Food & Wine

Sous vide (French for 'under vacuum') is also called low temperature long time cooking. It's a method of cooking in which food is placed in a vacuum-sealed or air-free plastic pouch, then cooked in a water bath for 1 to 8 hours (or longer) at a precisely regulated temperature. 

The water bath is usually set at 55 to 60 °C (130 to 140 °F) for meat, and higher for vegetables. The low temperature cooks the item evenly, so the inside is properly cooked without overcooking the outside. This also retain moisture, juices, etc. What it doesn't do is provide an attractive color/crust/caramelization of the meat. You can get a nice char on the outside and still have a nice rare insid, AFTER the sous vide as my friend Yale demonstrates with his hot pan and giant torch.

Sous vide cooking units are essentially a heating element, water pump, and precision temperature control. Many modern units also include a wireless link and phone app for remote control, and perhaps some cooking instructions for common food. Mine came only with a kitchen towel printed with temperatures...

I have a Sansaire (without air) Immersion Circulator Gen 1 sous vide unit. This was a Kickstarter project. Their attempt to make a flashier Gen 2 unit failed, and killed the company.

I don't use a vacuum sealer because the machine and the materials exceed the value of my Sansaire machine. I use high-quality freezer bags that have a sliding or press lock seal.

I've tried various kinds of containers and settled on this plastic tub with a custom-cut hole to keep the heat inside while it's running for many hours. This also reduces evaporation. I've marked the water level because if it gets too low the machine sucks in air and eventually will stop working.

Here's some meat in the process of cooking. I like using larger bags so I can keep the seal out of the water. If water gets in your food is ruined.

If you don't like the idea of hot plastic touching your food you can put it in a glass jar with some liquid and drop that into the water.

Heating coil, temp sensor, water pump impeller



Mine came with this big stainless steel clip so you can attach it to the side of a metal pot, but I removed the clip when I developed the "hole in lid" stabilizer/energy-saving method.




As far as I can tell, all the sous vide units do the same thing, and work the same way. You can choose the one you want based on frills and features.

OTHER USES

I've used my Sansaire to dip beeswax candles, as the wax is very temperature-sensitive. With this device I can keep it within one degree of the optimum. Note that the wax can't contact the heating element or enter the machine, so the wax is inside a glass flower cylinder/vase, and is surrounded by the hot water.



As you can see here, I am heating almost 5 gallons of water, which is about the limit for this unit.





Cazalea

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