Method · Wet and slow
Sous vide
Set the exact doneness you want, and hit it every time.
Sous vide is food sealed in a bag and cooked in water held at one exact temperature. The water can’t get hotter than the number you set, so the food can’t overcook. Then a fast sear gives it a crust. It takes the guessing out of expensive meat.
This lesson is free, start to finish. So is every other one.
At a glance
- Best for
- Steaks, pork chops, chicken, eggs, fish, anything you can’t afford to miss
- Heat
- The water is set to the finish temperature
- Time
- 1 to 4 hours for tender cuts, hands-off
- Level
- Easy to do. You need the tool.
What you need
- An immersion circulator
- Heats the water and holds it to the degree.
- A deep pot or plastic tub
- Enough water to cover the food with room to move.
- Zip-top freezer bags or a vacuum sealer
- Either works. The bag only needs the air out.
- Cast-iron skillet
- For the sear at the end.
- Paper towels and a wire rack
- The food comes out wet. It has to be dry before it sears.
Why it works
In a pan or an oven, the heat is far hotter than the temperature you want the food to reach. You are trying to pull it off at the right second. In a water bath, the heat is exactly the temperature you want. Set 131°F and a steak comes to 131°F all the way through and stops. An extra half hour changes very little.
What it can’t do is brown. Water never gets hot enough. So every sous vide cook ends with a hard, fast sear.
Bag it
- Season the food first. Salt, pepper, a sprig of thyme, a smashed garlic clove.
- No oil in the bag. It pulls flavor out of the meat.
- One layer. Don’t stack pieces in a bag.
- No vacuum sealer? Lower the open zip-top bag slowly into the water. The water pushes the air out. Seal it just above the surface.
- If the bag floats, the food won’t cook evenly. Clip it down or weigh it with a spoon inside the bag.
A steak, step by step
- Set the circulator: 129°F toward rare, 131°F for medium-rare, 137°F for medium. Pick a number and stick to it.
- Season and bag the steaks. Lower them in once the water is up to temperature.
- Cook 2 hours for a 1½-inch steak. It needs at least 90 minutes to heat through. Past 4 hours the texture goes soft.
- Take the steaks out of the bag. Pat them bone dry. Rest them on a rack for 10 minutes and pat them again.
- Heat cast iron over high heat for 5 minutes, until it smokes. Add a little high-heat oil.
- Sear 45 seconds a side. You are browning the outside. The inside is already done.
- Sear the fat edge for 30 seconds. Slice and serve. It needs almost no rest.
Time, temperature and safety
- Under 130°F, keep the cook under two and a half hours. Long cooks need 130°F or higher.
- Thickness sets the time. A thicker piece takes longer to heat to the middle.
- Pork chops: 140 to 145°F for 1 to 3 hours. Juicy from edge to edge.
- Chicken is the one to be careful with. 165°F is the simple rule. Lower temperatures only work with long, tested hold times, so use a tested chart, not a guess.
- Eat it or chill it. If it isn’t being seared and served, cool the sealed bag in ice water and put it in the fridge.
- The USDA line for steak is 145°F with a three-minute rest. Lower is the cook’s choice.
Eggs and custards
Eggs change texture degree by degree, which makes them the best show of what this tool can do. Egg custard blended smooth and cooked in small jars at 172°F for an hour comes out silky. A few degrees more and it’s rubber. Close the jar lids finger-tight only, so air can get out.
When it goes wrong
- No crust
- The surface was wet. Dry it, rest it on a rack, dry it again, and use a smoking-hot pan.
- Gray band under the crust
- The sear ran long. Forty-five seconds a side. Chill the steak for 10 minutes before searing if your pan is slow.
- Soft, mushy texture
- It stayed in too long. Tender cuts want 1 to 4 hours, not all day.
- The bag floated
- Air in the bag. Open it, push the air out under water, reseal, and weigh it down.
- It tastes boiled
- No sear, or raw garlic in the bag for a long cook. Sear hard, and go easy on raw garlic.
Practice on these