This year for Christmas my brother and sister in-law got me an Anova Sous Vide cooker. I’d been asking for one because sous vide is a cooking methodology which really interested me but I hadn’t tried yet.
For those of you not familiar with the concept of “sous vide”, it is a technique that involves cooking via a consistent temperate hot water bath. Alton Brown’s Good Eats has a fun episode on it called “Immersion Therapy”. The idea behind sous vide is that you use the hot water bath to cook the item. The item can’t get to a temperate HIGHER than the water bath. The result is that the inside of the item is able to cook to the perfect temperature WITHOUT the outside of the item becoming overcooked.
The item itself is NOT placed directly into the water bath. Rather it is place in a glass container or plastic bag which is in turn put into the water bath. Putting the item in a container also helps it retain its juices and aroma.
The one downside to using the sous vide technique is that the item does not brown or develop a crust. However, when cooking a sous vide dish, the item can be browned either before or after the sous vide is done to give it a crispy texture.
Today’s sous vide project was egg bites. I’ve made these a couple times before either using mini muffin tins or a special silcone cooker which goes in my instant pot. However the texture of those two methods absolutely cannot compare to the actual sous vide product. Sous vide eggs are silky smooth in texture. Something I haven’t achieved before. I’d like a little crust on them but I’m pretty sure if I reheat these on low heat in the toaster oven I’ll get the desired effect.
Next up, sous vide custard. Because given how perfect the eggs came up I’m excited to try to make a custard that I don’t have to worry about being too eggy/lumpy.
