Perhaps my favorite food prepared en sous vide is the humble egg. The 63°C custard egg on many modernist restaurant menus these days is a thing of cult fascination. But today I want to share with you an egg prepared sous vide in an entirely different way than just tossing it in the bath. This, my friends, is a sous vide soufflé. More

In a great article in yesterday's LA Times, Thomas Keller, chef of The French Laundry, Per Se, Bouchon, and others himself gives us some tips and tricks for how to cook sous-vide at home (that's cooking in vacuum-sealed pouches in a water bath). His advice for home cooks? Cook the food in a cooler. Sound familiar? More

I'm the first to admit that sous-vide is not the best way to cook everything, and that goes for the majority of my favorite vegetables. Peas, asparagus, ramps—all those delicious, fresh spring flavors do better with a quick blanch or a sauté. That said, there are some vegetables for which sous-vide cooking can't be beat. For me, carrots top that list. When cooked in a sealed bag with a little bit of butter, sugar, and salt, the natural flavor of the carrot intensifies into a sweeter, stronger, and downright tastier version of itself. More

This is one of the easiest and most impressive applications of a low-temperature water oven like the Sous-Vide Supreme. The idea is that the texture of a cooked egg is determined solely by its temperature. That means when cooked to 142°F, egg whites will be barely set but still hold their shape, no matter how long you hold them there (provided you give them enough time to heat through, that is). Similarly, at that temperature, egg yolks will be hot, but completely liquid. More

By this point, there is absolutely no question that the method of cooking foods at precise low-temperatures in vacuum-sealed pouches (commonly referred to as "sous-vide") has revolutionized fine-dining kitchens around the world. But the question of when this technique will trickle down to home users—and it certainly is a question of when, and not if—remains to be answered. The Sous-Vide Supreme is certainly a big step in the right direction. But at $450, for most people, it still remains prohibitively costly. In an effort to help those who'd like to experiment with sous-vide cookery without having to put in the capital, a couple weeks ago I devised a novel solution to the problem: cook your food in a beer cooler. I put the hack method head-to-head against the Sous-Vide Supreme. More

There is a misconception about food safety, and particularly how low you can go with low-temperature cooking. But with a temperature-controlled water bath, you can not only cook chicken to lower temperatures, but more importantly, hold it there until it's completely safe to eat. What does this mean for a home cook? It means you no longer have to put up with dry, 165°F chicken. More

Why would anyone want to sous-vide a steak, you might ask? The short answer is flawless execution. When a steak is cooked via standard methods, even with a precise thermometer, you run a certain risk of over or under-cooking it. This risk can be minimized, but it takes practice, and skill—even the seasoned line cooks who've been turning-and-burning steaks before vegans existed will produce the occasional slightly-too-well-done porterhouse. More

Is the new SousVide Supreme, the $449 home version of the $1,000 machines used by the world's best restaurants, worth all the hype? Our man J. Kenji Lopez-Alt cooked over 35 different foods in it to find out. More

If you've eaten at a fancy restaurant in the last five years, chances are, at least part of your food was cooked sous-vide (French for "under vacuum"). It was only a matter of time before a home version of the $1,000-plus thermal water circulators required for controlling the water baths would hit the market. And who better to shill for the new toy but molecular-gastro-uber-chef Heston Blumenthal? More

The bad news, Thomas Keller, is that Achewood's description of prime rib cooked sous-vide borders on libel: "the anaerobic bacteria in that bag must by now have a soccer team". In this zany comic, the customer (a, uh, talking dog) declines the dish, citing the risk of motor neurone disease. The good news is that, to be appearing in web comics at all, sous-vide cooking must be gaining recognition. As for fandom, just give it time. [via The Gurgling Cod] Related A Comic About Eating at Alinea Cooking from Thomas Keller's 'Under Pressure'... More