5 Tips for Perfect Sous Vide Cooking

cooking meat in a sous vide oven

Sous vide cooking is an attractive, convenient, and efficient cooking method for most people today. Even if you happen to get busy with other tasks and forget to take out food from the sous vide machine, it will never get overcooked- Just imagine if you could have left a steak in a hot pan for only a few minutes. What mess would you find? You will never even want to look at it. But with sous vide cooking; the guesswork is taken out of you.

With this French method of cooking, you eat food packed with nutrients and enjoy many other health benefits as well. Of course, sous vide cooking can be scary when starting, but once you master the basic of setting the right temperature for your preferred food, you will love it.

To get the hang of the sous vide cooking, it would be good to experiment with different foods, working with different temperatures and times. Fortunately, this cooking method does not take time before you learn how to go about your cooking.

Now that you have decided to get on the sous vide cooking, here are the top tips shared by sousvidewizard.com. Read and understand them to get the most out of your sous vide machine.

 

What is Sous Vide Cooking?

 

Sous Vide is a french word meaning “Under Pressure.”  With sous vide cooking, the food is first placed in a vacuum sealed pouch, and the pouch is then placed in temperature controlled water bath.

The food is cooked for several hours at low temperature  to perfection.  With other types of ovens the food must be removed from the heat source to prevent burning or over cooking. With a water oven, once the cooking cycle is done, the oven cycles the lower heat on and off to keep the food hot and cooked to perfection.

 

1. Set The Right Temperature For Every Food

When it comes to sous vide cooking, temperatures can make or break your cooking experience. For that reason, you need to consider the temperature first before you attach the plastic bag into the pot.

To get perfect sous vide cooking, you need to start by filling your pot with water, set the sous vide machine, then set the right temperature and the right time as well depending on the food you are cooking. Remember, different types of foods require different temperatures and time. For instance, the time it takes to cook a 5cm thick of meat is different from that of a 2cm thick of meat.

 

2. Follow these rules:

  • Foods that need sous vide cooking below 55 degrees Celsius must not be cooked for more than 4 hours.
  • All meats should be cooked at minimum temperatures of 55 degrees Celsius. For poultry, the minimum acceptable sous vide cooking temperature is 60 degrees Celsius.

To ensure you are doing things the right way, you could refer to the guidebook provided by the manufacturer.

 

3. Start Simple to Get the Desired Results.

To get the best results, you would start with cooking simple foods like poultry, fish, steak, and vegetables. From there, you can advance to other intricate foods. When cooking vegetables, you could skip the delicate leafy greens and start with starchy root vegetables instead.

 

4. Pay Attention to The Finishing

Well, this does not only apply to sous vide cooking only, but all cooking recipes. The finishing part can determine the results you will get and this is important when it comes to sous vide cooking. For instance, for sous vide meal, you need to make sure you don’t overcook grey bands; else they will appear in the meat.

 

5. Observe the Right Timings of Placing the Plastic Bag Inside the Sous Vide Machine.

There is a myth that longer is better but when it comes to placing the plastic bag inside the immersion calculator, this is just a misconception. Keeping the plastic bag inside the machine for an extended period does not guarantee the best results. In fact, professional cooks advise people to not cook steak for over 4 hours. Cooking steak for more than four hours will not get you tender and soft steak but will get you a mushy steak.

The best way to avoid getting it wrong is to refer to the cookbook to know the appropriate amount of time required to put the plastic bag inside the sous vide machine.

 

Final Words – Relax

Well, most people will tell you that sous vide cooking can be a daunting task at first. While this is true, you should not get scared. In fact, when you start simple, by cooking fish or meat, you will find it a fun thing to do.

The good thing is that you can cook any types of meat and vegetables with the sous vide machine. It is a versatile machine you may not want to miss in your kitchen. Whether it’s cooking your eggs or doing fruits, sous vide machine gets things done for you and in the right way.

 

Author Bio:

Ana Lema is a freelance blogger at willadd.com and a mother. Ana Lema loves to read articles online and write on about health, family, Food, research paper, education, cocking, Relationship and more.

 

Ken Weiss

One Response

  1. Evelyn February 23, 2019

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