A few weeks ago I mentioned that I'd bust out my sous vide contraption for a bit more experimentation and report on it. I did, but I didn't dive in as deep as planned, as I started to lose interest again. Here are some notes from my latest round(s).

I'll start on a positive note, because I think it's most appropriate to say what an outstanding job sous vide did on short ribs. I found this article which told of a challenge between similar rib recipes, one prepared sous vide and the other one braised. I was truly impressed with the med-rare meat and preferred it to the more "stew meat" result of the braising. My wife preferred the latter; I suppose it's just a matter of personal taste.

I tried chicken two different ways. The first was one of just three recipes on Wms Sonoma's web site to support their very expensive sous vide equipment. I found this thigh recipe to be somewhat of an exercise in ridiculousness. You take boned thighs, cook them sous vide, cool them, then cook them on a skillet to reheat and crisp the skin. Well guess what folks, boneless thighs are relatively thin so by the time the skin is crisped the interior has pretty much - if not entirely - come up to safe temperature by standard methods. So what's the point? I made two sets of thighs and interestingly I found my sous vide thigh a bit juicer and my wife found the traditional thigh juicier. Guess it had more to do with the actual thighs than the method. I will give sous vide a slight advantage because the flavors of the thyme and garlic penetrated the chicken throughout. It was nice, it was noticable, but IMO probably not worth the effort. Perhaps marinating the traditional thighs longer would have given similar results, I don't know.

The second chicken recipe was simply chicken francaise. No side by side comparison needed, as I make this a couple times a month and know what it's like. I tried to take advantage of sous vide by not pounding the BSCB down. Cooked at 147 deg (again, per WS's video) then dropped in the egg wash and sauteed at a higher than normal temp for a few seconds just to get the egg golden. Believe it or not, this resulted in decidedly overcooked chicken. BSCB is so easy to saute anyway, so even if cooked at a lower temp this left me wondering, "what's the point?"

While chicken left me uninspired, a couple attempts at seafood left me downright disappointed. My first attempt at shrimp (131 deg) resulted in a nice interior but an odd, slimy coating on the exterior. Having read about unappealing proteins surfacing on salmon in Douglas Baldwin's guide, I wondered if brining the shrimp would help as it supposedly does for salmon. It didn't. Suffice it to say, that night I simply stirred some shrimp into a risotto a few minutes before serving rather than risk the sous vide route. Lo and behold, perfectly done.

Salmon was interesting because I never before paid attention to temp, going more by feel and look. So my first attempt at sous vide salmon at 131 degrees was a complete waste of fish. I thought about buying more and trying again, but my side-by-side pan-fried fillet was so perfectly done - a nice golden crust on the outside gradually moving down to rare just in the very center - that I was once again thinking "What's the point, this isn't so hard?"

And thus ended my second round of sous vide. Those ribs I'll be playing with. Yum. The rest didn't show enough potential for me to keep going at this point. I couldn't help but wonder what's all the fuss about. I started imagining a conspiracy theory where restauranteurs are hyping this in order to change our definition of "good cooking" because it's so much easier for them. Surely that's over-reaching a bit, and I wouldn't have posted this idea at all were it not for coming across a quote in this article titled "10 Worst Food Trends" by a Pulitzer Prize winning food critic:

Sous vide: Chefs love sous vide, a technique that involves vaccum-sealing food in plastic wrap and simmering it at low temperature for long periods of time, the way your great-aunt may have done with her Daisy Seal-a-Meal. There is no waste with sous vide--all the juices stay in the meat or fish--and it is all very scientific. But while in theory it seems like a good idea to cook a lamb loin to a perfect, rosy rare 126°, in practice it means that every bite of your main course is exactly like every other bite of your main course, which is to say bland, bloody, and soft as Soylent Green. Call us old-fashioned, but we like fire."

I might not be right, but at least I'm in good company. The short ribs showed me that sous vide has distinct possibility. Everything else showed me that it's not going to take over in my kitchen anytime soon.