A decade ago, if you ordered a steak or fish fillet described as being cooked “sous vide,” it would arrive pallid and alarmingly velvet-textured, flanked perhaps by dehydrated parsnip soil or rubbery spheres of watercress juice. The technique of vacuum-sealing ingredients in plastic, then submerging them in water heated to an ultra-precise temperature, gives chefs the ability to cook steaks medium-rare from edge to core, egg yolks that diners can spread onto toast like ripe Brie, and tough cuts of meat braised into succulence with little monitoring.
Sous vide entices home cooks with next-generation immersion ware