Sous Vide at home Group - Most Recent Comments | BigOven.com

Re: Vacuum Sealed Bags

Anne, thanks for your comments (yours too, Steve). Glad to hear of your success with Food Saver. Re your question about how is SV different than cooking peas in a bag, the biggest difference would be that SV is done at temperatures below 212 degrees. I've had no trouble regulating the heat just by using the lowest burner setting on my gas stove, and by adding an ice cube(s) if temperature starts to climb. I've done lamb loin and fish, both of which have relatively short cooking times (20 - 30 minutes). This manual control of water temp. would be totally impractical for cuts of meat which can take 8 or more hours. - Trucster

Re: Sous Vide so often done on Top Chef and Iron Chef

It's a new way of cooking and yields a better result for many (but not all) kinds of food. It changes the texture of food in a positive way, and it greatly increases most flavors since the food cooks in an airless environment no evaporation, nutrients stay inside the food fibers instead of being leached out into the cooking medium. I think the increase in popularity/interest is that most fine restaurants (The French Laundry, Alinea, per se, Citrus, David Bouley, etc) have begun to use it to prepare various offerings, and people are discovering how delicious food can be. Also, within the last two months, we have the publication of Keller and Grant Achatz' books, the first in English, which offer detailed instructions.

[edited January-24-2009]

- Trucster

Re: Vacuum Sealed Bags

Steve is absolutely correct. I have the Food Saver, and I do love it (after a rocky start due to a poorly written instruction manual).

I've never tried Sous Vide (except if you count Green Giant frozen veggies ), so I can't really comment on how well the Food Saver bags would hold up under those conditions, although the company says they can be used in boiling water. The model I use is the V3840. I've used the Reynolds bag system, and after sealing a few bags, found it lacking, and the bags not sealing tightly.

If I'm not mistaken, doesn't Sous Vide require that that water be kept at a steady temperature throughout the cooking time? If that's the case, would using any of the methods we've been discussing qualify as a true Sous Vide?

Anne

- AnnieBananie

Sous Vide so often done on Top Chef and Iron Chef

I've never tried a Sous Vide before, but have really been noticing how fashionable this method of cooking has become on the cooking competition shows notably "Top Chef" and "Iron Chef America" on TV. What do you think accounts for its new revival? - davidri

Re: Vacuum Sealed Bags

The FoodSaver style products also offer an electrical unit. AnnieBananie on this site has one and (last I heard) likes it a lot. - stevemur

Vacuum Sealed Bags

One of the requirements for cooking Sous-Vide is being able to seal the food in food-safe plastic bags. Michele Richard's book mentions cooking lamb loin in "food-safe" plastic wrap. (He recommends Saran Cling Plus or Saran Premium). Within the last few months Reynolds and Ziploc have come out with actual vacuum bags. Reynolds uses a low cost (-$10.00 I think) battery operated hand-held appliance that sucks the air out of their bags, which come in several sizes. Likewise, Ziploc has a variety of sized bags from which the air is extracted with a manual pump, which looks a lot like the popular Vac-U-Vin wine stopper system. I had great results with the Reynolds system this weekend. Anyone else?

[edited January-21-2009]

- Trucster