Some of the most delectable restaurant food I’ve had recently has been cooked sous vide. At McCrady's in Charleston, Duroc pork loin from Caw Caw Creek exuded luscious juices. The lean loin appeared firm, but yielded to my fork as easily as butter, and it was packed with intensely piggy flavor.
Sous vide literally means “under vacuum.” Basically it involves cooking food in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag placed in a circulating water bath at very low temperatures. Cooking times can range from 12 minutes for salmon to 72 hours for short ribs; temperatures can be as low as 113 degrees Fahrenheit for fish and 140 degrees for beef. French chef George Pralus devised the technique in 1974 as a way of preventing fois gras from shrinking. Though it sounds awful, the results are sublime. Food emerges tender and flavorful; very little fat or seasoning is required.
Though some edgy home cooks have dabbled in sous vide, it hasn’t been practical for most of us. But according to The Wall Street Journal ("Trying Sous Vide at Home," August 30-31, 2008, p. W3 ), that’s about to change. A slew of home appliances will hit the market this fall, among them the $399 eiPot, made by Fresh Meals Solutions in Toronto, which will basically do everything once consumers program what food they want to cook. Sur La Table will sell the same immersion heat circulators that restaurant chefs use for $1,000 and up. Viking and Thermador are also getting into the act, with ranges that offer temperature-controlling features that make sous vide cooking possible at home.
One of the intriguing things about sous vide cooking is the way it infuses flavor into food. Spice lovers will definitely have to throttle back on the cumin and coriander. “The first time we made sous vide chicken breast, we used just a sprinkling of chopped garlic—but the final dish was a veritable garlic bomb,” writes Katy McLaughlin. “That’s because sous vide magnifies flavors, from salt to garlic to herbs.” Her recipe for Butter Poached Chicken with Carrot and Fennel uses just one small slice of garlic; salt and pepper is added after the dish is cooked.
I’ll definitely be trying the eiPot when it appears this fall. In the meantime, Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft’s former chief technology officer and sous vide aficionado, has posted charts and cooking directions for assorted foods on egullet, which has a popular sous vide thread. Myhrvold , who wrote a program that gives you the particulars on how to cook food items of a certain weight and size, plans a cookbook for 2009. Six chefs and cooks are currently testing equipment and creating recipes.