Sous Vide

French for 'Under Vacuum'. An odd term as the vacuum part has taken a back seat to precise temperature control of a water bath.  You can even 'sous vide' an egg with no more prep than taking it out of the carton.

I have a Sous Vide Magic temperature controller. I primarily use it with a cheap 5 quart rice cooker, but have also plugged in a hot plate and made a water bath of a big old pot of water to cook the BaBoDuChicKeyIlle.

The device has a temperature probe that you place in the water and it performs PID control to turn off and on the heater element to maintain the set point temperature. For meat control of +-2 degrees is all that is needed, and this controller can handle that easilly.

Eggs are a queer little device, the white sets at a higher temperature than the yolk. But the yolk is the part you want a just thick set, and the white firm.  And both of them are sensitive to very small changes in final temperature.  The perfectly cooked egg is a cruel cruel  mistress. 

 

The plastic bags allow all the juices and flavors to be sealed right next to the food. The above picture being pork cheeks seasoned and then packed with an adequate amount of duck fat. Slow cooked for 72 hrs at 145*F pork cheek Confit is a delicious delicious thing.

 Dusted with a little flour and fried to crispy goodness, still bright pink from the small amount of curing salt used to add that special taste only nitrates can bring to a party.

After cooking steak sous vide you will never want to make it any other way. Season steak with 1% its weight in salt and a pinch of MSG, vacuum pack. Into a 125*f water bath for bright pink center,  130*F for more rendered fat and more of a pale pink center.  Cook for 1 hr, then remove from bag, blot dry and into absurdly hot cast iron skillet to color for a minute on each side.   If that isn't sex on a plate, nothing is.