Sous vide roast beef is, in my opinion, the optimal recipe to try if you like sous vide beef. The meat turns out very, very tender, more tender than regular roast beef. There is no risk of drying out at all. Roast beef can be made either pink or bloody; I will show both options per piece measuring about a kilogram.

How to cook sous vide beef if you've never come across this term before and are afraid that it's something only for crazy TV stars hosting cooking shows with all sorts of outlandish dishes?

In general, everything is not so scary, sophisticated and high-tech, if you don’t strive to do everything, everything, everything in the classic version. Because, in theory, sous vide is simply a method of heat treatment for many hours at relatively low (below the boiling point of water) temperatures of food products, previously placed in a container that insulates them from water. In the classic version, it is a plastic bag glued together with a vacuum sealer. Well, in non-classical - everything is much simpler, and various other packages are used, and .

I will have a microwaveable "vacuum seal" bag. Why is it still advisable to take bags for the microwave (well, if you don’t have a vacuumizer and special bags for it)? Because they're made from a material that allows food to be processed at high temperatures without you swallowing any of the chemical crap that comes out of the plastic bag if it's not rated for high temperatures. If you don't have microwaveable bags - well, you can try to find a glass jar that's the right size. The catch is that to cook the beef sous vide, it must be in a container that squeezes it as tightly as possible, without the pocket of air that will likely be in the can.

If you come across a fatty piece, like I did, then, unfortunately, the fat will definitely have to be removed. When cooked using the sous vide technique, it does not turn out very tasty. In general, no more fat. The joint capsule can be left if it is not very thick.

Brush the meat with olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, just like regular roast beef.

We place the meat in a bag, and place the bag in a container of water so that its neck sticks out above the water. We expel the air from the bag as thoroughly as possible, and then seal the vacuum seal (while it is under water).

God protects those who are careful - we wrap the bag with cling film many times.

Set the oven to preheat to 60-80 degrees (60 for bloody roast beef, 80 for pink roast).

Place the bag of meat in a pan of water so that the meat floats there. Since it tends to float up, it is advisable to place a pebble on top of it, which will prevent it from rising to the top, but also not push it completely to the bottom. Well, or a plate with a diameter smaller than the pan. The meat should be surrounded on all sides by water.

Place the pan in the oven and keep it there for 2.5-3.5 hours. If you need more cooked meat, keep it longer, the logic is simple.

We take the meat out of the pan and out of the bag, fry it on all sides in a pre-hot frying pan in oil with salt and pepper until the degree of browning is desired for you.

The meat can be eaten hot, but we prefer sous vide beef cold. I cool it first in foil at room temperature. After the meat reaches room temperature, it makes sense to drain the liquid and place it in the refrigerator for a few more hours (ideally overnight).

Here is a sous vide roast beef that was cooked at 60 C for 2.5 hours. Lightly fried.

Here is sous vide beef that was cooked at 80 C for 3.5 hours. It was fried heavily.

What could be easier than cooking a steak? What could be more difficult than not cooking a good steak?

I buy steaks at the market from one butcher, I trust him. This is very important in sous vide technology, to understand that the meat is fresh and of high quality. Only during the cooking process is the meat exposed to short-term high temperatures, and the temperature at which the workpiece is in a vacuum bag does not exceed 59C

Today I decided to conduct several experiments at once. I processed the photographs in a photo editor, and I decided to subject the meat to the ripening process. I am ready to hear moralizing reproaches and malicious remarks. But looking ahead, I’ll let you know that I feel good, and I won’t give up on my experiments.

I didn’t wash the meat, but rubbed it with salt, pepper and adjika and put it in the refrigerator on the top shelf with a temperature of about 4+ for a day. The meat took on a slightly weathered, dry appearance on the outside, but it smelled simply amazing. For me, adjika is one of my favorite seasonings.

in general, his appearance was “nekhamon”; try to see the middle part of the picture - the fat has turned yellowish. Despite this, I had worked up an appetite. The pipe was calling to cook and I began the vacuuming process. I use the easyPro vacuum sealer from Vac-Star.

This is my invaluable assistant! (actually 445 euros, not the priceless author’s note)

Having packed the steaks in separate bags (adding a cube of butter to each bag), let's check the quality of vacuuming - it is ALWAYS on top with Vac-Star! I immerse the bags in a bathtub (I use a 1/1GN gastronomy container with a depth of 20) in which I have a SousVide Chef2 immersion rotary thermostat installed.

Pay attention to the display for two temperatures: 54.2 (current) and 60 (set), so if you want a PINK tender steak, then set 58.5 C sixty, this is a bit too much.

If you want a PINK tender steak, set the temperature to 58.5C

And I couldn’t resist - I’ll add a metaphor photo

A deep dive into Sous Vide technology and great results EVERY TIME.

After 2 hours, the thermostat will remind you with a loud squeak that the specified period has ended - and you can remove the bag. In principle, the meat can be eaten, but it looks like a steak for toothless old ladies with gastritis. Grayish brown and without crust.

Here I didn’t even play much with filters - it really looks like that - nondescript, but that’s not a problem at all! Let's fix this on a hot cast iron frying pan. Let's heat it up and add a little sunflower and butter so that it doesn't burn.

Let it sit on each side for 30-40 seconds, and then use kitchen tongs to fry the end parts.

Place it on a board and let it rest for a few minutes - you can cover it with foil, but I don’t practice it.

And now drum roll - and before you look at the next picture, I’ll clarify -

Sous vide allows you to cook a steak to the desired doneness every time, again and again, with the same 100% result.

Would you rate the uniformity of roasting? No overcooked crusts and no slimy center of the steak. I didn't play with colors in this photo - I just added a frame. The steak turned out beautifully juicy and elastic - this is the kind of steak that friends will come to you on Friday night and won’t leave until everyone has had a drink :))

And it was made not by a professional chef, but by an ordinary engineer; haute cuisine became accessible to everyone.

Thank you for reading this recipe, send us yours, we will appreciate it! And love your job as much as I love it.

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Sous vide at home

If this is your first time hearing the term “sous vide,” I envy you a little - after all, you have yet to become acquainted with this cooking technology, which will change all your ideas about tasty and healthy food. The victorious march of sous-vide technology (translated from French as “in a vacuum”) began with the food industry and restaurants, but now sous-vide has become available to even the most ordinary housewives. In order to get the most out of sous vide, you need special equipment, but some recipes can be made using only what you already have in your kitchen.

This article is a comprehensive guide to everything related to sous vide, written in human language.

The essence of sous vide technology

Let's start with the basics. The essence of the method is very simple: the products are sealed in a special plastic bag, from which the air is pumped out, and then cooked in water at a constant temperature, which usually does not exceed 70 degrees (in the case of vegetables, this limit is slightly higher). As a result, several goals are achieved at once:

• If, when frying or baking meat, its surface is exposed to temperatures several times higher than the cooking temperature, sous-vide technology cooks dishes delicately, and the temperature in the middle and on the surface of the finished product will be the same, nothing will dry out or burn;
• Thanks to low-temperature processing, cell membranes remain intact, so dishes turn out much juicier;
• Vacuum packaging preserves all the tastes and aromas inside the product, and promotes better penetration of spices and marinades into the product;
• The correct selection of cooking time and temperature softens the food, and in tough pieces of meat, which are usually boiled or stewed, muscle collagen is converted into gelatin: any cut, even the cheapest, can be cooked so that it has a divine taste and texture.
• Vegetables that undergo this method, on the other hand, retain a fresh, crisp texture that is almost impossible to achieve with conventional cooking.

Pork belly cooked using sous vide technology has a rich taste and literally melts in your mouth.

Disadvantages of the sous vide method

If we briefly summarize all of the above, we get the perfect taste, perfect aroma and perfect texture of the finished dish. It's a dream, not a method, isn't it? However, sous-vide technology also has disadvantages. I will list them, fortunately there are not so many of these shortcomings:

• The Maillard reaction, which is responsible for the golden brown crust of finished dishes, starts at a temperature of about 154 degrees - much higher than necessary for preparing any dishes using the sous vide method. This means that to give the finished dish an appetizing appearance, it will have to be fried either before or after cooking using this method.
• If cooking using sous vide technology occurs at a temperature below 52 degrees and takes more than 4 hours, there is a risk of proliferation of botulism pathogens, which feel very comfortable in these conditions. To avoid this danger, select a higher temperature for foods that take more than 4 hours to cook.
• Finally, the practical implementation of sous-vide in the form that is used in restaurants, allowing to achieve the best results, requires the presence of special devices: a vacuum sealer to pack food in vacuum bags, and a device that will maintain a constant temperature and control it with precision fractions of a degree. Next I will talk about how you can try to do without them.

Shrimp packed in a vacuum bag with pieces of butter

Sous vide in questions and answers

In this section, I have collected all the main questions that may arise when mastering the sous vide method. Click on the question you are interested in to reveal the answer, and if you haven’t found your question, write in the comments and I will add it to the article.

Sous vide for beginners

Although sous-vide is translated as “in a vacuum,” vacuum is not the main thing in this method, and it is quite possible to do without a vacuum sealer. There are two available replacements for this device.

First, cling film. Wrap the meat or fish as tightly as possible with cling film on all sides in several layers so that there are no cracks where water can penetrate, or air bubbles that will interfere with the transfer of heat to the products. If bubbles do appear, pierce the film, squeeze out the air, and then wrap your package in a couple more layers.

Secondly, plastic bags with a zip-lock fastener, like a regular zipper on a jacket or jeans. These bags are the most convenient alternative to a vacuum sealer. Place the food in the bag, and lower the bag into a large container of water so that only the top of the bag with the zipper remains above the water: the water in the container will squeeze the air out of the bag if you help it slightly with your hands, after which you can simply close the zipper.

These methods are great for sous vide cooking, but since it is not a true vacuum, it is not recommended to store cooked food for long.

There are quite a lot of recipes for preparing dishes using the sous vide method, but if you do not speak English and are accustomed to using recipes from the Russian-language segment of the Internet, I have bad news for you: this topic is almost not covered in RuNet. From Russian-language sources, I can humbly recommend my website (follow the link you will find a catalog with all recipes for sous vide) and my e-book of recipes for sous vide, which can be downloaded for free on the Books page.

Questions about using a vacuum cleaner

Questions about cooking sous vide

Security questions

Sous vide is the easiest way to poach an egg with the perfect shape and consistency.

Sous vide at home

The simplest home vacuumizer costs less than a blender, but at first you can do without it. The main beauty of a vacuum-packed product is that it can be cooked and thrown in the refrigerator, quickly reheating and serving when needed - a feature that is useful both in a restaurant and at home, but generally not necessary. Instead of a vacuum sealer, you can get by with cling film or a plastic bag with a ziplock - I described in detail how to do this in the previous section. Well, if you are cooking in liquid (sauce, juice, syrup, broth, etc.), an ordinary food bag will do: fold the food, fill it with liquid and tie the bag so that there is no air in it.

Now let's deal with water.

The main news: the water temperature will have to be measured and constantly monitored, so you won’t be able to do without a thermometer: I myself used a meat thermometer, although there are more suitable devices. However, it’s not all that complicated: in home sous vide devices, an error of one degree is quite acceptable, and with short cooking (it’s still better to start with those dishes that will take no more than half an hour to prepare), the difference will not be very noticeable and a few degrees.

Over the years that I have been writing about sous vide, I have communicated a lot with craftsmen who offered their own methods of temperature control of varying degrees of sophistication - from cooking dishes in the dishwasher (!) to using a multicooker paired with a thermostat. A multicooker is indeed one of the most affordable ways to maintain the required temperature; fortunately, the latest models of multicookers allow you to set the desired temperature with an accuracy of a degree. Well, with those who do not have such a multicooker, I will share my own experience.

A short video on how to make a sous vide using a saucepan and stove

Absolutely any food is suitable for cooking in sous vide, but it is better to practice using fish or meat. Season the product and rub it on all sides with suitable spices, then pack it in cling film or a ziplock bag in the manner described in the previous section. Place in a pan with preheated water, if necessary pressing down with something on top so that your package does not float, and bring to readiness: for fish it is 12-15 minutes at a temperature of 60-70 degrees, for red meat - 20-30 minutes at temperature 55 degrees for medium rare, 60 degrees for medium. To maintain the water temperature at the desired level, place the pan on low heat with a divider or in the oven preheated to the desired temperature, and check the temperature: often at first, then every 5-10 minutes. To quickly correct the situation, keep a kettle with boiling water and ice cubes on hand, and if you manage to find the right heating, consider that the problem is in the bag.

The cooking time should be selected depending on the thickness of the piece, and after cooking it is recommended to wipe the meat with a paper towel and quickly - no longer than 30 seconds - fry in hot oil to form an appetizing crust.

PS: For those wishing to dig a little deeper into sous-vide, I recommend checking out the extensive guide to this method. Of course, in English - we don’t have such sensible manuals yet.

Original: http://arborio.ru/texnologiya-sous-vide/#ixzz4FzZbcBrO
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Or how to turn mediocre meat into exceptional...

(with a prologue, an epilogue, and there’s also something about the case)

Prologue

Well, I must admit right away - I’m inquisitive, I’m interested in everything. Well, for example: who is more right, convinced Darwinists or supporters of neutral constructive evolution? I like neutralists better; they have a comprehensive answer to the question that has tormented everyone for a long time, “why is everything so difficult in life?” - “Well, it just happened that way.” In all seriousness

Or here's another: why does the newfound science of neurotheology claim that believers are, on average, dumber than atheists? Where did the huge yellow star from the Whirlpool Galaxy, whose image adorns probably millions of desktops all over the world, go?
In general, everything is not easy with the universe. To begin with, according to modern mythology, for some reason it is expanding all the time - how is that possible? Here, however, there are options: maybe it doesn’t swell by leaps and bounds at all, and all sorts of red shifts are simply the result of the fact that everything in the world’s mass increases over time. Everything, everything, silently and exponentially. It’s no more difficult to believe in this than in Hawking’s book about the history of time, where everything just falls apart and there is an obviously far-fetched Big Bang as the beginning of it. And it explains well the inexorable evolution of things from size 44 to size 52 in the wardrobes of many modern women, despite any efforts. Well, this is the law of nature, what...

As a way to satisfy my curiosity, I like to read. And travel. And as a practical test of the world's strength - cooking (otherwise you would have listened to me here!). And at the junction of all these activities I came across the French word Sous Vide. Although of course these are two words. The words were bad and abusive, and therefore I naturally remembered them.

And then everything is like in the biblical story - at the beginning they also had only words, but the matter was not limited to them. As a result, I became the happy owner of a Sous Vide stove and now I am happy to bring this new religion to the wide hooligan masses (and indeed to everyone who is ready to listen), which, in fact, is what this post is dedicated to, and not to any vague doubts about the fate of the universe as it seemed to you at first. Delicious food deserves the best dishes, and I’m going to buy some more from the Rondell http://www.rondell-shop.ru/ range and delight you with new experiments.

To the point: theory(where would we be without her)

In a nutshell, the essence of the sous vide technology (from now on I will call it in Russian and in one word) is the long-term cooking of food packaged in a vacuum at low temperatures (much below the boiling point of water). Google will tell you everything in detail in three or more words and even draw a picture if you wish - I don’t want to talk here about something that I didn’t come up with, I’d rather save space for my own experiences and impressions.

And they are like that. Let's start, of course, with bonuses:

1. This is delicious . The products fully reveal their natural taste and are maximally saturated with the aroma of seasonings (therefore, by the way, you need to season VERY carefully and avoid olive oil and garlic). You get absolute control over the degree of readiness (doneness) in the ENTIRE volume of the product. On the grill, you bring a piece of meat to a temperature of 50C, remove it and hope that it will rise to 55C while the piece is resting. Sous vide precisely guarantees the desired temperature. In addition, it is no secret that with the classic method of cooking, a steak looks like this: http://site/2013/07/30/%d1%84%d0%be%d1%82%d0%be-%d0%b4% d0%bd%d1%8f-615/

When cooking sous vide, you have meat that is evenly cooked throughout the thickness. Vegetables will never turn into mush. The fish will not be overdried. In addition, you can maintain the set temperature (= desired readiness) indefinitely. This makes it possible to select a cooking time when, for example, the denaturation of meat proteins reaches such a degree that even its tough cuts will acquire the tenderness of the tenderloin. You just need to choose the right temperature and wait.

2.This is healthy food. Yes, I think this is also important - you are what you eat. Products are cooked at low temperatures and, therefore, retain a maximum of useful vitamins and microelements (assuming that they were there initially, but that’s not the point now). If you wish, you can cook it without any fat or seasonings at all. You can guarantee not only the degree of readiness/doneness, but also pasteurization and even sterilization of the finished dish. If you, for example, are a pregnant woman or a small child, then most likely your verdict is well done, even if all your life you prefer rare.

Sous vide makes it possible to eat medium rare without the risk of contracting salmonellosis. Eggs can be pasteurized raw. By the way, to pasteurize a beef steak 3 cm thick, you need to maintain the temperature in the middle of the piece, for example, at 55 C (this is my favorite medium rare) for 3 hours. I can’t even imagine how this can be done on a grill, frying pan, etc. – in my opinion, the result will be an excellent sole for Mr. Polkovneg’s new boots...

3.It's profitable . It is clear that the idea requires investment. At least in the oven. Google will tell you how to simulate sous vide using a pan of water, an ice bucket, a thermometer and/or an oven. And even how to do without a vacuumizer. But, in my opinion, this is all from the evil one - I had to invest in equipment and consumables. But I get the same marble-quality steaks from ordinary raw materials located near Moscow. The budget for the stove is 8,500 rubles, a kilo of at least marbled beef starts from 1,400 rubles at best, more or less decent beef from the Moscow region starts from 350 rubles (and simpler pieces are even cheaper). It’s not difficult to calculate how much meat the oven will burn off. But you can cook more than just beef...

4. It's comfortable . Nothing burns; it is practically impossible to overdry, overcook, overcook or somehow spoil the product (at least I have never succeeded so far, this can be added to point 3), and there is no need to stand at the stove either. A dish prepared in a vacuum and properly cooled (in an ice bath) can be stored in the refrigerator many times longer than in ordinary containers and without any damage to quality.

5. There are things , which can only be cooked sous vide. Of course, you can live without them, but it’s interesting!

Well, as usual, a couple of fly in the ointment:

1. This is for the lazy but organized. If you remember the need to prepare dinner an hour before serving, you are in trouble. Cooking time is often measured in hours and days. Although medium rare salmon, by the way, can actually be cooked in 20 minutes. Fish is generally an ideal product for sous vide.

2. You have to learn the secrets of sous vide in real Russian conditions using the method of scientific poking. I haven’t found any books by Russian chefs on this topic; there are about one and a half ready-made solutions online. I regularly go to study with professional chefs, but they don’t offer sous vide classes yet (for a general audience; in cooking schools, I think, they already teach this). As a result, the main source of information is books by Western experts. But here the difference in the quality of the sources makes itself felt - after all, we have different standards, it seems. True, experience accumulates quite quickly.

Well, practice makes perfect, and therefore let’s decisively move on to practice (the second page of the text ends - it’s about time!).

On point: practice

To clearly demonstrate the capabilities of sous vide, I decided to choose the simplest and at the same time the most difficult - beef steak. I myself started with the Australian striploin, and it was amazing. But, to be honest, it’s quite difficult to ruin such meat in any case.

It seems to me that cooking should ideally add something to the original products. Well, that is, preparing a gorgeous dish from gorgeous ingredients is a craft (respected! Many people don’t master it). To prepare a lousy dish from excellent ingredients is crookedness and irresponsibility. But making something beautiful out of the average is an art.

Therefore, let’s take: a mediocre piece of beef (in the sense that it is of plebeian origin, obviously not grain-fed, and you can’t say anything good about its marbling, but chilled, of the right color, preferably bought from a trusted butcher friend, etc. - absolutely crap It’s not worth eating anyway); It would be good to understand from which part of the carcass it was cut - the cooking time depends on this;

(I have a 700 gram piece of butt, 5 cm thick)

Garlic, piece soft butter, any grass, which you like to smoke, good cognac; fresh vegetable goodies for salad, hot mustard, honey, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, offsuit peppercorns:

Meat tender(well, this is not harmful to any piece: the blades leave micro-slits, which provide more uniform heating and, as a result, reduce cooking time, ensure the penetration of seasonings into the middle; it is also believed that the tenderizer reduces moisture loss during cooking and reduces shrinkage - although I don’t know due to what...)

Season sparingly with sea salt and coarsely ground pepper in a mortar:

We pack (the vacuumizer, by the way, turned out to be very useful in the kitchen):

And we send it to the oven.

We look at the plate corresponding to the degree of roasting and temperature ( 50*C – rare, 55*C – medium rare, 60*C – medium, at temperatures above 65*C the meat becomes tougher). Let's look at another tablet: the time to reach the set temperature in the middle of a piece of a flat shape 5cm thick is 3.5 hours. Let's look at the third plate: the pasteurization time for a piece 5 cm thick at a temperature of 55*C is 4.5 hours.

Then we look into the crystal ball - we need to somehow determine whether by that time the piece will not only be ready and safe, but also soft enough (roughly speaking, will all the collagen of the meat turn into gelatin). Mine told me that it will turn in 8 hours. We inform the stove about this and say “pot, cook!” let's go mind our own business.

There is an important point here: I know from experience that this is a rare case when it is better to “over” than “under”. As you increase the cooking time, you do not lose anything, but you gain more and more confidence in the result. It is good to cook tough pieces of carcass (breast, shoulder) for a day or two at the same temperature of 55*C-60*C. In 30 hours at 57*C, my lamb ham reached the softness and elasticity of tofu.

That is, the idea is simple: if the meat is very tender, of the highest quality and can be chewed almost raw, then you just need to bring the piece to a given degree of doneness = temperature. If you are also afraid of salmonella, listeria and other intestinal evils, increase the cooking time to pasteurize it. But if the quality of the source is not ideal, then it is worth cooking longer, the coarser and tougher the piece. How much is a matter of experience.

Half an hour before it’s ready, we return to the kitchen. Let's remember the sauce. Turn the garlic with herbs and salt into a paste in a mortar, add butter, mix.

Add a tablespoon of cognac...

Mix again. It just seems that they will never become friends: we work patiently and gently. This is just preliminary caresses; we save the pressure for later. Put it in the cold.

We cut the vegetables as we like, I like them into large pieces, “country style”.

Mix the sauce for the salad. The initial proportion of mustard, honey, vinegar and oil is 1:1:1:1 + a little salt. We taste and adjust the proportion of spicy-sweet-sour-salty to your taste. The color turned out, of course, terrible, but we won’t show it to anyone - we’ll sprinkle it on the vegetables, no one will notice.

Tadaaam! We take out the meat, stick it in for a while - it doesn’t look much like a steak. It doesn’t look like boiled, stewed, baked or fried either. We need to do something about this - feeding time, however.

Let's burn! My advice is to shoot with napalm. Those. at the maximum temperature available to you in the minimum time. If you use a frying pan or grill, it will be hot until it smokes. And keep an eye on the time - seconds should count. It would be a shame to dry out the result at this stage. We save the juice - this is an excellent base for future sauces.

I go the other way: I have a favorite blowtorch. Mine uses butane - propane, they say it can leave an unpleasant odor. I bought the lamp several years ago when I was texture-finishing home furniture from then untreated pine. Since then, she has firmly taken her place in the kitchen and has no plans to move out yet (but the steamer has moved under the bed - no one wants it??).

I brush the meat with olive oil (although this is not at all necessary)

I'm burning...

Sous vide gurus say the result should be mahogany brown, but if you've lost your pontoon fan, screw it, just have a good old golden brown.

Cut into portions...

At this point we remember about the sauce - damn, it’s made with butter... If you are a girl and you feel sorry for the sweat spilled in the gym and the blood of the cosmetologist (this happens to me) - feel free to give the sauce to your Man, and just flambe your piece in cognac (I hope , is there anything left in the bottle?). If you are a boy or you just don’t care (and this happens too), then you put a spoonful of cold sauce on the hot meat and “let the whole world wait.”

Serve with salad and wine. Today I have Italian Aretino Tipici Chianti DOCG (I generally believe that Italian wine is the best).

And yes, this is the moment when we can no longer hold back the pressure: we dig into the meat with our teeth, wash it down with dry red wine - and enjoy. For me, this was a revelation from the art of cooking - the most tender, juicy and... I don’t even know how to explain. Meat with the taste of meat, I would say...

Epilogue

At the moment, chicken, duck (legs and breasts), lamb ham, beef of all stripes (even in the form of chopped shoulder steak (!!) instead of the classic head part of the tenderloin), catfish (I hope to post it with the blessing of our Commander-in-Chief) have been tested sous vide. – and to this day I have not been disappointed even once. Ahead are seafood, vegetables, eggs. Dessert! They say sous vide watermelon is generally an independent phenomenon in the Universe. Well, here I am again talking about her...

Well, if you've read this far, I guess I should thank you for your attention. Thank you!

photo from the site www.future-food.ru

Now I don’t remember where I first heard the word “sous vide,” but it was about a year ago, and at first I didn’t pay much attention to this phenomenon. But the position obliges me to be aware of the latest culinary trends, and I began to understand the issue. Understanding sous vide can take a very long time. Just look at the chapter on sous vide in Modernist Cuisine! But I suggest understanding the basic aspects of sous vide first.

New world

For me, my passion for cooking began with culinary LJ. I only came to sous vide today, and this is quite natural. After all, how does our culinary development occur? At first we just cook according to recipes. Some things work out, some don't. And then the understanding comes that the recipe is not a panacea. And technology is the key to success. Sous vide is the very technology that, with little effort, can give us the perfect result! What chef doesn’t dream of a steak that is perfectly done throughout the entire thickness of the piece? About an egg with the most delicate creamy yolk and an equally tender, not the least bit rubbery white? All this can be achieved with the help of sous vide, and all this is not at all difficult if you know a few simple rules.

What is sous vide?

The most important thing in sous vide is not the vacuum, as many people think, but precise control over the temperature and cooking time. Sous vide allows you to achieve results that are almost impossible with traditional cooking methods. An egg cooked sous vide at 65 degrees will be a revelation for you, as will a steak that is perfectly juicy throughout the entire thickness of the piece and at exactly the temperature you prefer. Heating of food in sous vide is absolutely uniform, and you do not need to overheat or underheat the product to get the desired result only in the middle of the piece. Sous vide is especially relevant for fish and meat, where the period of time during which you can get an ideal result is so short that it is easy to overheat them (overcook, overcook, etc.). For example, fish remains juicy and tender within a very narrow temperature range. Everyone has their own preferences, but it’s hard to disagree that the temperature of the frying pan is much higher than the ideal temperature of properly cooked fish or meat. Considering that the temperature of the frying pan reaches 200 degrees and above, the surface and edges of fish or meat will always fry much more than its middle. It is further complicated by the fact that food prepared using the traditional method continues to cook even after we have removed it from the heat and even from the frying pan. The surface of the fish is hotter than the center, and the heat from the surface begins to mostly penetrate into the center until the temperature throughout the thickness of the piece is almost equalized. That is, we need not only to have time to stop the heat treatment in time, but also to calculate its strength in such a way as to take into account how many degrees the food will gain due to residual heat.

In contrast, sous vide is a very simple way to control temperature. All we need is to pack portions of the product into bags (not even necessarily vacuum bags) and send them to a water bath at a given temperature and time. Also, when you remove the food from the sous vide, it will not continue to cook since its surface and center temperatures are already in equilibrium.

Perfect control gives consistent results. Since there is minimal temperature fluctuation when cooking sous vide, the result is extremely predictable and always repeatable. No skill or judgment of a chef who cooks with traditional heat sources will give such consistency.

Other benefits of sous vide

Juiciness

Since the product is packaged in a bag, the moisture remains in it without dissolving in the pot or pan. Additionally, the lower temperatures of sous vide cooking prevent the food from drying out. At temperatures above 60 degrees, collagen in cells shrinks and begins to push out moisture.

Tenderness

Sous vide allows you to cook tough cuts of meat at incredibly low temperatures. At the same time, the meat becomes tender while remaining perfectly cooked.

Texture

Sous vide opens up new textures for us. Products cooked in sous vide taste completely different. This is partly due to vacuum packaging, which can thicken some foods, such as watermelon. The lack of high temperatures gives a texture that the traditional cooking method will not provide. The meat or fish turns out very tender, juicy, and at the same time elastic.

Convenience

Some may consider the longer cooking time in sous vide to be a disadvantage of this method, but in fact, this is also the convenience of sous vide. Yes, sous vide often requires advance planning. But during this time you don’t need to do anything at all. Even if you leave the food in sous vide for a while, nothing will happen. The product temperature will not rise above the set temperature. In addition, it is very convenient to put food cooked in sous vide directly in a vacuum in the refrigerator or even freeze it, and use it when needed, just reheat it.

In general, sous vide cooking consists of several steps:

1. Season the product and seal it in a vacuum bag.
2. Place the packages with the product in water preheated to the desired temperature.
3. Wait for the right time.
4. Remove, quickly fry (optional) or chill in refrigerator until needed.

Safety

Sous vide is a completely safe way to cook food. You just need to know a few rules and understand the issue of pasteurization. But this post is not rubber, so we will discuss this separately.

Temperature and Time - 2 pillars of sous vide using steaks as an example

I will show you the results of sous vide cooking using steaks as an example. . And in future posts we will discuss sous vide cooking in more detail. Let's talk about safety, vacuum packaging (and its necessity), pasteurization and alternatives to sous vide.

What is the perfect steak? Of course, everyone may have a different idea. But in general, opinions agree that the meat should be soft and juicy. After reaching a certain temperature (60 degrees Celsius), the meat loses its juiciness and becomes dry. Already at 70 degrees the meat becomes completely dry. Not everyone likes their steaks medium rare, but medium rare steak is the most commonly preferred option. Medium steak in a restaurant varies between 55-60 degrees. And it’s unlikely that at least one chef guarantees you a result that is accurate to one degree. Only if the steak is not cooked sous vide.

So what do we need to know to cook steak? The right temperature! And the cooking time at this temperature.
For me, and for many people, the ideal medium is 55-57 degrees Celsius.
How long should I cook at this temperature?
We are concerned about two aspects - meat readiness and safety.
Since sous vide is just beginning to be heard in our country, and for our Internet sous vide is a village in the Vishgorod district of the Kyiv region in Ukraine, I am guided by the American safety tables recommended by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture).

In general, food safety is a separate huge topic that I really want to touch on here. All I can say for now is that we are being intimidated much more than we are worth. But the USDA recommends keeping meat at 55 degrees for 112 minutes, that is, almost 2 hours. During this time, all life-threatening bacteria are destroyed. I believe that one hour is enough for a good marbled steak weighing 250-300 grams. We will still fry the meat in a frying pan to give it the caramel crust that we value steaks so much for. The inside of the meat muscle is completely sterile, and bacteria usually live (if present) on the surface of the meat. In addition, during frying the meat will gain a few more degrees.

There is no point in giving sous vide cooking time tables here. It all depends on the type of product and its weight, shape and thickness. Anyone who purchases sous vide will definitely stock up on the necessary literature, in which they will find all the necessary tables and temporary recommendations. It is worth knowing that the larger and thicker the piece of food, the longer it will take to cook.

I cooked two steaks. One was fried in a frying pan to an internal temperature of 55-57 degrees, the other was cooked sous vide at 55 degrees and fried very quickly in a hot frying pan.
The result is as they say in the photo.

Steak fried in a frying pan - 55 degrees inside. and overcooked dry meat closer to the surface. If you don’t have sous vide, and don’t have any plans yet, read my next post. I'll tell you how to properly fry a steak.

Steak cooked sous vide before searing - a perfect 55 degrees throughout the cut

Sous vide steak, quickly fried in a frying pan

If anyone is interested, the steaks were marbled meat, grain-fed, Australia.

Flavor and texture

Considering that the meat was very good, both steaks were tasty. BUT, against the background of a sous vide steak, the dryness of the upper layers of a steak from a frying pan is felt many times more critical. The sous vide steak is incredibly tender and the consistency is perfect.

What types of units are there for sous vide?