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I think SV is pretty interesting; but it seems like most people care about saving time more than they care about food cooked well. I constantly fret about how

by icey 17y ago

I think SV is pretty interesting; but it seems like most people care about saving time more than they care about food cooked well. I constantly fret about how done things are whenever I cook, to the point of obsession. I inspect every steak after it's been cut open... Did I evenly heat each side? Is one side more cooked than the other? Is it overdone? So on and so forth. It seems like SV would be nice just to get over that sort of cooking anxiety. What sort of additional time does it take to cook? I mean, it's pretty quick to heat my cast iron to where I want it, and then just 16 or 17 minutes later I can have a nicely rested steak ready to go... I'm sure this takes longer, but no idea how much longer.

tptacek 17y ago
I'm really unhappy with this Gizmodo review, but they've got the steak part nailed. It's exactly like they say: you take a steak, bag it (I season it and throw some butter in), and then set the temperature for 130. Wait one hour or 48 hours or any time in between: you will get a uniformly perfect steak. Do this two or three times and you'll stop poking or probing the final product. It simply is 130f, inside and out, when you remove it from the bag. Checking the temperature is essentially second-guessing a very very accurate electronic thermometer. The quality of that finished product will be higher than anything you can accompish on cast iron, because cast iron doesn't heat meat uniformly. To get a rare center on cast iron, you have to accept a medium-well band of meat on the outside of the steak. Skill and technique dictate how wide that band is, but it's there regardless. What you lose in SV is the seared crust. So, of course, after you cook your steak SV, you sear the outside --- for seconds, not minutes, on each side --- and then plate. There are three major benefits of SV for steaks. First, no matter who you are, SV is the one way you can set up a couple steaks in the morning before you leave for work and come home with a perfectly cooked steak waiting. It's this benefit that makes me think SV is the future for the American kitchen. Second, if you're a typical home cook, SV kills the margin of error. Unless you type the wrong temperature in, you're getting a perfectly cooked steak no matter what you do. Third, if you're a pro chef, SV frees you from having to be an extremely expensive meat thermometer. Electronics are better at watching temperatures than people are. Chefs are freed from the drudgework of monitoring cooking, and can spend that time innovating or refining actual dishes.
- icey 17y ago
  Ahhhh unattended cooking really would be a huge difference. For some reason I was thinking you'd start it up, sit around for awhile waiting for the water to heat, throw in your vacuum bag and then wait for it to cook. The idea of starting dinner before you leave for work is pretty compelling (on top of having it uniformly cooked to a specific temperature).
  - tptacek 17y ago
    There's three sub-wins to unattended SV cooking (warning: I am unlikely to ever shut up about this). First, you can cook a meal for your family in 5 minutes before you leave for work. You can already do that with a crock pot (you don't know how amazing crock pots are until you have kids and a working spouse), but only for braise cuts, and only for braised applications. Second, you can cook a meal, cool it rapidly, and store it in the fridge for later. In other words, you can cook a week's meals on Sunday night, and bust them out night after night. Third, you can prep a meal, seal it, stick it in the fridge, and throw it in the SV when you're ready to cook it. Unlike microwave, "boil-in-the-bag", or crock-pot meals, SV will do these things and produce a restaurant-caliber protein for you more reliably than if you cooked it conventionally with your full attention.
    - icey 17y ago
      Regarding your second point, I assume you store in the vacuum bag; but how do you reheat? Back in the SV? I've seen these on a few of the Food Network reality shows (The Next Food Network Star, The Next Iron Chef), and they always talked about them as though it was some sort of rocket science. It's nice to know that it's just a temperature controlled water bath. It seems like it's right up my alley. I have a fondness for cooking food slowly - barbecue by way of smoking and dutch oven / crock pot cooking. Of course, those modes of cooking are left for the weekends so I'm sure my wife would be happy if I found a way to cook more during the week.
      - tptacek 17y ago
        You can do it in the SV, which is I guess what you're supposed to do, but I just unbag it and heat it through on the stove. I do cook things SV and hold them in the fridge, but honestly most of the time I do that I do it for lunch. For instance, I've got a rice cooker full of cheap chicken breasts going for my next several lunches right now.
gte910h 17y ago
SV is completely unattended cooking. So it saves a lot of time. You can do all sorts of things while cooking is occuring. It's somewhat like baking, but with no checking for doneness. One neat trick with SV: You can cut your meat very thin but still have even, reletively rare meat. The thickness of the meat gives your cook time. http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html So if you make your stake very thin, you can find a nice steak in similar times to your stove can. If you use the traditional thickness of about 3cm, you're going to be waiting 50 minutes to cook the steak.
gte910h 17y ago
http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html
- logicalmind 17y ago
  This document is more useful than any of the sous vide books on the market, and I have quite a few. There is also a wealth of sous vide information available on egullet forums.
  - gte910h 17y ago
    While I hate math books, I love how math professors write about anything else :OD

by icey 17y ago

tptacek 17y ago

I'm really unhappy with this Gizmodo review, but they've got the steak part nailed. It's exactly like they say: you take a steak, bag it (I season it and throw some butter in), and then set the temperature for 130. Wait one hour or 48 hours or any time in between: you will get a uniformly perfect steak. Do this two or three times and you'll stop poking or probing the final product. It simply is 130f, inside and out, when you remove it from the bag. Checking the temperature is essentially second-guessing a very very accurate electronic thermometer. The quality of that finished product will be higher than anything you can accompish on cast iron, because cast iron doesn't heat meat uniformly. To get a rare center on cast iron, you have to accept a medium-well band of meat on the outside of the steak. Skill and technique dictate how wide that band is, but it's there regardless. What you lose in SV is the seared crust. So, of course, after you cook your steak SV, you sear the outside --- for seconds, not minutes, on each side --- and then plate. There are three major benefits of SV for steaks. First, no matter who you are, SV is the one way you can set up a couple steaks in the morning before you leave for work and come home with a perfectly cooked steak waiting. It's this benefit that makes me think SV is the future for the American kitchen. Second, if you're a typical home cook, SV kills the margin of error. Unless you type the wrong temperature in, you're getting a perfectly cooked steak no matter what you do. Third, if you're a pro chef, SV frees you from having to be an extremely expensive meat thermometer. Electronics are better at watching temperatures than people are. Chefs are freed from the drudgework of monitoring cooking, and can spend that time innovating or refining actual dishes.

icey 17y ago
Ahhhh unattended cooking really would be a huge difference. For some reason I was thinking you'd start it up, sit around for awhile waiting for the water to heat, throw in your vacuum bag and then wait for it to cook. The idea of starting dinner before you leave for work is pretty compelling (on top of having it uniformly cooked to a specific temperature).
- tptacek 17y ago
  There's three sub-wins to unattended SV cooking (warning: I am unlikely to ever shut up about this). First, you can cook a meal for your family in 5 minutes before you leave for work. You can already do that with a crock pot (you don't know how amazing crock pots are until you have kids and a working spouse), but only for braise cuts, and only for braised applications. Second, you can cook a meal, cool it rapidly, and store it in the fridge for later. In other words, you can cook a week's meals on Sunday night, and bust them out night after night. Third, you can prep a meal, seal it, stick it in the fridge, and throw it in the SV when you're ready to cook it. Unlike microwave, "boil-in-the-bag", or crock-pot meals, SV will do these things and produce a restaurant-caliber protein for you more reliably than if you cooked it conventionally with your full attention.
  - icey 17y ago
    Regarding your second point, I assume you store in the vacuum bag; but how do you reheat? Back in the SV? I've seen these on a few of the Food Network reality shows (The Next Food Network Star, The Next Iron Chef), and they always talked about them as though it was some sort of rocket science. It's nice to know that it's just a temperature controlled water bath. It seems like it's right up my alley. I have a fondness for cooking food slowly - barbecue by way of smoking and dutch oven / crock pot cooking. Of course, those modes of cooking are left for the weekends so I'm sure my wife would be happy if I found a way to cook more during the week.
    - tptacek 17y ago
      You can do it in the SV, which is I guess what you're supposed to do, but I just unbag it and heat it through on the stove. I do cook things SV and hold them in the fridge, but honestly most of the time I do that I do it for lunch. For instance, I've got a rice cooker full of cheap chicken breasts going for my next several lunches right now.

gte910h 17y ago

SV is completely unattended cooking. So it saves a lot of time. You can do all sorts of things while cooking is occuring. It's somewhat like baking, but with no checking for doneness. One neat trick with SV: You can cut your meat very thin but still have even, reletively rare meat. The thickness of the meat gives your cook time. http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html So if you make your stake very thin, you can find a nice steak in similar times to your stove can. If you use the traditional thickness of about 3cm, you're going to be waiting 50 minutes to cook the steak.

gte910h 17y ago

http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html

logicalmind 17y ago
This document is more useful than any of the sous vide books on the market, and I have quite a few. There is also a wealth of sous vide information available on egullet forums.
- gte910h 17y ago
  While I hate math books, I love how math professors write about anything else :OD