Sous vide cooking has revolutionized the food industry by enabling you to prepare precise, restaurant-caliber meals in the convenience of your own home. The article demystifies sous vide by describing its meaning, history, science, and amazing advantages for your kitchen. Discover how sous vide may improve your cooking abilities and transform how you eat at home by exploring this culinary trip.
What is sous vide cooking?
The term “sous vide,” which translates to “under vacuum” in French, describes how food is prepared for cooking. Ingredients are put in a temperature-controlled water bath with a circulator after being enclosed in a protected vacuum-sealed bag.
History
Sous vide cooking is distinguished by low-temperature cooking, a longer cooking time than traditional cooking, a container isolating food from its heating environment (such as a plastic bag), and a pressured enclosure utilizing a full or partial vacuum.
Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, published the first account of low-temperature cooking in 1799. He experimented to see whether he could roast meat in a device he had built to dry potatoes, using air as the heat-transfer medium. The beef was, in Thompson’s words, “Not merely eatable, but perfectly done, and most singularly well-tasted.”
American and French engineers created a method for industrial food preservation in the middle of the 1960s that involves preparing food under pressure while using heat or without it. Like Rumford, the researchers discovered that the food’s flavor and texture had much improved. As this technique gained popularity, it was frequently referred to as “cracking” to apply pressure to food by vacuum sealing. Even without cooking, the pressure significantly intensified the taste of fruits.
French chef Georges Pralus used the technique in 1974 at the Pierre and Michel Troisgros Restaurant in Roanne, France. He found that this method of cooking foie gras preserved its natural look, prevented excessive fat loss, and improved the texture.
Bruno Goussault, the French chief scientist of Cuisine Solutions, a food company situated in Sterling, Virginia, is another pioneer in the sous vide technique. He founded the service division of Cuisine Solutions, Centre de Recherche et d’Études pour l’Alimentation (CREA), in 1991. He established a reputation for instructing elite chefs in the technique as a result of his study on the effects of temperature on diverse meals through CREA. He established the guidelines for temperatures and cooking times for various dishes.
In the 1970s, Goussault and Pralus individually developed the sous vide technique before joining forces. Goussault was a pioneer in combining low-temperature cooking and vacuum sealing. Pralus, who is regarded as the inventor of contemporary sous vide, used greater temps.
How does sous vide cooking work?
The process of sous vide cooking is as follows:
- Preparation – Food products are prepared, seasoned, and then put in a bag that is vacuum-sealed. This might include everything from veggies and eggs to steaks and chicken breasts.
- Vacuum sealing – The bag is closed to exclude air, enclosing the food in an airtight atmosphere. The food’s quality must be maintained during this process to keep it from floating in the water bath.
- Water Bath – The water bath, which is precisely heated to the proper cooking temperature, is then used to submerge the sealed bag. Depending on the dish being cooked, the temperature is often lower than what is used in conventional cooking, frequently ranging from 120°F (49°C) to 185°F (85°C).
- Precision Cooking – The water temperature is kept constant by the immersion circulator or sous vide equipment, which also circulates the water to provide a uniform heat distribution. The food is cooked precisely to the appropriate level of doneness thanks to the precision cooking, which also prevents overcooking.
- Cooking Time – Because sous vide cooking softly and uniformly cooks the food, it often takes longer than standard techniques. Cooking times vary depending on the food’s thickness and kind, although they are often longer than with conventional techniques.
- Finishing touch – After cooking in the sous vide bath, the meal might not have received the customary sear or browning that adds taste and texture. The meal is rapidly seared, grilled, or broiled to finish it off and preserve the delicious within while forming a delectable crust on the exterior.
All The Tools You Need for A Perfect Sous Vide
Immersion circulator
You will mostly need sous vide cookers, also known as immersion circulators, to get started. Today, a large range of cookers marketed expressly for sous vide are available; these cookers range in price and quality.
Large Food and Water Container with Temperature Resistance
Your specific cooking requirements will determine the size of your pot. It is beneficial to have several selections or to spend money on a bigger pot that can accommodate a range of meal sizes. You will use this pot as a water bath and to slowly cook your components. Remember that while cooking sous vide, you only need enough water to cover the components in your food bags.
Vacuum Sealer and Bags
It is simple to quickly remove all of the air from your bag with a vacuum sealer. However, some people use tiny, portable pumps. Today, many sous vide-approved bags are made specifically for security and safety during high-temperature water cooking. To save money and reduce plastic waste, some individuals utilize silicone reusable bags.
Safety
Food safety depends on both time and temperature; if sustained for a long enough period, a temperature that is often deemed insufficient to make food safe may become safe. For instance, some fish recipes for sous vide cooking call for temperatures below 55 °C (131 °F). Never consume unpasteurized food if your immune system is already impaired. Pregnant women who consume unpasteurized food put both themselves and their unborn children in danger, therefore they may decide to stay away from such dishes.
To prevent botulism poisoning, sous vide cooking must be done under strictly regulated circumstances because Clostridium botulinum bacteria can grow in food in the absence of oxygen and generate the lethal botulinum toxin. Food that has been heated and served within four hours is often regarded as safe, but meat that has been cooked longer to tenderize must reach a temperature of at least 55 °C (131 °F) within four hours and then be held there for a sufficient amount of time to pasteurize the flesh.
Although pasteurization eliminates the botulinum bacteria, it is still possible for resilient botulism spores to survive and reawaken after cooling, as is the case with many preserved foods, regardless of processing. Because of this, Baldwin’s book outlines exact “cook-chill” chilling conditions, preventing the growth, or spread of botulinum spores. Once pasteurized, food can be kept for up to two weeks in a vacuum-sealed container at a temperature of 3 °C (37 °F). Exposure to air also stops spore formation.
Limitations
Browning (Maillard reactions) only occurs at temperatures above the boiling point of water, which is a drawback of sous vide cooking. When cooking some forms of meat, like steak, browning is often regarded as producing tastes and a “crust” texture that is quite desirable. It is impossible to get the taste and texture created by browning simply using the sous vide method. Many times, chefs may grill or sear meats and other things on a very hot skillet to brown them before or after sous vide cooking. To simply affect the food’s surface and prevent overcooking the center, this secondary browning is done quickly and occasionally at a higher heat than is typically employed. Similar to sous vide cooking, fish skin may also be cooked at high temperatures to get crisp skin.
Conclusion
In conclusion, sous vide cooking has become a breakthrough in the culinary world, giving home chefs the ability to create meals with consistency and accuracy. You may take your home cooking to new heights by comprehending the fundamentals of this approach, including its definition, historical background, and scientific underpinnings. Your kitchen becomes a world of gastronomic possibilities with sous vide, guaranteeing that your meals are always prepared to perfection. Take advantage of sous vide’s simplicity and set out on a culinary voyage in the convenience of your own home.
