Steak cooked so slow and low, it will blow your mind!
In the middle of writing my next scientific post, I stumbled upon this amazing cooking technique!
Since the only thing I love more than science is food, naturally I dropped everything I was doing to look into this fascinating process. In fact, I feel that I partially find this so interesting because the process reminds me of the hot water baths that I use to heat shock bacteria and yeast for transformations and transactions! But I am getting ahead of myself....
There is some great science here and I hope I can do it justice!
This is what a fully finished cooked sous vide steak looks like!
Oh boy doesn't that look delicious..... Isn't that exactly what you imagine when you think of the perfect steak. Completely grey, un-seared, flabby beef..... yum.
I think I'll pass thank you. But before you go on thinking I used some click bait image and a catchy title just for you to end up looking at flabby steaks, let me explain. (Why I really used the click bait title and image was to get money)
Anyway, this is what a FINISHED sous vide steak looks like.
Ohhhh ya, that's more like it.
This process can turn even the cheapest steaks into succulent, juicy, and tender culinary sensations!
Sous vide is the process of SLOWLY cooking a steak or other kind of food, (yes this works with most food), in a hot water bath at a low temperature. Around 120-160 degrees Fahrenheit for anywhere from a few hours up to a few days. It depends on the thickness of the cut and the type of food. You will need a specialized sous vide water heater for this. The idea is similar to that of slowly smoking meat low and slow. The difference here is that the meat is packaged in an airtight vacuum sealed bag and placed in hot water.
If you are anything like me this causes red flags immediately.
Plastic + Heat + Food = DON'T EAT!
Plastic will leach a small amount into water and food every time you fill the vessel. Plastic is insoluble in water. If we used something soluble such as jugs made of salt to hold our water, we would find that letting the vessel sit for long enough would create a salty puddle. This plastic container however still "dissolves" slightly into the water. The saturation level of plastic in water is so minute, it is almost negligible. ALMOST.
It is now common knowledge, I hope, that BPA plastic is dangerous in even slight amounts. It is an endocrine disruptor, which means it essentially means it disrupts your natural hormones. This can cause cancer, birth defects, and other illnesses especially for developing children and infants. Hormones are often used to tell cells when to grow and tells certain parts of the body to develop at different stages of life. If you are interested about the long history of BPA I suggest this article https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2774166/ . Many plastics behave similarly to BPA and can still be used in BPA free containers, scary.
Heat only magnifies this problem as more plastic will leach with higher temperatures. This is still quite small though.
So when it comes to sous vide bags, are they safe? Honestly, time will tell. At the moment they are considered safe to use, although at some point in the past lead, mercury, BPA, and many toxic chemicals and elements were considered safe. More research needs to be conducted on the long term and short term effects of using current plastics for consumables. Good luck waiting on all that information to come out. Not to mention it takes lots of money and time, but most plastic companies will probably dislike the results and may even fight back as they did for BPA.
Now that that is out of the way, lets get back to the good part!
The benefits of cooking your food under a vacuum is that it retains all of its gorgeous juices and flavors! On top of this, the meat is cooked slowly and allows for the break down of connective tissues while relaxing the muscles, much like a dip in the hot tub! If you have ever seared a thin steak, you know it curls up. This is because the tissue in the muscles tens up tightly and contract due to the extreme heat. Resting the meat for five to ten minutes allows it to relax somewhat, but it will still have residual tightness. Sous vide produces completely relaxed, tender meat. To boot, it is very hands off. Going from down prefect to overcooked is very hard to achieve (you would have to forget about your steak for literally hours... if you can't manage that stay out of the kitchen).
This figure shows the weight retention of different steaks cooked at various temperatures in sous vide fashion:
https://scienceandfooducla.wordpress.com/2016/01/05/the-science-of-sous-vide/
Where 120 degrees F represents rare and 160 degrees represents well done.
Steaks cooked in this fashion retain most of their natural juices, but come out looking like old hamburger.... wet and grey.
Too remedy this heinous mistreatment of meat you are gonna have to play with fire. Looking for an excuse to convince the wife/girlfriend it is a good idea to get a blow torch? (If you are dating a man this will most likely not be an issue) There is no better way to sneak a blow torch into your garage than through a woman's stomach! Wait.... that came out wrong....
Remember, don't tell your significant other. Just surprise them one day by searing a steak in the kitchen and all will be forgiven after the fact. THEY WILL SAY NO OTHERWISE!
As you may know, searing makes food taste better. Well you can thank the Maillard reaction for this. This reaction occurs between 280-320F. Sugars and amino acids in the meat undergo a chemical reaction that produce the many of the characteristic flavors you love! Coffee, chocolate, browned beef (obviously), you name it! This process is different from caramelization however.
We most likely developed a taste for this sort of prepared food when our early ancestor's started cooking! Cooking food is beneficial. It is a favorable trait to have taste buds that enjoy this type of food. Those who found this food distasteful would most likely not eat it and would not benefit from a cooked diet. Those who did enjoy this food had a nutrient advantage over those who disliked cooked foods. Over time those that preferred cooked meals bred more than those who didn't and thus most humans today like this taste! Basic evolution!
I hope you enjoyed this little science break down of sous vide cooking! I just learned about it and I had to look into it further!
Since I have literally only known about this for one night, I would love to hear if you know more about the subject in the comments.
I found sous vide via the youtube channel Sous Vide Everything. I am not affiliated with them but boy does their food look amazing. If you are interested in more of the process and end results, check them out! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpFuaxD-0PKLolFR3gWhrMw
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Thanks for your support!