Most everyone knows that I hate single-taskers in the kitchen . . . those items in your utensil drawer or the cupboard that only do one thing. If your kitchen is anything like mine (i.e., galley style layout), you know that I have limited storage space and even greater limits on counter space. So, if I’m going to allow a single-tasker into my kitchen, it has to do an amazing job and it has to take up minimal space. (Example: the Norpro bean slicer; small in size, but an absolute champ at slicing haricot vert lengthwise.)
With that in mind, many of my friends were surprised to hear that, for a holiday present, I had purchased a sous vide cooker. “Sous vide” (pronounced “soo veed,” meaning “under vacuum”) is a cooking technique, long used by professionals, that is now enjoying a resurgence among foodies.
Standard cooking techniques generally use a heat element that is much hotter than the desired target temperature (think beef steak and a pan, where the target for the steak is around 129°F/59°C for medium rare, and the pan is usually closer to 300°F/150°C). Getting this right requires perfect timing, to get the meat off the heat at just the proper moment.
In contrast, the sous vide method uses what’s known as “equilibrium” cooking. You seal up the food in a vacuum bag or Ziploc, and put it into a water bath where the heat is set to your target temp (e.g., 129°F/59°C). The meat slowly cruises up to that target temp and goes no higher. No overcooking. No existential angst about when to pull the protein off the flame.
When I first learned about sous vide cooking, though, the only way to do it was to buy a large and very expensive water bath with integrated water circulation and temperature control. The idea of spending many hundreds of dollars on a big old tank to hold warm water . . . well, that was just not going to happen.
In the past couple of years, however, a new type of sous vide cooker has become popular. This is just a cylinder, about 3″ in diameter and maybe 24″ tall, that clamps to the side of whatever large vessel you want to use —pot, cooler, sink— which you then fill with water. These little jobbers are still single-taskers, but they’re much smaller, and you can get a good one for around $100–150, a price point that I will consider if it raises the quality of my cooking.
And oh, boy, does it ever!
During the holiday break, I had the opportunity to cook steaks, a standing rib roast, beef stock for pho, and a leg of lamb. While the stock was a disappointing experiment, the other foods I cooked were exceptional; an order of magnitude better than my previous best. The meats were cooked to perfection, and by adding herbs and spices to the bag beforehand, they were infused throughout with additional flavor. In addition, you no longer have that grey ring of slightly overdone meat surrounding the succulent pink portion; the meat was wonderfully pink from edge to edge.
Cooking sous vide isn’t without drawbacks. It takes more time. It requires more equipment. It usually has more steps, like a “finishing” step not needed by conventional methods.
- More time: A steak can take from one to two hours to cook, depending on your desired doneness, my standing rib roast was in the bath for six hours, and the leg of lamb cooked for 24 hours. On the flip side, once it’s done, you don’t have to pull it immediately; it can languish in the bath until you’re finished with the aperitifs and canapes. When you’re ready, it’s ready.
- More equipment: You’ll need a suitable vessel/pot for the water, plus the sous vide cooker, but since the food is sealed in a bag, there’s no clean-up to speak of. You’ll also need some sort of bag in which to seal the food. You can get an inexpensive vacuum sealer, but there are also reusable sous-vide-ready bags from Ziploc, complete with a hand pump to draw out the air. For low temp baths, regular ziploc-style bags work fine also.
- More steps: Along with dealing with bags, there’s usually a “finishing” step. A steak coming out of the bag after its long bath is rather grey on the outside (as you’d expect from cooking in a humid environment). To finish it, you must sear the outside, either in a pan, on a grill, or with a blowtorch, giving it not only that appetizing appearance, but also enhancing the flavors. However, finishing a steak is only a 30-second trip to the pan, and for a roast, it’s just a 5–15 minute visit to a high-temp oven.
For red meats, I don’t believe there’s a better method. For fish and tender poultry, this is a way to ensure you don’t overcook and dry out your entree. In addition, you can cook root veg gently, and you can store/freeze unused portions in the bag they cooked in, and reheat them (sous vide) later.
So, if you’re interested in buying one, here’s what I suggest you consider.
- The sous vide cooker I purchased was from Anova, and my friend has one from Joule. As cookers, both are highly accurate, keeping the bath to within 1°F or less. There are other brands, but these two are the highest rated, last I checked.
- I opted against the WiFi version and went for the less expensive Bluetooth-enabled version, instead (they connect to an app on your phone). The price difference was about $50, and if I were to do it again, I’d probably get the WiFi version, as it gives you more roaming ability around the house. I mean, why do I need a phone app to control the thing if I’m already in the room. With a WiFi version, I could be outside, and be alerted when the bath was preheated or when the food had completed its cook.
- And speaking of phone apps, within a week I’ve found that the Anova app is pretty well useless. The search function is pitiful (it won’t find “hard-boiled egg” because the recipe is for “Sous Vide Hard-Boiled Eggs” . . . ridiculous!) And its timer function doesn’t always work when the phone gets out of Bluetooth range. For my money, the Joule app is much more friendly and useful, as is their ChefSteps website, so right now I’m using the Joule app, even though it doesn’t connect to my Anova cooker.
Now, I’ll admit, this is not the sort of tool that everyone is going to want, and it won’t replace every method for cooking red meats. Devotees of the pit will still sit by their smokers, sip their beers, and tend their fires through the night to get that perfect ring and that delicious burnt end. Sous vide will never replace that. But for me, this was a true paradigm shift, and my days of pan-roasting and stovetop grilling are done.
Cheers.
k
I love it when people try new things! And the wine is the finishing touch:).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dear Kurt. When is your cookbook coming out?
LikeLiked by 1 person
This blog _is_ my cookbook. Enjoy!
LikeLike
I see what you did there. Thanks for the shout out to us pit jockeys. You will always be welcome to partake of my burnt offerings. I admit to being intrigued by the sous vide. Thanks to your thoughtful essay, I can’t dismiss the tool outright. It has good science behind it, and that appeals to me. I look forward to one day being treated to a perfectly boiled rib roast or leg o’lamb (not that I’m fishing for an invite). Cheers.
LikeLiked by 1 person