A Quick-Start Guide to Sous Vide Cooking: What is Sous Vide & How to Use It

Sous vide cooking allows you to achieve perfect results with eggs, poultry, meat, and more. Learn everything you need to get started in our step-by-step guide, featuring sous vide recipes: https://www.cooksillustrated.com/sous...

1. Set up your rig

Attach your immersion circulator to a container that is heat-safe to at least 212 degrees (boiling). Fill with water to about an inch above the machine’s minimum water level line.

2. Choose your cooking temperature

Some recommended temperatures for sous vide cooking:

Chicken, turkey, and other poultry—white meat: 160 degrees
Chicken, turkey, and other poultry—dark meat: 175 degrees
Pork: 140 degrees
Beef: 120-125 degrees (rare), 135-140 degrees (medium)

3. Pre-heat the bath

Turn on the machine. Set the machine’s temperature to your desired cooking temperature. Letting the bath preheat helps ensure even cooking. Depending on your machine and target temperature, preheating will take about 20 to 30 minutes.

4. Season and seal your food

Season your food with salt, pepper, and any other aromatics. Add the food to a zipper-lock style plastic bag (we recommend adding a small amount of olive or vegetable oil for meats and fish), remove as much air as you can, seal the bag until just an inch of the lock is still open. Once the bath is up to temperature, dunk the bag into the bath until all but the unsealed corner is submerged in water, and then complete the seal. If you have a vacuum sealer, you can also use that to remove all the air. This step is important because air is a poor conductor of heat and too much of it insulates the food from the hot water bath. Removing air gives the food direct contact with the heated water, so it cooks more quickly and evenly.

5. Place food in the bath

Once the bath is up to temperature, place the sealed bags into the water bath until the food is completely submerged. Cover the bath with plastic wrap to slow evaporation and help retain heat.

6. Keep an eye on time

Though timing isn’t always as important for sous vide as it is with traditional cooking methods, it’s still important to keep a passive eye on the time, since the texture of meat can suffer with too much time in the bath. Most common cuts of pork, steak, and poultry will be fully cooked in about 1 hour and can stay in the bath for about 4 hours without much change to texture. And when cooking delicate foods like eggs or fish, which are often cooked at higher temperatures for less time, you’ll want to be extra vigilant. Too much time for a poached egg can spell disaster.

7. Finishing touches

Remove your food from the bath. Open the bags and pat the food dry with paper towels. Though some foods like fish fillets, eggs, vegetables, and pulled pork are ready to enjoy straight out of the bath, most cuts of meat benefit from a quick sear to give the food a crisp crust. How you sear depends on the size and cut of meat, but whatever method you choose, the goal is to get the searing done as quickly as possible to avoid raising the temperature of the meat further. Make sure you use high heat and dry the the food as much as possible before searing.

8. Enjoy your sous vide meal

Sous vide has the potential to make traditional cooking easier and more foolproof, taking away all the guesswork and giving you back some free time. Plus, with precise, consistent cooking, it can even make food taste better.

More sous vide inspiration and information at https://www.cooksillustrated.com/sous...


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