According to Serious Eats, sous vide is a form of cooking that involves immersing a vacuum-sealed bag in a “temperature-controlled water bath” to create a slow and gentle cooking of food, whether it’s red meat, fish, or fish. Chicken and even vegetables. The cooking method used to be reserved for chefs and professionals only, because it requires technique and precision to ensure that the final food is perfect. Of course, as with any cooking technique, there will be a certain learning curve when you get used to using it and perfect your method. As more and more home chefs adopt this approach, it is important to identify and resolve some common mistakes to ensure you get the best dishes every time.

Whether it is not using the correct type of bag, or not immersing the bag in the water bath correctly, there are many things that can go wrong along the way.

The magic of sous-vide cooking is that it will always cook your food perfectly, but-if you don't do it right, it won't always be so. "If it is not completely submerged in a temperature-controlled water bath, the piece that sticks out of the water will be cooked (or worse!)," Chelsea Cole, the food blogger behind A Duck's Oven, "Daily Vacuum The author of the book "Low-Temperature Cooking," and the founder of Sous Vide School told Mashed.

Not to mention, the air temperature above the water bath may be in an "unsafe area," Cole said, which can cause some bacterial problems, especially if the cooking time exceeds three hours. However, there is a remedy for this. "I like to use silicone-coated sous vide magnets to help submerge my food in water," Cole said. "One magnet is on the outside of the container, one inside, and the bag is between the magnets, so you can fix it wherever you want in the container." Others like ping-pong balls, or keep it simple: put a ceramic on the food Plate or bowl.

This is tricky, because the beauty of sous vide cooking is that time doesn’t matter. "You can cook steak for 1-4 hours, and no matter when you take it out within that time frame, it will be great," Cole told Mashed. But the problem is that time is also important. Yes, it will not be "overcooked", but the longer the food is exposed to high temperatures, the greater the change in texture. 

"Time need not be overemphasized, but consider that you can learn to use it to your advantage!" Cole said. "If I want a super juicy steak, I will cook it as short as possible. If I want a chopped, loosened pork shoulder, I will cook it for about 24 hours." Yes, vacuum Low-temperature cooking provides you with a lot of flexibility in terms of time, but it is also a tool that can be used.

Yes, sous vide cooking is suitable for cooking meat, but you may never have thought that sous vide cooking has a wide variety of foods. "My motto is if it is difficult to cook, sous vide cooking might make it easier," Cole told Mashed.

However, precision cooking is very suitable to help you solve any fussy problems, so it is an important asset you can use for various cooking possibilities. "Try cooking things like sous-vide hollandaise sauce, caramel pudding, or even vegetables you are afraid of overcooking, just like asparagus," Cole suggests. You will be amazed by the number of sous-vide cooking methods that change the way you cook. Keep in mind that although this is much like an oven, steaks require different cooking time than some broccoli, so although you can cook many things in sous-vide cooking, you don't want to cook them at the same time. 

From this perspective, the potential dishes really seem endless, and half of the fun is to try and see how various dishes work.

One of the big mistakes people make when trying sous vide cooking is that they may mishandle the bag. For starters, the answer is to confirm that the seal is sealed. Jessica Randhawa, the chef and cookbook creator behind The Forked Spoon, told Mashed: “First of all, failing to check carefully or even checking the seal on the bag three times before immersion is a common way to abuse the bag. ."

Also, keep in mind that if you use sharp instruments such as forks or pliers, these tools can easily pierce the bag and allow the juice to mix with warm water. But at the same time, Randhawa warned that it is easy to break the tender meat with tongs that hold finer fillets. So cleanliness is important-and be careful! Otherwise, some good meat or fish may end up being completely soaked and destroyed (it may also be a mess).

Ziploc bags can be used for a variety of kitchen needs, from food storage to leftovers, but it is not really suitable for sous-vide cooking. So, if you shouldn't use Ziploc, what would you use? The answer is to get a vacuum sealer! 

"Ziplocs will be suitable for the sous-vide process, but they will not give you the best results," ButcherBox chef Yankel Polak told Mashed. The vacuum sealer can provide you with the best results, so please don't be stingy.

If you are in a tight state and have no choice but to use Ziploc, don't worry. This is not ideal, but there are no safety or food quality issues. Studies have found that it is actually the temperature at which you cook and store food that can prevent problems such as the growth of bacteria, not necessarily the vacuum-sealed type. And don’t worry about the chemicals in the plastic getting into your food. The Ziploc website actually states that all of its bags are free of BPA and dioxins.

Choosing the right temperature is the key to sous-vide cooking, just like any other type of cooking. "When grilling or cooking meat, the temperature of the sous-vide food is converted to any other temperature," Pollack told Mashed. People don’t always think about reheating foods cooked in sous-vide cooking or thinking about rest periods, so it’s important to make sure to give yourself a buffer when choosing a cooking temperature. 

Therefore, please remember the temperature at each step. Pollack said: "Resting at a temperature 5 degrees lower than your favorite temperature, if you plan to reheat without eating immediately, shoot at a temperature of about 10 degrees." Although it is not easy to do sous vide cooking Overcook the meat, but it may happen, which may cause the meat to become hard and unsatisfactory, no matter which cooking method you use.

One of the easy mistakes a chef or home cook can make is the inaccurate water level when immersing the ingredients in the sous-vide cooking method. 

"In order to properly prepare sous-vide recipes, the goal is to completely immerse your bag or jar in boiling water," Jrk's chef Wayne Sharpe! The Jamaican modern health-conscious restaurant in Miami, Florida told Mashed. "As the temperature rises, the water level will continue to drop due to evaporation." 

The goal of sous vide cooking is to have enough water to last until your recipe is fully cooked. Sharp recommends some simple ways to achieve this. "This is a simple mistake that sometimes happens unintentionally, but there are a few ways to prevent this from happening, that is, use a water level that is a little higher than the required water level, or simply cover you with a pot lid or plastic wrap. Pot or boiler." It’s simple, right?

If you use the sous-vide cooking method to cook your steak, it is best to perform pre-bake and post-bake at the same time. This is actually burnt twice! However, this works well for a reason.

“Pre-bake will produce flavour, kill bacteria and ensure a stronger second bake,” Herve Malivet, director of culinary affairs at the Institute of Culinary Education, told Mashed, who recently helped improve ICE’s sous-vide cooking course. According to Malivert, the steak will not have a crispy appearance when cooking sous vide, because there is no Maillard reaction, so this is why you should post roast.

“For post-roasting, let the meat cool down at temperature after about 15 minutes in the sous vide cooking method, and then grill it quickly in a super hot pan or cast iron,” Malivert said. Maillard reaction is a chemical change that causes food to brown, thereby imparting color and flavor. So, be sure to grill your steak to get the delicious browning that everyone loves, twice or even better.

Although it is important to start with dry meat, it is also important to get a good char. When cooking meat, it is beneficial to try to roast it well after the sous-vide roasting is complete. However, please proceed with caution, because how you scorch is really important and will affect the final result you get with this dish. "If you try to roast wet meat, the skin will be impressive," Cole told Mashed. 

According to Cole, when trying to produce a Maillard reaction, water did not help. Here's how to do it: Use a clean dish towel or paper towel to pat the meat dry between sous-vide and scorching. "I also take this opportunity to season the meat again. Make sure your frying pan is hot and then burnt! To ensure an excellent charring effect, I usually also use the grill," Cole said.

One mistake that people may make when using sous-vide cooking is to cook two different temperature ingredients together. For example, if you want to cook garlic with steak, you need to cook garlic first. Otherwise: "If you eat it raw, you will have the taste of raw garlic and raw garlic. After you pre-grill the steak, take it out of the pan and cook the garlic," Malivert told Mashed. Little things like this can distinguish a successful sous vide chef from a frustrating chef. 

The same problem is actually problematic when stewing. "If you want to add carrots or other vegetables, be sure to cook them first," Malivert suggests. Therefore, consider each ingredient when cooking to help ensure an excellent end product. This will result in everything being the absolute best when it comes together at the end.

We all know that the meat should rest after it comes out of the pot or off the grill. But what about when we roast meat after sous-vide cooking? 

In fact, the same rules still apply. "The biggest mistake is not getting the protein out of the vacuum bag before you bake it," Clinton Hall and Slate executive chef Darryl Harmon in New York City told Mashed. "This is a mistake, because you won't get a good hard roast to lock in the flavor."

So, if we want the best end result, what is the best way to handle meat? "I usually let the protein sit on the cooling rack for a few minutes before it heats up," Harmon said. It seems easy, and the result will be well worth giving the meat some extra time to do its things.