what is sous vide

Sous vide is a French cooking technique that involves vacuum-sealing food in a bag and cooking it in a precisely regulated water bath. The term "sous vide" translates to "under vacuum" in French, which refers to how food is prepped to undergo the cooking process. The method was invented by the French chef Georges Pralus in 1974. Sous vide cooking is characterized by low-temperature cooking, a longer period of cooking than conventional cooking, a container (such as a plastic bag) that separates the food from its heating environment, and pressurized enclosure using full or partial vacuum. The water bath is heated by a heated metal coil to warm water to a constant temperature, never fluctuating to high or low extremes. Sous vide cooking utilizes precise temperature control with circulation to produce results that you can’t achieve through any other cooking technique. The reason is that when using traditional methods of cooking, you don’t have control over heat and temperature, making it very difficult and time-consuming to consistently achieve the desired results. The benefits of sous vide cooking include uniform cooking, development of desired organoleptic flavors, and limiting off flavors due to oxidation.