Let’s talk about sous vide
What is it and what can you do with it?
This is not a magic wand that turns an arbitrary selection of foods into a gastronomic orgasm without any effort, as many think. It is simply a cooking method in which the food is brought to a set temperature using circulating hot water. At the same time, products are most often placed in special bags, the main purpose of which is to ensure maximum contact of products with water, without allowing it to penetrate inside. What’s the trick here? Those of you who diligently attended school, and did not skip, remember from the school physics course that water has a better thermal conductivity than air. During cooking, it is important to go through the temperature range as quickly as possible at which bacteria multiply most actively (70 – 90F). Therefore, we try to remove air as much as possible.
What is the advantage of this cooking method?
Roughly speaking, your food is evenly heated throughout its thickness. What follows from this:
- – unlike all other types of cooking, the temperature will be the same on the surface and inside
- – the temperature will NEVER exceed the set amount
- – you can cook at a lower temperature (more on this separately below)
- – you can prepare pre-frozen prepackaged portions, it just takes longer
- – you can cook cheaper and leaner cuts of meat and get the result comparable in taste to more expensive products
- – the liquid released during cooking remains in the bag and you can use it for sauces
- – you can cook several dishes at the same time
- – you can plan your time in advance (for example, prepare a side dish while the meat is cooking)
- – you can prepare many servings in advance and keep them in the refrigerator for longer than raw foods
Any downsides?
I only know 2, and they’re not really that bad.
- – this method takes more time (for some dishes – much more), so you need to plan in advance
- – products from sous vide come out, roughly speaking, boiled, so some other processing is required (grill, frying pan, baking, BBQ, etc.)
Is it safe?
Two points are usually discussed: plastic bags and cooking temperature. About bags, I can only say that BPA free bags are considered safe at temperatures below the boiling point of water. Plus, silicone containers have now appeared. Further – “think for yourself, decide for yourself.” I would like to dwell on temperature in detail. In my opinion, the main advantage of sous vide is the ability to cook at a lower temperature without risk to health. It should be remembered here that pasteurization is a function not only of temperature, but also of time. That is, microbes die both when exposed to high temperatures for a short time, and when exposed to lower temperatures for a longer time. There are so-called Baldwin temperature tables, where the scientific principle is described in detail and the pasteurization temperatures and times for the main products are given. Once the food has been pasteurized, it can be stored in the refrigerator for a long time, provided the outer packaging is intact. For example, I make 7-9 steaks at once and put the uneaten ones in the refrigerator right in the vacuum bag. They feel great after 2 weeks. I will say right away: do not be confused by the pink color of pork and chicken from the sous vide and the red liquid flowing out of the steak. This is NOT BLOOD, but meat juice! Myoglobin in muscle tissue changes color from red to gray when exposed to temperature. In sous vide the temperature is lower so the color remains pink. Yes, we are used to the fact that pork and chicken should not be pink. But in sous vide, provided that pasteurization has come (that is, enough time has passed), this is not required and this is its beauty.
What are the basic principles of sous vide?
- – remove air as much as possible so that your package is completely immersed in water
- – temperature aka readiness indicator
- – time (after reaching a safe temperature) aka softness indicator
What does this mean in practice?
The fact that you can throw your steaks into the water, leaving in the morning for work and in the evening spend 5 minutes cooking dinner, frying them for a minute on each side, heating the side dish and mixing the salad. During this time, nothing will happen to the steak. It will reach the pasteurization temperature in 1-2 hours (depending on the thickness of the piece) and will keep the temperature you set until you return home. More specifically, the proteins and collagen of connective and muscle tissue in a piece of meat are denatured by temperature over time. That is, the meat becomes softer. Some of the sous vide techniques are based on this. But, in the case of steak, you will not feel the difference because the temperature is not high enough and even 8 hours is not enough time.
What do you need to cook in sous vide?
1. The device itself (duh)
The device, as I said, serves to heat water to a predetermined temperature and its forced circulation. Therefore, calibration accuracy, heating element power and reliability are important characteristics. Any gadgets like Bluetooth and WiFi are completely useless in my opinion. I usually recommend buying some well-known brands like Anova or Joule as the first sous vide for one simple reason – reliability and customer service. Moreover, they are often on sale for a decent price. Although now they say that Anova customer support is much worse. I have Anova for $90 and a less known brand one for $30. Both work equally well, God bless them! There are all sorts of perverts who believe that sous vide can be done in the oven, on the stove or in the Instant Pot, but we angrily brush aside their baseless innuendo!
2. Container for water (preferably with a lid)
Its main function is to be large enough for your food and have some extra space so that water can circulate freely around. Well, it is desirable to have at least minimal thermal insulation so that the sous vide does not consume a lot of electricity. At first, a simple saucepan will work, but trust the old souvideur, appetite comes with eating. I have a 12 gallon restaurant food grade plastic container with a lid in which I cut a hole for the sous vide myself. The most advanced use coolers. On Amazon, Lipavi containers are sold in various sizes with lids for many well-known sous vide brands.
3. Plastic bags
Freezer ziplocs are fine at first. The air is removed from them using a straw or displacement method (YouTube it). But soon you will want more because ziplocks are small enough and not very suitable for long-term storage. Then you buy a vacuum sealer, like FoodSaver, and plastic bags to it. I buy rolls 8×50 and 11×50 from Amazon. Comes out pretty cheap. The next step is chamber vacuum sealer, but it’s pretty expensive. Alternative options: silicone bags and glass jars. Silicone bags, in my opinion, have the same disadvantages as ziplocks. Tins are great for infused alcohol, custards, sauces, desserts.
4. Sous vide rack (optional)
As I said, one of the prerequisites is good water circulation. So when stuffing a full container of steaks, it is advisable to have some space between them. On Amazon, Lipavi racks are sold, which are restaurant grade, timeless, stainless and cost like sous vide itself. I’ll tell you a secret: $6 IKEA pot rack works just as well(I used one for a year and had no issues).
What are the main steps?
1. Prepare food
In my opinion, marinating is a waste of time, since only salt penetrates deep enough into your conditional piece of meat during marinating. Exceptions are vinegar and other denaturing ingredients, which are designed to soften and give the final product a “juicy” feel. But with sous vide, the products are already soft and juicy due to the lower cooking temperature. So you will get all the same result by treating the surface of the product. Moreover, sous vide implies some kind of subsequent “conditioning”. Therefore, I only salt my products before sous vide. I will also add about fresh garlic. No matter how you feel about pickles, fresh garlic in a sous vide bag is a big NO-NO! Because botulism is no joke.
2. Place food in bags and remove air
3. Choose appropriate temperature
Baldwin will help you, but in general, temperature is a personal matter. Someone loves rare, someone – well done. Experiment and find out for yourself!
4. Wait until the water reaches the set temperature and place the food in the water
As I said, once the pasteurization temperature is reached, time is no longer critical. The best way to know readiness is by touch. I am not kidding! Start at the time indicated in the recipe. As you gain experience, you will learn to determine the time yourself. Usually a spread of 3-8 hours will not affect your product in any way. The exceptions are dishes where you want to soften the product, such as boiled pork, tongue or ribs. The time is of great importance and it can take up to 72 hours.
Next comes finishing the product. It is important here what end result you are trying to achieve:
– If you do not plan to consume your dish right away, then you need to quickly cool it to a temperature below 60F. The easiest way to do this is with an ice water bath. Then store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks without breaking the packaging (that is, right in a plastic bag). When you’re ready to eat, all you need to do is bring the dish to serving temperature. A sous vide, grill, frying pan, smokehouse, oven, etc. are suitable for this. I put my steaks straight from the refrigerator back into sous vide in the same bag for 40 minutes, and then on a hot skillet.
– If you plan to consume your food immediately and it is a temperature sensitive food, then it should be quickly cooled. The point is that the temperature will continue to rise during subsequent processing, but you do not want it to rise above the desired temperature. An example is the steaks. Place them in an ice water bath for a couple of minutes, then fry.
– if you are not too worried about the final temperature, then you can proceed directly to the final stage
5. Finshing the product
Remove food from the bag. Wipe dry with paper towels. You now have food that has the same temperature throughout its thickness and is much juicier than the same food brought to the same core temperature with any other cooking method. Now only imagination is your limit. You can treat the surface with any spice of your choice and use a grill, skillet, smoker, oven, etc.
Some food examples (all temperatures and times are approximate):
- – perfect steaks (129 – 132F x 3-8 hours for medium rare) basic principle:
- low and slow then hot and fast
- – juicy chicken (especially the breast) 135f x 4h + grill / broil to the crust
- – perfect lamb (especially the leg) 142f x 8h + grill / broil to the crust
- – boiled pork 150f x 12-24h + grill / broil to a crust
- – beef tongue 158f x 24h
- – liver pate 140f x 8h
- – ribs 150f x 24h + grill / broil to a crust
- – fish 127f x 1h + frying pan
- – infused vodka 150f x 3h
Recent Comments