Pandemic Hobby: Sous Vide

                Some of you might remember that last month I talked about the ability to infuse alcohol, a process made possible in hours rather than weeks thanks to an at-home device called a sous vide machine. Since then, I’ve only gone further down that rabbit hole, experimenting with all manner of dishes to see what I could accomplish with near-perfect thermal control.

                It has, in short, become my current pandemic hobby. A concept that feels, if not universal, certainly widely understood. As we’ve had to adjust to life indoors, there’s been a need for new ways to keep the brain stimulated. I’ve already talked about my experiments painting pumpkins going down one such road, but we’ve now been doing this for about a year, so the need for variety is strong.

                For a quick explanation: sous vide cooking is when an ingredient is cooked in a plastic or glass container under water, usually at gentler temperatures over a longer time. This is done using an immersion circulator, which should keep the water to within a degree of whatever target temperature you set. By doing so, you’re able to bring your food to the desired temperature and then hold it there, ensuring the food doesn’t get overdone. Because the cooking happens in a sealed container, you also lose much less moisture from proteins, and can add things like garlic and herbs to impart their flavor.

                All of this comes together to form a style of food preparation that is both precise and simple. It’s not to say that the results are impossible to achieve without using sous vide, if everything was done perfectly. But sous vide allows you to get those results consistently, and frankly with much less stress.

                Originally, I used this device to try and fancy up recipes I already liked, which was probably why it ended up on my shelf for a few months. Those didn’t really require an immersion circulator, they were already functioning as it was. When the process started to shine was once I took the exact opposite approach: trying to sous vide dishes that I normally didn’t care for. There were also options I’d never tried, because they were only possible with immersion circulation, such as the booze infusion.

                My list is something of a mix of all three, based on the preparations I found the most effective or interesting. Not everything was a home run, however it has absolutely expanded my culinary options.

Chicken Breast

                It would be erroneous to say I dislike chicken, however, I do think it would be accurate to state that I only like the unhealthy preparations of chicken. Fried is a fine step forward, covered in sauce as well certainly doesn’t hurt, and maybe pile a bun or a shitload of cheese on top. In every diet phase I’ve gone through, there’s been an attempt to enjoy grilled chicken, and they are all failures. The dry, stringy meat constantly fails to impress.

                A sous vide chicken breast, I am pleased to say, has a much more palatable texture. You’ll want to finish it in a hot pan, as with most sous vide proteins, but even after that the inside is tender and juicy. Unfortunately, even with butter, garlic, and herbs, it still tasted heavily of chicken breast. So as it turns out, maybe I just don’t care very much for the baseline flavor.

                I’d say this one was a good showing for sous vide, less so for chicken. I tried the same cooking technique with a pork loin, another commonly dry cut of meat and found it to be outstanding.

Crème Brûlée

                We’re all thinking it, I’m just going to put it out there: tempering cream is kind of a pain in the ass. You’ve got your scalding hot liquid, your dairy ingredient that can easily cook or curdle, and you have to play apprentice alchemist to get the mixture going back and forth just right or else fuck up all the work you’ve done so far. It’s why I’ve avoided many delicate desserts like crème brûlée, and what made the idea of using a sous vide so inviting. No tempering or worry, just make the custard, put it under for an hour, and chill.

                I tried this early on, and it was a slam dunk. Easy to make, simple to store, so damn tasty. But as I got deeper into the sous vide madness, I decided to take it up a notch. Using the lessons learned from infusing booze, I infused heavy cream using cinnamon sticks and vanilla beans, then used that cream as the base for a batch of crème brûlée. Holy shit was it good.

                This recipe is fast becoming a beloved staple, so I would definitely say it’s a winner all around on the sous vide front.

Mashed Potatoes

                I am not going to sit here and pretend mashed potatoes need the help of a new cooking technique. They are delicious in their many forms, and can be excellently made with only a pot of boiling water and a solid masher. The point of sous vide mashed potatoes is more the element of convenience that it brings.

                By combining the potatoes, milk, butter, and seasoning in your sous vide bag, you can essentially make the spuds in a single package. When they’re ready, do a bit of squishing to combine, and you’ve got mashed potatoes out of the bag. It’s a little easier than the standard prep, but the real advantage is that you can make them well in advance and then they’ll be ready when dinner is.

                If you’re doing a large meal with multiple elements, perhaps even one day hosting a dinner party once it’s safe, then this is a handy timing tactic. Otherwise, the traditional method is probably going to work better, seeing as boiling is also much faster.

Poached Eggs

                These are a dish I love and hate in equal measure. I greatly enjoy poached eggs, but they are not easy to make. I learned by buying an 18 pack and messing up until I got it right, and even after years of practice my success rate with normal poached eggs was spotty at best.

                Sous vide works much better here, but with a caveat: The recipe I use is from America’s Test Kitchen and is different from most of it’s kind. If you want the same results I describe, be sure to stick with that one. 

                This tactic rules all around, honestly. You stick the eggs right in the sous vide water, in their shell, so it’s easy to make them in batches. They come out consistent every time, because all the elements are kept constant. And on the presentation front, it’s just cool to crack open a shell and have a perfectly poached egg fall out.

                Hopefully that’s enough to get you started on the sous vide road, if immersion circulation perked your interest. If you’ve got any favorite uses for the cool device, or pandemic hobbies you think others would dig, feel free to post them in the comments below.