Sous Vide 101

Hi my name is Roger Seher, and I would like to welcome you to the world of sous vide cooking. Sous vide has been around for quite some time but it has become quite popular in the US over the last few years. 

 

You should take a moment and bookmark this page because you will want to follow some of the links on this page often as you dive deeper into the at of sous vide cooking. 

 

This page is a work in progress, as I learn more about sous vide cooking I will keep adding to this page.

 

 

Sous-vide (pronounced /su 'vid/),French for "under vacuum", is a method of cooking that is intended to maintain the integrity of ingredients by heating them for an extended period of time at relatively low temperatures. Food is cooked for a long time, sometimes well over 24 hours. Unlike cooking in a slow cooker, sous-vide cooking uses airtight plastic bags placed in hot water well below boiling point (Usually around 60°C = 140°F).

 

The method was developed by Georges Pralus in the mid-1970s for the Restaurant Troisgros (of Pierre and Michel Troigros) in Roanne, France. He discovered that when cooking foie gras in this manner it kept its original appearance, did not lose excess amounts of fat and had better texture. Another pioneer in the Science of Sous-vide is Bruno Goussault who further researched the effects of temperature on various foods and became well known for training top chefs on Sous-vide cooking. As Chief Scientist of Cuisine Solutions, Goussault thoroughly developed the parameters of cooking times and temperatures for different foods.The Sous-vide method is used in several top-end restaurants under Thomas Keller, Jesse Mallgren, Paul Bocuse, Joël Robuchon, Charlie Trotter, and other chefs. Amtrak has used this method of cooking in the dining cars of its long-distance trains, and recently began using the method on its Acela Express trains. Non-professional cooks are also beginning to use vacuum cooking. Botulinum bacteria can grow in food in the absence of oxygen and produce deadly toxin: sous vide cooking must be performed under carefully controlled conditions to avoid botulism poisoning.To help with food safety and taste, relatively expensive water-bath machines (thermal immersion circulator) are used to circulate precisely heated water; differences of even one degree can affect the finished product.

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sous_Vide". 

 

I have found many pages and web sites researching sous vide cooking. The one I found myself returning to over and over again was a page written by Douglas Baldwin, I consider this a must read for anyone interested in Sous Vide cooking. 

 

It is a great reference for times and temperatures as well as sous vide seasonings. Whenever I am getting ready to cook something new using my thermal circulator, I find myself returning to his page.

 

Short Guide to Sous-Vide