If you're thedude, you can make a damn fine steak with nothing but some salt and pepper, butter, a cast-iron pan. You can make a steak that rivals the best steakhouses in the world, dress it up with high-end 25 year old balsamic vinegar that goes for 150$ for a tiny bottle, and blow the minds of anybody who wanders into your kitchen.
If you're me, you'll overcook it. You don't know the right temperature settings, or how to tell by looking at the outside when the inside is done, even with a meat thermometer. You'll turn that expensive steak into a 45$ hockey puck, and then douse it in A1 sauce just to keep it edible. Cooking steak properly is HARD. And what's worse, it's hard to learn, because the only way to practice is to buy steaks, which are expensive. Even if you go for the cheap stuff, learning the proper cooking methods is an expensive process. And learning it on your own is no easy task: you'll come up with a steak that tastes fine to you, but unless you've had a lot of experience eating expensive steaks, you won't know if you're getting the most out of your meat that you could.
But what if I told you there was an easy way to ensure that steak, or any meat, was cooking to the exact temperature you wanted, down to a half degree? What if I told you this method was almost completely fool-proof, inexpensive, and could turn even cheap cuts of meat into a delicacy that's just as good as their far more expensive cousins? What if I said in some cases it was even better than traditional cooking methods?
Enter Sous-Vide Cooking: A method of cooking food by placing it in a sealed bag, then putting that bag into a temperature controlled heated water bath. The water is heated to a certain temperature via the sous-vide cooker, and the heat is slowly transferred to the meat through the sealed bag. This ensures that you'll never overcook your food, because the meat can get no hotter than the temperature of the water surrounding it. If you want your steak at exactly 135 degrees, set the temperature to 135, come back in an hour, and that will be its exact temperature. Think 135 is too well done for your taste? More of a 133.5 degree guy? Set it to 133.5, and get your meat EXACTLY the way you like it.
And what's more, since the heat is slowly diffusing through the meat, you'll never have to overcook the outer edges to get the inside of the meat the temperature you want it. This makes for a juicier, moister steak than would ever be possible by cooking it on a grill or a pan.
![[Image: steak_sous_vide_comparison1.jpg]](http://sousvidely.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/steak_sous_vide_comparison1.jpg)
What is a Sous-Vide Cooker
A Sous-vide cooker is a simple device. It's a heating element, a temperature reader, and a small motor, and it looks like a long metal cylinder with a plastic part on the bottom and a control panel on top. The cooker comes with a clamp that lets you attach it to the side of any pot or container in your home. I attach mine to a simple dutch oven that I got from target for 20$, but every kitchen should have something similar. You can even use a beer cooler if you like. At the top of the device is a tiny control panel which lets you set the temperature you want, along with a start button.
![[Image: anova-precision-cooker-sous-vide-wifi.jpg]](https://images.crateandbarrel.com/is/image/Crate/AnovaPrcisCkrSousVideImrsnROF16/$web_product_hero$&/160713162032/anova-precision-cooker-sous-vide-wifi.jpg)
Fill your pot with water, set your temperature, and press the start button, and the heater begins to heat up the water, and the motor starts pumping it to ensure an even distribution of temperature. When the thermometer detects that it's gotten to the right temperature, the control logic in the device will maintain it to within a half degree.
Because the temperature is so controlled, you don't need to worry about overcooking your food. You can leave a sous vide cooker running for an extra hour or two with no loss of flavor whatsoever, something that would be absolutely impossible with any other cooking method.
How much does a Sous-Vide Cooker cost?
Sous-vide cooking devices have been around for a while. They used to be extremely expensive, but now they're much cheaper. You can get a high-quality one from amazon for 100$. I bought a more expensive one for 160$ that has bluetooth and wireless integration with your phone. It was a waste of money: the device is so simple to use that there's no need for anything fancy.
So it's 100$. I've got a lot of kitchen junk already. How much stuff can I make with this thing?
The sous vide is great for anything that requires precise temperature, that is, most meats, any type of seafood, even some vegetables. (The NYT has a killer recipe for buttery apples made with a sous vide. They may be fake news but they know how to cook.) It's particularly great for steak and seafood. If you ask me, the best part of sous vide is that it puts difficult foods like fish, steak, and scallops within range of novice cooks, or people who don't have someone to teach them how to cook. I tried to learn to pan cook salmon on my own and it was an utter disaster. I must've wasted 50$ of the stuff and ended up with something that was barely edible. A top-quality chef like Veloce, or any other the others on this board, could probably have stood beside me and pointed out the things I was doing wrong, and within 5 minutes I'd be cooking like a pro. But I don't have someone like that, it's just me and youtube. But with a sous vide cooker, I can make tender, flakey salmon that rivals a high-end restaurant.
How do you get the food in the water? Do you need a vacuum sealer or special equipment?
Nope. Here's the process I use, which is called the "immersion method".
1.) Place the food in a 1-gallon ziplock bag.
2.) Seal the top of the bag 95% of the way, leaving a small part of it open for air to escape. Make sure the rest of it is thoroughly sealed.
3.) Start to submerge the bag in the water. The pressure of the water will force the air out through the small opening. Keep submerging it until almost all the air in the bag is gone.
4.) When you've removed as much air as you can, seal up the last 5% of the bag, fold the edge of it over the pot rim, and clamp it to the side of the pot with some binder clamps. https://www.amazon.com/ACCO-Binder-Clips...B002VD6BLG I got a box of binder clamps for 2$ at target.
5.) Make sure part of the bag with the food is fully submerged. If it's not sinking properly, there's still some air in the bag.
Walk me through the process of cooking something with sous-vide.
I made miso salmon yesterday. Here's the process I followed. Total prep time was less than 10 minutes. To make it, I used a salmon I bought at a local Japanese supermarket, along with a fourth cup of white miso, 2 tablespoons of mirin, and a tablespoon of brown sugar. I whisked the ingredients together in a small bowl, then threw them in the bag with the salmon, and put it in the pot with the sous vide cooker using the immersion method I described above. Then I set the temperature to 115 degrees, hit the start button, let it run for a minute to make sure everything was okay, and then went off to do something else. I came back in an hour, but if I was doing something else I could've just as easily come back in two horus without hurting it, or maybe even three. I turned the device off and took the salmon out of the plastic bag.
When food first comes out of a sous vide cooker, it's gonna look really weird, because the outside isn't going to be charred like with traditional cooking methods. It will look kind of grey. No problem. All you have to do now is finish it off in a pan. I tossed my cast iron pan on the stove, heated it up with some butter, tossed the salmon in, waited a minute, flipped it over, waited another minute, and I was all done. Because you're not actually cooking it on the stove, just charring the outside, when the food looks the way you want it, it's all done.
Are there any downsides to sous vide cooking?
A couple small ones.
A sous-vide device is a cheap, wonderful, and practical addition to any kitchen, even for people who don't consider themselves chefs. I particularly recommend it to anyone doing a paleo or other high-protein diet: the better your meat, the easier it will be for you to stick to the diet. If anyone has any questions about how sous-vide works, or if my explanation wasn't clear, just ask below and I'll be happy to answer them.
If you're me, you'll overcook it. You don't know the right temperature settings, or how to tell by looking at the outside when the inside is done, even with a meat thermometer. You'll turn that expensive steak into a 45$ hockey puck, and then douse it in A1 sauce just to keep it edible. Cooking steak properly is HARD. And what's worse, it's hard to learn, because the only way to practice is to buy steaks, which are expensive. Even if you go for the cheap stuff, learning the proper cooking methods is an expensive process. And learning it on your own is no easy task: you'll come up with a steak that tastes fine to you, but unless you've had a lot of experience eating expensive steaks, you won't know if you're getting the most out of your meat that you could.
But what if I told you there was an easy way to ensure that steak, or any meat, was cooking to the exact temperature you wanted, down to a half degree? What if I told you this method was almost completely fool-proof, inexpensive, and could turn even cheap cuts of meat into a delicacy that's just as good as their far more expensive cousins? What if I said in some cases it was even better than traditional cooking methods?
Enter Sous-Vide Cooking: A method of cooking food by placing it in a sealed bag, then putting that bag into a temperature controlled heated water bath. The water is heated to a certain temperature via the sous-vide cooker, and the heat is slowly transferred to the meat through the sealed bag. This ensures that you'll never overcook your food, because the meat can get no hotter than the temperature of the water surrounding it. If you want your steak at exactly 135 degrees, set the temperature to 135, come back in an hour, and that will be its exact temperature. Think 135 is too well done for your taste? More of a 133.5 degree guy? Set it to 133.5, and get your meat EXACTLY the way you like it.
And what's more, since the heat is slowly diffusing through the meat, you'll never have to overcook the outer edges to get the inside of the meat the temperature you want it. This makes for a juicier, moister steak than would ever be possible by cooking it on a grill or a pan.
What is a Sous-Vide Cooker
A Sous-vide cooker is a simple device. It's a heating element, a temperature reader, and a small motor, and it looks like a long metal cylinder with a plastic part on the bottom and a control panel on top. The cooker comes with a clamp that lets you attach it to the side of any pot or container in your home. I attach mine to a simple dutch oven that I got from target for 20$, but every kitchen should have something similar. You can even use a beer cooler if you like. At the top of the device is a tiny control panel which lets you set the temperature you want, along with a start button.
Fill your pot with water, set your temperature, and press the start button, and the heater begins to heat up the water, and the motor starts pumping it to ensure an even distribution of temperature. When the thermometer detects that it's gotten to the right temperature, the control logic in the device will maintain it to within a half degree.
Because the temperature is so controlled, you don't need to worry about overcooking your food. You can leave a sous vide cooker running for an extra hour or two with no loss of flavor whatsoever, something that would be absolutely impossible with any other cooking method.
How much does a Sous-Vide Cooker cost?
Sous-vide cooking devices have been around for a while. They used to be extremely expensive, but now they're much cheaper. You can get a high-quality one from amazon for 100$. I bought a more expensive one for 160$ that has bluetooth and wireless integration with your phone. It was a waste of money: the device is so simple to use that there's no need for anything fancy.
So it's 100$. I've got a lot of kitchen junk already. How much stuff can I make with this thing?
The sous vide is great for anything that requires precise temperature, that is, most meats, any type of seafood, even some vegetables. (The NYT has a killer recipe for buttery apples made with a sous vide. They may be fake news but they know how to cook.) It's particularly great for steak and seafood. If you ask me, the best part of sous vide is that it puts difficult foods like fish, steak, and scallops within range of novice cooks, or people who don't have someone to teach them how to cook. I tried to learn to pan cook salmon on my own and it was an utter disaster. I must've wasted 50$ of the stuff and ended up with something that was barely edible. A top-quality chef like Veloce, or any other the others on this board, could probably have stood beside me and pointed out the things I was doing wrong, and within 5 minutes I'd be cooking like a pro. But I don't have someone like that, it's just me and youtube. But with a sous vide cooker, I can make tender, flakey salmon that rivals a high-end restaurant.
How do you get the food in the water? Do you need a vacuum sealer or special equipment?
Nope. Here's the process I use, which is called the "immersion method".
1.) Place the food in a 1-gallon ziplock bag.
2.) Seal the top of the bag 95% of the way, leaving a small part of it open for air to escape. Make sure the rest of it is thoroughly sealed.
3.) Start to submerge the bag in the water. The pressure of the water will force the air out through the small opening. Keep submerging it until almost all the air in the bag is gone.
4.) When you've removed as much air as you can, seal up the last 5% of the bag, fold the edge of it over the pot rim, and clamp it to the side of the pot with some binder clamps. https://www.amazon.com/ACCO-Binder-Clips...B002VD6BLG I got a box of binder clamps for 2$ at target.
5.) Make sure part of the bag with the food is fully submerged. If it's not sinking properly, there's still some air in the bag.
Walk me through the process of cooking something with sous-vide.
I made miso salmon yesterday. Here's the process I followed. Total prep time was less than 10 minutes. To make it, I used a salmon I bought at a local Japanese supermarket, along with a fourth cup of white miso, 2 tablespoons of mirin, and a tablespoon of brown sugar. I whisked the ingredients together in a small bowl, then threw them in the bag with the salmon, and put it in the pot with the sous vide cooker using the immersion method I described above. Then I set the temperature to 115 degrees, hit the start button, let it run for a minute to make sure everything was okay, and then went off to do something else. I came back in an hour, but if I was doing something else I could've just as easily come back in two horus without hurting it, or maybe even three. I turned the device off and took the salmon out of the plastic bag.
When food first comes out of a sous vide cooker, it's gonna look really weird, because the outside isn't going to be charred like with traditional cooking methods. It will look kind of grey. No problem. All you have to do now is finish it off in a pan. I tossed my cast iron pan on the stove, heated it up with some butter, tossed the salmon in, waited a minute, flipped it over, waited another minute, and I was all done. Because you're not actually cooking it on the stove, just charring the outside, when the food looks the way you want it, it's all done.
Are there any downsides to sous vide cooking?
A couple small ones.
- It's a little slower. You can do a steak in 15 minutes on a grill, but it might take an hour or two in a sous-vide. On the other hand, that steak needs to be constantly watched, whereas sous-vide is set and forget.
- Some cheap plastic bags contain chemicals that are harmful when heated, called BPAs. Do not get storebought brand plastic bags. Just get ziplocks, they don't have BPAs in them. If you want to be absolutely horrified, and also get a real understanding of where America's obesity crisis, the sudden spike in the number of homosexuals, and the general feminization of American males are coming from, look up BPA on wikipedia. Some scary shit there.
- If you're an idiot who doesn't know how to close a ziplock bag properly, and also incapable of figuring out that you can just clamp the edge of the bag over the rim so it's nowhere near the water, you might soak the 20$ worth of steak that you just bought at costco. Don't ask me how I know this.
A sous-vide device is a cheap, wonderful, and practical addition to any kitchen, even for people who don't consider themselves chefs. I particularly recommend it to anyone doing a paleo or other high-protein diet: the better your meat, the easier it will be for you to stick to the diet. If anyone has any questions about how sous-vide works, or if my explanation wasn't clear, just ask below and I'll be happy to answer them.
![[Image: 470d96fa0d9ddc3677c5243691411ff3.jpg]](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/47/0d/96/470d96fa0d9ddc3677c5243691411ff3.jpg)
![[Image: winston_cvap.jpg]](http://www.scienceofcooking.com/winston_cvap.jpg)
![[Image: 3701.jpg]](https://overlandbound.com/wp-content/uploads/3701.jpg)
