One thing I have noticed with my sous vide machine, is that a thermometer that is built into it is not the most effective. I now use a second probe thermometer on the other side comfy cooking vessel to assure a uniform and reliable temperature. A few degrees off can make a huge difference in a sous-vide dish. I found I get more consistent and better results using the two thermometers together. Often when cooking turkey or chicken I add a spice or herb rub and cold smoke the meat for an hour before I place it in the sous vide pot. Yes, it adds to the process, but the flavors really get integrated into the meat over the long cooking time.
I would love to see some reusable submersible stoneware or porcelain containers for sous-vide. Sharktank people, call me.
Why is every food photographer in the NYT Cooking section a man? Just came from the NYT story on Susan Meiselas ("Women in the Spotlight, but Few Behind the Lens") and can't help but notice the uncanny similarity here...
1
Better not hesitate pulling out the sous-vide machine!
I had a bit of fun laughing at eggs cooked for over 12 hours in a sous-vide. I guess I just don't have enough time on my hands to really enjoy these things.
2
For those concerned about cooking in plastic, there are reusable silicone sous vide bags.
2
If we want to keep eating perfect ”sous vide” Salmon, we need to get the four dams on the lower Snake River breached, and quickly. See Dammed to Extinction. It would more than double the amount of salmon spawning habitat , and keep the Orca pods of the San Juan Islands from starving. Please help!
Superb cooking starts with superb food. Nothing beats wild Salmon.
Single use plastic is Death.
Thank you.
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I don't trust those who say it's safe to eat food cooked in plastic--that's what we were told about microwaving with the earlier plastic films before the manufacturers were proved to be liars. Also, given the plastics crisis, why would responsible people be advocating the use of more of the wretched stuff? Human beings managed to cook without plastic for millennia, and sous vide is just another silly fad exploiting our apparently bottomless lust for gustatory thrills.
1
The Maillard reaction is way more than just the char, it is Even more about flavour development that depends on the type of food.
2
The cooking it in plastic bothers me. You are not to eat plastic container microwaved food or drink plastic bottled water because of the plastic why would you literally infuse your food with it. Ughhhh. No thanks. Guaranteed I could taste the plastic.
4
Sous void could sum up my life.
1
Seems like a lot of single use plastic?
6
This description could be recounting my trip to Corsica in 1986. I got mixed up with some motorcyclists and a sous chef from the Dome. Emerging buttery-fleshed and more deeply flavored than with poaching.
2
I'm very inclined to cook offal but I'm trying to improve. I have not only fermented a pickle, I have resented, fermented and declined a pickle.
2
Boiling water in the kitchen doesn't make one sweat? Gee, give me a gas grill outside to cook meat and fish, and the microwave for my veggies. Even cooking them on the stove takes little time and generates little heat.
I'm not a Luddite where tech is concerned - far from it. But I do cook on a 1948 O'Keefe & Merritt range and adore it. Over the years (I'm ancient now!), I've gotten rid of more and more appliances that I was told I simply "must" have. I did use my Cuisinart a lot when I was cooking for a family of 4; rarely use it cooking for one. Much as I love it, I avoid hollandaise and homemade mayo! No waffle iron - frozen waffles are really very good. Pancakes made in a skillet or on the built-in grill of my stove. Hated my immersion stick mixer - don't like smoothies anyway. I do still have my rice maker- it makes delicious rice. But it may go soon as the frozen rice one can buy today is excellent and the portion just right for 2 servings. My KA big stand mixer will have to be pried from my cold dead hands.
The other appliance I cannot live without is my electric kettle. I have an old Russell Hobbs one that must be at least 30 years old and still works very well. Love that thing!
2
Being a vegan and environmentalist this recipe makes me want to vomit in many levels.
3
First of all, Ms. Clark is right. My standard way of cooking a steak recently is to cook it to 131 degrees in my sous-vide equipment, and then to dry it and sear it in a hot pan to get a nice crust. Delicious.
(Sous-vide equipment is also great for making yogurt. The equipment will hold a water bath at 110 degrees forever, heaven for yogurt cultures.)
The concerns about plastic used in sous-vide seem wildly overblown. If this is a concern to you, use heavy duty ziplock baggies and rinse and reuse them. Your plastic footprint will be very small.
Plastic used in your kitchen and placed in your trash does not end up in the ocean. The plastic in the ocean really comes from third world countries without functioning trash collection systems. I recently visited Vietnam and Cambodia and was shocked by the huge amount of trash, largely plastic, bordering roads in the countryside. The wind and the rain push some of that trash into streams and ultimately into the ocean. Really preventing plastic in the oceans will require assisting these countries in collecting trash.
2
What makes poultry tricky using the sous-vide method?
3
I usually love Mellisa Clark’s recipes and I don’t doubt these recipes are delicious BUT do we really need to use more plastic. We’re drowning in plastic
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When I slow cook in my oven, I wrap meat in parchment and then wrap it in foil. I have enough aluminum in my liver, thank you. sI'm wondering if it would be possible--and effective--to wrap meat or fish in parchment and then submerse it in a sous vide in a plastic bag. Would the parchment be an effective condom? Or will the whole thing be poisoned by the heated plastic's carcinogen cascade?
Just what the world needs—another use for plastic.
5
And for all the bag-phobes: I’m assuming of course you don’t use plastic wrap? My guess is there are millions more bags full of snacks out there than sous vide bags. If you want to reduce landfill then focus on the biggest offenders. And of course picking up after one’s dog should be done with a reusable linen hand mitt?
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I remember my mother, in the early 70's, dropping some kind of birds eye vegetable in a cream sauce, encased in plastic into a pot of boiling water. So now chefs and apparently home cooks are doing the same thing, only at a lower temperature and a longer amount of time in the water. I just can't fathom why anyone wants to cook in plastic with the science we have showing the dangers of petrochemicals. How many of the people cooking sous vide would drink water from a plastic bottle that has cooked in their car on a hot summer day without wondering about the danger.
6
Bought the Anova device ($200) pictured here and it works very well. Just keep in mind that it's not a good way to go for fattier steaks like rib eyes and IMO works better with leaner cuts like filet and NY Strips due to the fact that the fat will not render in a water bath and getting it crispy is almost impossible post sous vide without overcooking the steak. It's heaven with fish of any kind and will produce Chef quality filets in combo with a really hot pan or grill. The set it and forget it-have dinner when it's convenient factor is a huge plus as your food stays right at temp for hours.
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@Brian
It's a fad that comes and goes. Now corporations are pushing sous-vide on the coattails of the instantpot.
As Jacque Pepin said about sous-vide, "This is nothing new. We did it at Howard Johnsons in the 1960s."
4
@Wordsworth Actually, soups vide has been around a lot longer than the vaunted instant pot. Both have their Have you tried either?
I wish this article explained pasteurization and why cooking sous vide at a low temperature for a longer period of time kills harmful bacteria. Many comments express concern over safety of "undercooked" food. A very detailed explanation: http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Table_5.1
1
I completely agree with fahrrad. Would someone please address the issue of the cascade of carcinogens that happens to food cooked in plastic bags? I think it completely irresponsible to promote this technique.
I wonder if I could sous vide in a glass container.
8
Completely unclear to me why we would artificially maximize the ingestion of plastic components into our bodies for the sake of convenience of even possibly enhanced taste.
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Last night I pan-seared and roasted a chicken breast on a Weber gas grill. It's not sous vide, but I didn't heat up the kitchen, except for some rice.
I have been using an anova device for several years and I try to reuse plastic bags. I have little worries about health issues with the plastic. Those who pooh pooh sous vide should be reminded about the dangers of grilling as well. I have better results with searing in a cast iron skillet. I set up a single burner induction unit on the patio and get it smoking hot. I am not going to say it's better than traditional ways of cooking, it's different. A top sirloin properly done this way has a crusty exterior and wall to wall doneness with little Browning of the interior. The article doesn't touch upon how a tough cut of meat becomes a delight. A boneless chuck roast sous vided at about 130 degrees for 36 hours and then seared is a wonder to behold. I consider myself a highly skilled home cook. The sous vide device is a great addition to the tools of the trade. Because of the dangers inherent in the use of unsafe temperatures in any cooking method, I do highly recommend a more complete reading of the techniques necessary to use the method in a safe way. A great starting place is the website Seriouseats.com.
1
Been cooking sous vide for several years now. The only thing that bothers me is what to do with all the water. Even "water ovens" use a fair amount of water. Has struck me as rather wasteful. Need a gray water system in my home.
It is a great technique, however. Try 5-10 asparagus stalks in a bag with a generous knob of butter at 165 F for 10-15 min. Wow!
2
@Grant Faraday We use the leftover water to water our houseplants after it cools.
5
I've been using sous vide for a couple of years, and one of the best tricks I have is to get those inexpensive eye of round roasts and sous vide them for about 24-30 hours at 130 degrees. They come out rib roast tender, as the collagen breaks down with the prolonged cooking, but the meat stays mid rare and moist! I slice and freeze in meal sized packs for us and it's an easy roast beef dinner on the fly.
3
Part II: I've found that if the meat is good, all of these treatments (marinades, garlic...) only serve to hide the flavor of the main ingredient. Generally use only salt, pepper and a touch of olive oil. Tougher cuts like chuck need more time, but again: if the raw material is good, my advice is don't mess it up with fancy cover-ups.
3
Been doing Sous Vide for a couple of years now. Love it. Meat comes out spot on every time.
Nice article on sous vide, but how can you ignore using sous vide to tenderize meats, which is one of the significant advantages? For anyone looking for a methodical, deeper dive, check The Food Lab on Serious Eats.
3
What are long term health side effects of boiling plastic/ silicone bags used in sous vide cooking?
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@Linda Maldonado
I'm not sure that the temperatures a sous vide would be using could be considered "boiling" or even hot enough to break down these plastic bags.
1
@Linda Maldonado Uh, none? For one thing, 122 degree water isn’t anywhere near boiling.
1
@Linda Maldonado The water rarely is brought to boiling. That being said, we don't really know. On the other hand, given we breathe in, eat, or are otherwise exposed to carcinogens every day...who cares?
A sous vide is complicated! Could you please do a roundup of low or no-oven recipes that include protein for summertime when you don't want the oven on ? Would be so useful aka servicey. Thank you!
1
American thinking is " sous vide " .
They don't even know what " sous vide " means,
In the 16th century in France we were cooking in pork bladders " sous vide " , chicken , like Bocuse was doing 40 years ago.
@JPH. I tried cooking in chicken bladders. Complete disaster. My boyfriend left me for the pool boy.
An immersion/circulator-style sous vide wand works *great* in a slow cooker, instant pot or other insulated pressure/air fryer-type device. Your wand will work 1/2 as hard and your temperature will be much more consistent. Cover the top with any fitting pot lid or even a cutting board + towel - great for meats and great for pint jar yogurt making.
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I made sous vide steak using the same recipe minus the mint.
The difference in process, which saved time and clean-up effort, was to sear the steak in a hot (400-450 degrees F) fry pan on the stove top.
Doing this achieved the desired browning and Maillard effect without the need to clean a grill. I also find that searing on the stove top allows more control of the end product than using the broiler.
By the way, one of the recent versions of the InstantPot allows cooking sous vide.
the fact that sous vide uses plastic bags is from an environmental perspective questionable
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@chris
There are a number of re-useable silicon bags specifically intended for Sous vide cooking. I agree, one use plastic bags (for any purpose) are not good for the environment.
3
@chris AND is the hot plastic bag leaching plastic into the food? Same mindset of folks who insist on a machine that shoots boiling water through an individual plastic container to make their coffee.
1
Americans are always looking for new "cliches " ( another French word ) about fashion or food or philosophy.
" Sous vide " a French concept ( again ) is for some kind of result. Not for everything.
French cooking is the richest most varied of all cooking cultures, with different techniques for everything and since hundreds of years.
But what can you say to people whose culture is so monolithic ?
And monopolist.
They just want another monolithic and monopolist idea.
@JPH
You're amazing! A friend of mine was just recently telling me how his sous vide machine enabled him to live out his monolithic monopolist fantasies and...oh, wait. Now I remember...what he actually said was that the machine lets him make flawless steaks when he gets home from work.
Lighten up and learn to live a little.
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@JPH
To paraphrase a previous US President (#43), the French don't even have a word for "sous vide". ;)
1
If anyone is reading this far down, this late in the day, a note on safety. The top end of the danger zone for bacterial reproduction is 120 F. You NEED to ensure you are above this, so please consider a margin of error due to equipment variance or even electrical failure. No matter how finely calibrated you find your immersion device to be, things change over time. It could easily put you under 120 even if your device is set at 122..... For safety's sake, and to cover everything that could go wrong, please go to at least 125 if not 129 when doing meat proteins. You don't want to get anyone sick.
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@Andy How do you think we eat " Steak tartare " in France ?
Common dish in many restaurants. Just good quality fresh meat.
Not the kind that comes from a meat "factory" in the USA and has spent a week in plastic travelling in trucks.
I have seen at Eataly in NY a half side of beef outside on the back of the meat counter exposed to everything. I come back half an hour later it is still there . i talked to the guys about it. They laughed.
In France, a state inspector comes by and the place is closed. Also at each butchery there must be a certified butcher , even in a supermarket. Do you think in a US supermarket there is such guy as a certified butcher ? who spent 2 or 3 years in school studying meat cuts, refrigeration, health conditions, freezing rules, etc... ???
They don't even know how to cut the meat in the US. Even less know anything about safety.
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@Andy It's not just temperature, rather a combination of time & temperature. Check this link for the full story:
http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Preface
Cheers
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@JPH
Totally agree JPH. Enjoy beef tartare or carpaccio at least once a week when in France. But even here in the U.S., if I purchase from a trusted source I have had no problems with removing steak from the skillet at 110º or chicken breast at 135º (where it "springs" to 145º) instead of the recommended 165º which completely dries it out.
Last night I cooked salmon on a plank on the grill and made some delicious hollandaise sauce sous vide in a mason jar - easy! I use Nomiku’s “wand” as you call it which is great - they also have a fantastic frozen meal delivery service which means you can have dinner on the table using your sous vide device in 20-30 mins. Fantastic food. Great for working folks!
No doubt about it, these Sauce-de-la-Vida machines are really nice with the added benefit that you learn a sexy foreign language at the same time! (sous-vida = under vaccum) However, I‘ve moved to the next level within this genre: Less electronics in the kitchen!
Wrap the meat in tinfoil and place it into the oven at the desired temperature. Buy a small extra oven thermometer if you have to. Note: According to chefs like Anthony Bourdin (RIP) one of the most important things to do is to let the meat rest for five minutes after browning.
With this lovely process you can be proud of your accomplishment providing tasty meat, even if purchased from that corporate farm around the corner that tortures cows in cages (stalls) feeding them non-species-agreeable corn and injecting them with g-d knows what so you can get a 25% discount on it! Enjoy.
1
Who invented this ridiculous word, 'tweens'?
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If you think Glatt kosher meat processing destroys food wait’ll you try Sous Vide!
NY Times writes about concerns involving plastic/garbage/climate change etc and then you allow/promote this silliness of the sous vide trend :-/
I'd like to think you all are smarter then this...
We are counting on you to raise the bar/not lower it ;-)
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@covey6
The mantra is reduce, reuse, recycle...You are aware that sealed bags are reusable, right? Everyone has different situation and chooses to adapt the principles to their own life according to their own priorities. Key word is life, as in continuing to live a thoughtful and meaningful life; ignorance and rigid doctrine and aren't a useful tool to effect change in a diverse population.
As to sharing useful advice for the environment perhaps you can do us all a favour while doing your part in reducing greenhouse gases and refrain from releasing so much hot air...?
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@Andy how much of that plastic is going into your bones and your blood? and the air and the water that then goes on to rivers and oceans...?
My wife bought me a sous vide setup some years ago and I love it. It's essentially impossible to under or overcook steaks as long as you follow reasonable time and temp guides. (There are lots of resources on the internet.)
Salmon I find a little trickier if you want to avoid congealed albumen - still refining that.
For several years we've done our holiday turkey sous vide by breaking the bird down into its parts. Through trial and error I've found that white and dark meat need slightly different times and temps (2.5 hrs @ 150 for white, 3 hrs @ 156 for dark with a 16# bird). I next apply a flavorful rub but the trick is to let the meat air dry in the frig overnight. That dries the skin and facilitates deep frying to a crispy finish.
One time some neighbors bought an extra pork belly by mistake and gave one away to us. We used a recipe from Kenji Lopez-Alt and made a sous vide porchetta (36 hrs) that was finished by deep frying. It was fabulous but haven't tried it again - too much fat and overall decadence.
We've also done potatoes sous vide before frying them - a little tricky to prevent sticking. We've even done ice cream sous vide using a recipe from Thomas Keller. The beauty of SV ice cream is the ease of adding the egg yolks without fear of curdling. And once cooked it can sit safely in the sealed bag in the frig for a day or more until you're ready to freeze and serve it. Adding glucose to the sugar mixture and 1/4 cup dry milk powder helps with creaminess.
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Thank you for this info I’m saving it for Thanksgiving!
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@Carolyn Wood
I thought I should add a few more details about turkey sous vide. I usually brine the turkey parts first for 16 hours using a recipe from the NYT. It's quite possible that just adding salt and aromatics to the turkey while it's being sous 'vided' would achieve the same result - I may experiment next time. In my experience it seems most of the exogenous flavor actually comes from the rub. I also debone the thighs and the breasts before brining to facilitate carving after they're fried.
I don't have a favorite rub yet, but it's easy to try several different ones each time since the pieces are separate.
I use a Krups KJ 7000 home fryer on high (374F) with canola oil (1.25 gal). My model will only handle one breast or two medium pieces at a time without cooling the oil too much. Any bird bigger than about 16# and a single breast might not fit in the fryer. (I sometimes have to flip to make sure the browning is even for breasts - not a big deal). As I recall each batch takes about 5-6 minutes which means a little planning to have enough ready when serving time comes.
Being cooked to near perfection internally, I just need to make sure the exterior is browned to my satisfaction, and then the carving is pretty easy.
Best of luck!
1
The title reads, "flavorful steaks, fish and vegetables" so why showcase the article with the beef shot? It would be a good thing, in so many ways, if less beef is raised, slaughtered and consumed.
4
Plastic, plastic, plastic. Please, please stop promoting single-use plastic.
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Did it ever occur to the author or editors that there may be newcomers out there who don't know what a sous vide machine is, or what it looks like, or how one might use it? A couple of weeks ago you wrote an article about a sculpture in NYC without a meaningful picture of it...this article goes in the same trash bin.
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@Tony Literally the second picture in the article is a picture of a sous vide bath; the entire article explains how to use it.
@Tony Yes, this article definitely is a huge conundrum for newcomers who don’t know how to google the phrase “Sous vide”....
I do much of this with an instantpot (precooking ribs, pot roast, etc.) and I think more delicate cuts can be cooked in a hot pan in fewer than 10 minutes with a decent meat thermometer and some attention. Would love to try the device but hesitant because of limited counter space here in NYC.
4
I use my sous vide all the time. One thing that I don't think anyone mentioned, is the combination of sous vide and freezing. I frequently buy a quantity of meat, package it into portions, and immediately sous vide all of it. I then freeze the packages. When I need a quick meal, I take one package out of the freezer and pop it back into the sous vide or pour hot water in it in a container. Once it reaches temperature, it's ready to sear. My favorite ribs recipe requires 48 hours at 130, so this saves a lot of time and allows me to entertain at the drop of a hat.
8
The article briefly, almost off-handedly, mentions silicone bags for this method of cooking.
Emphasizing this would be a great boon to the environment.
5
I love all the environmental activists virtue signalling their concerns over plastic bags, rather than commenting on the article itself.
People-- there is no BPA in sous-vide bags, and they can be washed and reused if you so desire. Not to mention, you're doing more "harm" to the environment burning COAL to cook your steaks on the grill..
Back to your readily scheduled moral self congratulation and misplaced environmental concerns.
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@JasonR
There may be no BPA in those bags but I can not imagine that whatever is now used to replace will not turn out to also be unhealthy.
1
Why would you want to use a method that requires more plastic bags???
7
@PeaceAndLove. Yes, let's burn more coal or use more petroleum products instead.
1
It seems absurd to proselytise a cooking method using more disposable plastic in this day and age. How can this paper agonise over increasing pollution - yet endorse this?
11
As an early adopter of home sous vide cooking, there is a lot to recommend about it. For those who say it’s too long and you can’t cook quickly, that is seldom the case. A one inch steak cooked to 128oF for a sirloin, 131oFfor the fattier rib-eye, takes an hour, after the water comes up to temperature and that can be jump sped up by using hot tap water. Salt the steak (or two or four, no matter)put it in a freezer bag, use the water displacement method to sink it, clip it to the side of the container and prepare the rest of the meal. In an hour, sear in a cast iron skillet with butter and herbs and whatever. Done. Did that take long? Unattended and it if goes over, so what?
72 hour boneless beef short-ribs at 131oF, yes, 72 hours but you know you’re having a dinner party on Saturday by Wednesday, don’t you? The tenderness of the best filet with that earthiness of short-ribs. Sear as above. Torches are hard to get right and often leave a taste. Use a grill or pan.
Meat on the bone cooked to proper temp all the way through. Leg of lamb to 134oF! OMG. Three hours or more then seared or quick roast in 450-500oF oven with gremolata of your choice. Perfect top to bottom.
Chicken breasts perfect for salads. Sausages precooked then finished on the grill with no flare ups as only a quick sear needed.
A very useful and versatile tool. Want to melt chocolate to 115, set and the mixing bowl is at 115. Need a warm and moist spot for proofing dough, you have it.
4
“With prices falling from $1,000 to as little as $45, the devices are now in reach for home cooks...”
The prices sound great.
Could I/we ask for reviews of the sous vide devises?
2
i would like to know what exactly the meat and sauce are in the main photo please...sirloin roast and some kind of peppery/sesame oil or something? thanks. very interesting article and concept, totally new to me.
Sounds GREAT. Like delicious microwaved baby back ribs.
So irresponsible to be recommending another one-use and then the trash for plastic. Some plastic use is almost impossible to avoid in 21st century America. But sous-vide? Deliberately and unnecessarily adding more to the the crushing burden in the oceans and landfills is unconscionable.
12
using all the plastic is so wasteful. just cook regular people. I tried it... meh. you can cook a great steak or whatever all the other ways.
6
Microwave oven, toaster, coffee maker, espresso machine, electric kettle, toaster oven, convection oven, hot pot, slow cooker, hot air fryer, electric griddle, electric fry pan, Belgian waffle maker, small and large George Forman grilles. And now the sous-vide machine with plastic container to aid the busy homemaker.
What is wrong with this picture?
9
Don’t see the need.
Our Miele ovens offer a warming feature that is very precise.
From 75F and up.
2
The bag keeps flavor and juices next to the item being cooked and the water keeps air from reaching the meat to avoid contamination. So while a low oven might be suitable for vegetables it is less so for meat.
@TracieBarnes Hmmm, cheapest Miele oven is $2,700. Cheapest sous vide wand is $45. So hard to know what to choose....
Except you're cooking your food inside a plastic bag. Anyone that thinks your not leaching chemicals from the heated plastic into your food is kidding themselves.
12
I've found the best use for sous vide to be reheating barbeque. After a long smoke session, I fill many bags for individual meals, freeze and then reheat for mid-week dinners.
I've done numerous steaks sous vide but find that they are not as good as a reverse sear on the grill.
As for all the plastic complainers, you had better be doing everything in this article before you whine https://nyti.ms/2X4yHGu
2
PLASTIC !? Not what the world needs and can afford!
7
The sous vide machine is great for making yoghurt. Just prepare the milk the usual way, add the starter, and put it into 750 mL plastic containers, or something similar, at 44 ºC (111ºF) in the sous vide. Five hours later, best yoghurt ever.
1
Hmmmmmm, interesting, but this method seems, at the least, time consuming. No last-minute, let’s-have-a-great-steak moments possible. For 40 years, I have never had better salmon or steak than what I fix in the best cooking equipment ever: a well-seasoned, vintage cast iron skillet.
5
We’ve been cooking sous vide at home for over 8 years now. It’s wonderful, and for many foods (steaks, pork chops, fish) we wouldn’t use any other technique.
Food safety is something to be considered though. Since much of the cooking is done at less than 140°F, some times significantly less (our go to temperature for salmon is 122°F). For that reason starting with fresh high quality ingredients and being very careful about sanitation is critical. Some of the chef written books like Keller’s “Under Pressure” don’t include realistic temperatures, keeping recommendations unrealistically high. I suspect that’s because they fear liability in case of a food illness problem.
For someone starting out, “Sous Vide for the Home Cook” by Douglas Baldwin is an excellent inexpensive reference. No, he’s not a famous chef, and there aren’t beautiful glossy photos and exotic recipes, but his time and temperature recommendations are well tested and provide good starting points that you can adjust from as you gain experience.
2
I am not sure that this is actually cooking.
Cooking involves variation in temperatures and textures, errors that are happy or unhappy, and immediate sensory interactions with the food. This is too close to a steam table for me, and would take both pleasure and adventure out of cooking.
Melissa Clark, I normally think your food ideas are fantastic, but the steak in the picture looks just weird, not delicious at all.
Yes, I have sous vide cooked food from amateur cooks and at high end restaurants, and it all makes me shudder.
To the grill! To the frying pan! To the pot of boiling water! Cheers!
1
I've been sous-vide-ing for several years now. I have only seared on the stove, though. Unless you use a gas grill, and I don't, searing in a hot pan is actually excellent, and probably also indoor stove or infrared grilling. I will say, however, that sous vide is not always a magic bullet. I've had a bad experience with venison once, and so-so with boar. Also, I've recently had very good success on the grill alone just by following timed cooking by thickness precisely, which works very well for thicker cuts, and it's obviously much quicker.
1
Have used the Anova sous vide at least weekly for 18 months. In addition to the faves already mentioned, it produces perfect beef brisket, something that was hit-or-miss for me before. (Like other commenters, I always make two and freeze one for later finshining.)
4
Great article and comments. Completely talked me out of ever trying it. Filet, salt, grill, 5 minutes each side.
8
Comment: Sous vide is so sweet! My mother would laugh, though, because when I was a kid, she would buy "boil in a bag" entrées for 19 cents a serving.
Question: How would keeping a correctly cooked steak warm for hours not overcook it?
Suggestion: How about an update comparing current immersion circulators on the market for home cooking? Also, maybe a face-to-face comparison of using one with and without a home vacuum sealer, too?
Thank you!
2
The answer to your first question is: you can overcook meat sous vide - it just takes a very long time to do it, and "overcooked" has a different meaning. At 132° a steak will always be pink. after a long long time the texture may get yucky. On the other hand, short ribs after 48 hours at the same temperature become beautifully tender and remain pink. Reduce some Pinot noir, roast some vegetables, add some beef stock, and while they are marrying, quickly dear the meat in butter. Voila! Beef bourguignion!
Unfortunately, I've cut the Dickens out of my thumb!
2
I don’t get it. My grilled meat/fish and veg come out fine on the grill or pan or oven, no problem. Every time. Why do I want my food cooked in plastic bags, a potential carcinogen; plus, consume more plastic? Really?
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@D Priest
Well if you only want to cook food, you obviously don't need it. It is still something more for foodies. It is a valid tool (one of many) that is quite good for some things.
And PS., you'll consume more carcinogens if you cook a steak over charcoal than you ever will from sous-vide bags.
3
This is the first time I learn about sous vide, and I find some essential piece of information missing. So I am just guessing here: After the meat has fully equilibrated to the set temperature (the minimum cook time), is has reached the desired condition, and the duration for which it stays at that temperature is irrelevant, the consistency and condition does not change any further. Is that correct ? In any case, please explain the physics and chemistry for the uninitiated.
8
If you leave very tender meat in the bath for more than, say, four hours you may find that it is overcooked in the sense that it may appeared overly ”dissolved”.
Also, some meat is not actually done when the whole piece has reached the water temperature. Tough cuts should be cooked longer in order to become tender, some up to 24 hours.
Poultry, which can be cooked at a lower temperature than what is required to instantly kill off any salmonella that may be present, can be pasteurised by leaving it in the bath for a certain time. Birds can be infected by salmonella without having any symptoms. I cook duck breast at 56 Celsius and leave it in the bath for another two hours in order to pasteurise. There are FDA-researched tables for this, which are published in at least one popular book on sous vide.
6
Articles like these would be more broadly appealing and inclusive if the human focus (the interview subjects) reflected a broader cross-section of society. The technique involves slowly cooking food in warm water. A low-income single mom who works all day could benefit just as much as a wealthy second-home owner who recreates all day. The NYT tends to feature the latter when it comes to food, cooking and other lifestyle features.
15
@Dave
Please do not make assumptions based on *your* stereotype. I'm currently in the low-income single group and love reading NYT articles like this and have for over 40 years (during various income levels). The article is about the process of cooking and it matters little (at least to me) who is doing it.
Oh and that wealthy second-home owner who "recreates all day" is just as stereotypical as the first one you offered.
28
I use this cooking method all of the time without special machinery. It does help to have a thermometer to make sure the temp is 135 ish. Just bag it and cook at 135 in water. It’ s ready not such a big deal. Been a working mom most of my kids life.
7
@Candlewick Just noting that the NYT features and quotes the "one percent" disproportionately in cooking and lifestyle features of all kinds -- most glaringly in real estate and travel stories, but really in all of these lifestyle feature sections.
Here it was a story about heating food in water!
Can we agree that there is an excessive (though certainly not exclusive) focus on the activities on the one percent, and that the paper of record can do better? Or does it really not matter?
2
For some reason this made me laugh and brought back good memories of my Mother, rest her sweet soul. She had a tiny kitchen, no 'gadgets,' and she was an amazing cook: Best biscuits ever, full holiday meals, wonderful meats and vegetables. She would [deliciously] cook any game brought to her, her one rule was it had to be cleaned and ready to cook. I asked her one time what her secret ingredient was, and she simply answered, "Love."
23
Much chatter about “plastic bags” which are largely poly olefins. Whatever, I prefer my steaks in such a bag held at 131 degrees for several hours finished with my wife’s blowtorch.
13
@Jim Foster: Yes, that also caught my attention. Heating food in plastic? Is there a sous vide alternative to plastic?
8
I had the same question. Love the idea of a new technique for cooking, but loathe to try something that generates even more garbage than the usual packaging, especially single use plastics. Any alternatives?
7
Silicone bags from Stasher (or from another manufacturer) are an excellent replacement for plastic: bpa-free, multi-use, multi-purpose and earth-friendly. In fact, we have replaced all plastic bags and plastic containers with silicone, glass and Etee wraps. Why use plastic at all when safer, better options are readily available and affordable?!
5
I used a combination of sous vide and conventional boiling techniques to create perfect eggs for an Easter dish a couple months ago. Whole eggs, immersed in boiling water for about 2:30 to cook the whites, then sous vide to 151° (about 30 minutes) for perfect jelly like yolks. It took all morning to establish a successful procedure, but became foolproof and automatic once I determined these steps. Cooled, peeled, sliced in half and served with a wide assortment of fresh herbs and other toppings, including caviar! Deluxe, better than deviled eggs.
4
@A B Church Thank you for a new recipe to try! Have been wondering how to achieve a peel-able, yet still soft-yolk eggs. Sounds like you [lowers sunglasses] cracked the code.
For anyone concerned about plastic with Sous vide:
I been in interested in Molecular gastronomy/Sous vide for nearly a decade now and have had to deal with push back from using plastic bags from my family. Ultimately there is no definitive answer. You just have to weigh the risks:
1. Freezer bags and Sous vide bags today are made from low density Polyethylene. These bags will not “melt” at any temperature near Sous vide temps and are less likely to leach then plastics from 30 years ago (/BPA era).
2. Any material scientist knows that point no 1. is not the full picture. Any warm temperature reduces the stability of plastic. So yes, you will likely have traces of plastic compounds in your food.
3. Plastic is everywhere! The food you cook has likely been stored in plastic and handled with plastic it’s entire life! You probably cook with plastic. Regardless, you food is already contaminated before you decide to cook it Sous vide.
4. The leading cause of death is heart disease. Cancer is second. So in theory that steak will kill you before the plastic.
67
@JH
Thanks for the fuller picture. But the even fuller picture includes the disposal of the plastic bag and potential harms to the environment. After your steak kills you, will the bag it was cooked in choke an albatross, or degrade into microplastics that harm a whole reef?
18
A steak grilled over hot lump charcoal is FAR better than one done sous vide and "finished" on a grill (gas or charcoal).
Steaks done the way described here usually turn out what can only be described (by my wife) as "poachy". We are talking about the meat's texture here.
That's because that is what you are doing to your steak … poaching it in its own juices in a hot plastic bag.
I have found this happens even when keeping the meat in your bath for a minimum amount required to hit temp.
You are not rendering the fat properly, as you would over a searing hot flame. For extra heat and flavour, add mesquite chunks to your lump.
The only steak I would even consider doing sous vide, is a piece of tenderloin. Low in fat, and needs help with flavour, so throw some herbs in the bag while at it.
I will never cook another beautiful piece of rib eye in a plastic bag again.
Also, remember that sous vide steaks are a wonderful crutch for a restaurant, but it's better to learn how to cook a steak properly over lump and a few chunks (not chips) of mesquite.
33
For the 4th of July I did pulled pork (pork shoulder) with dry rub in sous vide for 20 hours. Finished it on a low grill with hickory smoke for a nice bark. Yummy.
6
Newcomer to sous vide here, courtesy of a friend’s gift.
I’ve found it great for cooking cheap roast to a tenderness I’ve not found possible in the oven.
I usually sous vide to rare, then dice the roast as the last thing to drop in a stir-fry.
Yum!
5
I started out with rump roasts, left them cooking for 20 hours. Really. And to keep the electricity use down, I bought a small ice chest for a buck at the Goodwill and with a hole saw, cut a hole the exact diameter of the Sousvide stick. No heat lost through a single walled plastic or metal container. Sous Vide Rules!
3
@Kent
Actually, they now make containers with holes in the lids specifically designed to fit the sous-vide stick. The lid snaps firmly on top, and the stick is almost sealed in ... evaporation is virtually zero even if you go for two days (yes - I do 48 hour ribs that get finished in a smoker.)
You're right - sous-vide rules! (PS. Big Sky country also rules! I lived in Missoula a few decades ago. Still vacation in the Bitterroots, and fly fish in the wonderful streams.)
1
I recently smoked a massive pork chop for 2hrs and then sous vided it in maple syrup for another two. Life changing.
5
@Jonas Kaye, I'm curious about the order of your cooking. Would it make a difference to do the sous vide first and smoke after?
1
@Marcia great question, I've wondered the same thing. I think it's best to smoke meats when they're as dry as possible, to allow the smoke to penetrate. You could always dry the meat after the SV but I find it gets pretty soaked in there.
The other thing is, SV tends to intensify the flavors that are already there, so you might get some extra smokiness by doing the smoke first?
So what do you do with the plastic bag after cooking? Throw it away? Where does it end?
29
@Garrick - I don't have one of these (yet...) but it seems like if you use a zip-lock bag of some sort, instead of the vacuum sealer, you could wash the bag out and reuse it. I already do this for zip-locks used for non-food storage. Alternately, use it once for cooking, the wash and reuse to store something else.
8
I wash it, dry it, and use it again.
3
After years of cooking sous-vide dishes in my kitchen, I've come to the following conclusions. The method can produce:
1. Perfect pork chops (I cook to 132F.)
2. Perfect rack of lamb, New Zealand, already shrink wrapped (132F)
3. Perfectly moist chicken, white meat or dark at different temperatures. If I plan to serve both, I do the dark meat first at a higher temperature.
4. The best lobster tail my wife ever had (I can't eat it). This requires taking the meat out of the shell first. About 20 min.
5. Eggs are very interesting. I first fill the baggy with water and then drop in the egg so that accidents are not catastrophic. Of course, this is NOT the method for meats and poultry.
I still have trouble with steak, so make it restaurant-style, which means the hot pan first, the oven next. Filet mignon might work better for me cooked sous-vide.
Some of America's greatest chefs cook sous-vide in commercial water ovens. You'd be surprised.
A cuisinart panini press lets a user sear both sides at once. Do NOT do this with fish, which will overcook in a flash.
7
Most of the comments here show ignorance of what sous vide cooking is and how it's done properly. I've been cooking with the sous vide for years with great results.
One needs to be aware of pasteurization temperatures and times in order to be safe. The USDA charts are for instant pasteurization. That is, the 165F recommended to chicken will pasteurize the meat if held at that temperature for seconds. You can also pasteurize meat at 126.1F as long as you cook for hours.
Sous vide is similar to slow cooking in a smoker. Different rules apply than for other methods.
Obviously, you can cook steak in a pan or on the grill with great results. With sous vide you get great results of a different type.
Don't knock it, unless you have knowledge and experience upon which to make a judgement.
18
We bought a Sous Vide Supreme Demi a few years ago. It’s the only way I will make steak or scallops. No guesswork at all. We use it for lots of other things too.
3
Ive had my Anova for a few years. We used it primarily when my son was a toddler as the texture of sous vide is pretty uniform for proteins. What I found was that technically the sous vide method cooked to degrees of perfection, but the protien or vegetable tasted like mush. A steak for example, cooked long enough at exactly 125 degrees will taste like mush despite the perfect temperature. For steaks there is something satisfying about having just a bit of chew in the muscle fibers.
Long story short, Ive abandoned the sousvide and worked on my manual technique. Ive adopted reverse sear (google it) using an instant read thermometer with terrific results. yes its slow, and exacting but not artificial when it comes to textures.
Dont get me wrong, there are magical things you can do with sous vide if you want to impress your guests, but its not for me.
8
Cooking food in plastic bags? I never let hot plastic come in contact with food. Is there a substitute or alternative?
23
There are reusable silicone bags, but I don’t love them.
However, at the low temperatures used for sous vide, freezer bags should present negligible risk.
1
@Plato Reusable silicone bags
Ok so just because the water is at 130 how do you know when the meat has reached that temp? Or is it one of those laws of thermodynamics things that I never learned?
3
@Evan Time, temperature, and thickness of meat charts. After a while, it's second nature.
1
@Paul Langer
Spot on Paul. While reading charts is a good start, it is easy to forget that all of cooking is as much art as science.
No two cuts of meat are identical, no two bunches of asparagus the same, no two bags of all purpose flour have the same characteristics. We must remember that pretty much all food we eat - meat, vegetables, fruits, grains - start as living things. And all living things have variations.
Recipes and charts are always good initial guidelines, but can never entirely replace the sense of smell, or taste. Can never replace experience.
The more you get into preparing your own food, the more you understand that a recipe is the diving board, not the dive.
Evan ... a sous-vide setup is like any other tool used to cook food - use it long enough, and you'll get a good feel for it - just as sooner or later a chef in a steakhouse can merely look at a steak on a grill and tell you with almost unerring accuracy whether it is medium or medium rare.
And with sous-vide it is fairly easy. You can undercook it, but you can't really overcook it. If a chart says cook x at 142F for two hours, and you're worried about undercooking, just leave it in for 2.5 or 3 hours. it will still never go above 142F.
3
“Time, temperature, and thickness of meat”?? Jeeze - the same three as any conventional method. So much for easy and exact.
I must be an old dog.
I like my steaks pan seared the best. Salt, pepper, and garlic minimum 1.75" or 2" thick even better. I take them out of refrigerator about a half hour before cooking and I am guaranteed to get a nice crispy crust and medium / medium rare. If the steaks are only 1.5" thick I cook them right out of the fridge, this helps to develop a crust before they overcook.
So I can't see how I can get that crispy crust if the temperature of the meat is already at 122 degrees and still be medium rare.
4
@mlb4ever
So the meat temperature from my understanding equilibriates with the water. For example if you have the water at 125 degrees and throw in a frozen steak, you will notice the temperature reading of your sous vide machine drop to perhaps 80 degrees. Then over the course of an hour or less the temperature comes back up to 125. When its 125 you know the meat temperature is 125. If you have an 8 lb piece of pork shoulder frozen it will take more time than a 4 ounce Filet.
1
@mlb4ever
Firstly, when you cook on a grill only the center of the steak is 122. The outer portions are significantly hotter. The crust is easily 150. This is why the steak has a band of gray on top an bottom and is pink in the middle. When you sous-vide the entire piece of meat is exactly 122 (no gray). It can't get any hotter because the water bath is never higher. It takes about 1.5-2 hours for a 1.5" thick steak to be 122 throughout. Dry it off and sear both sides quickly and there is almost no gray band. A caste iron pan with a little oil superheated gives a restaurant quality crust. It's great for steaks, fish, and boneless skinless chicken breasts.
2
Sous vide has been great for pork for me.
I make a dish that involves cubes of pork, and cooking those used to be by far the worst part of the prep. It was labor intensive, left bits stuck to the pan, and came out a bit tough. But you have to be careful with pork. You can't leave the centers pink as you can with beef.
Sous vide is another story. Yes, it takes much longer to cook, generally I let it go overnight, but _my_ time is minimal. I put the bag in the tub and I'm done. No supervision, no mess, and the meat comes out tender without risk because 138-140 is safe if you're talking 5+ hours where the center has reached that temperature.
It's like washing clothes by hand vs. a washing machine. Sure, the machine takes longer, but it's the machine's time, not yours.
On the safety issue: bacteria kill rates depend on temperature and time. The usual guidelines assume that the center of the food is only going to be at the target temperature (135-165 depending on the meat) for a few minutes. If you can safely keep the entire cut at that temperature for hours, you get the same sterilization effect eventually at lower temperatures.
7
I prefer to start and finish my ribeyes on the cast iron skillet. Sous-vide? No need.
9
What a delightful rhyme to end an insightful comment.
1
My brother gave me a sous vide for Christmas a couple of years ago and I love it. I can turn an inexpensive cut of beef into a roast as tender and even more flavorful than an expensive standing rib roast. Spare ribs were fall off the bone tender. Best of all I can do several packages at the same time and freeze for finishing with a quick sear in a pan on under a broiler.
3
I use an immersion circulator to cook eggs. Period.
Put food into plastic and HEAT IT UP? Then let it marinate in the plasticizers and other chemicals thus released? Gross.
It's ironic that many of the very people who espouse locavorism and organic farming think nothing of cooking those foods in a cocktail of endocrine disruptors.
And, looking at the photo of Mr. Springfield pulling a tiny bag out of a giant vat of water, I can't help cluck disapprovingly at the water of water and energy.
44
What interested me in the Times this week was For No-Sweat Summer Cooking, Do It Sous Vide, because I love cooking and cooking for my family, and this article talked about cooking and about a barbecue that can cook many different things perfectly. Plus you don't need to be a chief to be able to cook with the Sous Vide.
1
I dunno. I cook a lot, and have found that most gadgets, including chopping/slicing machines, are unnecessary when a sharp knife and a good instant thermometer are around. I have no criticism of folks who use gadgets, but the old school cooking has worked for me even when doing a dinner party of twenty. Also, cooking in plastic bags? I realize there is no definitive literature on possible bad "stuff" from using plastic. But I'll stick with my stove, grill and pizza oven. But it does sound cool (or evenly hot)
10
@Tom I was just like you, but I use the sous-vide 3-4 times a week now.
5
I've never heard of sous vide, and find this article confusing. Other than the word 'wand', I don't get a sense of what is being talked about. A precise description, perhaps a photo, would have been appreciated.
And cooking in a plastic bag? Really? No thanks. There are enough plastic bags in the world, to put it mildly, and I don't need more of whatever might be in them these days leaching into my food.
49
It's not complicated. You put your food in a plastic bag, and dunk it before sealing to force out the air. Then you put the bag in a tub with water. The circulator keeps the water at a constant temperature and moving. It's really very effective.
As far as the fears you express about plastic, they're not based on anything real.
12
You don’t think her fears about ingesting leached chemicals from plastic is real?
Do you think she made it up to stop big sous vide???
3
@Gus Sure, more plastic than fish in the ocean by weight, 2050. Nothing real.
3
In a time when everyone should be cutting down on the use of plastic, cooking sous vide seems irresponsible and wasteful. Are there alternatives to plastic? If so you guys should list and recommend.
44
@Tom Hunter You can use reusable silicone bags.
2
@Tom Hunter
The bags are reusable. For more information on sous vide, google is your friend the web is full of information on it. www.seriouseats.com is a good start
1
@Tom Hunter Reusable silicone bags
Heat grill to 400 degrees:
Bring a 1" sirloin, rib, strip or t-bone, to room temp; Oil the grill, slap on the steal, close the cover grill three minutes, turn and grill for three more and done! Nice, juicy and rare.
47
Two things. First, there seems to be a lot of dishonesty, or at least deliberate unclarity, about cooking temperatures. "Safe" recommendations are wildly at odds with the traditional levels of doneness people have long been comfortable with--so much so that we now always have to read and ignore those menu warnings about underdone meat. What's the policy in newspapers? Are we talking mostly about making food delicious or about making it safe? Is there a public responsibility issue at play? It would help if this were clear. Second, sous vide in restaurants always tastes like the steak just took its girdle off--not quite right. If you throw something on the grill AFTER it's been cooking for an hour, even at very low temperature, it's not going to char properly.
8
@David McConnell
Here's the deal with temperatures. It's recommended that we cook our chicken breasts to 160-165, right? This is predicated on the idea that you just reach this amount for a short period of time -- a few minutes. When you sous vide, you can cook to lower tempertures becasue you hold the meat at that temp for a long long time. So I cook my chicken breasts to 148 which results in juicier and more tender chicken. So 148 degrees for 30 minutes degrades and kills all bacteria just the same as 160 for a few minutes...
Using this for several years now. Threw away the outdoor grill. Steaks at 125-127 degrees for 2hrs . Dry, place in fridge for 1 hour to dry.
Why fridge? dries the outside, bringing the heated juices inwards. That way when you sear, no water to boil the outer layer. You can check the difference when you slice: very very thin grey layer between the charred exterior and the pink/red interior.
It takes time sure, but even if you forget and leave it longer the steak won't overcook (it wont go over the set temperature).
Of course this defeats the annual summer suspense ritual of whether the grill is too hot, the lid is closed, the steak is a burnt/boiled offering.
In short, if you want to end the 'secret technique' of barbecuing as done by Baalbeck temple priests , sous vide will do that for you.
Ends 'mansplaining' too
12
If you understand the "hand" method of gauging the rarity of steaks, that's all you need to know. The last thing one with limited space requires is a sous vide cluttering up a shelf/drawer.
2
@Mare my husband is a grill master. He worked the grill in a steak joint when he was young and know his craft. I bought a sous-vide wand 2 years ago and we’ve never looked back. There’s no drawback of taking the guess work out of cooking an expensive cut of meat, no matter how proficient you are. As far as cluttering up the kitchen the model we bought is streamlined and attractive and it slips into a drawer quite easily.
24
@Mare
You trust a 2+ inch dried aged ribeye to the hand method?
I wish I had that much money to not worry about.
A Thermopen is your friend.
I’ve had two friends rave about the sous vide . I watched them both as they showed me how ‘simple’ it was to use. Both meals took forever and, worse, required the use of a plastic bag. Great. More plastic in the environment. Reminds me of another environmental nightmare- the Keurig machine.
99
@ June Stuttgart
Sous-vide, instant pot, and all other kitchen gadgets, either manually or laser-controlled, frighten me. I am for simplicity in maintaining excellence in cooking.
Neither Marie-Antoine Carême, nor George Auguste Escoffier had any of the modern instruments.
10
There are food grade silicone bags available that can be reused.
19
@June the type of plastic used is none reactive with foods. You should learn that plastic is a large family of organic chemical compounds instead of spreading fear by implying the plastic does something to the food.
10
Tenderloins are pricey but not that tasty of true beef flavor, but particularly good for the elderly teeth like mine.
1
Something tells me that steak in the picture was not cooked sous vede method, someone was actually arguing with me that you haven't had a steak until it's cooked that way, but, it takes an hour so, so how do you get the slight chair or burn on it like in the picture, after an hour or more you then have to put it on the grill or pan and cook it again? Who cooks a steak for more than an hour? I'll stick with my oven, don't even use the broiler, 350 degrees, rub olive oil, salt and pepper and with 20 minutes or so (depending on how rare you like it) you have a meal, instead of 60-70 minutes waiting for a steak to reach so called perfection in a plastic bag
8
@ShirleyW pretty obvious, I think, but better tasting
I've used my Anova sous vide thing a few times, but the real downer is having to plan so far a head for the low and slow cook times. (Three hours for a steak I can cook in less than 20 minutes?!) And I don't like the idea of letting the thing work while I go run a few errands. (Admittedly, it took me a while to accept that my Crockpot would be fine on its own, too.)
I've gotten to be a good enough cook that sous vide's predictability is not that much of an advantage compared to putting food on the table in 45 minutes from start to finish.
11
Warning, I am far from being a good cook.
I microwave steaks and chops for a few minutes before frying them, so that I can get the insides warm without worrying about burning the outside. -- by the way, I am not a rare meat aficionado.
Now feel free to tell me why this is I crazy. :P
2
@ PaulSFO San Francisco
Do not agonize about pre-microwaving your steaks, if you like it, then keep doing it. No one is perfect. :-))
@PaulSFO
DOS is also a viable operating system for computers
And yet more single-use plastic for the world.
57
@troyehill It doesn't have to be single use. You can reuse the bags.
6
@troyehill
A vacuum glass sous vide container could be the next unicorn business
We’ve used Sous vide for 3-4 years and love love love it. Meat always comes out perfect and you never have to worry when everyone is going to get home for dinner. Our guests are always so impressed
10
Don’t get the issue with rare steaks on the grill. We grill our 1-1/2 inch steaks over hot flame 5 min / 4 min and they turn out consistent for us every time. For our neanderthal friends we drop to 4 / 3 min. Plus if you have to brown separately with more heat, what’s the point?? And what’s the deal with the “semi-accurate” food thermometer? Get a Thermapen. It’s accurate to 0.7 degrees in under 3 seconds. The thermostat in your new water cooker is less accurate. And you can use the thermometer for all your meat cooking. All in all, incredibly first world issues.
16
Don’t waste money on the low end sous vide options. Just stick a ziploc bag with your meat/fish a cool box filled with hot water and leave in a sunny place if you want to try this.
If you want to do something better buy a proper machine.
The wands are pointless garbage
1
Now I know why my restaurant steaks are always overcooked. Growing up in Nebraska rare was cold on the inside, medium rare was cool on the inside. 132 degrees would have been medium at best; if it was slightly pink it was medium well done.
2
I love to cook but the idea of cooking my food for hours in heated plastic does not appeal to me. Has anybody really investigated contamination issues?
39
Another use for a plastic bag. Are they biodegradable? Reusable? Easy to clean? Will anyone bother to try to reuse them?
60
@Melissa
Forget the vacuum seal stuff, use and reuse a normal sandwich bag (and no point buying one of those silly wands).
2
You can get perfectly cooked steaks using the reverse sear method of cooking. Very easy and no extra equipment needed except temp probe. Look up the details at serious eats.com.
4
Not getting enough chemical contamination in your diet? Try sous vide and enrich your food with vitamin BPA!
Gimme a break. This is one kitchen fad I hope fades quickly.
77
Please point out the vacuum sealer bag on the market today that contains BPA.
Go ahead, we’ll all wait.
32
Steve M- Feel free to substitute in whichever chemical compound you prefer to leach from hot plastic bags into your food. Companies may have removed BPA from food grade plastics but how many years of data do we have on the safety of those alternate chemicals? I’ll take my food cooked without plastic, thanks.
54
I’m with you on the fad part. I’ve tried it twice and each time I was underwhelmed in terms of flavor and texture not to mention how long it took. Back to a BBQ for me me (or cost iron).
2
I’m intrigued; however, my fear of cooking or heating food in plastic makes me shy away from this. Are there non-plastic options?
42
Try it, perfect steaks and chops every time.
Use your current recipes.
Finish on cast iron or on the grill.
Add spices or not.
The meat is perfect, nothing over cooked or undercooked.
Try it.
12
I'm going to rain on the sous vide parade here. A year ago or so I listened to a Splendid Table podcast and was moved by all the raving by the hosts to buy a Joule Sous Vide machine for about $200. When it arrived I was annoyed to discover that it could only be operated using an app installed on a cellphone. I had plenty of trouble getting it to establish a connection and I wasn't thrilled with the results on my New York strip steak which I thought came out rather rubbery and did not have the concentration of flavor I expected from the podcast. I was so disappointed I sent it back for a refund. Gimme a hot pan, a good ventilator and an oven to finish and I can turn out a perfect, tender steak every time.
24
I had a bad nonstick pan once, so now I only cook by roasting meat on my knife over an open fire.
I’ve personally had very good luck with Anova. Simple to use, powerful enough to heat and hold a very large amount of water (yesterday I cooked 8 lbs of tri tip for a party in an 8L container).
If you’re serious about cooking good food, don’t toss out an entire method of preparation due to one faulty tool.
19
I never had heard of sous vide cooking until I installed a new steam convection oven in my kitchen last year. The oven included a sous vide cooking mode. I tried it and loved it. The results with meat and vegetables were tremendous. The results were so great that I bought a second low-cost immersion cooker to be able to cook different things at different temperatures. The comment of others that deride the use of sous vide have likely never tried it because once you do, you never go back. Great article!
19
For me the joy of cooking is in experimenting and mastering and tweaking and getting different, more interesting results each time. Why not have Amazon drone-drop your robot-cooked steak onto your guests' plates and save the fuel and time? Does not the use of sous vide call for applying Occam's Razor - KISS? Enjoy!
4
The article’s suggestion to set the sous vide to 122 for rare steak is a potentially dangerous recommendation. It may be safe if cooking a thin piece for about an hour, but the minimum safe temperature for longer periods using sous vide is 130. Below that leads to the proliferation of bacteria.
13
@Michael James
Cooking sous vide, even at low temperatures, is done for hours. This pasteurizes the food. I make sous-vide "raw" eggs by cooking at 135 °F (57 °C) for 75 min (or even longer). This is essentially what USDA recommends for commercially pasteurized eggs. I can also cook chicken and pork "medium rare" if I want to because they are pasteurized.
7
Agreed except I think the safe temperature is 131F
1
Poor man's sous-vide: set your oven to 200 degrees (most ovens will settle in around 135) and leave your meat there, rotating every 20 minutes. Will take longer but good way to test out.
I usually cook my roast chicken by cooking at 500 degrees to crisp the oiled skin for ten minutes and turning the heat off and letting the Chicken sit in the heat for 20 to 25 minutes.
11
@kj
Yes! my favorite way to roast chicken. This is the Thomas Keller recipe. Salt, pepper (perhaps some sprigs of thyme for style points) and ultra high heat. Fries the chicken from the inside out. Totally moist.
Also the "reverse sear" in the oven for steaks. Tried and true.
If you work on your old fashioned techniques, you can create some pretty amazing meals.
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You don’t need a 1,000-degree pizza oven or a grill to give a nice finish and taste to the outside of a sous-vide-cooked steak.
A regular fry pan heated to 400-450 degrees will do the trick; and there are not-so-expensive fry pans with grill ridges built into them (or cook-top inserts) that will impart that grill-line look that so many people like.
One of the nice things about not having to use a separate grill is that you don’t have to undertake the nasty task of cleaning it. Also, as noted in a recent NYT article, grilling has some unhealthy aspects that are not entirely avoidable.
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