• grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
    852·
    3 days ago

    “Sous vide” doesn’t mean “enclosed in plastic;” it means “under vacuum.” It doesn’t fucking work if there’s air between the food and the container!

      • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
        18·
        3 days ago

        I mean, yes, but usually people would use a ziploc bag and straw instead of a condom.

        Another strategy that works without a vacuum pump is to submerge all but the opening of the bag in the water, so that the water pressure forces most of the air out, before sealing it.

    • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      3 days ago

      Not actually true, you just won’t reach your target temperature evenly and it may discolor certain preparations.

      The reason you remove air is to make better heat contact, you don’t need a vacuum unless you are cooking things that oxidize stupidly easily.

    • sorter_plainview@lemmy.todayEnglish
      44·
      3 days ago

      It’s not traditional. Also it’s not similar to the pic. It was invented in the 1970s by a French Chef. The technique involves “vacuum sealed” ingredients, ensuring there is no air between the ingredient and water. Water is kept at a constant temperature, much lower than usual cooking temperature, and the ingredients are cooked for a very long time.

      End result is an evenly cooked ingredient with full moisture content. But there won’t be any browning (Maillard reaction), which is key in many recipes.

      • Numuruzero@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        10·
        3 days ago

        It makes very good food (mostly meat) and due to above observation many sous vide recipes call for a quick sear at the end of cook time.

        Ideally it’s done with specific bags designed to be used at high temperature, even if the temperatures aren’t as high as oven temps.

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.caEnglish
        6·
        3 days ago

        Don’t forget the part where it’s held at almost-ready temps for a long time. Having worked a restaurant - but thankfully FoH - I’ve seen the struggle when a dish is ruined and you’re serving 7 plates while the kitchen is crunching to make the redo 8th.

        Having something that can be seared and served is likely fantastic.

    • unexposedhazardEnglish
      33·
      3 days ago

      As explained by another its kinda shit anyways. But to answer the question, this sort of thing would have been done using leathery parts of animal intestines before plastic was a thing. Just like with sausages.

      • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
        10·
        3 days ago

        “Sous vide is high-tech haggis” is not the revelation I expected to have today.

      • cogman@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        3 days ago

        The benefit of sous vide for a restaurant is you can hold multiple steaks at rare and give them a quick sear when ordered. The soaking breaks down the collagen which ultimately makes the steak tender.

        However, for a home cook a reverse sear will give a superior steak. It will similarly break down the collagen, but also creates a nice crust that sous vide can’t create.

        Restaurants don’t reverse sear because it’s unpredictable and takes too much time.

  • Prethoryn Overmind@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    3 days ago

    Jokes aside, when I visited Europe. My host family made a sous vide soup.or something like that for me and I never could figure out what it was actually called. All I know is it was fucking delicious and it was the first time I had ever had boiled bacon. It was amazing.

    • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      3 days ago

      Latex is not plastic, it comes from trees and your body doesn’t care.

      Otherwise you really screwed up chewing all that bubble gum as a kid (which contains latex).