What if we told you there’s a cooking technique that could catapult your culinary skills to pro levels? One that would let you whip up unbelievably delicious, melt-in-your-mouth meat dishes every single time. Would you be open to giving it a shot? We bet you’re game!

Sous Vide cooking, that’s what we’re talking about. It’s a cooking method that’s enjoying immense popularity among professional chefs and home cooks alike. Mastering the technique takes some practice and a bit of know-how, but it’s not rocket science. Having the right equipment definitely helps, and when you do get it right, you’ll be amazed at the results.

What Is Sous Vide Anyway?

Sous-vide, pronounced soo-VEED, is a food preparation technique where you vacuum-seal food in a plastic bag and let it cook in a regulated low-temperature water bath. It’s an age-old culinary approach that translates literally into “under vacuum.”

The hot water in the container circulates through the bags, creating a gentle cooking environment that gradually raises the ingredients’ temperature to match that of the water (usually below 90 degrees Fahrenheit).

It’s a much more precise way to cook than an oven or stovetop, and because the food heats slowly and evenly, it retains more moisture and flavor.

The result? Tender steaks, juicy chicken and delicate fish and seafood dishes.

How to Cook Sous Vide?

Sous vide is a great way to cook food evenly and to perfection. It is also a relatively hands-off cooking method, so you can set it and forget all about it. But of course, you’ll need to know what you’re doing. Let us walk you through the process so you’ll be cooking like a pro in no time.

1. Gather Your Equipment

The sous vide culinary experience begins with proper equipment set-up. Arm yourself with the following tools to set the stage for your masterpiece.

• Sous vide immersion circulator: The heart of sous vide cooking, this gadget clips onto the side of your water-filled pot. It gets the water to just the right temperature and keeps it circulating, ensuring a consistent temperature until your food is done.
• Vacuum Sealer: This device sucks the air out of bags and closes them tightly. It’s perfect for sous vide cooking because it ensures your meat, fish, etc., stays untouched by water, and air bubbles won’t cause the bag to float, leading to uneven cooking.
• Vacuum-sealed Bags: These special bags team up with a vacuum sealer machine. The machine pulls out the air from the pack and seals it up, locking in the food’s freshness.
• Resealable Bags: These have the same function as a vacuum-sealed bag, but they’re not designed for vacuum-sealing. They typically feature a zipper or similar closure mechanism.
• Large pot or container: It’s an indispensable tool for setting up the water bath.
• Thermometer: You’ll need this to check your dish’s internal temperature and ensure it’s cooked to your desired level. Maintaining the recommended temp is also critical for food safety.

2. Prepare Your Ingredients

The great thing about sous vide is that you don’t need to thaw out anything. Get that slice of meat straight from the freezer and into the pot of heated water. Easy peasy. Have the following on hand.

• Whatever you intend to cook (meat, chicken, fish, etc.)
• Seasonings or marinades

Season your food with salt, pepper, or any spices. If you have a vacuum sealer, place the food items in the appropriate bags and seal them according to the manufacturer’s specifications.

Don’t have any vacuum-sealed bags? No worries. Resealable ones will do. Simply use the water displacement method to remove as much air from the pack as possible. To do so, slowly dunk the resealable bag into the container. As it sinks, the water pressure will force the air out of the bag. When the pack is almost entirely submerged, close the opening. Use your fingers to get all the air bubbles out.

3. Set up the Water Bath

Fill a pot or container with enough water to cover the vacuum-sealed food, then attach the sous vide immersion circulator. Set the equipment to the temperature your recipe calls for. This often depends on the type of food items you’re working with (thicker slices of meat requiring more cooking time).

4. Cook the Food

Check the recipe for the suggested cooking time and start the timer. Sous vide cooking usually takes longer than other cooking methods (and that’s its secret for creating tender, evenly cooked dishes). Refer to the sous vide time and temperature chart for specific recommendations.

5. Finish the Food

When your food is done to perfection, gently remove it from the water bath and pat it dry with paper towels. Some recipes recommend finishing the food by quickly searing, grilling, or broiling for a flavorful crust. Give your meats a quick sizzle in a hot pan for a few seconds per side to create a delicious crust that will tantalize your taste buds.

6. Serve

Place the food on a platter, garnish (optional) and serve.

Tips for Getting the Most Out of Sous Vide Cooking

Cooking sous vide almost guarantees you’ll whip up amazingly tasty dishes. But do you want to push your cooking to gourmet status? Try these culinary tips, and you’re on your way.

• Follow reliable sous vide recipes for specific temperature and time recommendations. Sous vide cooking times can vary based on the thickness and type of food. To get it just right, it’s important to check out recipes for accurate guidance.
• Experiment with different seasonings and marinades for added flavor.
• Use a thermometer to check the internal temperature of the food before serving, especially if you’re new to sous vide home cooking.
• Let the food rest for a few minutes before serving to allow the juices to redistribute.
• Get creative with different flavor combinations. Sous vide is a great way to experiment with new tastes and techniques.

What You Can Sous Vide

Thanks to its remarkable versatility, sous vide cooking suits most foods. Check out these examples. This list is by no means exhaustive, though. The truth is, you can sous vide almost any food item.

Steak

How do you like your steak? Rare? Medium-rare? Cooking steak sous vide style will give you moist, tender meat with edge-to-edge perfection, no matter the level of doneness you prefer.
Set your immersion cooker at the specified temperature and enjoy a flawlessly prepared steak, thanks to the ability to control the cooking temp precisely.
Creating moist, tender chicken is a challenge using conventional cooking methods. To cook chicken safely, the temperature should be around 165 degrees F. But at this temp, the meat often turns dry and rubbery.

Chicken

Sous vide lets you cook chicken at lower heat, approximately 140 degrees F, without compromising safety. Keep that bird steadily simmering at this level for a stretch, and you’ll pasteurize it, much like the traditional method of heating it to 165 degrees F.
The delightful outcome? Chicken that’s tender and oozing with flavorful juices.

Eggs

Eggs are tailor-made for sous vide cooking. Their proteins set at different temps, so even a tiny tweak can change the texture and consistency of your egg. Leveraging the precision offered by sous vide, you can cook eggs any way you like, from hard-boiled to the runny-but-yummy consistency each and every time.

How to Cook Sous Vide: Best Tools and Gadgets

Sous vide equipment has been around for decades. But they’re mostly pricey, bulky, and complicated gadgets unsuitable for everyday home use. With the sous vide style gaining popularity, you’ll find a growing selection of user-friendly and reasonably-priced kitchen tools in the market. These make sous vide accessible to everyday cooks.

Okay, you can create tasty dishes with sous vide sans the specialized equipment. But why make things tougher for yourself when fantastic and affordable cookware options exist? These sophisticated tools aren’t just indulgent purchases. They make food preparation so easy you’ll be inspired to create healthy, yummy dishes all the time.

The Sous Vide Immersion Cooker

Several types and brands of sous vide immersion cookers exist. This kitchen tool heats water and moves it around the pot, keeping a constant temperature to cook the food evenly. It’s usually a stand-alone type, meaning it doesn’t come with a built-in water bath.

Immersion cookers are easy to use. Just clamp them on the side of the pot, and they’re good to go. Also, because they’re slim and trim, storing is a breeze. Powerful, durable, and capable of giving precise temperature control. These traits make an immersion cooker stand out from the competition.

For sous vide, we recommend the Anova line of immersion cookers. Anova is a pioneer in sous vide cooking, so they know their stuff. Any of these tools is your key to cooking perfect sous vide steak, chicken roast, or whatever dish you fancy.

Water Container or Pot

You don’t need anything fancy for a water container. Still, going for one designed especially for this cooking method is the best way to go. In sous vide, hitting and maintaining the precise temperature is the key to culinary excellence.
Effective and consistent water circulation ensures uniform temperature across the entire pot. This precision results in perfectly cooked dishes, with ingredients retaining their optimal texture, flavor, and moisture.

We strongly suggest using the Anova Precision Container. Its patented design, with smooth, curved edges, boosts circulation and heats water more efficiently than square-sided containers. This helps cook your food faster.

What’s more, it’s BPA-free and made of food-grade polycarbonate, so you know you’ll be feasting on your sumptuous sous vide meals sans any harmful chemicals.

Vacuum Sealer

If you plan to get into sous vide cooking long-term, you might want to invest in a vacuum sealer that will tightly enclose your food inside a plastic bag. Air bubbles will make the bag float, resulting in uneven cooking, while water within the pack can affect the taste and texture of your finished product.

Vacuum sealing prevents air bubbles from spoiling your masterpieces. It also helps you prepare your food in advance, so you’ll just need to toss in the bags when it’s time to cook.

Our absolute favorite is the Anova Culinary Precision Vacuum Sealer. The perfect companion for your Anova cookers or other sous vide immersion circulator; this vacuum sealer locks the flavor and moisture in during cooking while ensuring no water seeps into the bag, helping you achieve restaurant-level cooking results at home.

Vacuum Sealer Bag

Not just any plastic bag will do when you cook sous vide. Flimsy bags could break and ruin your dishes. Also, they might contain BPA, phthalates, and other harmful chemicals that could get into the food.

Anova Culinary Precision Vacuum Sealer Bags are not only tough, but they’re 100% food-safe as well. They’re BPA-free, so you don’t ingest nasty stuff along with your yummy dish.

Food Thermometer

Safety takes precedence in sous vide cooking. You’ll want to make sure your meat and fish reach specific temperatures to guard against harmful bacteria that could pose health risks, but without overcooking your dishes. Herein lies the value of a reliable food thermometer.

This tool helps you achieve consistent results and monitor the internal temperature of your food throughout the cooking process.

Consider these fantastic picks.

• The Thermapen One: This thermometer gives you accurate readings in, listen to this, one second or less. If that isn’t fast, we don’t know what is. And it’s tops in durability, too.
• The ChefAlarm: With features like a low and high alarm, keeping track of your food readings is foolproof.
• The Industrial IR with Circle Laser: This industrial infrared thermometer is the complete package, offering 12:1 optics for precise distance measurements, full-circle laser targeting for spot-on accuracy, alarms for high and low readings, a handy backlit display, adjustable emissivity, and even a Type K probe port for checking internal temps.

Sous Vide and the Carnivore Diet

With its spot-on temperature control, sous vide works seamlessly with the carnivore diet, where meat and animal products take center stage. The cooking method’s ability to maintain optimal temperatures means no more dry, overcooked dishes. Sous vide keeps things juicy and bursting with flavor.

For those embracing a carnivore lifestyle, this means meat perfection every time.

The sous vide cooking technique lets you transform the simplest ingredients into culinary masterpieces, thanks to the meticulous control it offers. From succulent steaks to rich, creamy eggs, this method can elevate your dishes to new heights of flavor and texture.

So, if you’re up for a tasty adventure, learning how to cook sous vide will take your kitchen craft to a whole new level. Give your taste buds a treat. Go sous vide.
Bon Appetit!