I spend a lot of my free time cooking. Not only is it such a calming activity, it’s also really satisfying to cook an amazing meal at home for less than a fast food combo. One of my favorite cooking methods is sous vide, which uses a low-temperature water bath to heat food to the perfect internal temperature, which kills pathogens with little risk of overcooking. It’s a lot more forgiving than leaving something on the grill a minute too long. Sous vide results speak for themselves: juicy steaks, succulent roasts and tender vegetables.
One of the best parts of sous vide cooking is that you can do it with an immersion circulator and gear you probably have in your kitchen already. Here’s how to get started.
Immersion circulator
Sous vide cooking is technically possible with a thermometer and hot water, but you must constantly monitor your water bath to maintain the target temperature. Instead, sous vide cooks rely on the humble immersion circulator to ensure a consistent temperature in the water bath.
My circulator is the older version of the $75 Instant Pot Accu Slim. At 800 Watts, it’s not nearly as powerful as pricier models from Breville and Anova, but it’s still capable of maintaining my target temperatures. Unlike those brands, it doesn’t require a mobile app, so you don’t have to worry about a subscription fee like the one that Anova uses for recipes and premium features.
Other notable brands under $100 are InkBird, Monoprice and Greater Goods. I’ve seen generic immersion circulators for as little as $40 or $50, but I can’t vouch for their reliability.
If you want a high-end machine, the $250 Breville Joule Turbo is an attractive option, but there’s no built-in control panel. This means relying on the mobile app to control the unit. Whatever you choose, it’s best to stick to established players for your first immersion circulator.
Water bath
A water bath is as essential to sous vide cooking as an immersion circulator but doesn’t require any special equipment. You can use practically any pot or bowl in your kitchen, provided it has vertical sides — and is deep enough to accommodate an immersion circulator up to the maximum water level. Crucially, you need enough room to submerse your food completely.
However, you should avoid using the kitchen sink for sous vide since the heat of the water bath can loosen watertight seals over time. For the same reason, it’s smart to insulate the countertop or tabletop under your water bath with a trivet or hot pad, especially when cooking vegetables that require higher temperatures.
One of the major drawbacks of using any old pot from your kitchen is that the lid probably won’t fit with the sous vide cooker in place. Without a lid, the water evaporates more quickly, and you’ll need to top it up during longer cooking sessions. Shrink wrap is a good solution but not as easy to remove as a lid.
I recommend picking up a specialty sous vide container with a lid. Many containers also include a rack to organize the food you’re cooking, but this is more of a nice bonus than a must-have feature. When you aren’t cooking, you can store your sous vide tools and accessories in the empty container.
Although sous vide means “under vacuum” in French, you don’t need an expensive vacuum sealer or specialty bags. Most Ziploc bags, or their store-brand equivalents, are perfect for sous vide as long as the box says they’re BPA-free.
To use plastic bags, drape the open end of the bag over the side of the water bath after lowering the food in. The water forces the air out of the bag, essentially creating a vacuum inside. Hold the top of the bag in place with a lid or clip to keep it above the water line. You don’t want water leaking into the bag, which can ruin the food’s flavor and make cleanup more difficult. While you can buy reusable silicone bags for sous vide, they tend to hold onto flavors and smells from previous cooking sessions and can get grimy if you don’t wash them well enough.
The majority of sous vide meals require little more than a coating of salt and pepper before you seal them in the bag — though I also add dried garlic to most meat. Keeping larger containers of these spices around makes it easy to apply them to the surface of food. You can add more variety to each dish with dried or fresh herbs. Personally, I love using fresh herbs like rosemary, thyme and sage when making sous vide turkey breasts.
Although dried spices work particularly well for sous vide, don’t ignore liquid marinades. You can pour marinades directly into the bag and massage them around the food before cooking.
Many online sous vide recipes are fast and loose with the amount of seasonings they require since it depends on the size of the food you’re cooking. While you can find plenty of recipes for specific flavor profiles, the most important thing is having a reference guide handy with standard temperatures and cooktimes for the desired doneness of your food.
I like the Breville+ app since it shows videos and images of the doneness levels to help you choose your desired result. You don’t even need an account or a Joule device to use it. Anova’s Sous Vide Time and Temperature Guide is another excellent resource.
Searing method
A quick sear is all you need to unlock the full potential of your entree. Remove the food from the bag and pat it dry, since excess moisture can slow the searing process, before searing each side for a few minutes until you reach the level of char you’d like.
There are two main ways to sear food after the sous vide process is over: a blow torch or a pan. I picked up a cheap propane blow torch from Harbor Freight, but you can also find butane culinary torches for creating a flame-grilled char. The drawback of blow torches is that they can be a bit of a fire hazard if you don’t have a safe, well-ventilated place to use them. For me, that means taking the food out to my porch.
If you already have a barbecue grill or broiler, you can use that instead. Still, they use more fuel than a blow torch unless you’re searing more than a pair of steaks like I do.
I use a pan on my stove when the weather isn’t good enough for searing outdoors. I like using a cast iron skillet or an enameled cast iron casserole braiser for indoor searing, but any pan that can handle high temperatures will work. An oil with a high smoke point, like avocado oil, is the key to an excellent indoor crust.
With the basics of sous vide cooking covered, it’s time to enjoy the mind-blowing flavors and the challenge of preparing the perfect home-cooked meal.
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