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.
Latest Answers