Sous vide at home? It’s easy perfection
Cook those restaurant quality steaks or chops
I’ve always been a measuring-cup kind of cook.
If a recipe calls for 3 cups of low-sodium chicken broth, that’s exactly what I pour. I don’t add a dash of this or a pinch of that. I don’t skip ingredients, even if I don’t have them on hand. Substitutions? They give me the twitches. I say all of this to establish a simple truth: I’m not a great cook. Not an awful one, either, but definitely not the kind who can open a cupboard and whip up some brilliance.
But today, I’m a much better cook than I used to be, and I can give you the moment things changed. It was in November, when I first started plunging my meats into water.
Yes, water.
It’s called sous vide cooking, and in the months since I received a sous vide immersion circulator as a gift, I’ve cooked some of the most flavourful and moist chicken breasts I’ve ever eaten. Same for my pork chops, which I no longer need a table saw to cut.
I’m not bragging here. In fact, I kind of wish I were.
Sous vide, however, is not something you boast about. It’s easy. Ridiculously easy.
You simply take your food — usually meats and vegetables — and put it in a bag in a hot bath until it hits a precise internal temperature. Then you take it out and sear it on a hot grill or with some oil and butter in a skillet. That’s it.
You can do this in standalone sous vide cookers — good ones run you $300 and up — or with an immersion circulator that clasps to a pot or cooler full of water. I have one of those.
As for the results: remember the thick steak you had in that fancy restaurant, how it was crazy tender and perfectly pink? Now you can cook those restaurant-quality steaks or chops or vegetables. You can draw raves at dinners and weekend parties.
If you’re a measuring-cup kind of cook, it’s the best of both worlds — simple and spectacular. It’s like a cheat code for cooking.
Which, oddly, is not all that it’s cracked up to be.
I asked J. Kenji Lopez-Alt about this. Kenji is one of the country’s hottest food writers and bloggers. His new cookbook, “The Food Lab,” finds an entertaining intersection of food and science. He also happens to be one of the first mainstream writers to type the praises of sous vide cooking.
Sous vide immersion cookers appeal to chefs and gadget nerds, Kenji says, and mostly to men. Why? “It’s consistent and it’s reliable and it doesn’t depend that much on the user,” he says. Translation: it’s hard to screw up.
Kenji also says immersion circulators are being marketed right now as a weeknight convenience device, which doesn’t quite get it right, he thinks. Although he likes to sous vide a batch of chicken breasts to use during the week, he uses it more for weekends and parties when he doesn’t have all day to sit by the fire.
“It’s really good for the simple things,” he says.
He’s right about the basics. I’ve begun cooking food in batches, too. I can drop in a half-dozen chicken breasts in individual bags — some with salt and pepper, some with a more complex rub — then use them later for chicken salad, pot pie or an enchilada recipe my sons like. Pork doesn’t reheat quite as moistly, but a batch of sous vide carrots can spend days in the refrigerator and still come out bright and full of flavour.
A note about food safety: if you’re worried about bacteria or cooking in plastic bags, don’t. On his website, sous vide expert Robert Baldwin offers a long and helpful explanation about how sous vide cooking kills food pathogens. As for the bags, so long as you’re using products made of polyethylene or polypropylene (such as resealable freezer bags), scientists say you’re not endangering yourself or your family.
Sous Vide Pork Chops MAKES 4 SERVINGS
4 bone-in pork rib chops, 1½ inches thick each (about 2½ pounds) Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 4 sprigs thyme or rosemary (optional) 2 garlic cloves (optional) 2 shallots, thinly sliced (optional) 2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil (optional) 2 tbsp butter (optional)
Fill a heatproof container with water (such as a deep cooking pot or a small insulated cooler). Place the immersion circulator in the water and set it to the desired temperature of the food. (See list below.) Season pork chops generously with salt and pepper. Place in sous vide bags along with herbs, garlic and shallots (if using) and distribute evenly. Seal bags and place in the water bath until it reaches the desired temperature.
To finish in a pan: Remove pork chops from the bags and pat very dry with paper towels. Add oil to a heavy cast-iron or stainless steel skillet and place it over the hottest burner you have. Preheat skillet until it starts to smoke. If desired, add 1 tablespoon of butter.
Place pork chops in skillet, using your fingers or a set of tongs. Brown chops about 45 seconds, until the crust is deep brown and very crisp. Turn chops and add 1 tablespoon butter, thyme, rosemary, garlic and/or shallots. Cook about 45 seconds, spooning butter over the chops as they cook.
To finish on the grill: Light charcoal and burn until covered with gray ash. Arrange coals on one side of grill, place the cooking grate in place, cover and preheat for 5 minutes. Place pork chops directly over the hot side of the grill, turning every 15 to 30 seconds, until a deep, rich crust has formed, about 1½ minutes total.
To save for later: When you pull your food out of the water, plunge it in an ice bath until thoroughly chilled. Bring the food back to room temperature (or put it back in a sous vide bath to get to your desired temperature) before finishing in a pan or on the grill.
Sous vide cooking temperatures (all about 1 to 4 hours): Rare: 130 degrees. Medium-rare: 140 degrees. Medium-well: 150 degrees. Well-done: 160 degrees. From Kenji Lopez-Alt on seriouseats.com.