John Myers
Juicy, tender meat that melts in your mouth. Crunchy, nutritious vegetables. Aromatic fish cooked to perfection. Sounds too good to be true? But it is! Sous vide cooking makes it possible. We will show you how the preparation method works.
Flavor from the sachet: Sous-vide
The answer to the question “What is sous vide cooking?” doesn’t sound all that appetizing at first. Because sous-vide cooked food comes out of the plastic bag. But it has it all: Since the food is vacuum-sealed, no valuable aroma is lost during cooking. And the nutrients are also preserved as best as possible if the contents of the bag are prepared at low temperatures of 50 to a maximum of 100 degrees in a water bath or under steam. Beef, pork and lamb, fish and vegetables are suitable for vacuum cooking. Preparing poultry in this way is only recommended with reservations, since germs cannot be killed reliably with low-temperature cooking. To ensure that a fillet of beef sous vide remains wonderfully juicy on the inside and forms an aromatic crust on the outside, simply sear it when it is done cooking.
Sous-vide: cooking times, temperature, and features
Choosing the right temperature is important to give sous vide steak or vegetables the perfect texture and full flavor. The easiest way to do this is with a sous-vide stick for cooking pots or a sous-vide cooker with a container: With these devices, you can enter the temperature and cooking time, and the kitchen helpers do the rest automatically. The values can easily be taken from a sous-vide table that comes with the devices or can be found in cookbooks and recipes. If you would like to try it out first to see whether the method suits you, a pot and a roasting or kitchen thermometer will suffice. You can use it to cook ready-wrapped sous-vide meat or to pack the food yourself in heat-resistant foil bags using a vacuum sealer.
Spicy fish and fine vegetables from the vacuum bag
Roast beef, steak, fillet of beef, etc. will certainly benefit most from sous vide cooking, but it is also worth preparing fish in this way. Salmon in particular, but also other fish fillets – such as halibut or monkfish – can be wonderfully flavored with herbs and spices in the bag, which in turn develop the full taste. When grilling, on the other hand, tender herbs burn quickly and lose their aroma. Vegetables can also be seasoned perfectly in a vacuum and retain their nutrients thanks to the gentle cooking method. It tastes particularly delicious if you caramelize it after cooking: try our recipe for carrots sous vide: a real treat!
