[Healthy Debate]: All Foods Should Be Sous Vide

Thought it would be fun to have a healthy debate on this.

Do you think all foods have a place with sous vide?

Or are there any foods you think should be kept far, far away from this cooking method?

Thoughts, opinions, insight, experiences - all are welcome. Just keep the peace! :wink:

I think that sous vide is a tool, one of the ways to raise the temperature of food. Some foods are best when raised to a narrow temperature range and sous vide relieves me of the burden of standing next to the food so that the temperature doesnā€™t get too high.

It is fun to try to ā€œsous vide everythingā€. Still, I wonder if the food is prepared near the boiling point of water and the end temperature is not critical, why do it sous vide?

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Proteins are obviously ā€œyes.ā€ Iā€™ve not experimented with fruit and veg enough yet. It seems easier to do the by other methods while protein is bathing.

Sashimi.

/thread

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Well. I mean. Yeah. Lol. @acs

Which method do you think works better than sous vide for fruits + veggies? @Ember

@RichardOL I understand your point with the end temperature for some foods not being critical. My primary reason for wanting to sous vide veggies is that I wonā€™t lose some of its nutrients like I typically would if I were doing a regular boil. But - depending on what I fancy that particular day, I do roast too for that very reason.

Not so much a case of better, Alyssa, simply more expedient. Not everyone has the time to go through a cook cycle twice for a meal. Batch cooking is a possibility if one is able to plan and stick to a schedule.

Iā€™ve never been a particularly organised cook. In fact, I get a little concerned on those weeks where things go right along with the plan. I tend to stir fry, steam, roast or even (shock horror) microwave vegies as the protein is nearing the end of its bathing time.

I guess itā€™s simply a case of old habits being hard to break.

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@Ember Yeah, I get where youā€™re coming from on cooking foods for multiple cycles. Personally, when I am cooking veggies, thatā€™s all Iā€™m cooking (I go meatless sometimes).

I havenā€™t experimented with cooking veggies and meats at the same time with the APC, but Iā€™m sure it requires some preparation and figuring out the best way to execute it.

New guy here, so if Iā€™m wrongā€¦ Iā€™m wrong. :wink:

I have yet to try out my 1 day old Anova 900w.
With that being said, I just donā€™t see this method speeding up or improving one pot, flavor layering dishes like jambalaya or gumbo.

I feel like I cook ā€œ4 or 5 timesā€ in the same dutch oven when making jambalaya. Early added ingredients meet the new ingredients to add another flavor to the dish. Where the fond from the pork meets the onionsā€¦ then the next round from the sausage then the tomato etc. I add onions 4 times to a dish like that. Cooking them to a different texture each time. I donā€™t see anything coming close from the sous vide method.

Now donā€™t get me wrong. Iā€™m looking forward to going crazy with my Anova. Gonna try a bunch of things this weekend. Going to the butcher tomorrow.

Sh*t, Iā€™ll be reporting on sous vide pop-tarts at some point once I get obsessed! Just adding my $.02

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Hahaaa let me know how the sous vide pop tarts go :wink: @Slappy_Joe

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There are already places where precision cookers are already used for ā€œflavour layeringā€. Just take a look at ā€œstep mashingā€ (also known as ā€œstep-infusionā€ mashing) used in brewing some beer styles.

With step mashing, the grain and water are first heated to around 50ā€“54 Ā°C for enzymes to break down proteins. Followed by one or two heatings to 62ā€“67 Ā°C and 71ā€“72 Ā°C to convert starches to sugars. There was a recent Anova blog post on how you can use the APC for mashing with the Brew-in-the-Bag method of brewing. (I wouldnā€™t use this method for something like gumbo but the concepts are the same.)

Many slow cooker recipes have similar one-pot flavouring dishes such as starting at high for a few hours and then stepping down to low for a long cook. Just that most slow cookers are not as precise as most sous vide cookers and ovens.

I imagine one can make jambalaya by using good resealable bags, adding additional ingredients over the cooking period.

As others have mentioned sous vide is another tool where I would often tell students ā€œUse the best tool for the job at hand.ā€

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Thereā€™s a very good in-depth ā€œUltimate Guide to Sous Vide Dessertsā€ written by Stella Parks, author Bravetart, cookbook of desserts.
Hereā€™s her guide: BraveTart's Ultimate Guide to Sous Vide Desserts

I would have to agree with @RichardOL, The APC is a tool for cooking. How to incorporate sv/APC into everything? That is a good question.

The example I would give where I introduce sv/APC to a non-sous vide dish would be Lechon. This is a Filipino dish that boils pork belly (to tenderize), slices boiled pork belly, and then deep fries the pork belly.

Why boil when you can sous vide? And so I did. The flavor was amazing.

Iā€™ll have to post twice to get both pictures in.

Deep fried s/vā€™d pork belly.

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End product: Lechon Especial s/vā€™d.

The original recipe was from Dinerā€™s Drive Ins and Dives.

m-

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You cant beat a good slow braise with sous vide. And it is just as easy and hands off, if not easier. For example, try this:

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Thanks for sharing!