The Return of Uncle Nate's Sous Vide Lessons! Or, 'Yes on the bag, no on the boil!'
Nate Whiting-- Hey everyone! Thank you for the questions regarding my last blog post. We always appreciate feedback! Thanks for reading!
Apparently, I painted with too broad a brush and overlooked a very common sous vide misconception. I'd like to address that, and also to answer some requests for times and temperatures I commonly use.
{What Nate's not telling you is that some of those requests came from me. -JS}
A frequent response was 'sous vide is just like boiling in a bag, right?'
Sorry, my friends, this is a very common misunderstanding that I failed to mention in my first post.
Ya see, the most basic definition of cooking is the application of heat to food to control moisture and temperature. Operative word being CONTROL. This, my friends, is the name of the entire game, and sous vide is the ultimate in control. It simply can't be beat for precision.
Think of it like this:
Sous vide is to elevator music (gentle pace, gentle flow [low convection, low temp]),
as boiling is to thrash metal (violent, rapid convection [high convection, high temp]).
Boiling is undeniably a great technique. But boiling, like thrash metal, has its time and place. When the time is right, it’s nearly unbeatable. Its ideal for tasks like cooking green vegetables (Big Pot Blanching- give it a Google}, fresh and dried pasta cookery, hard boiled eggs, and a few other outliers. However, many things, especially proteins, require a gentler touch. Boiling a short rib is like listening to Metallica when you're massively hungover.
{Don't knock it till you've tried it. -JS}
However, with sous vide, If your water temperature is at or near boiling, you’re basically wasting your time. The bagging steps have now become pointless, and more importantly, you're missing out on the magic. Plus, even if you are using a quality Ziploc, your bag's probably gonna melt.
The beauty of sous vide is equilibrium cooking. Equal temperature between the ingredient and the heat source. When the water temp and the internal temp of the ingredient become the same, your food will never overcook.
Anyone can consistently achieve ideal moisture retention and perfect edge-to-edge cooking (that magical state when a steak is perfect medium rare from wall to wall, without that gray ring of dryness that says 'I was grilled'). Grilling is overrated.
(As a side note: over time, textures will eventually change, (which, depending on the cut, can be an enormous benefit), but barring power or mechanical failure, the temperature will not. More on that below.)
As a comparison, traditional techniques rely on gradient cooking temperatures; (eg 500℉ Grill 165℉ Chicken breast). This obviously works, but whoever said 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' never came up with anything new. Consider this: when grilling, your margin for error to nail that perfect cook is greatly decreased. Even professionals can struggle with this. {Don't I know it! -JS} I approach nearly all my cooking with the old cliche of Control the Control-ables. Think about it. There's enough distractions and variables as it is (especially at home). Blame it on my restaurant background, but in any setting I always prefer control and consistency.
“My” common Sous Vide Time and Temperatures
I said it before, but it bears repeating:
In general, If your ingredients are left cooking for longer than the recommended time (and I'm talking way longer, like 30 minutes plus), the texture could change. These changes are especially noticeable with common steakhouse beef cuts, and most poultry. Still, if the time runs over, FEAR NOT! Your food will not be ruined or overcooked, it's just that the final texture may be a bit unfamiliar to most American palates. And hell, you might even like it more.
Here's the principle you need to remember. Very tender cuts with little connective tissue are great with short cook times, but start losing texture with longer ones. Conversely, stewing cuts with lots of collagen will be tough with short cook times, but perfectly tender with longer ones. If you cook a beef fillet for several hours at 130F, it will start to get kinda mushy. However, if you cook a chuck steak for several hours at 130F, it will change your mind about the less expensive cuts. You can use the tendency of sous vide to overly tenderize a steak to your advantage! I’d go so far as to say more ingredients benefit from these changes in textures than do not. In cheaper cuts, these changes are usually the goal, which is nearly unattainable without the technique. All the while, the ingredient will not be overcooked. Under the right conditions, a fully cooked short rib will still be rosy. Pretty cool, right?
(Check back in the future for a post on our dueling Mid Rare Beef Short Rib.)
Anyway, enough of my drivel,here's a few of the times and temperatures that I frequently use. In my recipes ,I always use the (far superior) metric system, but I've included the temperatures in Fahrenheit as well because I guess I’m a nice guy…. Or so I’m told…..
Please let me know if you're looking for anything specific, or sign up for chefsteps (Go do it!}
-Cheers,
NW
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