What is sous vide cooking?

Once limited to the pros, sous vide (pronounced sue-veed) is a cooking technique that utilizes precise temperature control to deliver consistent, restaurant-quality results. High-end restaurants have been using sous vide cooking for years to cook food to the exact level of doneness desired, every time. The technique recently became popular for home cooks with the availability of affordable and easy-to-use sous vide precision cooking equipment.

Sous vide, which means "under vacuum" in French, refers to the process of vacuum-sealing food in a bag, then cooking it to a very precise temperature in a water bath. This technique produces results that are impossible to achieve through any other cooking method.

Sous vide cooking is much easier than you might think, and usually involved three simple steps:
1. Attach your precision cooker to a pot of water and set the time and temperature according to your desired level of doneness.
2. Put your food in a sealable bag and clip it to the side of the pot.
3. Finish by searing, grilling, or broiling the food to add a crispy, golden exterior layer.

Why is it so relevant today?
With sustainability being the most important need of the hour like never before, there is an urgent scramble for ways to avoid wastage and utilize the maximum available resources with minimum waste. Success of a chef largely depends on his/her ability to produce viable preparations utilizing the minimum available produce. With sous-vide the shrinkage levels and food wastage is reduced to a large extent. With the availability and application of tough cuts in question, sous-vide has a huge solution. The classical technique of slow-cooking is taken to a whole new level and amazingly tender meats are rendered by the process with an improved flavour and no loss in volume and texture.