Sous Vide vs Traditional Cooking
When you talk about Sous Vide cooking, people immediately associate it with professional chefs and fancy restaurants. And because Sous Vide is used by the professionals, we feel that it should be difficult for the average person in the home. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The fact is that Sous Vide cooking is the simplest way of cooking to get perfectly cooked food that is tender, flavorful and full of moisture.
Simplicity of Sous Vide Cooking
It is the process of sealing food in a vacuum bag and placing it in a water bath with an immersion cooker set at a precise low temperature and time. When the cooking time has elapsed, take the food out of the bag and give it a quick sear if so desired.
As long as the right temperature and time is set, there is no chance of over-cooking the food. There is no need to constantly check on the cooking process or having to flip or turn the food over as with traditional cooking.
Sous vide is especially useful for seafood and meat since the proper doneness for this kind of food may vanish when you use traditional method to cook them.
Food Tenderness
The most important benefit of sous vide cooking over traditional cooking is the tenderness of your food. When cooking with low temperature, the tough collagen in meat can be broken down without the proteins losing its moisture and turning tough.
In vegetables, cooking at a temperature below the boiling point ensures that the vegetables are properly cooked while still retaining their crispness and firmness.
Cooking the traditional method cannot guarantee that you will not overcook or undercook the food as it is difficult to control precise heat needed for perfect cooking.
With sous vide cooking, your food will not be overcooked even if you leave it longer that the time you had set. It will still retain its flavor and tenderness.
When you cook using the traditional style of cooking, your meats will be cooked more on the outside parts touching the pan or grill, with the insides being less cooked. With sous vide, you’ll achieve a consistent doneness all the way through, every time.
Moisture Retention
Because food is cooked in vacuum sealed bags, they tend to retain all the flavors, aromas, texture and moisture.
Very Little Shrinkage
Heat tightens the protein. Collagen begins to denature at 140°F/60°C squeezing meat fibers leading to a release of juices and shrinkage. Because meats are cooked at low temperatures using the sous vide method, meat tend to shrink far less compared to traditional style cooking.
Cooking Time
When it comes to cooking times, the traditional style of cooking gets your food done very much faster. For example, cooking beef, lamb, chicken of fish on a pan takes a few minutes compared to 1 to 4 hours in a sous vide water bath. Or, roasting a boneless chicken breast in an oven could take up to 45 minutes compared to about 4 hours cooking sous vide.
Although it takes much longer, cooking sous vide has its own advantages. To start with, there is no need to give the food your constant attention once it starts the cooking process. This means that you can spend the time preparing other foods, or seeing to other tasks that require your attention.
The main advantage of sous vide cooking is the difference in the flavors, moistness, texture and even-cooking of food. Although the meats may lack the visual appeal in the lack of color, it can be resolved by searing in a pan or with the use of a blowtorch.
So, we hope that this post has helped you see the simplicity of cooking the sous vide method. Not only is it easy, but the foods get a more flavorful taste and texture. All you need to do is vacuum seal the food in a plastic bag, and place it in a water bath circulated by an immersion cooker set at a precise low temperature and fixed time. The machine does all the work without you having to check on the progress all the time. You never have to worry about overcooking.