Eli5: What’s so special about sous vide cooking that can’t be done via other cooking methods?
In: 3670
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned is that things…happen when meat is held at an elevated temperature for an extended period of time. Lots of flavorful but tough cuts become flavorful and soft.
I sous vide beef ribs at 132F for 3-4 days and the result is a beef rib you can cut with a fork. It’s soft like a braised beef rib, but firmer and less stringy. Ever de-boned a chicken thigh with just your index finger? Cook one at 158F for more than 24 hours and you can try it yourself.
A couple of notes on long sous vide:
1. Salt is your friend. Don’t oversalt, but add what you would normally add to the dish.
2. You must be above the pasteurization temperature.
3. Avoid things that bacteria would use for food. Bacteria will die eventually, but they might reproduce enough to change the flavor. Salt is really the only thing that penetrates over time anyways, the rest can be added later.
It helps prevent overcooking. Take a steak, you want a final temp inside of 130°F or so. If you use a grill at 500°F then by the time the center gets to 130 every other bit is overcooked. You could cook it in 130 degree air, but that would just make jerky as it will dry it out, plus air would take many hours.
Sous vide will go faster and prevent it from drying out, plus it will be the same temp throughout. So for a steak you just finish it with a quick search and you get very even cooking. Plus, cooking in a sealed bag keeps the juices in.
There are other benefits too. Cooking chicken to 140 is safe if you hold it there for a long time and the long times tend to make it softer. In general slow cooking let’s you cook to lower temps, similar to cooking in a smoker, but it doesn’t dry out.
Food safety.
If you cook poultry, the government will tell you to cook it to 165 degrees so that any bacteria are safe. The problem is, white meat cooked to 165 is dry.
The government actually publishes a set of tables of how long you need to hold food at a specific temperature before it is safe.
Sous Vide lets you use that as a cooking method. You can cook the white meat for a couple of hours at 145 degrees, and it will be safe to eat, and far, far better than anything cooked to 165.
And you can cook the dark meat 165 degrees because that is what will break down the connective tissue. So, dark meat overnight at 165 for 12 hours, in the morning turn it down to 144 and do the white meat for 2 hours.
Water conducts heat really well.
Having a lot of water relative to food allows temperature to be really stable.
A sous vide machine slowly heats up the water and uses a thermostat to control the temp precisely.
Result is you can cook things up to a certain point without overcooking. Important for stuff like eggs and fish.
No matter how uneven the cut, the whole thing will be cooked to the same temp. Also it’s almost impossible to overcook.
The fact that you will never over cook a steak or roast. Cheaper cuts are a lot better when done sous vide.
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned is that things…happen when meat is held at an elevated temperature for an extended period of time. Lots of flavorful but tough cuts become flavorful and soft.
I sous vide beef ribs at 132F for 3-4 days and the result is a beef rib you can cut with a fork. It’s soft like a braised beef rib, but firmer and less stringy. Ever de-boned a chicken thigh with just your index finger? Cook one at 158F for more than 24 hours and you can try it yourself.
A couple of notes on long sous vide:
1. Salt is your friend. Don’t oversalt, but add what you would normally add to the dish.
2. You must be above the pasteurization temperature.
3. Avoid things that bacteria would use for food. Bacteria will die eventually, but they might reproduce enough to change the flavor. Salt is really the only thing that penetrates over time anyways, the rest can be added later.
Food safety.
If you cook poultry, the government will tell you to cook it to 165 degrees so that any bacteria are safe. The problem is, white meat cooked to 165 is dry.
The government actually publishes a set of tables of how long you need to hold food at a specific temperature before it is safe.
Sous Vide lets you use that as a cooking method. You can cook the white meat for a couple of hours at 145 degrees, and it will be safe to eat, and far, far better than anything cooked to 165.
And you can cook the dark meat 165 degrees because that is what will break down the connective tissue. So, dark meat overnight at 165 for 12 hours, in the morning turn it down to 144 and do the white meat for 2 hours.
Water conducts heat really well.
Having a lot of water relative to food allows temperature to be really stable.
A sous vide machine slowly heats up the water and uses a thermostat to control the temp precisely.
Result is you can cook things up to a certain point without overcooking. Important for stuff like eggs and fish.
The fact that you will never over cook a steak or roast. Cheaper cuts are a lot better when done sous vide.
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