They look great - I hate overcooked meat, and who doesn't like saving money?

But how do you do this safely without expensive equipment?

Thanks ajsmama.

Almost all meat shrinks if they are cooked at high temperature. To me cooking is all about temperature control, which determines food texture and mouth feel. Taste is much easier. Just follow the recipe and measurements. Temperature control is where the cooking skill most involved.

Fortunately, today we have various high-tech appliances to make it easier. As I have posted before, there are very inexpensive digital (PID) electronic temperature controllers which allows extremely precise set cooking temperature. I use the PID controllers to make my own sous vide cooker and smoker.

Yes, absolutely, sous vide cooking is used mainly for delicious cooking, saving money is just a side benefit.

dcarch

I suppose what is most important about cooking is subjective. I've eaten plenty a dish that I've found delicious even if over or undercooked, etc. but I've never walked away from dinner thinking, "Wow, that was a great meal. The flavors were off, but it was cooked to perfection."

To me a good cook will successfully develop or alter a recipe to "make it their own," perhaps adjusting for the taste of the ingredients. A teaspoon of curry powder from Penzey's is not going to taste like a teaspoon of McCormick's curry powder. A good cook will adjust other flavors to acheive one that they are happy with.

How to best cook cook something from a temperature perspective is a matter of trial and error, and a good cook eventually gets a knack for it. There are different "best methods" for acheiving a desired end result, depending on what that desired result is.

Yes, you can take a tough cut of meat, sous vide it for an extended period of time and end end up with a tender, medium rare bite. But maybe that's not what's desired all the time? We all know that our friends Ann and Annie like their steaks still moo-ing, but they will both jump in and tell you how they like to make their long-simmered, fully cooked pot roast or beef stew. Yes, how THEY like it.

There's no argument that sous vide eliminates certain variables in cooking, once optimal time and temperature is determined. But to me it's no magic wand, any more than that teaspoon was for measuring the curry powder.

"I can cook a piece of beef to medium-rare in a bag and sear it and serve it to you and you’re going to think it’s great. But can I go to a barbecue down the street in the park and barbecue a steak? Can I really cook? Do I know how to cook a piece of meat?"

- Timothy Hollingsworth, Chef de Cuisine, The French Laundry

Here is a link that might be useful: More of his thoughts on modernist cuisine

I'm another who likes her beef still mooing - spoon roasts are the best cooked for hours at 200. Though my parents will disagree - they cook everything well-done (burnt on the outside and dry on the inside IMHO). Though I don't know if it saves money - cooking low and slow (in the oven) probably uses as much, or more, electricity as cooking for a shorter time at a higher temperature.

You're right, though, stew or chili (we don't care for pot roast) has to be cooked a long time (still on low) and not be rare. And it's even better the next day.

I have a Foodsaver, was thinking this might be a new way to try something like pork chops (which I always tend to overcook in a 350 oven). Maybe I should just try the slow oven for those instead?

Most of the time we have to eat either slow-cooker (unattended) meals or "fast" (1 hr or less cooking time) due to kids' after-school activities.

In fact, I have to think of something for dinner tonight - half day (I'm picking DD up at 1), have teacher conference at 1:30, DS has track practice from 2:30-3:30, and DD has Brownies at 6. All in town about 10 miles away. I'd better see what I have to throw in the slow cooker...

FOAS, actually, I am quite in agreement with your views and Timothy Hollingsworth’s points in the article that you have linked, that “In the end, food is all about taste.”

However I think I need to clarify what I was trying to say. By taste I really meant flavor, you and Timothy Hollingsworth are talking the total eating experience of the dish, including texture of the food. You are absolutely correct in saying that a perfectly sous vided steak tastes lousy without the correct flavor.

In today’s instant digital information environment, constructing the right flavor (recipes) is less of a challenge than having the flavor expressed thru the right texture. IMHO, texture is very much related to temperature control for many ingredients and recipes.

Ice cream tastes good, warm it up and it still taste the same (flavor-wise)

Overcooked steak tastes the same as perfectly grilled steak.

A loaf of bread failed to rise tastes the same.

Limp French fries tastes the same.

Temperature control is skill you cannot acquire by Googling.

Therefore, digital temperature control which guarantees end results, is very good for dummies like me, who has no cooking skills whatsoever.

Ajsamam, save money is I don't buy rack of lamb at $16.00 a lb which is mostly fat and bones, when I can enjoy leg of lamb at $4.50 a lb, just as tender, more flavorful and more meat.

dcarch