What Is Sous Vide?

Once reserved for high-end restaurants, sous vide (pronounced soo-VEED) is quickly becoming more popular among home cooks. If you're unfamiliar with it, sous vide can be intimidating. Admittedly, the concept of cooking vacuum-sealed food in water sounds a little strange. But when done correctly, sous vide can produce a perfectly cooked New York strip steak, silky salmon fillet, or creamy soft-cooked eggs.

But what exactly is this magical appliance — and how does it work? Find the answers to all your sous vide questions here, plus why you might want to consider adding one to your kitchen gadget arsenal.

What is Sous Vide, Exactly?

Sous vide is a low-temperature cooking method where food is vacuum-sealed and slowly cooked in a water bath. French for "under vacuum," sous vide uses heated water to gently cook food so that it stays juicy and flavorful. The water temperature is well below simmering, anywhere from 125 degrees F to 195 degrees F.

Effectively, the temperature you choose for your sous vide machine will be the same temperature of your food when it's cooked. For something like a medium-rare steak, this is very handy. Sous vide also gives food a uniform texture by cooking inside and outside at the exact same rate. A sous vide steak is medium rare all the way through, instead of being pink in the center and grey around the edges. This is a common problem with dry-heat cooking methods like pan-searing or grilling — the outside of the meat tends to cook before the inside, resulting in unevenly-cooked food.

A Brief History of Sous Vide Cooking

Sous vide originated in France during the 1970s. It appeared in the United States nearly a decade later, but it was not well-received. The Food and Drug Administration raised concerns over the safety of sous vide and some chefs criticized the equipment as expensive and overly complex.

During the early 2000s, legendary American chef Thomas Keller and French chef Daniel Boulud helped bring sous vide into public awareness. In his book, Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide, Keller writes "The degree of precision sous vide allows is extraordinary...from a practical standpoint, precision's goal is consistency, and consistency may be the single most important factor in any restaurant's success..."

For a high volume environment like a restaurant kitchen, the ability to consistently cook steak or pork tenderloin to temperature is game-changing. And when Keller, Boulud, and other chefs discovered this, they began to employ sous vide cooking in their own kitchens.

Over time, sous vide became the gold standard for cooking steak and other foods in high-end restaurants. Only recently have home cooks adopted sous vide cooking — and with a variety of affordable models on the market, this once intimidating cooking method is now much more accessible.

Sous Vide Equipment

Sous vide cooking requires two tools: a vacuum-packing machine and an immersion circulator.

The vacuum-packing machine, or vacuum sealer, seals the food in an airtight, food-grade plastic pouch. Removing the air inside the pouch not only helps lock in flavor, but it also protects the food from getting soaked with water during cooking.

The immersion circulator is the cylinder-shaped tool that controls the water temperature. This tool acts as a heater, thermometer, and pump that moves the water around to keep the temperature consistent.

Is Sous Vide Cooking Really Worth It?

Should you invest in a sous vide machine for your kitchen? If you're looking to expand your range of cooking techniques, by all means go out and buy one. Sous vide takes the guesswork out of cooking by giving you complete control over the outcome of your food. It's also a brilliant way to up your meal prep game. You can cook a large cut of meat, such as pork shoulder, at the beginning of the week and use it for sandwiches, quesadillas, soup, and more for days afterwards. Sous vide is also useful for special occasion dinners. You can easily whip up a restaurant-quality medium-rare steak or duck breast for guests for a fraction of the cost.

Where can you buy a sous vide machine? Most kitchen stores like Williams Sonoma and Sur La Table sell them. You can also find them online from Amazon. This best-selling sous vide cooker has rave reviews: