Computerised gadgets for the kitchen are certainly nothing new, and there have been many useful products and absolutely useless products created over the years. But computer controlled sous vide home cooking is on the crest of a wave.
Suvee cooking has been deployed by restaurants for many years now, because it produces delicious food on a consistent basis. Until recently, home sous vide cooking has been out of the question, because the cheapest commercial immersion circulator used by restaurants was around $1,000, and that was just too much even for the most enthusiastic of home cooks.
But now all that has changed. Back in 2009 the first home sous vide machine was launched at a cost of around $450. Now you can guarantee the highest quality gourmet food with a machine that costs less than $200. Because sous vide cooking has become so popular, the manufacturers of these machines are suggesting that the prices will be reduced even more.
No longer is the world of suvee cooking shrouded in mystery. The secrets of the professional chef are well and truly out, and sous vide cooking is now within the grasp of anyone that has the right equipment, and the desire to make delicious meals in their own kitchen.
THE TECHNOLOGY HAS MADE IT EASY
When you have the right sous vide machine, cooking is so easy. You do not have to have any cooking skills whatsoever, to produce a meal that a high calibre restaurant would be proud of. You are guided most of the way by your sous vide cooker. It is really just a matter of temperature and time.
The learning curve with suvee cooking is minimal. If you make a mistake, the chances are you won’t even notice it. The chances of you overcooking a sous vide dish are extremely low. The temperature that you will be cooking your food at is lower than that used in conventional cooking. So if your steak is cooking in the water bath for a couple of hours longer than it should, then you will still end up with deliciously cooked food.
ARE YOU BUSY? NO PROBLEM!
Sous vide cooking also suits those people that lead busy lives. This probably describes a huge section of the population who work long hours and have unpredictable schedules. All you have to do is prepare your food into portions, add seasoning if you want, place in a food bag and then cook sous vide at the right temperature for the recommended time.
Because suvee cooking has become so popular, there is no shortage of sous vide recipes available. We will be adding a lot more recipes so check out what we have for you so far. All you have to do is follow these recipes to the letter and a few minutes, or a few hours later you will have a perfectly cooked meal that everyone will enjoy. Once your food bag is in the temperature controlled water, and your timer is set, you can do anything that you want. No watching pots or any of that nonsense.
YOU WILL NEED TO INVEST IN QUALITY SOUS VIDE EQUIPMENT
Yes there are ways that you can cook sous vide on the cheap. You may have seen articles about using digital thermometers with stock pots and other examples of this. The thing is that you will have to spend time monitoring the temperature of your cooking, if you use these methods. They are not guaranteed, and the recommended way forward is to invest in an immersion circulator or self contained sous vide water bath.
You can get a high quality immersion circulator for less than $200. Read our review of thehighly acclaimed Anova Culinary Bluetooth Precision Cooker here. This machine has a very simple to use interface, and even offers a wireless connection for device control and other features.
You will need to use the Anova with a cooking pot or large vessel to hold the water. The Anova is designed to clamp securely to the water bath that you use. With an immersion circulator you can use bigger cooking pots to cook more food.
If you prefer a done for you solution with everything included, then a self contained water bath is the way to go. Here the water bath is actually built in, so there is no requirement for clamps or buying additional pots. The Sous Vide Supreme Demi Water Oven is a very efficient suvee cooker.
Both the immersion circulator and the self contained water bath will provide you with excellent cooking temperature control. The immersion circulator is cheaper, but you do get everything with the self contained water bath. The choice is yours. It may even come down to the space that you have available in your kitchen.
HOME SOUS VIDE BENEFITS
Cooking sous vide is very practical. If you have to cook a food in different ways to please your family or guests it is very easy. Just put the spicy food in separate bags to the non spicy food. Overcooking is never a problem, and you will not end up with mush if you cook too long as you can with some other slow cooking methods.
Your food will be safe. If you cook at the right temperatures for at least the recommended cooking times then you won’t have a problem. Undercooking something is virtual impossible too, so you will never be embarrassed when you have guests.
You will turn out succulent, tender food time and time again. Chicken breasts are amazingas are steaks. Dry food is a thing of the past with suvee cooking, as the food bags keep all of the juices and flavor sealed in.
With sous vide cooking you are in control. You will be able to set it and forget it, and not be constantly monitoring ovens and stoves to see if your food is cooking as it should. You will know with certainty, that your food will be cooked to perfection each time you use your sous vide cooking equipment.
And you will not have a lot of cleaning up to do afterwards either. The water in the water bath can be reused if you want, and all you will need to do is to throw away the bags that you cooked the food in. You can always use a skillet for searing those steaks and other food that you have cooked sous vide, so that is all that you will have to wash up afterwards.
Simplicity, convenience, practicality, lower equipment prices and perfectly cooked food means that the sous vide home cooking revelation is here to stay.
This article first appeared on Sous Vide Wizard on May 30, 2016. It was written and provided by Joe Hughes of Sous Vide Wizard, a leading resource in sous vide cooking tips and recipes. You can reach him at Joe@SousVideWizard.com