"Ghetto" Sous Vide

Inside shot. Perfect medium rare all the way through. The meat was like butter. Served with some homemade ciabatta.

Sous-vide is a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bath for a long time. The intention is to cook the item evenly, not overcook the outside while still keeping the inside at the same 'doneness' and to keep the food juicier.

Typically it's done in these expensive machines that circulate the water and maintain it at precise temperatures. They go for about $1000, but you can get a small home version for about $299.

Not wanting to drop so much money on a device I won't be using often, I discovered on Serious Eats a hack, if you will, to cook items sous-vide, without spending lots of money. They suggest using a large beer cooler to help maintain your desired temperature in order to cook your food of choice.

I thought it would be easier for me to just use a large pot of water on a stove and a thermometer and just adjust the heat from time to time.



For my first experiment, I decided to sous-vide an already vacuumed packed Rack of Lamb by Trader Joe's. It was already seasoned!

Preseasoned frenched rack of lamb in 140 degree water bath for 3 hours for medium rare.

How it looked taken out of the vaccumed sealed bag.

It was looking kinds sad, so I seared it up on the stove a bit.

So afterthoughts. The meat was awesome and I totally get the hype about sous-vide cooking, but I would only something like this for very special occasions or if I had the time, as tending to a pot of water for 3 hours is pretty excessive.

I may play around with this technique for smaller items. I hear sous-vide works wonderful for eggs and they take a shorter time to do.