Julian got me a sous vide stick and cookbook for Christmas. This particular device is made by Chef Steps, a Seattle-based company that was recently acquired by Breville.
The principle of sous vide is to cook food at a lower temperature for a longer period of time in a water bath. The temperature is high enough to kill bacteria. The food is sealed in a bag (sous vide is French for under vacuum) and submerged in the water bath. The temperature and time of cooking is controlled by cell phone for this model. As with many apps, the basic function and some recipes are free. If you want the “full experience”, you pay extra. And you get daily spam.
Our experiments thus far have been mixed. First, we “poached” two eggs in the shell for an hour. The results were too drippy for Julian to eat. (This is how a friend of ours pasteurized eggs for his aged eggnog.) The second experiment was cooking mushrooms. I had a mixture of creminis and fresh shiitakes that I needed to use up. Even with two clean glass votive candle holders inside, the bag still floated. Julian solved this problem by wedging a cereal bowl on top of the bag. The mushrooms were okay, but cooking in a pan would be much faster. I also cooked parsnips on New Year’s Eve. The results were a little too crunchy for Julian.
The most successful experiment was with a rib-eye steak. Julian cooked it via sous vide for an hour, then seared it in a pan. The steak was done perfectly and was quite tender. Because the temperatures are so low, most meat recipes call for searing or broiling following sous vide.
We still have more experiments ahead of us, but sous vide may be a good option for meats. Vegetables, not so much.
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