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Originally Posted by afc wimbledon
its a method of cooking meat at barely safe temperatures for massively longer than wacking said meat on a BBQ or into a pan.
You do this so that the meat is more tender but if you want that lovely fried taste you have to pre fry it anyway, to be honest I have had Sous Vide food cooked in a resteraunt and it didn't strike me as worth the effort, tasted different, well the texture was different, not better just different.
Given it takes hours, requires a pricey bit of kit and if done wrong can make you very very sick I'm not sure its worth the candle.
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TL;DR - IMO, sous vide is a fantastic low error method to prepare foods. I'd also go as far to say that something pulled out of a sous vide "cook" isn't complete. It's 90-95% at best. So perhaps "cook" in your definition is a misnomer.
I sorta thought this about the sous vide when I first acquired it. I was scared to have buyer's remorse. I wasn't a huge fan of the stuff that was coming out even when finishing it with certain methods. But when I changed my mindset to explain the sous vide to myself as a "hard to screw up food prep pre cook methodology", things made much more sense quickly and I appreciated the sous vide more. I rarely put more than basic stuff in sous vide cooks. I put the main spices on the meats when finishing. Better control of flavors.
I'm considering to a pressure cooker for speed cooks soon and continuing the sous vide for slow cooks. The sous vide is excellent for bringing the internals of a to "pretty damn close to restaurant quality" every time. The ability to scientifically get as close to Schroedinger's cat for cook/non cooked meats is fun as well. You might be right regarding those that test their luck in terms of cooked vs soft, but I'm guessing far more people get sick doing things incorrectly using normal cooking methods than those being stupid and pushing their luck on a sous vide cook. Just as many individuals overcook their food to completely ensure it's safe to eat and that ends up with nasty overcooked foods as well.
Is it "slower" than a bunch of other methodologies? Sure. But there is a far friendlier margin of error. Forgot the "cook" for an hour? The food is still fine. Induction vs gas? No issues there. Convection vs non-convection and big vs little oven with different hot and cold zones? for me, it's a tool that allows individuals to get really friggin close to a recipe every damn time.
Perhaps if considered a set of training wheels, it's easier to understand. Many who have used the sous vide enjoy the margin of error. If we do a cook for 45 mins and we get delayed and pull it out 15 minutes later, all is not lost. In fact, we probably won't notice much of a difference. This is especially useful for dinner parties where certain people are always late. Food won't be cold due to a late guest. Just leave the "cook" in water and delay the finishing to a more convenient time.
Regular cook in an oven or a pan? GG whatever it was that was cooking if you miss the timing by a few minutes or longer. Also, the ability to pre-freeze a cook in a freezer then pull it out and plop it into a "cook" while doing other stuff is fantastic. I can "prep" certain parts of my dish while I do other parts of the meal. Sure, if you cook one dish, a sous vide is pointless, but if you can cook with nearly zero error a piece of meat that merely requires finishing at the end while you prep sides, clean, dessert etc. IMO that's awesome.
Quote:
Originally Posted by afc wimbledon
Save your money then, buy a decent instant read thermometer, cook your meat to the safe minimal temp and then let it relax for 5 minutes after you pull it out, it will taste as good as anything you can cook for 10 hours in a slow cooker
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If all conditions are perfect, sure. But if a dinner guest is 30+ minutes late. That's flirting either with overcooked food or cold food that needs to be microwaved. As mentioned, a sous video "cook" requires finishing. Without finishing, it's no good IMO. You can delay the finishing and have zero issues with overcooked or cold food.
Or let's say you start a cook in the morning, go do activities and it goes over time. Again, no issues with the meat even though it's been "cooking" for longer than it was supposed to cook.
This is where the sous vide shines IMO. Bigger margins of error.