Eli5: What’s so special about sous vide cooking that can’t be done via other cooking methods?
In: 3670
One big thing people haven’t mentioned is pasteurization.
Pasteurization is based on both time and temperature. For something like beef, 1 second at 160°F will do it, but you can also do 1 minute at 150°F, 12 minutes at 140°F, or 112 minutes at 130°F. Only psychopaths want their steak cooked to 160°F (that’s very well done), and traditional cooking methods can’t hold the center of the meat at a certain temperature for long periods of time without overcooking the outside, but you can easily sous-vide a 1″ thick steak at 135°F for two hours, and in that time the center will have enough time to come up to temperature and be completely pasteurized.
You can also use a sous-vide machine to pasteurize whole eggs without cooking them (hold them at 135°F for 75 minutes), and you can then use them just as you would use raw eggs.
For most people that doesn’t matter, as the risk from eating a medium-rare steak is quite minimal and salmonella rates in eggs are quite low these days. However, for people with compromised immune systems or pregnant women, sous vide can allow them to eat rare-overcooked steaks, non-overcooked fish, sunny-side-up eggs, or homemade mayo.
See https://douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Safety for more info.
One big thing people haven’t mentioned is pasteurization.
Pasteurization is based on both time and temperature. For something like beef, 1 second at 160°F will do it, but you can also do 1 minute at 150°F, 12 minutes at 140°F, or 112 minutes at 130°F. Only psychopaths want their steak cooked to 160°F (that’s very well done), and traditional cooking methods can’t hold the center of the meat at a certain temperature for long periods of time without overcooking the outside, but you can easily sous-vide a 1″ thick steak at 135°F for two hours, and in that time the center will have enough time to come up to temperature and be completely pasteurized.
You can also use a sous-vide machine to pasteurize whole eggs without cooking them (hold them at 135°F for 75 minutes), and you can then use them just as you would use raw eggs.
For most people that doesn’t matter, as the risk from eating a medium-rare steak is quite minimal and salmonella rates in eggs are quite low these days. However, for people with compromised immune systems or pregnant women, sous vide can allow them to eat rare-overcooked steaks, non-overcooked fish, sunny-side-up eggs, or homemade mayo.
See https://douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Safety for more info.
I think it is less “What can sous vide do that other methods can’t do” and more “sous vide does these things better than any other method” The gentle cooking process allows for better moisture retention, more control over the exact doneness of a dish, better infusion of flavours from in-bag seasoning. You can do all of these things on the stove top or in the oven, but the results will be better, more predictable, and more accurate with sous vide cooking. You can draw a straight line with just a pen, but your line will be straighter and exactly the length you want if you use a ruler as well.
I think it is less “What can sous vide do that other methods can’t do” and more “sous vide does these things better than any other method” The gentle cooking process allows for better moisture retention, more control over the exact doneness of a dish, better infusion of flavours from in-bag seasoning. You can do all of these things on the stove top or in the oven, but the results will be better, more predictable, and more accurate with sous vide cooking. You can draw a straight line with just a pen, but your line will be straighter and exactly the length you want if you use a ruler as well.
Am I the only one who is concerned about slow cooking food inside a fucking plastic bag? Like I’m sure we all get enough microplastic contamination than is healthy. This method of cooking is just begging for further plastic ingestion.
Edit: can you people stop responding with “these bags are safe, you’re fear mongering etc”? It’s been proven countless times without a reasonable doubt that ALL plastic fucking leeches, some much more than others of course. There is no argument here. If I can help it, I am going to try to minimize how much plastic my food comes into contact with.
Am I the only one who is concerned about slow cooking food inside a fucking plastic bag? Like I’m sure we all get enough microplastic contamination than is healthy. This method of cooking is just begging for further plastic ingestion.
Edit: can you people stop responding with “these bags are safe, you’re fear mongering etc”? It’s been proven countless times without a reasonable doubt that ALL plastic fucking leeches, some much more than others of course. There is no argument here. If I can help it, I am going to try to minimize how much plastic my food comes into contact with.
It’s not that you can’t achieve what sous vide achieves via other cooking methods, but that sous vide makes it trivially easy to get perfect results every time. It reduces what was formerly only achievable by the development of observation, technique, and experience, down to setting numbers on a machine that does it perfectly.
If you want to make a perfect steak, or a perfectly soft-cooked custard, or perfectly tender and completely cooked through chicken breast, or ribs that are fall-off-the-bone tender, all you need with sous vide is the temperature to set the machine to and the amount of time to leave the meat in the bath. The sous vide cooker makes the entire repertoire of proteins as easy to cook to perfection as knowing two numbers. To do the same using old-school methods, you’d have to perfect a whole host of methods and techniques.
It’s not that you can’t achieve what sous vide achieves via other cooking methods, but that sous vide makes it trivially easy to get perfect results every time. It reduces what was formerly only achievable by the development of observation, technique, and experience, down to setting numbers on a machine that does it perfectly.
If you want to make a perfect steak, or a perfectly soft-cooked custard, or perfectly tender and completely cooked through chicken breast, or ribs that are fall-off-the-bone tender, all you need with sous vide is the temperature to set the machine to and the amount of time to leave the meat in the bath. The sous vide cooker makes the entire repertoire of proteins as easy to cook to perfection as knowing two numbers. To do the same using old-school methods, you’d have to perfect a whole host of methods and techniques.
You know when you cook on a grill and you can see the drips of fat and juice coming off of a steak into the fire and each time it goes TSSSSS. Sous Vide doesn’t let that juice drip anywhere.
You know when you cook on a grill and you can see the drips of fat and juice coming off of a steak into the fire and each time it goes TSSSSS. Sous Vide doesn’t let that juice drip anywhere.
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