Unfortunately I was brought down to earth since my girl friend said she was scarred the SousVideMagic could burn during our sleep! I tried to explain that thousands of people experimented 24 hours sous vide cooking recipes and that Fresh Meal Solution appliance was reliable…but she didn’t see reason.
On the other hand she is a bit right. The risk of fire is expressly underlined in Fresh Meal Solutions’ manual when the thermometer probe is taken off the rice cooker or is out of work. This point is a major drawback of SousVideMagic equipment, no float switch (in case all water evaporated) or excess temperature protection is available. These kinds of protections are usually provided in thermal or immersion circulators.
Hooo come on….I want to try anyway! Do i have to do sous vide cooking on the sly? Will this blog lead me to a divorce 
?
Jean-françois
12 Comments for this entry
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June 30th, 2009 on 1:45 AM
Your girl friend is right. If you leave the sensor out of the rice cooker measuring ambient room temperature, SousVideMagic is not smart enough to know that the temperature it is sensing is not the bath temperature.
If you use rice cooker that is listed (UL and CSA approved)as recommended by SVM User Guide,the rice cooker will think that it is cooking rice and when the temperature reaches certain temperature it will automatically switch to warm mode. Nothing (SousVideMagic and rice cooker) will burn out. That’s why we never recommend using SVM to control a dumb stove top heater.
If for some reasons, you inadvertently left the SVM/Rice cooker cooking forever and forget about it. The rice cooker (UL & CSA listed) can sense water too low condition and shuts itself off. Again, no harm done.
SousVideMagic is designed for long term cooking, like 72 hour ribs, but if you observe its operation, once your set temperature is reached, SVM is not cooking 95% of the the time. It usually uses less than 80W per hour if your rice cooker is well insulated.
Everything can burn out if you don’t observe safe operational rules.
Thanks for using SousVideMagic!
Frank
June 30th, 2009 on 6:34 PM
Frank,
Thanks for this clear explaination. I really have to verify if my rice cooker is UL and CSA approved…then I still have to convince my girlfriend. If I can’t find the words, can I send her to you
?
Jean-François
July 4th, 2009 on 4:04 AM
One solution is to get your girlfriend to stay up all night to check on the water level.
July 7th, 2009 on 11:14 PM
Gary,
Thanks a lot for this piece of advice but I am not sure this will help solving my domestic quarrel
I tried negociating during last days in vain. I think I think I reached the limit of use of the Sousvidemagic appliance…and be ready to welcome the Julabo immersion circulator promised by a University Professor. Then I’ll be able to cook sous vide for 24 hours long! I hope so!
Jean-françois.
July 8th, 2009 on 12:01 AM
Jean-Francios, I think you are missing the point.
Using the Julabo which does not have a float to detect water level in an uncovered tank is much more dangerous than using a rice cooker with the SVM. Unless your rice cooker is unlike any I’ve ever seen when used to cook rice it automatically switches to “warm” mode after the water has been absorbed by the rice and the temperature rises above 100C as a result. Rice cookers also tend to seal fairly well so there is little or no evaporation even after long cooking periods.
With a lab circulator without a float you could evaporate a lot of water (depending on cooking temperature) quite quickly and then you would have a heater and a pump operating without water! Much more dangerous than a rice cooker!
I have had no problem using my SVM and Tiger rice cooker for 48 hour sessions. My wife now doesn’t even complain when we go out and leave it cooking!
Good luck,
Peter.
July 8th, 2009 on 7:07 AM
Peter,
I agree with you, the evaporation of water might be higher with an open water bath compared to a closed rice cooker. When I received the Julabo immersion circulator I didn’t expect this version not having a float switch.
Peter, you seem to have a pleasant wife but what can I say to mine when her main argument is “what will happen if the Sousvidemagic probe gets out of work…”. You are also right about my Julabo, my problem is not solved with this sous vide cooking equipment.
Jean-François
July 9th, 2009 on 11:04 AM
Hey Jean-François,
If you really think you’ve reached the ‘limit of use’ of the SVM and want to sell it, say the word and I’ll gladly take it off your hands. Importing from the US sucks around here.
July 9th, 2009 on 7:37 PM
Ze,
Thanks for your offer but so far the SousvideMagic is the best sous vide equipment I have. The Julabo immersion circulator is not mine and I’ll have to give it back in 1 month.
Jean-François
July 10th, 2009 on 1:05 AM
Jean-François,
You can easily see what would happen if the SVM went haywire and sent 100% power to your rice cooker. Put some water in the rice cooker and plug it directly into the power and turn it on. If it works correctly it will eventually boil the water away (this could take a very long time in a well sealed unit). Once the water has gone and the internal temperature rises it should switch to “warm” mode where the rice cooker itself reduces the power to the heating element.
You will probably discover that firstly it takes a very long time to evaporate all the water as rice cookers are designed for the rice to absorb the water not for it to escape the pot!
Secondly if you can evaporate all the water the temperature of the pot will exceed 100C so the cooker should switch to “warm” mode. I don’t know what that is on your cooker but on mine it is insufficient heat to even maintain cooking temperature – I know as I attempted to cook with the switch accidentally on “warm” and I only noticed after the cooking temperature hadn’t been reached after quite a long time.
You really need to try some 48 hour beef ribs (or similar). In my experience the long cooked meats have been my greatest SV success.
Regards,
Peter.
July 21st, 2009 on 3:31 PM
There are alternative immersion circulator products avaialble. Visit http://www.grantsousvide.com to view sous vide baths and the Grant Universal Stirred Heater, which has a fluid level, float switch and alarm light.
p.s. I notice the link to the Grant sous vide website is incorrect on your Equipment and Accessories page. It should be http://www.grantsousvide.com and not Grant (Optim).
Many thanks
Emma Hewson
Marketing Communications Manager
Grant Instruments (Cambridge) Ltd.
July 21st, 2009 on 10:55 PM
Emma,
I have amended the “sous vide equipment supplier” section of the blog according to you whish.
Jean-François
July 31st, 2009 on 4:48 AM
By the way, here is the result ho my 72 hours sous vide cooking pork riks. Amazing! http://www.sousvidecooking.org/sous-vide-at-home-72-hours-pork-ribs/