Sous vide is, according to Serious Eats, a form of cooking that involves taking vacuum-sealed bags and submerging them in a "temperature-controlled water bath," thus creating a slowly and gently cooked food, be it red meat, fish, chicken, or even vegetables.
That said, a steak can stay in the bath for several hours and still come out perfectly medium rare. One thing the sous vide method will not do is produce a brown crust on the outside of your meat, nor will it turn chicken skin crispy. The solution is to sear it afterward.
The answer is to get a vacuum sealer! "Ziplocs will work for the sous vide process, but they won't give you the optimal results," ButcherBox head chef, Yankel Polak told Mashed. A vacuum sealer gives you the best possible results, so don't skimp. If you are in a crunch and have no choice but to use that Ziploc, don't worry.
One downside of sous vide cooking is that it might take an hour to cook a steak. Of course, the upside is a steak done perfectly to your liking, with no chance of overcooking. With this fail-safe function in mind, you could conceivably set the water to 135 F, and your steak would never get any hotter than that—even if you left it there all day.
Sous vide (pronounced "soo-VEED") is a technique that involves sealing food in plastic, then immersing the packet in a hot water bath set to a specific constant temperature using a device called an immersion circulator .
It's called sous vide cooking. And while it might not be the simplest technique in the world, it takes all the guesswork out of cooking meats, poultry, vegetables and eggs. For some folks, knowing that their food is guaranteed to be cooked perfectly is worth the additional complexity that comes with sous vide cooking.
Plus, you can always set your immersion circulator to 125 or 130 F instead of 135 if you're concerned about maintaining that medium-rare.
This is the heart of the system, and there are a wide range of models available — even some equipped with Bluetooth. In theory, you could sous vide on the stovetop with a pot of water, using a candy thermometer to monitor the water temperature.
One thing the sous vide method will not do is produce a brown crust on the outside of your meat, nor will it turn chicken skin crispy.
A vacuum sealer is preferable, since it removes all the air from around the food, helping water surround the food more closely. On the other hand, freezer bags allow you check the temperature of the item with an instant-read thermometer, then re-close the bag to return to cooking. A container for the water.
One downside of sous vide cooking is that it might take an hour to cook a steak. Of course, the upside is a steak done perfectly to your liking, with no chance of overcooking.