The Sous Vide Cooking Method

Upon starting this class, I was fairly new to the world of skilled cooking. As the weeks progressed I learned more and more new terms and techniques, but one that particularly stuck with me was the cooking method sous vide. Being a totally foreign term to me, I listened intently to Dr. Caswell’s description of the sous vide cooking method, but didn’t have my “aha!” moment with the term until mid-February. While babysitting for a family on Valentine’s Day, I meandered into the kitchen of their home and came across a contraption I had never seen before. After a few minutes I finally realized this plastic wrapped steak floating around in warm water was the sous vide that Mr. Caswell had been referring to all along. Upon reading this week’s pre-investigation assignment, I knew exactly what I wanted to write about, sous vide.

  Sous vide, translated from French, means “under vacuum,” this name comes from the vacuum sealed bags that the food is cooked in. To begin the sous vide cooking process, one must first place the food to be cooked, usually meat or vegetables, in a vacuum sealed bag. The bags of food are then placed in “...a water bath or steam oven at a specific temperature and time.” (Briggs et al., p. 1, 2019) The temperature and length of time that the food is cooked under depends on what is being cooked and what the desired outcome is. For instance, a steak might be cooked in a sous vide at 130 degree for 1 hour, as sous vide cooking is “...often at lower temperatures and longer times than traditional cooking methods.” (Briggs et al., p. 1, 2019) However, the cooking time and temperature could be altered if the desired outcome is for the steak to be more rare or well done. The benefits of sous vide are far beyond what one would initially think, as stated by Uttaro et al. “Advantages of the basic technique include increasing the useful life of cooked meat; rapid preparation of hot dishes from pre-cooked meat; allowing lower-value meat to be used in premium-priced dishes; and non-dilution of meat juices.” (p. 1, 2019) As we can infer from this short statement, sous vide is a miracle worker when it comes to cooking meat. Though it is a relatively new and unheard of technique, sous vide will soon be popular for its wonders in the kitchen.

References

Briggs, W., Papadopoulos, A., & Wilcock, A. (2019). Sous Vide Cooking in Restaurants: A

   Qualitative Study of Ontario Public Health Inspector Knowledge, Experience, Practices

   and Needs. Food Protection Trends, 39(1), 51–61. Retrieved from

http://ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db

   =buh&AN=133713063&site=eds-live

Uttaro, B., Zawadski, S., & McLeod, B. (2019). Efficacy of multi-stage sous-vide cooking on

   tenderness of low value beef muscles. Meat Science, 149, 40–46. Retrieved from

   https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/10.1016/j.meatsci.2018.11.008