Product Highlights - Sous-vide Cooking

One of the most interesting and fastest growing cooking methods is Sous-vide, pronounced “soo veed” (French for “under vacuum”) in which food is placed in a vacuum sealed plastic pouch and cooked in a water bath for longer than normal cooking times (usually 1 to 7 hours, up to 48 or more in some cases) at an accurately regulated temperature. The temperature is much lower than normally used for cooking, typically around 131 to 140 °F for meat, higher for vegetables. The intent is to cook the item evenly, ensuring that the inside is properly cooked without overcooking the outside, and to retain moisture. One of the great benefits is that it retains juices and aroma that otherwise would be lost in the cooking process. It also prevents overcooking, because the food cannot get hotter than the bath it is in.

Sous vide cooking is much easier than you might think, and usually involves three simple steps:

1. Attach your precision cooker to a pot of water and set the time and temperature according to your desired level of doneness.
2. Put your food in a sealable bag and clip it to the side of the pot.
3. Finish by searing, grilling, or broiling the food to add a crispy, golden exterior layer.

We stock the Eurodib SV120, and Vollrath makes a more sophisticated unit ( model #40868). As far as vacuum sealing, there are three types of machines. The least expensive is the gun style (see Waring model# WVS50) where you use the pistol to suck the air out of the bag. Then we have the out of chamber style like the VacMaster PRO350. For higher volume operations, you would go with an in-chamber style which start at small counter top models ( Waring WCV300) all the way to very large floor units ( VacMaster VP731). 

For information related to Sous-vide cooking, check out this post.