Chefs use this technique...should you?

sous vide is one of the nerdiest cooking techniques out there so it was only a matter of time before this nerd Dove on in and what I found is that people seem to either love sous-vide or really dislike it so what's the actual science behind this polarizing cooking method and which side is right this is minute food since last year I've been cooking my way through all the foods that the people who swear by sous-vide swear by and I'm gonna tell you my take but first I want to shed some light on what sous-vide actually is and how it works technically the term refers to a specific way of prepping food by vacuum sealing it not how you cook the food afterwards but when most people talk about sous-vide they're referring to a specific cooking method cooking sealed up food in water at a relatively low and very precise temperature for pretty long periods of time with the help of this thingamajig an immersion circulator so that's the process we're going to be talking about here and as far as culinary techniques go it is an outlier see most cooking methods use a higher temperature than what you actually want the food to reach even the methods we often call low and slow these pretty hot temps heat food up pretty quickly so the reactions we're trying to achieve through cooking them like killing off bacteria to make food safe and breaking down connective tissues and pectin to make food tender all these processes happen within a pretty reasonable amount of time but cooking at these relatively high temperatures means that as your food Cooks its temperature will basically continue to increase which seems obvious I mean that's pretty much the point of cooking right but this is where sous-vide makes it Splash it Cooks at the precise temperature you want the food to end up at so the food's temp will rise until it's as hot as the water then it'll just stay there assuming that temperature is high enough for those siphoning and tenderizing reactions to start happening in the first place even if they happen super slowly at that temperature given enough time you can kill off just as many bacteria and break down tough compounds just as well as at higher Heats all while the food itself stays at whatever temperature you want so you don't have to incinerate your chicken to the USDA approved temperature of 165 Fahrenheit to make it safe to eat sous-vida for a few hours at 1 45 give it a quick sexier and you'll get chicken that's safe and moist and while you'd normally cook a chuck roast until it's beyond well done to break down all its connective tissue you can sous-vide it at 135 for a whole day or so and you can break down those tough tissues but leave them eat medium or even rarer sous-vide can create transformative effects in veggies too give carrots a nice 183 degree bath and you'll break down their pectin making them nice and tender but not their cell walls which keeps them from turning to Mush I could go on but my point is that by cooking food at low precisely controlled temperatures for extended periods of time you can get effects that are difficult if not impossible to get with other higher heat cooking methods that's one big benefit to sous-vide of course figuring out time and temperature combinations that'll produce delicious safe food requires a decent amount of knowledge about how various reactions proceed that's where the Nitty Gritty science behind and sous-vide comes into play luckily a lot of people have done a lot of thinking and research on this so there are a lot of great resources to draw from we'll link to some in the description but there's another upside to sous-vide too it is a total Breeze I mean you basically set and forget this thing for hours or even dates the most work you have to do is at the end since you're cooking at temperatures too low for the mayard reaction to occur you'll generally want to see your food after you sous-vide it then there's the fact that with sous-vide you're cooking the food at the very temperature which you want it done so it's basically impossible for it to overcook there's a huge window of time in which the food is perfectly done compare that to the very narrow window between undercooked and overcooked with those higher heat cooking methods so if it's absolutely imperative that you don't ruin that pricey cut of meat sous-vide might be the way to go this is why a lot of restaurants rely on sous-vide it ensures that say a steak is cooked exactly how how the customer wants it each time they come through the door but how about me am I a sous-vide convert well no I know I just spent multiple minutes telling you all about what the Weird Science of sous-vide can do for you and that is all true I mean it definitely is easy and it has enabled me to transform Foods in interesting ways but in a lot of cases I don't actually think those Transformations are an improvement over higher heat cooking some Transformations have impressed me but here is my biggest issue with sous-vide I really dislike the actual process especially when it comes to meat the whole thing bagging up food and plastic plunking it in water letting the whole setup hum away for what seems like forever then sliding a squishy gray blob out of the bag it all feels weirdly like a science experiment and while I'm the first to say that cooking is all about science the sous-vide process just kind of turns me off especially compared to the much more appealing sensory experiences the sizzles the stirring the smells of other cooking methods with that said I don't think sous-vide is a blight on Humanity I'm really glad it's out there for the people who do love it and my take is that those people probably fall into one of two camps based on those big advantages we talked about earlier if you're really into experimentation in the kitchen and love new food experiences you'll probably enjoy the transformative power of sous vide and if you're really into meal prep or you want to serve a dozen perfectly cooked steaks at your weekly dinner parties you'll probably enjoy the ease of sous-vide as for me it's another tool in my repertoire that I'll probably use occasionally when I'm feeling particularly inspired or particularly busy and if nothing else an immersion circulator is great at defrosting Frozen stuff and is a very convenient way to chill wine and even the haters can't hate on that this is our 25th minute food video and you know what I'm most proud of about what we do no it's not the ridiculous number of obscure references we slip in or the amazing comments we get from our awesome viewers it's the fact that we are dedicated to making every single episode of minute food free to watch we want everyone to be able to science their way to amazingly delicious food the thing is giving your workout for free is a terrible way to make a living sure we get the occasional sponsorship and a fraction of a fraction of a cent for every view but that doesn't actually cover our costs so if you appreciate what we do consider joining our patreon community and chipping in even just a little bit to make sure we making minute food videos and giving them out for free bonus you'll get awesome perks like gorgeous printables and behind the scenes updates come join us at patreon.com minute food [Music]

Channel: MinuteFood

Views: 179,944

Keywords: sous vide, recipe, physics, temperature, steak, gadget, immersion circulator, water bath, ragusea, chef, overdone

Id: JTmMz5BT094

Length: 7min 27sec (447 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 14 2023