2Sous Vide for EverybodyAbout this BookSous vide cooking is a relatively new technique to arrive in the home kitchen. Originally from the French for “under vacuum” because it often involves sealing food in plastic, sous vide allows you to cook food gently in an automatic water bath to the precise perfect temperature. That may sound intimidating, but the technique has trickled down from experimental fine-dining restaurant kitchens to everyday home cooks precisely because it’s an easy, convenient, and hands-off way to cook. Sous vide makes traditional cooking easier and more foolproof, and often can help to make food taste better, taking away all the guesswork and giving you back some free time. The editors at America’s Test Kitchen bring you Sous Vide for Everybody, an approachable cookbook for this innovative new cooking technique that starts with the basics (like the perfect steak or soft-cooked egg) but does not shy from the creative (a holiday-worthy chuck roast that feels like a prime rib at a fraction of the cost or fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt cups). The time for sous vide is now For the first time, there are now multiple affordable sous vide circulators on the market—includ-ing the Joule, the test kitchen favorite—making the technique available to more home cooks than ever before. But there haven’t been any sous vide cookbooks produced by a trusted source... until now. This book brings creative, foolproof recipes to a growing group of cooks clammering for more. Sous vide is the new convenience cooking This new technique gives home cooks exactly what they want: certainty, flexibility, and time. Sous vide is precise, therefore taking away the guesswork of cooking, and giving you foolproof results. Sous vide is flexible; we provide a range of time in which recipes will be successful. Sous vide is also hands off, giving you back free time. Informative science essays Peeling back the hows and whys of sous vide, these essays give readers the information they need to best use this kitchen tool. Dynamic, easy-to-read charts allow you to see how the combination of temperature and time effect some of your favorite proteins and vegetables. For beginners and experienced cooks Recipes are chosen to inspire beginners, and more experienced cooks. Start with a Perfect Poached Chicken Breast or homemade Ricotta and move on to Twice-Cooked Sichuan Pork Belly or New England Lobster Rolls. Make ahead tips are included with every recipe. CONTENTSWelcome to America’s Test KitchenIntroductionCHAPTER 1 Eggs and DairyCHAPTER 2 PoultryCHAPTER 3 MeatCHAPTER 4 SeafoodCHAPTER 5 Vegetables and GrainsCHAPTER 6 InfusionsCHAPTER 7 DessertsConversionsIndex2Sous Vide for EverybodyAbout this BookSous vide cooking is a relatively new technique to arrive in the home kitchen. Originally from the French for “under vacuum” because it often involves sealing food in plastic, sous vide allows you to cook food gently in an automatic water bath to the precise perfect temperature. That may sound intimidating, but the technique has trickled down from experimental fine-dining restaurant kitchens to everyday home cooks precisely because it’s an easy, convenient, and hands-off way to cook. Sous vide makes traditional cooking easier and more foolproof, and often can help to make food taste better, taking away all the guesswork and giving you back some free time. The editors at America’s Test Kitchen bring you Sous Vide for Everybody, an approachable cookbook for this innovative new cooking technique that starts with the basics (like the perfect steak or soft-cooked egg) but does not shy from the creative (a holiday-worthy chuck roast that feels like a prime rib at a fraction of the cost or fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt cups). The time for sous vide is now For the first time, there are now multiple affordable sous vide circulators on the market—includ-ing the Joule, the test kitchen favorite—making the technique available to more home cooks than ever before. But there haven’t been any sous vide cookbooks produced by a trusted source... until now. This book brings creative, foolproof recipes to a growing group of cooks clammering for more. Sous vide is the new convenience cooking This new technique gives home cooks exactly what they want: certainty, flexibility, and time. Sous vide is precise, therefore taking away the guesswork of cooking, and giving you foolproof results. Sous vide is flexible; we provide a range of time in which recipes will be successful. Sous vide is also hands off, giving you back free time. Informative science essays Peeling back the hows and whys of sous vide, these essays give readers the information they need to best use this kitchen tool. Dynamic, easy-to-read charts allow you to see how the combination of temperature and time effect some of your favorite proteins and vegetables. For beginners and experienced cooks Recipes are chosen to inspire beginners, and more experienced cooks. Start with a Perfect Poached Chicken Breast or homemade Ricotta and move on to Twice-Cooked Sichuan Pork Belly or New England Lobster Rolls. Make ahead tips are included with every recipe. CONTENTSWelcome to America’s Test KitchenIntroductionCHAPTER 1 Eggs and DairyCHAPTER 2 PoultryCHAPTER 3 MeatCHAPTER 4 SeafoodCHAPTER 5 Vegetables and GrainsCHAPTER 6 InfusionsCHAPTER 7 DessertsConversionsIndex4Sous Vide for Everybody5Sous Vide for EverybodyWhat is Sous Vide?Even if you weren’t familiar with sous vide before picking up this book, chances are you’ve eaten food prepared this way. In the past decade, this method of cooking food in a precisely controlled water bath has rippled its way from Michelin-starred restaurants such as Alinea in Chicago and Per Se in New York to chains including Chipotle, Panera, and Starbucks. And now it’s entered the home kitchen.“The single biggest advantage sous vide does for a person is emotional,” says Scott Heimendinger, co-founder of Sansaire and technical director of Modernist Cuisine. “It alleviates anxiety.” Whether you’re cooking for one on a weeknight or throwing a dinner party for people you want to impress, your anxieties can be alleviated because, with the precision of sous vide, a great meal is virtually guaranteed. “Plus you don’t have to be stuck in the kitchen,” he adds. “You can be with your guests because your food’s not going to overcook as it sits in the bath.”Here’s how it works A water bath is preheated to a precise temperature. Food is sealed in plastic (though not always; you can sous vide in glass jars, and eggs can be cooked right in their shells) and immersed in the bath so that it eventually reaches the same temperature as the water. In the case of meat and fish, there is usually a quick searing step before serving. This differs from conventional stovetop and oven methods, in which the heat used is much higher than the serving temperature of the food, making it imperative to remove the food at just the right moment so it’s fully done but not overcooked.But with sous vide there’s usually no risk of over-cooking, making it a game-changing technique—especially for temperature-sensitive (and often expensive) foods such as fish or steak. Long, slow cooking breaks down collagen to render even tough cuts such as chuck or pork shoulder extremely tender. The low cooking temperature ensures meat remains juicy, never dry; and dialing in the precise temperature creates exceptional, consistent results that can’t be achieved with traditional methods. It also eases the daunting task of cooking for a holiday meal or dinner party, since large quantities of food can be prepped hours in advance and held at the perfect temperature until serving time.INTRODUCTION4Sous Vide for Everybody5Sous Vide for EverybodyWhat is Sous Vide?Even if you weren’t familiar with sous vide before picking up this book, chances are you’ve eaten food prepared this way. In the past decade, this method of cooking food in a precisely controlled water bath has rippled its way from Michelin-starred restaurants such as Alinea in Chicago and Per Se in New York to chains including Chipotle, Panera, and Starbucks. And now it’s entered the home kitchen.“The single biggest advantage sous vide does for a person is emotional,” says Scott Heimendinger, co-founder of Sansaire and technical director of Modernist Cuisine. “It alleviates anxiety.” Whether you’re cooking for one on a weeknight or throwing a dinner party for people you want to impress, your anxieties can be alleviated because, with the precision of sous vide, a great meal is virtually guaranteed. “Plus you don’t have to be stuck in the kitchen,” he adds. “You can be with your guests because your food’s not going to overcook as it sits in the bath.”Here’s how it works A water bath is preheated to a precise temperature. Food is sealed in plastic (though not always; you can sous vide in glass jars, and eggs can be cooked right in their shells) and immersed in the bath so that it eventually reaches the same temperature as the water. In the case of meat and fish, there is usually a quick searing step before serving. This differs from conventional stovetop and oven methods, in which the heat used is much higher than the serving temperature of the food, making it imperative to remove the food at just the right moment so it’s fully done but not overcooked.But with sous vide there’s usually no risk of over-cooking, making it a game-changing technique—especially for temperature-sensitive (and often expensive) foods such as fish or steak. Long, slow cooking breaks down collagen to render even tough cuts such as chuck or pork shoulder extremely tender. The low cooking temperature ensures meat remains juicy, never dry; and dialing in the precise temperature creates exceptional, consistent results that can’t be achieved with traditional methods. It also eases the daunting task of cooking for a holiday meal or dinner party, since large quantities of food can be prepped hours in advance and held at the perfect temperature until serving time.INTRODUCTION6Sous Vide for Everybody7Sous Vide for EverybodyThere’s no getting around it: Eggs are tricky to cook. The white and the yolk behave differently when subjected to heat. Because they contain different proportions of proteins, fats, and water, they coagulate and set at different temperatures, and they have different final textures. Plus, there’s the simple fact that the white of the egg is on the outside—closer to the shell and the heat source—and therefore cooks faster than the yolk. about an hour an “in-betweener egg”—not totally set but still creamy (perfect for serving on toast). Meanwhile, Dr. Michael Eades, co-creator of the SousVide Supreme water oven calls an egg cooked at 147°F/64°C for 55 minutes the “perfect custard egg”—a “soft white and a custardy, custardy yolk.” When developing our own recipe for Soft-Poached Eggs (page TK), we decided to go for a more traditional texture, one without any liquidy white. Our eggs are more like those you would expect to get for breakfast from the diner down the street. To achieve that, we cook our eggs for a far shorter time (12 minutes) at a higher temperature (167°F/75°C). (Bonus: Cook our sous vide Soft-Poached Eggs at the same time as our sous vide Hollandaise, page TK, and win brunch for a crowd.)Eggs are perhaps the poster child for innovative sous vide cooking, but there is so much more you can do with this technique—even just in the breakfast realm.Behold: sous vide Yogurt (page TK). After bringing milk up to 185°F/85 °C, cooling it, and mixing it with a starter, we cook our yogurt in Mason jars in a low-temperature water bath for anywhere from 5 to 24 hours (depending on your preference for pucker). Using sous vide removes the need to babysit or monitor the temperature of the yogurt as it incubates—hands off! Sous vide also allows for easy homemade Ricotta (page TK), and even Crème Fraîche (page TK).Want something a little more out there? Try your hand at our Runny Egg Yolk Sauce (page TK) if you want the experience of a perfect runny yolk on your pasta, your salad, or your burger at literally any time—ready to go, straight from the fridge.At America’s Test Kitchen, we’ve devised countless ways to make egg cookery easier, from the quick timing of eggs poached in salted water with vinegar to hard “boiling” eggs in a steamer basket. But bringing sous vide into the equation changes things. Cooking eggs in a low-tempera-ture water bath with a sous vide circulator allows you to cook with a precision absent from traditional methods. And with eggs in particular, this makes a huge difference.Egg whites begin to thicken at 150 degrees Fahren-heit/65.5 degrees Celsius and fully set at 158°F/70°C, while the yolk begins to thicken at 145°F/62.8°C and fully sets at 180°F/82°C. “An egg soft-cooked at 60°C (140°F) is barely jelled throughout; at 62.8°C (145°F), the yolk is actually firmer than the surrounding white,” writes food scientist Harold McGee in the introduction to renowned chef Thomas Keller’s Under Pressure, the first English- language sous vide cookbook. “Sous vide cooking has opened up new realms of texture and flavor that weren’t discernible before and that still aren’t fully understood.”Because, really, egg cookery isn’t just about temperature. It’s also about time (see TK NAMEchart, page TK). Sous vide cooking allows you, the home cook, to play with time in a way that’s impossible with traditional cooking methods, giving you the ability to decide exactly what texture you want, no need for winging it or guesswork.However you like your eggs, one thing is clear: Each temperature degree difference is distinctive in sous vide cooking. “I can look at an egg at any point that’s been cooked low temperature,” says Dave Arnold, founder of the Museum of Food and Drink and author of Liquid Intelligence, “and tell you in this range exactly how hot or cold it was.” Arnold calls an egg cooked at 145°F/63°C for EGGS AND DAIRY6Sous Vide for Everybody7Sous Vide for EverybodyThere’s no getting around it: Eggs are tricky to cook. The white and the yolk behave differently when subjected to heat. Because they contain different proportions of proteins, fats, and water, they coagulate and set at different temperatures, and they have different final textures. Plus, there’s the simple fact that the white of the egg is on the outside—closer to the shell and the heat source—and therefore cooks faster than the yolk. about an hour an “in-betweener egg”—not totally set but still creamy (perfect for serving on toast). Meanwhile, Dr. Michael Eades, co-creator of the SousVide Supreme water oven calls an egg cooked at 147°F/64°C for 55 minutes the “perfect custard egg”—a “soft white and a custardy, custardy yolk.” When developing our own recipe for Soft-Poached Eggs (page TK), we decided to go for a more traditional texture, one without any liquidy white. Our eggs are more like those you would expect to get for breakfast from the diner down the street. To achieve that, we cook our eggs for a far shorter time (12 minutes) at a higher temperature (167°F/75°C). (Bonus: Cook our sous vide Soft-Poached Eggs at the same time as our sous vide Hollandaise, page TK, and win brunch for a crowd.)Eggs are perhaps the poster child for innovative sous vide cooking, but there is so much more you can do with this technique—even just in the breakfast realm.Behold: sous vide Yogurt (page TK). After bringing milk up to 185°F/85 °C, cooling it, and mixing it with a starter, we cook our yogurt in Mason jars in a low-temperature water bath for anywhere from 5 to 24 hours (depending on your preference for pucker). Using sous vide removes the need to babysit or monitor the temperature of the yogurt as it incubates—hands off! Sous vide also allows for easy homemade Ricotta (page TK), and even Crème Fraîche (page TK).Want something a little more out there? Try your hand at our Runny Egg Yolk Sauce (page TK) if you want the experience of a perfect runny yolk on your pasta, your salad, or your burger at literally any time—ready to go, straight from the fridge.At America’s Test Kitchen, we’ve devised countless ways to make egg cookery easier, from the quick timing of eggs poached in salted water with vinegar to hard “boiling” eggs in a steamer basket. But bringing sous vide into the equation changes things. Cooking eggs in a low-tempera-ture water bath with a sous vide circulator allows you to cook with a precision absent from traditional methods. And with eggs in particular, this makes a huge difference.Egg whites begin to thicken at 150 degrees Fahren-heit/65.5 degrees Celsius and fully set at 158°F/70°C, while the yolk begins to thicken at 145°F/62.8°C and fully sets at 180°F/82°C. “An egg soft-cooked at 60°C (140°F) is barely jelled throughout; at 62.8°C (145°F), the yolk is actually firmer than the surrounding white,” writes food scientist Harold McGee in the introduction to renowned chef Thomas Keller’s Under Pressure, the first English- language sous vide cookbook. “Sous vide cooking has opened up new realms of texture and flavor that weren’t discernible before and that still aren’t fully understood.”Because, really, egg cookery isn’t just about temperature. It’s also about time (see TK NAMEchart, page TK). Sous vide cooking allows you, the home cook, to play with time in a way that’s impossible with traditional cooking methods, giving you the ability to decide exactly what texture you want, no need for winging it or guesswork.However you like your eggs, one thing is clear: Each temperature degree difference is distinctive in sous vide cooking. “I can look at an egg at any point that’s been cooked low temperature,” says Dave Arnold, founder of the Museum of Food and Drink and author of Liquid Intelligence, “and tell you in this range exactly how hot or cold it was.” Arnold calls an egg cooked at 145°F/63°C for EGGS AND DAIRY8Sous Vide for Everybody9Sous Vide for Everybody 1–16 large eggs, chilled Salt and pepper1 Using sous vide circulator, bring water to 167°F/75°C in 7‑quart container. Using slotted spoon, gently lower eggs into prepared water bath, cover, and cook for 12 minutes.2 Meanwhile, fill large bowl halfway with ice and water. Using slotted spoon, transfer eggs to ice bath and let sit until cool enough to touch, about 1 minute. To serve, crack eggs into individual bowls and season with salt and pepper to taste.Soft-Poached EggsYIELD MAKES 1 TO 16 EGGSSous Vide Temperature 167°F/75°CSous Vide Time 12 minutesActive Cooking Time 20 minutesTo Make Ahead Eggs can be rapidly chilled in ice bath for 10 minutes (see page TK) and then refrigerated for up to 5 days. To reheat, lower eggs into water bath set to 140°F/60 °C and cook until heated through, at least 15 minutes or up to 60 minutes. Crack into bowls as directed.Why This Recipe Works Eggs are perhaps the poster child for sous vide cooking: The technique can produce eggs with unique texture; the method is hands-off; and the recipe is easily scalable. Typically, sous vide eggs are cooked at a low temperature (around 145°F/63°C) for at least an hour. This will give you a yolk that is slightly thickened but still runny and a barely set white. We found the white to be too loose when cooked in this tempera-ture range, most of it running off when we cracked into the eggs. Some recipes call for cracking “63-degree eggs” such as these into simmering water to better set the whites. We wanted to ditch that extra step and still produce a perfectly poached egg, so we opted to cook at a higher temperature for a shorter time to set more of the white. This method produced a traditional poached egg—right out of the shell! And with the ability to make these eggs ahead of time—just reheat them in a 140°F/60°C water bath for anywhere from 15 to 60 minutes—this recipe is perfect for the brunch crowd. Be sure to use large eggs that have no cracks and are cold from the refrigerator. Fresher eggs have tighter egg whites and are better suited for this recipe. Serve with crusty bread or toast. Or for a crowd in Eggs Benedict (page TK).8Sous Vide for Everybody9Sous Vide for Everybody 1–16 large eggs, chilled Salt and pepper1 Using sous vide circulator, bring water to 167°F/75°C in 7‑quart container. Using slotted spoon, gently lower eggs into prepared water bath, cover, and cook for 12 minutes.2 Meanwhile, fill large bowl halfway with ice and water. Using slotted spoon, transfer eggs to ice bath and let sit until cool enough to touch, about 1 minute. To serve, crack eggs into individual bowls and season with salt and pepper to taste.Soft-Poached EggsYIELD MAKES 1 TO 16 EGGSSous Vide Temperature 167°F/75°CSous Vide Time 12 minutesActive Cooking Time 20 minutesTo Make Ahead Eggs can be rapidly chilled in ice bath for 10 minutes (see page TK) and then refrigerated for up to 5 days. To reheat, lower eggs into water bath set to 140°F/60 °C and cook until heated through, at least 15 minutes or up to 60 minutes. Crack into bowls as directed.Why This Recipe Works Eggs are perhaps the poster child for sous vide cooking: The technique can produce eggs with unique texture; the method is hands-off; and the recipe is easily scalable. Typically, sous vide eggs are cooked at a low temperature (around 145°F/63°C) for at least an hour. This will give you a yolk that is slightly thickened but still runny and a barely set white. We found the white to be too loose when cooked in this tempera-ture range, most of it running off when we cracked into the eggs. Some recipes call for cracking “63-degree eggs” such as these into simmering water to better set the whites. We wanted to ditch that extra step and still produce a perfectly poached egg, so we opted to cook at a higher temperature for a shorter time to set more of the white. This method produced a traditional poached egg—right out of the shell! And with the ability to make these eggs ahead of time—just reheat them in a 140°F/60°C water bath for anywhere from 15 to 60 minutes—this recipe is perfect for the brunch crowd. Be sure to use large eggs that have no cracks and are cold from the refrigerator. Fresher eggs have tighter egg whites and are better suited for this recipe. Serve with crusty bread or toast. Or for a crowd in Eggs Benedict (page TK).Next >