Sous Vide cooking. What's that about?

[slowmotion]

I had a lovely steak on Saturday. Somebody said it was cooked by the Sous Vide method, a technique I knew nothing about at the time. I'm a bit wiser after thrashing about on Google. It seems you stick your meat in a plastic bag, suck out the air, put it in a waterbath for a couple of hours at about 57.5 C, and then flash sear both sides.

Does anybody hereabouts use this method?

Thank you.

 

[marzjennings]

We have a friend who built their own sous vide cooking device out of a fish tank, a pump, water heater and about 10ft of tubing. Took ages to cook steaks, but when done they were very good. I think the premise is that to heat and cook the middle of food fully, we normally have to over cook the outsides. With sous vide, the whole steak should be evenly heated and cooked without charred edges or under cooked centers.

I keep thinking about trying sous vide cooking, especially now the cooking machines are getting cheaper or at least not costing thousands.

 

[slowmotion]

@marzjennings, being a bit of an incorrigible geek, I am gasping at the prospect of cobbling together a DIY cooking set up from the junk I have accumulated over the last (ahem) years. There are loads of clips to advise me on YouTube . It looks like a whole load of fun.

 

[marzjennings]

@marzjennings, being a bit of an incorrigible geek, I am gasping at the prospect of cobbling together a DIY cooking set up from the junk I have accumulated over the last (ahem) years. There are loads of clips to advise me on YouTube . It looks like a whole load of fun.

My friend's set up was pretty cheap to put together. The only expensive part was a nice thermometer to help maintain temperature. For the bags he just used ziploc vacuum bags which come with pump.

 

[slowmotion]

I love this trick with the rare earth magnets.

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-vacuum-chamber-for-sous-vide-and-the-kitchen/

 

[rich p]

I love this trick with the rare earth magnets.

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-vacuum-chamber-for-sous-vide-and-the-kitchen/

You could ask the butcher where you buy the meat to vac pack it

 

[stephec]

So it's not a method if you like a rare steak then?

 

[PK99]

So it's not a method if you like a rare steak then?

180 degrees wrong! Sous vide is the perfect form of cooking for rare steak! google sous vide steak images!

Sous vide has been in restaurants for 20 year plus, but only reached the domestic market 4-5 years ago - i was a very early adopter.

Essentially, the method involves sealing food under vacuum in a food safe plastic bag and cooking at the perfect temperature.
For steak, medium rare is around 135 F at the centre. Conventional cooking gives an overcooked outer to achieve the perfect inner. Sous vide with a 135F water temp produces perfectly cooked steak medium rare all the way through in an hour or two, a quick blast with a blow torch or in the pan gives the maillard reaction which is the browning that give meat its distinctive savory flavour in all forms of cooking. Better still, sousvide will hold the steak at that perfect temperature for an hour or co without overcooking.
http://www.cookingsousvide.com/info/sous-vide-guides/more/sous-vide-steak-guide

Pork belly and brisket (for eg) are much tougher cuts with lots of collagen I do pork belly, brisket, confit duck and similar at 80C for 24/36hours, producing fantastically tender meat. at lower temps for longer you can produce medium rare perfectly tender brisket.

If you eat out regularly if restaurants or gastro pubs it is pretty certain you regulalry eat sos vide cooked food

 

[PeteXXX]

How about just pop it in the dishwasher, vacpacked of course.
You can also cook a whole salmon to perfection as few folk have a pan big enough for the whole fish.

 

[theclaud]

180 degrees wrong! Sous vide is the perfect form of cooking for rare steak! google sous vide steak images!

Sous vide has been in restaurants for 20 year plus, but only reached the domestic market 4-5 years ago - i was a very early adopter.

Essentially, the method involves sealing food under vacuum in a food safe plastic bag and cooking at the perfect temperature.
For steak, medium rare is around 135 F at the centre. Conventional cooking gives an overcooked outer to achieve the perfect inner. Sous vide with a 135F water temp produces perfectly cooked steak medium rare all the way through in an hour or two

This is the problem, isn't it?? I did the Google images thing and the results look good, but not significantly better than a steak I've cooked for a few minutes from room temperature in a decent pan. Isn't life just too short?

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Load of middle-class bollocks.

 

[PK99]

This is the problem, isn't it?? I did the Google images thing and the results look good, but not significantly better than a steak I've cooked for a few minutes from room temperature in a decent pan. Isn't life just too short?

for a single steak i agree. but i could prepare perfectly cooked steak for a table of 6, all at the same time all perfect. same with racks of lamb. all with no time pressure and minimal time way from the table.

chicken breast sous vide is a revelation of taste and texture.

soup vide creme anglais is trivial, hassle and technique free and perfect every time.

pork ribs cooked in large quantity soup vide and flash finished on the bbq are simply stunning.

 

[Fnaar]

I'm going to start using a sun oven:

I'll be putting the Christmas turkey on later today

 

[theclaud]

for a single steak i agree. but i could prepare perfectly cooked steak for a table of 6, all at the same time all perfect. same with racks of lamb. all with no time pressure and minimal time way from the table.

chicken breast sous vide is a revelation of taste and texture.

soup vide creme anglais is trivial, hassle and technique free and perfect every time.

pork ribs cooked in large quantity soup vide and flash finished on the bbq are simply stunning.

Ah - now that I can see the point of. But sous vide custard! Seriously?

I avoid the problem of how to make chicken breasts interesting by eating chicken thighs instead. Fried in garlic butter.

 

[Fnaar]

I avoid the problem of how to make chicken breasts interesting by eating chicken thighs instead. Fried in garlic butter.

I'm keen on breast, but I love a nice juicy thigh too