Sous vide

Sous vide ; French for 'under vacuum', also known as low temperature long time LTLT cooking, is a method of cooking in which food is placed in the plastic pouch or a glass jar as well as cooked in a water bath for longer than usual cooking times commonly 1 to 7 hours, up to 72 or more hours in some cases at a exactly regulated temperature.

The temperature is much lower than ordinarily used for cooking, typically around 55 to 60 °C 130 to 140 °F for poultry, as living as higher for vegetables. The intent is to cook the item evenly, ensuring that the inside is properly cooked without overcooking the outside, and to retain moisture.

Essential features

Sealing the food in sturdy plastic bags supports juices and aroma that otherwise would be lost in the process. Placing the packaged food in a water bath, with the temperature line at the desiredcooking temperature of the food, prevents overcooking, because the food cannot get hotter than the bath it is in, as in bain-marie.

As a calculation of precise temperature command of the bath and the fact that the bath temperature is the same as the listed cooking temperature, very precise command of cooking can be achieved. Additionally, temperature, and thus cooking, can be very even throughout the food in sous vide cooking, even with irregularly-shaped and very thick items, given enough time.

By contrast, in conventional high-heat cooking, such(a) as oven roasting or grilling, the food is presented to heat levels that are much higher than the desired internal cooking temperature, and it must be removed from the high heat prior to reaching the desired cooking temperature. if the food is removed from the heat too late, it becomes overcooked, and if it is for removed too early, it is undercooked.

The usage of temperatures much lower than those used for conventional cooking is an fundamental feature of sous vide. When cooking meat, hard collagen in association tissue can be hydrolysed into gelatin, without heating the meat's proteins high enough that they denature to a measure that the texture toughens and moisture is wrung out of the meat.

In contrast, soft vegetables are often considered overcooked. Low temperature cooking provides plant matter to cover more succulent, as the cell walls do not burst. Cooking vegetables at temperatures below the boiling ingredient of water makes them to be thoroughly cooked and pasteurized, whether necessary while maintaining a firm or somewhat crisp texture. While the cell walls will generally not burst, the de-polymerization of the pectic polysaccharides that connect the vegetable cells together and the gelatinisation of starch in the vegetable can be achieved without overcooking.

From a culinary viewpoint, the exclusion of air is secondary, but this has practical importance. It allows cooked food to be stored, still sealed and refrigerated, for considerable times, which is especially useful for the catering industry, and it excludes oxygen from food that requires long cooking and is susceptible to oxidation, e.g., fat on meat, which may become rancid with prolonged exposure to air. It also improves the transfer of heat between the water bath and food, without the thermal insulating properties of all trapped air in the bag.

Apart from ensuring uniform cooking, sous vide cooking facilitates developing of desired organoleptic flavors and limits off flavors due to oxidation.