25 Sous Vide Recipes to Try ASAP (2024)

FAQs

What should I try first with sous vide? ›

Steak is held up as the best example of just what sous vide can do, so it's probably one of the things that you'll want to try first. It's heartbreaking when you leave an expensive piece of steak just a little bit too long and wind up making it tough and dry, but thankfully, sous vide takes away all the guesswork.

Produce that no longer looks completely fresh or already smells strange is, of course, no longer suitable for the sous vide procedure. This particularly applies to fish and meat that is cooked at relatively low temperatures.

The best meat to sous vide for 48-72 hours at 135°F (57°C) is beef brisket, while pork shoulder can be cooked between 24-36 hours at 165°F (74°C). Results are always tender and juicy, making for perfect leftovers in sandwiches, tacos, or any other dish calling for shredded meat.

Ziplock and Glad brand bags are made from polyethylene plastic, and are free of BPAs and dioxins. A good rule of thumb is that when a bag is rated as microwave safe (which requires FDA approval) you can use it for sous vide. Even Dr. Schaffner agrees.

In the kitchen, you have to produce flavor, and then lock in that flavor. This is why we sear the meat before cooking sous vide. During the cooking process, the flavors are enhanced and reach the core of the steak. Finally, the flavor is secured in the meat during the chilling process.

Because of the relatively low temperatures used in sous vide, one major consideration is the Danger Zone. The 'Danger Zone' is a range of temperatures where bacteria particularly thrive and multiply. It's generally defined as 40F to 140 F, or 4.4C to 60C .

Fill your sous vide water bath with hot tap water.

Improper temperature and time control during the sous vide process, including cooking, cooling and storage, or prolonged exposure of sous vide food in the temperature danger zone (5°C to 60°C) may result in the growth and multiplication of these bacteria.

Do Steakhouses use Sous Vide Cooking Methods? Pre-cooking juicy steaks using sous vide is common in steakhouses across the United States. This might come as a surprise to frequent steakhouse customers, but using the technique allows chefs to cook great tasting steaks every time.

Can you put frozen meat in a sous vide? ›

Cook using your sous vide machine either defrosted or straight from frozen at the required time and temperature, adding on 60 minutes if cooking straight from frozen. Sear as usual if desired.

A: Sous Vide Cooking Process

With improper food handling, some of the most dangerous bacteria can grow, such as salmonella and botulism. Safe food handling and hygiene standards should always be maintained. Food cooked at low temperatures for extended periods of time can cause bacteria to multiply rapidly.

Rare sous vide steak (120°F/49°C): Your meat is still nearly raw. Muscle proteins have not started to contract much and will have a slippery, wet texture. Chewier cuts, like hanger or flap meat, will be particularly tough at this stage. Fat has not yet started to render, so fattier cuts will have a waxy texture.

Here at Sous Vide Tools we often like to add a small amount of butter to the bag and find that for best results, flavoured butter works really well to add a little something extra during the cooking process. Our preference is to place butter into the bag itself, rather than on top of the product.

For example, many chefs recommend that sous vide steak should not be cooked for longer than four hours because the connective tissue begins to break down and the steak can become mushy. If the recipe says to cook something for between one and four hours, it's probably not recommended to cook it for 12.

Starting with warm water will help the sous vide circulator bring the water to the right temperature more quickly. Try a square vessel. Square is a much more space efficient shape than a circle. So with a square container, you'll have an easier time fitting both the circulator and the food.

The short answer is that it's very tough to predict exactly how spices are going to react in a sous vide bag. I've found that if I want spice flavor, it's better to rub the spices into the meat after the sous vide cooking phase and before the final searing phase.