What is sous vide?
The sous vide machines/equipment can be seen as a temperature-controlled water bath. It is available both as a stick that is placed in a water bath, a basin with a built-in thermostat (similar to a deep fryer), and as a built-in function in a steam oven.
Common to all of them is that they gently cook the ingredients without the risk of reaching too high a temperature.
Sous vide means “under vacuum” in French. The food is packed in a vacuum bag and cooked at the temperature you want the core of the ingredient to be. Therefore, the ingredient cannot be exposed to too high a temperature, as it would be if cooked at 200 degrees in an oven until the core temperature (in the middle) reaches the desired level.
A roast beef is the best example to explain how sous vide works. Those you make yourself, by, for example, boiling/oven often have a relatively large brown edge from the higher temperature and become fine pink in the middle. When you buy it as cold cuts, the meat is that fine pink color all the way through. This is due to the sous vide technique.
We have listed the advantages and disadvantages of this sous vide method compared to the “conventional” methods such as frying via pan, grill, or oven.
Advantages of using sous vide:
– Consistent results in the meat. You are guaranteed to make a medium-rare steak if that’s what you desire. This also applies even if the steaks do not have the same thickness. If 2 of the steaks are 3 cm thick and the last one is 4 cm thick, the result will still be consistent.
– Time management. A good beef steak typically requires between 1.5-2 hours as opposed to, for example, 2×4 minutes on the grill/pan. This means that you don’t have to prepare the food at the last minute while the guests are chatting and you are finishing your remaining garnish.
– Delayed guests are suddenly not a big problem. For example, a roast beef of beef eye round should be cooked at 54 degrees for 12 hours, so it’s not a big deal if it gets an additional 30-60 minutes if they are stuck on the highway or similar.
– Resting time is not necessary. The meat is ready to eat once it has a seared crust after the water bath.
Disadvantages of using sous vide:
– Time factor. There is a big difference between using 1.5-2 hours on a good beef steak versus grilling/pan-frying for 2×4 minutes.
– Fatty steaks such as rib-eyes, Kobe, and Wagyu steaks lose somewhat compared to “conventional” cooking, as the fat doesn’t melt in the same way as a scorching grill can achieve.
– The lower temperature of the meat. We are used to eating meat that comes from either a scorching grill or a hot oven, as the external temperature must ensure the required core temperature is reached. Since the meat only needs external heat for the searing crust, the meat never gets as hot as with the “conventional” cooking method. Therefore, it is recommended to warm your plates (e.g., in the same water bath as the meat) before serving.
When the meat is cooked sous vide, it should be dried afterward and placed on a hot pan/grill to obtain the searing crust via the Maillard reaction.