What Is Sous Vide?
With new cooking terms and techniques constantly popping up, this is an exciting time to be a cook. But sometimes they can seem so challenging or mysterious, one can't help wondering if some of them are things home cooks shouldn't attempt. Sous vide is one such example. It's actually not a new technique at all — it was first seen in France around the 1970s. These days more and more restaurants from fast-food to fine dining are turning to sous vide to ensure that food is perfectly cooked every time— Shake Shack is the lastest chain to announce it is actually cooking its chicken nuggets sous vide (not from frozen) in an effort to ensure their nuggets are consistently delicous!
Restaurant Secrets Every Home Cook Should Know
Much like roasting or braising, sous vide is just another slow-cooking method. To sous vide successfully, one puts an ingredient (commonly meat) into a vacuum-sealed bag with some herbs and spices. Then, this little package is submerged into water at a low and precisely controlled temperature. Here, it will cook for hours or days until it has reached the perfect doneness.
cooked to perfection, you can remove it from the bag and sear either side to create crispness for the final result. With the slow and low, controlled temperatures of sous vide, the final product is cooked consistently every time, tender and delicious and with no overcooked spots.
One would think that a "set it and forget it" method like sous vide would take off among home cooks worldwide. But the fact is that it's commonly thought to be expensive to obtain the equipment needed (which has caused some to even try cooking meals sous vide in their washing machiens). Though unbelievablly expensive sous vide equipment certainly was the case one upon a time, these days there are more options that ever for the home cook to consider. These days the top sous vide machines, like the Anova Sous Vide Precision Cooker will set you back $199 though there are many other more affordably priced options, like the Wancle Thermal immersion Circulator to be found for less than $100.
