Sous Vide

World-class tech in your kitchen

World-renowned chefs rely on sous vide water ovens for stellar results. Now this remarkable technology is available for your home kitchen too. The results are amazing, they’re easier to use than conventional ovens, and prices for quality sous vide units are now amazingly low.

Regular cooking: Your food in a furnace

With ordinary cooking methods, your food is subjected to extreme heat at the surface, temperatures you wouldn’t want most of the food to reach because it would literally be incinerated. This creates serious problems, including very uneven cooking and, as we’ve all experienced too many times, food that’s tough, dry and burnt because temperature and/or time weren’t just right.

Sous Vide: Gentle Heat

Sous vide takes a radically different approach. To begin, food is placed in a plastic pouch. “Sous vide” is a French term meaning “under vacuum.” Vacuum packaging is ideal for sous vide and a variety of home vacuum sealing machines can be used for this purpose, but ordinary zip-sealing kitchen bags also can be used. Sealing the food in a bag prevents the loss of fat and water that would occur if the food was heated in direct contact with water. Oil, butter, stock and seasonings can be included in the bag where they’ll maintain close contact with the food, and much smaller amounts are required than with conventional cooking.

Low & Precisely-Controlled Heat

Sous vide is French for “under vacuum”, and refers to cooking food in vacuum sealed plastic bags. This method is based on cooking foods gently at consistent, scientifically determined temperatures in a water bath where the water is circulated to maintain the desired temperature. Modern food-safe plastics make it possible for us to not only keep air away from foods to delay decay but also to retain their nutrients while being cooked. American and French engineers have developed water bath machines as well as researched and developed the parameters for cooking times and temperatures for different foods. Popularized by gourmet chefs, we now have the opportunity to fashion our home cooking to exacting standards!

Controlling the cooking temperature at a consistent level has many advantages. Food is cooked to an even doneness—the edges are not overcooked before the center is ready. When grilling, foods can sometimes be charred on the outside and remain rare on the inside because consistent temperature can’t be maintained. With sous vide, the perfect doneness is easily repeatable, so you can enjoy your favorite foods over and over in the exact way you like them.

Using this cooking method, you no longer need to stand over a range or oven to watch its fluctuating temperatures to make sure foods don’t burn. Taste will remain true even if it stays in the water bath longer than it needs to, because the temperature remains the same. Foods are also juicier and more tender because moisture is retained in the bag, and although this type of cooking won’t brown meats you can simply sear the meat on the grill or stove once you’re ready to serve your meal.

Another benefit of water bath cooking is its accommodation of the individual characteristics of different foods. For example, meats and fish have a relatively small window of quality doneness. When they’re prepared at too high a temperature there’s a great chance they’ll end up overcooked. Chicken, on the other hand, needs to reach a target temperature that destroys pathogens and improves food safety. Water bath food preparation improves the quality and safety of the meals you prepare.

SousVide Supreme: The Pioneer

The SousVide Supreme Touch Plus was designed to provide the home cook with the same opportunity as professional chefs to produce gourmet taste at a reasonable cost. It was the first kitchen countertop water bath appliance marketed and comes in a brushed stainless steel finish. The temperature is programmable from 86 to 210 degrees and will maintain the desired temperature within 1 degree using PID (proportional integral derivative) technology. The perforated bottom grill is designed to generate heat movement for greater efficiency. The stainless steel interior has a three gallon capacity and can hold 20 four-ounce pouches of food.

To cook in the water oven, you preheat the unit filled with water and set your sealed pouches of food in the universal food pouch rack to keep the bags separate during cooking. Next you place the aluminum lid with insulating cover on the top of the machine and set the timer. Then walk away. When cooking is complete your timer will sound. If you are unexpectedly away from the kitchen when the timer runs out, the oven remains at its set temperature so your food won’t spoil. Come back hours later and it’ll still be ready for you!

Cleanup is easy since your food was kept inside of bags while it cooked. The lid doubles as a drip tray for carrying the wet pouches and the oven has a detachable power cord, so you can use the convenient handles on the sides of the oven to easily dump out your water when it needs freshening, without worrying about a cord trailing behind you. The energy efficient operation lends itself to quiet operation and the housing remains comfortable to the touch due to the insulated inner surfaces. An instructional DVD, user guide, recipe book and time and temperature chart are included along with samples of seasonings. You will surely enjoy the full flavors of food prepared in this innovative cooking appliance!

Buying your sous vide cooker at Pleasant Hill Grain

At Pleasant Hill Grain, buying online doesn’t mean giving up caring, personal service. Our customer service representatives have hands-on experience with the products we offer—we’d love to talk with you about your individual needs, so please call us up if you have questions about sous vide cooking or any other kitchen need!