PHOTO: Shown above is an example of a setup for doing the cooking technique called Sous-vide (See Wikipedia). The name is based on the French words for "under vacuum" because it is a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags, using a hot water bath, for longer than normal cooking times, at an accurately regulated temperature that is much lower than normally used for cooking. In the photo above, two steaks were vacuum sealed in Food Saver brand plastic bags and cooked in a 136 degree Fahrenheit hot water bath for one to two hours on top of a steamer basket. After cooking, the steaks were removed from the plastic bags and thoroughly seared on the outside in a cast iron pan with a gas MAPP torch, which will provide the same texture and appearance of conventionally grilled steaks (warning: using a propane torch will leave a bad taste and so only MAPP gas should be used). The goal of sous-vide cooking is to keep the food juicer by evenly cooking the inside to a safe temperature, hot enough to kill harmful substances, while not overcooking the outside.
Sous-vide cooking is exhaustively documented by the $625 book by Chris Young, Maxime Bilet, "Modernist Cuisine: Techniques and equipment," Cooking Lab, 2011. This book was followed by a smaller, less expensive edition priced at $140 by Nathan Myhrvold and Maxime Bilet, "Modernist Cuisine at Home," Cooking Lab, Oct, 2012. The co-author Nathan Myhrvold (born 1959), is a former Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft who has become an amateur enthusiast of sous-vide cooking.
PHOTO: close up of the sous-vide cooking of two steaks, which have been vacuum sealed in Food Saver brand plastic bags, on top of a red steamer basket in a pan of hot water that is carefully regulated to be at 136 degrees Fahrenheit for one to two hours. After cooking, the steaks were removed and thoroughly seared on the outside in a cast iron pan using a gas MAPP torch, which will provide the same texture and appearance of conventionally grilled steaks (warning: using a propane torch will leave a bad taste and so only MAPP gas should be used). The goal of sous-vide cooking is to keep the food juicer by evenly cooking the inside to a safe temperature, hot enough to kill harmful substances, while not overcooking the outside.
Escalating beef prices and the various cuts of meats was documented in a short article by Peter S. Green and Esme E. Deprez with Ryan Sutton, "Food Chain: High steaks for beef eaters," BusinessWeek print edition, Sep. 3-9, 2012, p. 16. Also see the related article by Peter S. Green and Esme E. Deprez, "Peter Luger Steak Prices May Soar as Drought Culls Herds" BusinessWeek, posted Aug. 21, 2012
The same lower temperature cooking technique can also be used to do whole eggs, which can be put in the hot water bath, without the need to vacuum seal them in a bag, at 175 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes when you can turn off the heat, let it stand for 5 minutes before putting it in a cold water bath. The eggs will get perfectly hardboiled without and discoloration inside and no sulfur smell as you get when you normally hard boil an egg.
