Dr. Betty Jhonson - Sous Vide Cookbook: 600+ Affordable, Quick & Healthy Budget Friendly Recipes for Your Whole Family with 30-Day Meal Plan

• Breakfast
• Mains
• Sides
• Seafood
• Poultry
• Meat
• Vegetables
• Soups and Stews
• Stocks, Sauces, Broths, & Spice Rubs
• Eggs
• Snacks
• Cocktails and Infusions
• Desserts
• 30-Day Meal Plan

A recipe will tell you how hot you need your water bath to be for perfect results. If you have an integrated sous vide water oven, its as simple as turning it on and setting the temperature. If you are using an immersion circulator, you will need to clip this onto the side of your water container (see Essential Kitchen Equipment so that submerged as per the devices instructions. From here you need to set the water temperature you require, and wait while for the water to heat.

Oil the bag you are using to cook your sous vide meal in. Place all necessary ingredients inside and vacuum-seal the bag. This can be done either by submerging the bag almost to the top in a container of (cold water - either in the sink, a large pot, or your sous vide machine prior to the water getting too warm. Seal your bag if it has a zip lock. If you are using a bag with no zip lock, you will be able to achieve a vacuum environment by submerging it in the water until the food is totally covered, then clipping the bag to the side of the machine.

If you have a vacuum-sealer, once the ingredients are all in the bag, all you need to do is seal it as per your machines instructions, and the bag is ready to go.

Once your water is the right temperature, place your sealed bags in, or if they are unsealed, clip them onto the side of the machine so that the food is submerged but the opening will not let any water in. Set a timer as per the recipe and leave the produce to cook, checking back every now and then to make sure that all parts are submerged. If cooking more than one bag at a time, no two bags should touch in a way that will cause parts of the meat or vegetables to be under-exposed to the surrounding environment.

The adaptability of the sous vide machine means that its really more a matter of what you cant cook. The main thing that needs to be taken into consideration is the texture of the food itself. sous vide cooking has a lot of the benefits of slow-cooking, and the prime targets are the foods that have longer cooking times which you often struggle to achieve a consistent texture with. This means larger red meat cuts, pork, hard vegetables and firmer fish.

Eggs are a common hero of sous vide cooking as well - gone are the days of runny whites and hard yolks, the precision method means that timing and temperature have been tested to provide consistently wonderful results.

Foods that generally have a fast cooking time benefit more from traditional methods. Exposure to a low temperature for a long time will often result in dulled leaves (think Asian greens, spinach etc. or a tougher consistency (thin cuts of very tender meat.

Any food that is intended to have a dry exterior (battered or breaded foods will not get the exposure to air that is required to create this texture. Moreover, the outside will become soggy and unpalatable as it sits in the bag, soaking up the juices of the food it is coating.