Sous Vide

The steaks getting a bath- sous vide style

I have a love and passion for food- growing it, buying it, preparing it, and pondering the science behind it.  I admit that I have a problem. I call it a food fixation. I love spending time in the kitchen. I love dreaming up new dishes. I love eating. I have a huge weakness for kitchen gadgets. I love kitchen gadgets. Yes, even ones that only have one use. I will never be able to down-size my kitchen because I won't want to get rid of my kitchen gadgets (and I will never be able to invite Alton Brown to my home). My family puts up with (and benefits from) my food fixation. I guess in the grand scheme of things it isn't that bad of a weakness.....

My newest love is the Sansaire Sous Vide Circulator. The device itself is easy to use. The learning curve surrounding the process and theory was not a big one, and we are once again talking about science and food in my kitchen. It makes me so happy. The food we create is amazing. The trout we sous vide was incredible. The best I have ever had. Truly. I think my husband agreed because he took a bite of trout and stated that it was the best $200.00 he ever spent. (He brought it for me for my birthday--a tremendously good gift).

So, is there really a difference? Yes, yes there is.  The first meal I made was steak. I am currently getting my beef from Barham Farms just outside of Liberty, Missouri. We buy half of a side at a time so we get all kinds of cuts. The steaks are amazing. Even better cooked sous vide.  The ability to vacuum seal the steaks, place the in a pot with the Sansaire Circulator and go for a run is worth the price alone.   

Vacuumed packed steaks ready for their water bath

The steak is perfectly cooked -- medium rare all the way through from edge to edge and I don't have to worry about over cooking it.  All that remains to be done is to sear the outside (it is gray, ugly, unappetizing, and needs to be seared). Searing can be done with a blow torch (I love the the blow torch), the inside grill, a pan, or the outside grill. It is amazing. My trick is to add salt, pepper, and fresh herbs to the steak prior to vacuum packing them adds a layer of flavor that is fantastic. Be careful the flavors you add to the meat for the vacuum packed water bath stage are intensified. We separately packed the steaks and tried different seasonings and the herbs were the tastiest.

Perfectly cooked steak with beer sautéed mushrooms

Eggs. Lets talk about eggs.

Sous Vide eggs

I do not like running eggs. They gross me out (and there are very few foods that gross me out). I love the fact that I can put my eggs in a pot and sous vide them to the perfect temperature-- there is no guess work.  My temperature is 165F/ 74C  (yes- I know it sounds like my sleep number for a bed). I don't like the gray ring around the yolk and I will never have it again.  The best part? I put the eggs in a pot, set the temperature on the Sansaire and went out for breakfast.  When I came back, I had perfect cooked eggs. Yeah me!

Trout-- here is a picture of my trout- perfectly cooked and moist.  It was truly incredible. I put it in a plastic bag and put it in the Sous Vide set at 113F/ 43C for 30 minutes.

Yummy Trout

I threw the potatoes in the oven to roast and prepped the rest of dinner. I slowly caramelized some onions and garlic. When the fish was done, I took it out of the pot and plastic bag, removed the skin, and threw it in the pot with the onions to sear it.  I topped it with some fresh herbs. The result was utter perfection. Who knew?

I also made shrimp and scallops in the water bath and tossed in them in a Cajun cream sauce served over pasta with steamed broccoli. It was liberating to be able to drop the shrimps and scallops in the water bath and focus on the other parts of dinner. I have not made short ribs yet- I will soon. The pot roast I made was really good. A tender pot roast that is medium rare can only be achieved (to my knowledge) through sous vide. Wow, I am starting to sound like an infomerical.

Shrimp and scallops sous vide in a Cajun cream sauce 

So here is some of the detail-- sous vide is French for "under vacuum." The simple act of cooking in a water bath at the final temperature desired changes the way I think about cooking in dramatics ways. As I have said before (my daughter will tell you I tell her this every chance I get) cooking is just a series of science experiments. Cooking is a wonderful mixture of physics, chemistry, and biology. Sous vide is my (and sometimes my family's) latest edible science experiment.

Ok back to the science. When we cook meat, we use heat to denature (change) the proteins in the meat (protein makes up approximately 1/5 of the meat, the rest being water and fat). Ordinarily, it is difficult to maintain a low enough temperature over time to break down the proteins so we cook meat for a shorter period of time over high temperature. The result is meat that is unevenly cooked-- often a perfectly cooked core and overcooked edges. With sous vide the meat is cooked at the desired temperature for a longer period of time and the result is an evenly cooked piece of meat from tip to tip.

Overcooking is not possible so timing is not as critical. Having said that if you do leave food too long in the sous vide it will turn to mush (I have not done this yet- but it is on the list). Vacuum packing the food prevents the air from insulating the food so the oxidation reactions are slow so there is less chance of unwanted color changes or off-flavors. At the lower temperatures the cell walls do not burst.  In the case of cooking meat, tough collagen in connective tissue can be broken down, without heating the meat's proteins high enough that they denature to a degree that the meat is tough and dry.

The bottom line: I think sous vide (at least in my kitchen) is more than a passing fad. I think it is a wonderful way to cook but will not eliminate my grill, stove, or oven. My blow torch will be getting more use.