[0:00] - Sous vide got really
popular for two reasons.
[0:02] One was really relevant
to restaurant chefs,
[0:04] but over time it got to feel
[0:06] a little bit like stunt cooking.
[0:08] But it's not.
[0:09] It can be really useful to the home cook,
[0:10] and that's what we're
going to talk about today.
[0:13] (energizing music)
[0:19] Sous vide allowed chefs to create dishes
[0:21] that hadn't been possible before.
[0:23] One really popular one was
this, the 72-hour short rib.
[0:26] These are short ribs that have been cooked
[0:28] for three whole days.
[0:30] And then before serving,
[0:32] rather than getting seared in a skillet,
[0:34] chefs preserve that
perfectly uniform interior
[0:37] by hitting the ribs with a blowtorch.
[0:39] These bright pink short
ribs have the texture
[0:41] of a medium-rare steak, but a
lot more marbling in flavor.
[0:44] In fact, if I've done this right,
[0:47] I should be able to just
cut it with this fork.
[0:49] It was kind of miraculous,
everyone wanted to try this.
[0:56] For a steak that's just got salt on it,
[0:58] no sauce, no spices, it's amazing.
[1:02] So, short ribs are
typically served well done
[1:04] because you have to
cook 'em for a long time
[1:06] for them to become tender.
[1:07] But sous vide allowed chefs
to make something new,
[1:10] and diners flocked to restaurants
to try things like this.
[1:13] The other reason it got popular
[1:14] was it saved chefs time and money.
[1:17] Sous vide let them cook all sorts of meat
[1:18] to the perfect temp.
[1:20] Their cooks just needed
to brown the outside
[1:22] and then get the food onto a plate.
[1:24] That is so much faster and easier
[1:27] than teaching a cook how to cook something
[1:29] so that the inside gets
to the proper temperature
[1:32] at the same time that the
outside is perfectly seared.
[1:35] Customers got perfect food,
things weren't sent back,
[1:37] and everybody's job got a lot easier.
[1:40] This second point, the
foolproof side of sous vide,
[1:43] that's what I love about it.
[1:45] Meat is really expensive right now
[1:47] and being able to prepare it without fear
[1:48] of getting the cook
wrong is such a relief.
[1:51] Or maybe you're cooking for a crowd.
[1:53] Knowing that all you have to do
[1:55] is get the outside seared properly
[1:56] because the meat is already
perfectly seasoned and cooked,
[1:59] it makes entertaining so much
simpler and less stressful.
[2:02] (energizing music)
[2:06] Besides the immersion circulator itself,
[2:08] you're going to need a
container to hold the water
[2:10] and the food, some sort
of bag to put the food in,
[2:13] and something to cover that container.
[2:15] Hop onto the ATK app and
search "immersion circulator"
[2:18] for our review of these appliances.
[2:20] I've got a couple of ribeyes here
[2:21] that I'll use for this demo,
[2:22] but I'm going to keep the discussion broad
[2:25] because this method can be used
[2:26] for so many different types of meat.
[2:28] So when it comes to the container,
[2:29] the biggest consideration is,
how much food are you cooking?
[2:32] You need something that's big
enough to hold all the food
[2:34] and the water that surrounds it.
[2:37] Smaller considerations are, how
hot is the water going to be
[2:39] and how long is the cook time?
[2:42] A good recipe will do
all of this work for you,
[2:44] but if you're scaling a
recipe or experimenting,
[2:47] then remember, the higher the temperature
[2:49] and the longer the cook, the
more evaporation is possible,
[2:53] and so the more water you'll
need to account for that.
[2:55] Or just a really good lid.
[2:57] So, for these steaks,
and for most projects,
[2:59] a Dutch oven or a Cambro
is a great container.
[3:02] Or if you do this a lot,
[3:03] maybe you want to invest in a
dedicated sous vide container.
[3:06] And for a lid, you don't
need anything fancy.
[3:09] Plastic wrap works great.
[3:11] Generally, you want to fill the bath
[3:12] so that the food is fully submerged,
[3:14] but that the water doesn't
exceed the max fill
[3:16] for your circulator.
[3:17] As for the water temperature,
you usually want to set it
[3:20] to whatever the serving temperature is.
[3:22] When we cook a steak, we
remove it from the heat
[3:24] at 125 degrees for a medium-rare.
[3:27] That's not the serving temp.
[3:28] As it rests, that steak continues to cook
[3:30] for a couple of minutes, and
the internal temperature,
[3:32] it usually goes up three,
maybe five degrees.
[3:35] So we want to set our water
bath to somewhere between 128
[3:39] to 130 degrees.
[3:40] I'm taking these to medium rare,
[3:41] so I'm going to use 130 today.
[3:44] These are the other
numbers you need to know.
[3:47] Finally, you need a bag for the food.
[3:50] A sturdy Ziploc bag like this
one, it's going to be great.
[3:52] But before we get to that,
[3:53] we need to get these
steaks ready for bagging.
[3:55] (energizing music)
[3:59] So I'm just going to season these ribeyes
[4:01] before putting them in the bag.
[4:03] Now, one of the nice things
about cooking sous vide
[4:05] is you don't have to salt
your steak hours in advance.
[4:09] When we salt a steak and let it sit,
[4:12] we're giving the sodium ions
[4:13] time to move into and season the meat.
[4:15] Sous vide cooking,
though, it can take hours,
[4:18] and that's plenty of time
for those sodium ions
[4:20] to move in while the steak cooks.
[4:22] We're also giving the chloride
ions time to work too.
[4:25] Remember, salt is a molecule
that's made up of two ions,
[4:28] sodium and chloride.
[4:29] Chloride helps the proteins not contract
[4:31] as tightly when they're heated,
[4:33] and that keeps the meat juicy.
[4:35] This is really important if
you're roasting or searing
[4:37] or grilling, because all of those methods
[4:39] bombard the surface of the meat with heat
[4:41] for minutes to hours.
[4:43] And that means that any
proteins within a quarter
[4:46] to a half an inch of the surface,
[4:47] they're going to be kind of
wrung out and a little bit dry.
[4:51] Sous vide doesn't do that
[4:52] because the water temperature
is comparatively low.
[4:54] So food cooked sous
vide stays much juicier
[4:56] and it doesn't need the
help of the chloride.
[4:59] Okay, now that the steak is
seasoned, we're ready to cook.
[5:02] You might find some recipes
that have you sear the meat
[5:04] before and after bagging,
[5:06] but I prefer searing just once, after.
[5:09] It goes faster,
[5:10] and because the meat doesn't
get exposed to high heat twice,
[5:13] there's less overcooking at the surface.
[5:15] When I use zipper lock
bags, I like to open them up
[5:18] and then I like to cuff them like this.
[5:20] This keeps any stray bits
of fat or oil or pepper
[5:24] from getting stuck in that groove,
[5:25] which is going to really make sealing it
[5:27] a lot harder than it needs to be.
[5:29] And then we just drop
the steak in the bag.
[5:32] Now, the steak isn't the only
thing that belongs in the bag.
[5:35] You can add other herbs
or maybe some shallot
[5:37] or garlic powder.
[5:39] I'm going to use thyme, and
I think two sprigs is plenty.
[5:42] You definitely do not
want to use raw garlic,
[5:45] whether it's smashed, cloves, whatever.
[5:47] It's a potential source of botulism.
[5:49] We don't worry about botulism
[5:50] most of the time in the kitchen
because it can only thrive
[5:53] in an anaerobic environment,
and that's pretty rare.
[5:57] Sous vide is one of the few exceptions,
[5:59] so, garlic powder is a much better choice.
[6:01] It's been heat-treated, so it's safe.
[6:04] I'm not using it today, but if I were,
[6:05] I would just sprinkle a little bit,
[6:07] maybe half a teaspoon over the steak,
[6:09] kind of the way you'd
sprinkle salt over the steak.
[6:12] Last up, we need oil. About
tablespoon, maybe even two.
[6:16] Oil does a couple of things for us.
[6:17] It keeps the food from
sticking to the bag.
[6:19] It also helps to distribute flavor.
[6:21] So, you can see that the thyme
[6:24] is just hanging out right up here.
[6:26] If I didn't have any fat in that bag,
[6:28] really, it would just be
this area of the steak
[6:31] that picks up that flavor.
[6:32] But because so many of those
thyme flavors are fat soluble,
[6:36] they're going to diffuse into that oil,
[6:37] and the oil fully surrounds
the food and flavors it.
[6:40] Last thing, the oil's going
to help us get all the air
[6:42] out of the bag, and
that's really important.
[6:47] So, why is air bad?
Think about it like this.
[6:50] If you wanted to cook a
potato as fast as possible
[6:52] and your choices are a 212-degree oven
[6:56] or a pot of boiling water,
[6:58] and remember, water boils at 212.
[7:00] Which are you going to choose?
[7:01] You are going to boil that potato, right?
[7:03] It's going to go so much faster in the pot
[7:05] because water is great at conducting heat
[7:08] and air is terrible at it.
[7:09] So, if you've got air in the bag
[7:11] and it's between the food and the water,
[7:13] then the food is going to
cook more slowly and unevenly.
[7:17] If you sous vide a lot,
[7:18] you might want to invest
in a vacuum sealer
[7:19] to get the air out,
but it's not necessary.
[7:22] Here's how to do it
with a zipper-lock bag.
[7:24] You just need your tub of water.
[7:25] And when you seal this bag up,
[7:26] get as much air out of it as you can.
[7:29] There's some in there, but that's okay.
[7:30] So you want to lower it kind of slowly,
[7:33] and as you're lowering it,
the water's going to press
[7:35] that plastic bag up
against the steak itself
[7:39] and force the air towards the top.
[7:42] So, if you go slowly
[7:44] and then open up a tiny corner,
[7:46] you don't want to open up the whole thing,
[7:47] because if something slips,
[7:48] then you're going to
get water in that bag.
[7:51] And then keep working the bag down slowly
[7:54] and letting the air work its way up.
[7:58] Now, this method isn't as
perfect as vacuum sealing,
[8:03] but as you move the seal
towards the water level,
[8:07] you should be able to work out
pretty much most of the air,
[8:11] and then you just seal it back up.
[8:15] So, I'm going to clip this
here and we'll do another bag.
[8:25] So, I like to clip these bags
to the sides of the container
[8:28] to make sure that the
seal stays above water.
[8:32] If I'm using a vacuum sealer,
I just drop them right in.
[8:35] So the only thing to remember is that,
[8:36] for your food to cook evenly,
[8:38] the water has to circulate
around it evenly.
[8:41] So, if you have multiple bags in one bath,
[8:43] you got to make sure they're not stacked
[8:45] one on top of the other.
[8:46] And if you have multiple items in one bag,
[8:49] make sure they're spread
out in an even layer.
[8:53] Now we're just waiting
till this is fully cooked.
[8:55] And here is where sous vide really shines.
[8:58] (energizing music)
[9:01] Know how conventional cooking means
[9:03] that you have to pay attention
[9:05] towards the end of the cook time,
[9:06] because if you don't, you have
to live with overcooked meat.
[9:09] And on top of that, you need to make sure
[9:11] that the outside is properly
browned at the same time.
[9:14] Sous vide is great because it separates
[9:15] those two steps entirely.
[9:17] Recipes for sous vide take into account
[9:19] how long it takes the meat
to get to the temperature
[9:21] of the bath and how long
it takes for the meat
[9:24] to get tender at that temperature.
[9:26] Here's the thing, though,
the meat can't get hotter
[9:28] than the water in the bath,
so it's not going to overcook.
[9:31] This steak can hang out in this bath
[9:33] after it's done for about an hour,
[9:35] and you can get other things done.
[9:37] Conventional cooking methods,
like searing or roasting
[9:40] or grilling, they can't
offer you that flexibility.
[9:43] That's why sous vide recipes
[9:44] don't list a single
cook time for the food.
[9:46] Instead, you'll see a
range, say, one to two hours
[9:49] or 14 to 16 hours.
[9:52] Within that window, the
food's going to be perfect.
[9:55] If it stays in the bath too long, though,
[9:57] it's not that it'll overcook,
[9:58] but the texture's going to suffer.
[10:00] Meat and fish become
mushy, eggs get too firm,
[10:03] and some vegetables lose their
color and get really floppy.
[10:06] So, once the meat is cooked
and you're ready to serve it,
[10:09] the final step is to sear
[10:11] so that you can get that
beautiful brown crust
[10:12] and those great flavors and
aromas from Maillard browning.
[10:16] Since the interior is at the perfect temp,
[10:18] the searing step, it's
really quick and easy.
[10:20] Just take the meat out of the bag.
[10:22] And by the way, you want
to save those juices.
[10:24] Once the steak's out of the
bag, pat the surface dry.
[10:27] Any water that remains on
the surface of the steak
[10:30] is going to splatter when we go to sear.
[10:32] And so, the drier that steak,
the less messy the sear.
[10:36] Now we need just a smidge of oil.
[10:37] And once that pan's hot, we sear.
[10:39] (pan sizzling)
[10:41] Searing doesn't just improve
the appearance and flavor,
[10:44] it also kills any microbes.
[10:45] After you've seared the first
side and flipped the steak,
[10:48] you can chuck some butter
in the pan and baste.
[10:50] This is a really nice way to get heat
[10:51] on the sides of the steak really easily.
[10:54] Or you can just use your tongs
[10:55] to give those sides a quick sear.
[10:57] When the steak is browned
on all sides, it's done.
[11:01] Remember how I said you
should save the bag of juices
[11:03] after the steak came out?
[11:05] Those juices are full of delicious flavor,
[11:07] and they're perfect
for making a pan sauce.
[11:09] There's nothing really tricky here.
[11:10] We're going to follow the
usual pan sauce protocol.
[11:13] I want to leave just a
little fat in the pan,
[11:14] less than a tablespoon, and
then add some minced shallot.
[11:18] It's going to saute gently,
[11:19] and then I'm going to add minced herbs.
[11:21] I use thyme in the bag this time around,
[11:23] so this is minced thyme that I'm adding.
[11:25] I want to give that maybe
15 seconds of cooking
[11:27] before I deglaze with some red wine.
[11:30] And then instead of adding the broth,
[11:32] I'm going to add the juices.
[11:33] So, I like to do this
by holding up the bag
[11:36] and just snipping the bottom corner.
[11:38] Not enough that any of the
plastic falls in the pan,
[11:40] just enough to release those juices.
[11:42] Then once all the juices have
kind of streamed through,
[11:45] I'll give the bag a pinch
[11:46] when the fat starts to come through.
[11:49] It's totally okay if a little
bit of fat gets in the pan,
[11:52] you just don't want all of it.
[11:54] Now we're just going to let
this come up to a simmer.
[11:56] Once it's reduced, I whisk in cold butter,
[11:58] just as I would for any normal pan sauce,
[12:00] check the seasoning, and then it's done.
[12:02] (energizing music)
[12:09] There's something so satisfying
about sous vide steak.
[12:13] It's so easy,
[12:14] and if you take a peek, the
cook on this is just perfect.
[12:19] It's that edge-to-edge pink
that everyone talks about
[12:23] and people go for.
[12:24] And sous vide is, like, the one way
[12:25] where you can absolutely get it.
[12:27] I can't wait to try this.
[12:31] Wow, the marbling on this is ridiculous.
[12:37] This is incredibly tender.
[12:39] It eats almost like a filet mignon,
[12:41] except, because of all that
marbling that ribeyes have,
[12:45] it's so much beefier tasting,
[12:47] it's fantastic.
[12:48] And this pan sauce, really awesome,
[12:50] considering we just needed
[12:52] you know, a splash of
wine and some aromatics.
[12:54] If you want more info on sous vide cooking
[12:56] so that you can experiment at home.
[12:59] Or if you want just some
really well-tested recipes,
[13:02] get yourself a copy of
"Sous Vide for Everybody."
[13:04] It's a great resource.
[13:05] Did I miss anything?
[13:06] What's your favorite
thing to cook sous vide?
[13:08] Let me know in the comments.
[13:10] (energizing music)