Let's talk about cooking. Why? Because I love to cook, that's why.
I'm not normally a fan of kitchen gadgets. I find they tend to clutter up the place and I'm at the point in my life where I really don't need any more "stuff".
Every once in a while, however, I find one that's useful. My wife got me this little gadget that has totally changed the way I cook. It's called a "sous-vide circulator".
What's sous vide? It's a fancy French term meaning "under vacuum". We'll get to that part later. It's pronounced "sue veed" by the way. I know this because I looked it up.
I was skeptical at first, but once I figured out what I was doing this thing totally changed the way I cook.
How does it work? SCIENCE!
Sorry vegetarians, but I'm going to discuss cooking meat. I don't eat it all the time, but I love a good piece of meat once in a while. I'll do a vegetarian cooking diary for you guys another time.
So what are we actually doing when we cook a piece of meat? We're raising its internal temperature. When we throw a steak on the grill the 600 degree heat starts to warm up the meat, from the outside in.
This takes time. The thicker the meat, the longer it will take for the insides to warm up. That's why properly grilling a steak is a bit of an art. Screw it up and you can end up with a bloody mess or a charred cinder on your plate.
The beauty of sous vide is it takes all the guesswork out of the equation. It's elegantly simple when you think about it. The "doneness" of a piece of meat is determined by its internal temperature.
A really rare steak is 120 degrees fahrenheit inside. In France they call that "bleu". Normally I like mine a little more done than that, but I was in France and feeling adventurous. The guy I was with took one look and said: "You know, if the paramedics get here in time they can probably resuscitate it."
I prefer my steak medium-rare to medium. That works out to 130-135 degrees. Now there are some Communists out there who like their steaks well done. We won't discuss that here. Outback is down the street next to Olive Garden.
OK, are they gone? Good. Let's get back to cooking.
The problem is, how do I get the inside of my steak to 135 degrees without totally charring the outside? Obviously there are ways to do this like a two-zone grill. There's still some guesswork involved though.
But what if we sealed the steak in plastic and immersed it in water that's exactly 135 degrees? The steak would never get warmer than the temperature of the water. I could leave it in there for hours and it will never get "done" past where I want it.
The other great thing about this is, the steak will be cooked to the exact same doneness all the way through from edge to edge. This really pays off if you want to cook an extra thick cut.
That's how sous vide works. I take my big stock-pot, put about 2 gallons of water in there, and hook up my little circulator gizmo. It will keep the water at exactly the set temperature. Some people have even done this with just a thermometer and a skilled touch on the burner, but I'm not that good.
The sous vide circulators are readily available at cookware stores or on the internet. Prices run from $180 up to way more than I'd ever spend. Mine came from bigchaincookingstore and cost $200. If you're handy with electronics you can even build one for about $40-$75 in parts.
My sous vide rig. For pork I find 140 degrees works well.
Note that you don't have to do this on the stove top. That just happens to be the only place in my ship's galley sized kitchen to put a 3 gallon stock pot. You don't even need to use a stock pot. A large insulated cooler will work. The water is never going to get hot enough to melt plastic.
Once the water is heated up, I take my steak (or pork chop, lamb chop, duck breast you get the idea), seal it in plastic and immerse it in the water. Some people use an actual vacuum-sealer but I find that a heavy-duty zip-top freezer bag works just fine. If you use zip-top bags don't buy the cheap ones. They have a tendency to come open. This is one case where you want to buy the better quality name-brand ones.
If you immerse the bag until the top is just above the water before sealing it, the water pressure will squeeze all the air out for you. If you want to use a vacuum sealer go ahead, I just think they're more trouble then they're worth.
Sealing the bags. Get the opening of the bag just above the surface of the water before sealing it. This will squeeze the air out.
So how long does it take? Depends on how thick the piece of meat is. You can find some good time and temperature charts for sous vide out there on the internet. A one and a half inch thick steak should be done in about an hour. After about two hours you start breaking down the fibers. It will taste about the same but you may lose some of the texture.
For tougher cuts of meat you can use this to your advantage and leave it in longer. The end result will be similar to braising.
An added benefit is the meat will pasteurize if you leave it in there long enough. You can safely do a medium-rare pork chop if you so desire. I just so happen to have a couple of thick bone-in pork chops here. I'll do them at 140 degrees for an hour plus fifteen minutes.
Here the bags are fully submerged in the circulating water.
The beauty of this is, I can be putting the rest of the meal together while the meat is doing its thing. If the guests arrive late, no problem, it's going to stay the perfect temperature as long as it's in there. No part of the meat will ever get hotter than the temperature of the water. Something something laws of thermodynamics. It's SCIENCE!
Time to take the bags out of the water.
Once everything else is ready to go, it's time to finish the meat. When we take it out of the bag, it's going to look like an unappetizing grey lump. Don't panic! We're going to fix that!
When the meat comes out of the bag it's going to look like something your high school cafeteria served. Don't panic.
We're going to put a quick sear on the meat to finish it off. This is what produces the "Maillard reaction" that gives us that wonderful crust on the outside.
Before taking the meat out of the water, have your grill or skillet already screaming hot. Now is the time to salt and pepper the steak plus add any spice rub you might want to use.
For my pork chops I'll be adding a spice mix of allspice, coriander, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, cumin, ground ginger, dry mustard, hot paprika, salt and pepper. You can use whatever you like. I give the chops a light coating of olive oil and then apply the spice rub.
That looks a lot better! A quick sear on the grill and they're ready to go.
Depending on how hot your grill/skillet is, this should take about a minute per side. Some people will actually use a torch, but that seems like overkill. I've obtained great results on the grill or with a good old cast-iron skillet.
Here you can see how it's done exactly the same from top to bottom. There's still a little pink next to the bone. I suspect a little more time in the water would have fixed that but I'm not worried about it.
Time for the taste test.
It's finger lickin' good!
I've had equally good results with swordfish steaks, chicken breasts and especially duck breasts, which I've found difficult to cook properly. I haven't tried it yet, but supposedly sous vide will produce a perfect poached egg. Mrs. Kong prefers her eggs cooked to the consistency of a billiard ball, so I may have to try that on my own sometime.
Are there any disadvantages to sous vide? Well, it takes time. You also don't get as thick of a crust on your steak as you would doing it entirely on the grill. If you have one person who likes rare and one who likes well-done it's going to be difficult.
I don't use sous vide all the time but I do find myself using it a lot. I was skeptical at first but once after I did it a couple times I was sold on the technique. It's another tool in my toolbox and I'd say it's a good one.