Do you ever wonder what is the best thing to cook sous vide? The recipes that immediately top the list include meats that you can overcook easily, ingredients that are best slow-cooked, and certain creamy desserts.
You can also find out what foods and recipes are not ideal for cooking sous vide. And if you’re new to sous vide cooking, we have some recipe recommendations you can start with. Continue reading for some valuable tips.
3 Best Recipes To Cook Sous Vide
Meats that you can overcook easily
Newbie cooks can try cooking steaks, chicken breasts, pork chops, and even lobster sous vide without the fear of overcooking them. These meats are often intimidating when cooked traditionally, but sous vide is ideal for them because the cook controls the temperature of the food. And if you’re worried about ending up with dry protein, consider that issue gone because the cooking environment is moist with sous vide.
Unlike cooking specific proteins over the grill or in the oven, accidentally leaving the ingredient in the sous vide bath won’t immediately ruin the meat. And best of all, sous vide helps the meat to absorb all the flavors and lock them in. You can instantly get the meat out of the bath and then finish it by searing.
Ingredients that are best slow-cooked
The precise temperature and control make sous vide also ideal for recipes with ingredients that need slow-cooking. And because you’re essentially letting the accurate temperature and water do the cooking, you don’t need to be constantly attentive to the food. You can slow-cook oxtails and beef tongues without having to watch them the whole time.
Taste-wise, you can smother the ingredients in your seasonings and let sous vide work its magic. The consistent temperature will remove your worries about the resulting texture of these tough ingredients. There is no more uneven heat distribution to your foods, primarily when you use the best vacuum sealer for sous vide that will seal the bags securely.
Creamy desserts
Savory dishes are not the only recipes you can cook sous vide. If you have a sweet tooth, satisfy your cravings with some creme brulee or cheesecake using sous vide. These creamy custardy desserts make one of the best things to cook sous vide.
Any dessert that you can make with bain-marie should work well in the cooking environment of sous vide. For example, you can divide your cheesecake or creme brulee into small jars and set them in the bath. Experiment with the cooking time and temperature until you get the ideal consistency, or check some recipes online for sous vide desserts.
Worst Recipes To Cook Sous Vide
Grilled fish
While some kinds of seafood like tuna and lobster work well in sous vide, you have to be mindful of some other fish types. Those who want to mimic the texture and taste of a pan-fried fish or grilled seafood will fail with sous vide because you can never get the crusty exterior and rare interior to finish with a sear. You’ll end up with a weird texture for the fish, especially when you sear it as you would after grilling some fish traditionally.
However, this doesn’t mean that sous vide is not compatible with cooking fish proteins. For example, halibut is best poached, and you can achieve the melt-in-the-mouth texture pretty quickly with sous vide. You have so many poaching liquids to use as well.
Tenderized meat
Meat cuts immediately come to mind when finding the best foods to cook sous vide. However, you have to stay away from particular meat like mechanically tenderized cuts for sous vide. What is the reason?
Tenderizing meat mechanically can cause the bacteria to be pushed deeper on the meat. Therefore, the safest way to cook such tenderized meat is by exposing it to high heat. Sous vide cooking temperature doesn’t get that high.
Chicken
It might be confusing to see chicken in the list of worst foods to cook sous vide because sous vide will help produce amazing chicken breast that will be perfect for finishing in the skillet. However, it’s still worth mentioning that cooks must be extra careful when cooking chicken sous vide to ensure that the cut reaches the ideal temperature to get cooked.
You should easily find different temperatures and times for various chicken cuts when done sous vide. But to be safe, be sure to seal the bag well to ensure even temperature distribution, then finish the chicken in the skillet. As a bonus, you’ll improve the texture more.
What Should I Sous Vide First?
Now that you know the best and worst things to cook sous vide, you might be wondering which ingredient you should try first with sous vide. As a beginner, it’s tempting to try the most lavish recipe you can find online. However, you don’t immediately have to try cooking a piece of ribeye.
You can get the hang of cooking sous vide with less expensive cuts like brisket or chuck roast. Some recipes require these meat cuts to be cooked for two days at 131°F. Try making one yourself and then experiment with pork chops, salmon, or even burgers.
Conclusion
Sous vide is a cooking technique that is worthy of experimenting with. But what is the best thing to cook sous vide? A quick recap of this article is that ingredients that get overcooked easily, ingredients that are best slow-cooked, and custardy desserts are ideal for sous vide.
On the contrary, be mindful when cooking certain chicken and fish ingredients. Follow the cooking time and temperatures to avoid issues with the ingredient’s safety. And speaking of which, do not sous vide mechanically tenderized meat because sous vide cooking temperatures do not get high enough to kill the bacteria that might have gotten inside the meat during tenderizing.
