Sous Vide
For the longest time I saw foodie friends of mine raving about sous vide and kept waiting to see them abandon it. I’d never (knowingly) had anything prepared with sous vide, although I imagine I’ve had more things than I know in restaurants.
If you’re not familiar with it, sous vide is a method by which you cook your food — usually a protein — in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag, submerged in a hot water bath. Sous vide is French for “under vacuum.” The advantages to this are many.
Temperature Control
The lower temperature cooks the protein to that temperature and no more. If the water bath is 145°F (63°C) then the chicken will never heat up to 160°F like it would in a pan or in a 350°F oven. You could leave it in that bath for a fairly long time. You leave a chicken in a 350°F oven for too long and you’ll have a vaguely chicken-shaped briquette.
Contained Moisture and Flavor
Since the protein is in a vacuum-sealed bag, submerged in water, the moisture and flavor isn’t being cast off into the atmosphere. In short, it’s great.
Prep and Hold
As mentioned, since the meat won’t go above the temperature of the water, you could leave the meat in a bag in the water for a good amount of time. Just pull it out when needed, add a little color in a pan or on the grill, and serve it up.
My Sous Vide Journey
Went to a friend’s house for dinner and her husband was cooking a pork tenderloin sous vide. He took it out of the bath, wrapped it in foil, and plopped it on the grill for a few minutes for some color, then served. It was excellent. Moist, flavorful, fork-tender. Probably one of the best pieces of pig I’d ever had.
So I got home and started looking around at the devices. He had an Anova but I liked the design of the Wancle better — it doesn’t sit as high above the edge of the container, which counts for a lot if you’re as clumsy as me. I could easily imagine reaching for something and hitting the cooker and spilling water everywhere. A lot.
And Wancle is more fun to say. And if you tell me it’s not pronounced like Wankle, I won’t believe you.
Since I’ve had it I’ve cooked chicken, pork, and salmon. The salmon is a bit tricky but still turned out excellent. I haven’t tried steak yet and I want to try shrimp and some other seafood. But there should be a fair number of sous vide recipes coming this way soon.