Sous vide (pronounced soo-veed), means cooking food in a water bath. In French, it literally means “under vacuum”.
With sous vide, all you have to do is set the time and temperature, and you can achieve the desired doneness.
One of the disadvantages of cooking in the traditional way is that the heat and temperature cannot be controlled. If a pan is used, the heat flows from the burner to the pan and into the food. The metal, which has a higher temperature than is required, ends up overcooking food most of the time. Therefore, you have to make sure that you remove the food at the right time, which may cause cooking to become stressful.
Additionally, if you use an oven, the heating element in the oven cooks the food by heating the air around it. You would still have to remove it at the right time to avoid the food from becoming overcooked due to the high temperature.
With sous vide cooking, you can just place the resealable bag containing the food into a pot of water, set the time and temperature, and your food will automatically be cooked to the exact doneness that you desire. This allows for consistency in cooking and it becomes more of a science than an art.
Good taste is also guaranteed as food gets cooked in its juices. The end result would also be moist, juicy and tender. Moreover the nutrients would still remain with the food in the bag.
It also helps reduce wastage as traditionally prepared food usually dries out during cooking and ends up going to waste. For instance, steak can lose up to 40% of its volume due to drying out. On the contrary, steak cooked via precision cooking loses none of its volume.
There is also more flexiblity as there is no worry about overcooking, Precision cooking holds food at an exact temperature after it is cooked.
Some of the most common food that are cooked with sous vide are chicken, salmon, vegetables and eggs. When you place them into a resealable bag, make sure to lay them flat so that they don’t overlap each other. This is to ensure the food is cooked evenly all around.
You can also make salmon and beef patties for your burger with the sous vide cooker. Olive oil can be placed together with the meat in the resealable bag to give it more flavour. For an extra something, you can pan-sear the cooked food for a few seconds until it turns golden brown on the outside.
With sous vide, preparing your favourite meal is no longer difficult. You no longer have to worry about the doneness, flavour and nutrient of food.
