[conspire] sous vide question.

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Paul Zander (paulz at ieee.org):

> This is primarily directed to Ross, but might be of wider interest.
> 
> The benefits of sous vide have been will demonstrated. I have been
> thinking I should give it a try, but it is not my highest priority.
> 
> My wife was cleaning out the kitchen cabinets, found a crock pot, and
> was about to take it to Good Will.  I said to wait.  It would appear
> that a change in the temperature control would convert it to sous
> vide. 

_If_ you can change that temperature control to a _precise_ control, sure.

The essence of sous vide cooking is arguably obscured a bit by the name,
which is French for 'under vaccum'.  It's true that the first step is to
put the food to be cooked into a vacuum-sealed bag with all possible air
removed, but that's so merely that the heat conducted from the water
bath will evenly reach the contents.  The vital bit, and the most
important thing to get right, is to have a water bath in which you place
the food bag very consistently at a food-safe temperature (like 150
degrees F; it differs from recipe to recipe) for long enough to ensure
full cooking and killing of harmful microbiota.

If your homemade sous vide accidentally kept the water at 140 degrees F
for a food that needs 150 for an hour, you would have a risky situation.


I love our two household crockpots, exactly the way they are.  For my
family size, having two of them means abiility to make a nice batch of
stew or soup that will last a week or two.  Everything I used to cook in
my pressure cooker, comes out better using a crockpot.