Sous vide cooking

serge said:

Hi ! I bought a FoodSaver machine (VAC1050) used generally
for vacuum packaging. I would like to know if it's
possible to do "sous vide cooking" with the FoodSaver
bags. Thanks for the information !

As most of us are not chefs or speak French, perhaps you
could explain. I don't feel like looking up the
expression, myself.

nancy

(serge) said:

Hi ! I bought a FoodSaver machine (VAC1050) used generally
for vacuum packaging. I would like to know if it's possible
to do "sous vide cooking" with the FoodSaver bags. Thanks
for the information !

The genuine FoodSaver bags can boiled in water, or
microwaved if a corner is cut off to let the steam escape.

--
Susan N.

There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who
understand binary and those who do not.

serge said:

Hi ! I bought a FoodSaver machine (VAC1050) used generally
for vacuum packaging. I would like to know if it's
possible to do "sous vide cooking" with the FoodSaver
bags. Thanks for the information !

Yes, you can do it. The bags are designed to be able to be
heated in boiling water. But if you're doing it in any but
the smallest quantities, you're better off going to a plain-
bag sealer.

Prepare the food, put into bags, vacuum and rapidly chill or
freeze. To rehydrate, drop into boiling or simmmering water.
That's the theory. In practice, it's a good bit more
complex. Sauces don't behave as you'd expect, various foods
don't freeze well, others change with the different than
normal treatment.

We used this technique in a few of my restaurants and it was
a real learning experience. We ruined a lot of food
developing technical specs for what we were doing.

Pastorio

[email hidden] (serge) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Hi ! I bought a FoodSaver machine (VAC1050) used generally
for vacuum packaging. I would like to know if it's
possible to do "sous vide cooking" with the FoodSaver
bags. Thanks for the information !

Hi again every body ! Here is an article about sous-vide
that I found in the usergroup uk.food+drink.misc. It gives
more information about sous vide and sous vide cooking. It's
from Taste, November 1988, written by Sarah Manser.

Several months ago I rashly suggested that Taste readers
might be interested to learn about a new cooking technique
known as sous-vide. Having sifted through mountains of paper
and research records since, I hope I may now be qualified to
deliver Sous-vide Lesson Number One. The system is still in
its infancy, it's not a household item nor likely to become
one for many years, but it can significantly improve the
taste of what we eat in restaurants, hotels, hospitals and
even on trains.

A distinguished French chef called George's Pralus invented
sous-vide (the curious name translated literally means
'under vacuum'😉. It can be seen as a natural progression
from those traditional cooking techniques in which offal
such as bladders and intestines was used for making sausages
and haggis - from earth cooking to the haute cuisine of the
French en papillote method; they all use sealed, airtight
environments and slow cooking, below boiling point.

It started in the early Seventies, when Pralus was
commissioned to find a way of reducing the shrinkage of foie
gras - an expensive little item which lost nearly half its
raw weight when cooked conventionally. He experimented with
sealed plastic pouches - some say cling film! - to encase
the foie gras, and found that not only was shrinkage
dramatically reduced but the process spectacularly enhanced
the flavour.

Pralus was unable to find an airtight, water-and-heat-
resistant pouch to develop his system further and approached
the Cryovac Division of WR Grace - a professional plastics
company - to solve the problem. They developed a series of
multilayered impermeable plastic pouches which are perfect
for sous-vide use.

It is not 'cuisine boil-in-the-bag', although it was once
very unfairly called that, with the result that nobody would
publicly admit to using the sous-vide method for fear of
losing all their customers. The fundamental difference
between the two techniques should be understood. Boil-in-the-
bag food is cooked conventionally, divided into portions,
bagged and then blast-chilled or frozen. With sous-vide, the
raw food is cooked in a sealed pouch, which may or may not
be blast-chilled and stored for later use.

The vacuum process is used in three ways - purely for
storage of uncooked food, secondly, for sous-vide food
prepared and used immediately, and thirdly, for sous-vide
food that is to be used at a later date.

The principles aren't tricky. Oxygen makes food
deteriorate, so by removing it the biological breakdown is
considerably reduced. Many restaurants who don't actually
cook by the sous-vide method use the vacuum process as a
means of storage. Following the daily delivery, food is
divided and placed in special bags, from which the air is
removed by a vacuum machine before being stored. If handled
properly, the method is extremely hygienic, since the food
isn't damaged further by air, handling or refrigerator
odours. No cross-contamination can affect the sealed food,
and the fresher the produce when vacuum-packed the longer
it will retain its quality.

Another plus for storage is that the vacuum process doesn't
change the cellular structure of food as does freezing and
canning. The jagged ice crystals that form in processes
other than industrial blast-freezing tear apart food cells,
and the heat in canning bursts them.

For sous-vide, the food is cooked directly in the pouch
with some marvellous results. Only the highest quality
fresh ingredients can be used because the process
intensifies flavour and, as the food cooks in its own,
juices, none of that natural flavour nor any vital
nutritional goodness is lost in the water or burnt away by
the oven. Chefs have found (through trial and error) that
far less seasoning and herbs are needed since the vacuum
process forces their natural oils deep into the meat or
fish. The results can be astonishing. Only the pure flavour
of the food is left and, because sous-vide requires a lower
temperature, there is little or no shrinkage, which means
larger and very tender portions.

Food can be prepared in various ways. A breast of duck, for
example, may be cleaned as normal and placed inside a
specially designed impermeable plastic pouch with herbs and
seasoning. The pouch is then into a vacuum machine to remove
the air and seal the pouch before cooking in digitally
controlled, pre-set steamer. Once cooked, the duck skin may
be browned under a hot grill and a sauce made from juice
left in the pouch. If it's not to be eaten immediately, once
steamed it must be rapidly chilled to below 3C - either by
an ice bain-marie or blast-chiller - and then date-stamped
and stored at below 30C.

The delicate taste of seafood, particularly shellfish such
as scallops, lend themselves well to sous-vide. Alex Neil,
food and beverage manager of the Kensington Hilton and
Patrick John, executive chef of the Gatwick Hilton
International, have found that fish, especially fresh
salmon, shows the most dramatic improvement both in flavour
and texture.

When Hilton International first introduced sous-vide, their
executive chef, Graham Cadman, experimented with pears and
rosemary. He accidentally removed the air too quickly for
this delicate item, and a flattened pear pancake resulted;
most odd, but it had such a delicious and unusual flavour
that he tried again. He found that the pear lost neither its
texture nor colour, and that the flavour of the herb was a
wonderful complement to that of the fruit.

Some vegetables, particularly carrots, work very well. David
Dorricott, chef of the Portman Hotel, finds that sous-vide
is by far the best way to cook artichoke hearts - it greatly
enhances the flavour and lemon juice is no longer needed to
prevent discoloration. Without lemon juice the
conventionally cooked artichokes turn brown, and the
additional sharp taste means they can't be used for delicate
mousses or soups.

It's possible for the food produced for room service and
small coffee-bar-type restaurants in hotels to be greatly
improved - some would say about time, too - and that the
awful stodge served in many hospitals and on planes could be
a thing of the past.

Despite its many and various culinary advantages, sous-vide
is not to be undertaken carelessly, particularly when the
food is to be stored. Although by removing oxygen the
deterioration process is slowed down, it isn't halted
completely, and the growth of anaerobes can occur. This
means hygiene must be paramount. If germs enter the pouch
with the food, they breed in the warm, moist atmosphere and,
as with the flavour, there is nowhere for them to escape.
Jochem Schafheitle, lecturer in catering at the Dorset
Institute of Higher Education, has studied sous-vide for the
last five years and strongly believes that nobody should
consider it until they fully understand the hygiene
implications, the necessary refrigeration chain, the
internal core-temperature machines and the DHSS guidelines.

Hilton International set aside special production areas
where the temperature is controlled at below IOC /50F to
limit bacterial growth during the preparation process. An
antibacterial cleaner is used in the area. Foods are vacuum-
packed by chefs wearing sterile surgical gloves and masks.

Albert Roux undertook two years of extensive study of this
type of cookery before he set up a factory concerned with
its production. He worked with Pralus in France and obtained
an honorary Doctorate of Science Fellowship from the Dorset
Institute for his work there. He now supplies Roux
restaurants and some caterers: British Airways (for
Concorde), Bass and the SNCF (French railways).

Since he is concerned with preparing food for storage and
later presentation, he does not agree with low temperature
cooking, but prefers a quick-cooking, quick-chilling method.
The highly controlled, clinical surroundings in which he
works make sous-vide viable and safe, but he believes that
few restaurants can achieve these standards of hygiene and
should therefore only employ sous-vide for food to be served
immediately.

Sous-vide does not necessarily work well for everything, nor
is it likely to replace conventional methods, but it should
be seen as a valuable addition to any professional kitchen.
It doesn't mean that the creative skills of chefs are lost,
since recipes have to be adapted and tested before they are
used and accepted by discerning palates.

It's early days, but with further research to establish
ideal cooking times and temperatures, and balanced
microbiological and nutritional levels, it may well become
an internationally available alternative to canning,
freezing and conventional cook-chill.

Plans are afoot to prepare sous-vide packages for shops,
which would allow us all to have perfect dinner parties
where the only requirements would be a pot of steaming water
and scissors to cut the pouches!

For more information about this technique, The Sous Vide
Handbook, edited by Julie Sheppard, is available from
Convotherm, I Devonshire Gardens, London W4 3TW. It was then
£12.50 including postage and packing.

serge said:

I would like to know if it's possible to do "sous vide
cooking" with the FoodSaver bags.

RTFM!

"FoodSaver Bags and Rolls can go straight from the freezer
and refrigerator to the microwave or boiling water".

My concern is, are these bags made of a similar material as
plastic wrap, which was recently found to release small
amounts of toxic chemicals into food when heated.

ecologycenter.orgseventhgrade.htmlOpen ↗

nb

"Nancy Young" wrote in message

Quoted message said:

serge said:

Hi ! I bought a FoodSaver machine (VAC1050) used
generally for vacuum packaging. I would like to know if
it's possible to do "sous vide cooking" with the
FoodSaver bags. Thanks for the information !

As most of us are not chefs or speak French, perhaps you
could explain. I don't feel like looking up the
expression, myself.

nancy

I think he means cooking in the bag?

Nancy Young <[email hidden]> wrote in news:40DEEFF6.91EB1472
@monmouth.com:

Quoted message said:

serge said:

Hi ! I bought a FoodSaver machine (VAC1050) used
generally for vacuum packaging. I would like to know if
it's possible to do "sous vide cooking" with the
FoodSaver bags. Thanks for the information !

As most of us are not chefs or speak French, perhaps you
could explain. I don't feel like looking up the
expression, myself.

nancy

Basically, it means cooing food in a vacuum-sealed pouch or
bag. Quite a few chefs have done this, including things like
foie gras, vegetables, etc. Supposedly it concentrates
flavors and maintains vitamin and nutrient content.

--
Wayne in Phoenix

If there's a nit to pick, some nitwit will pick it.

Nancy Young wrote:
!

Quoted message said:

As most of us are not chefs or speak French, perhaps you
could explain. I don't feel like looking up the
expression, myself.

nancy

Sous means under

Vide means void or vacuum

But I have no idea what sous vide would mean in terms
of cooking.

serge said:

[email hidden] (serge) wrote in message
news:<339cbb2.0406261=

[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

=20

Quoted message said:

Hi ! I bought a FoodSaver machine (VAC1050) used generally
for vacuum packaging. I would like to know if it's
possible to do "sous vide cooking" with the FoodSaver
bags. Thanks for the information !

=20 20
Hi again every body ! Here is an article about sous-vide
that I found in the usergroup uk.food+drink.misc. It gives
more information about sous vide and sous vide cooking.
It's from Taste, November 1988, written by Sarah Manser.

There's a lot wrong in it from the physics and chemistry to
what=20 actually are the opportunities for SV prepping.
It's late at might and=20 I'm tired and very few people are
going to want to do anything with it=20 anyway, so I'll
leave it alone.

Pastorio

Quoted message said:

Several months ago I rashly suggested that Taste readers
might be interested to learn about a new cooking technique
known as sous-vide. Having sifted through mountains of
paper and research records since, I hope I may now be
qualified to deliver Sous-vide Lesson Number One. The
system is still in its infancy, it's not a household item
nor likely to become one for many years, but it can
significantly improve the taste of what we eat in
restaurants, hotels, hospitals and even on trains.
=20
A distinguished French chef called George's Pralus
invented sous-vide (the curious name translated literally
means 'under vacuum'😉. It can be seen as a natural
progression from those traditional cooking techniques in
which offal such as bladders and intestines was used for
making sausages and haggis - from earth cooking to the
haute cuisine of the French en papillote method; they all
use sealed, airtight environments and slow cooking, below
boiling point.
=20
It started in the early Seventies, when Pralus was
commissioned to find a way of reducing the shrinkage of
foie gras - an expensive little item which lost nearly
half its raw weight when cooked conventionally. He
experimented with sealed plastic pouches - some say cling
film! - to encase the foie gras, and found that not only
was shrinkage dramatically reduced but the process
spectacularly enhanced the flavour.
=20
Pralus was unable to find an airtight, water-and-heat-
resistant pouch to develop his system further and
approached the Cryovac Division of WR Grace - a
professional plastics company - to solve the problem. They
developed a series of multilayered impermeable plastic
pouches which are perfect for sous-vide use.
=20
It is not 'cuisine boil-in-the-bag', although it was once
very unfairly called that, with the result that nobody
would publicly admit to using the sous-vide method for
fear of losing all their customers. The fundamental
difference between the two techniques should be
understood. Boil-in-the-bag food is cooked conventionally,
divided into portions, bagged and then blast-chilled or
frozen. With sous-vide, the raw food is cooked in a sealed
pouch, which may or may not be blast-chilled and stored
for later use.
=20
The vacuum process is used in three ways - purely for
storage of uncooked food, secondly, for sous-vide food
prepared and used immediately, and thirdly, for sous-vide
food that is to be used at a later date.
=20
The principles aren't tricky. Oxygen makes food
deteriorate, so by removing it the biological breakdown is
considerably reduced. Many restaurants who don't actually
cook by the sous-vide method use the vacuum process as a
means of storage. Following the daily delivery, food is
divided and placed in special bags, from which the air is
removed by a vacuum machine before being stored. If
handled properly, the method is extremely hygienic, since
the food isn't damaged further by air, handling or
refrigerator odours. No cross-contamination can affect the
sealed food, and the fresher the produce when vacuum-
packed the longer it will retain its quality.
=20
Another plus for storage is that the vacuum process
doesn't change the cellular structure of food as does
freezing and canning. The jagged ice crystals that form in
processes other than industrial blast-freezing tear apart
food cells, and the heat in canning bursts them.
=20
For sous-vide, the food is cooked directly in the pouch
with some marvellous results. Only the highest quality
fresh ingredients can be used because the process
intensifies flavour and, as the food cooks in its own,
juices, none of that natural flavour nor any vital
nutritional goodness is lost in the water or burnt away by
the oven. Chefs have found (through trial and error) that
far less seasoning and herbs are needed since the vacuum
process forces their natural oils deep into the meat or
fish. The results can be astonishing. Only the pure
flavour of the food is left and, because sous-vide
requires a lower temperature, there is little or no
shrinkage, which means larger and very tender portions.
=20
Food can be prepared in various ways. A breast of duck,
for example, may be cleaned as normal and placed inside a
specially designed impermeable plastic pouch with herbs
and seasoning. The pouch is then into a vacuum machine to
remove the air and seal the pouch before cooking in
digitally controlled, pre-set steamer. Once cooked, the
duck skin may be browned under a hot grill and a sauce
made from juice left in the pouch. If it's not to be eaten
immediately, once steamed it must be rapidly chilled to
below 3C - either by an ice bain-marie or blast-chiller -
and then date-stamped and stored at below 30C.
=20
The delicate taste of seafood, particularly shellfish such
as scallops, lend themselves well to sous-vide. Alex Neil,
food and beverage manager of the Kensington Hilton and
Patrick John, executive chef of the Gatwick Hilton
International, have found that fish, especially fresh
salmon, shows the most dramatic improvement both in
flavour and texture.
=20
When Hilton International first introduced sous-vide,
their executive chef, Graham Cadman, experimented with
pears and rosemary. He accidentally removed the air too
quickly for this delicate item, and a flattened pear
pancake resulted; most odd, but it had such a delicious
and unusual flavour that he tried again. He found that the
pear lost neither its texture nor colour, and that the
flavour of the herb was a wonderful complement to that of
the fruit.
=20
Some vegetables, particularly carrots, work very well.
David Dorricott, chef of the Portman Hotel, finds that sous-
vide is by far the best way to cook artichoke hearts - it
greatly enhances the flavour and lemon juice is no longer
needed to prevent discoloration. Without lemon juice the
conventionally cooked artichokes turn brown, and the
additional sharp taste means they can't be used for
delicate mousses or soups.
=20
It's possible for the food produced for room service and
small coffee-bar-type restaurants in hotels to be greatly
improved - some would say about time, too - and that the
awful stodge served in many hospitals and on planes could
be a thing of the past.
=20
Despite its many and various culinary advantages, sous-
vide is not to be undertaken carelessly, particularly when
the food is to be stored. Although by removing oxygen the
deterioration process is slowed down, it isn't halted
completely, and the growth of anaerobes can occur. This
means hygiene must be paramount. If germs enter the pouch
with the food, they breed in the warm, moist atmosphere
and, as with the flavour, there is nowhere for them to
escape. Jochem Schafheitle, lecturer in catering at the
Dorset Institute of Higher Education, has studied sous-
vide for the last five years and strongly believes that
nobody should consider it until they fully understand the
hygiene implications, the necessary refrigeration chain,
the internal core-temperature machines and the DHSS
guidelines.
=20
Hilton International set aside special production areas
where the temperature is controlled at below IOC /50F to
limit bacterial growth during the preparation process. An
antibacterial cleaner is used in the area. Foods are vacuum-
packed by chefs wearing sterile surgical gloves and masks.
=20
Albert Roux undertook two years of extensive study of this
type of cookery before he set up a factory concerned with
its production. He worked with Pralus in France and
obtained an honorary Doctorate of Science Fellowship from
the Dorset Institute for his work there. He now supplies
Roux restaurants and some caterers: British Airways (for
Concorde), Bass and the SNCF (French railways).
=20
Since he is concerned with preparing food for storage and
later presentation, he does not agree with low temperature
cooking, but prefers a quick-cooking, quick-chilling
method. The highly controlled, clinical surroundings in
which he works make sous-vide viable and safe, but he
believes that few restaurants can achieve these standards
of hygiene and should therefore only employ sous-vide for
food to be served immediately.
=20
Sous-vide does not necessarily work well for everything,
nor is it likely to replace conventional methods, but it
should be seen as a valuable addition to any professional
kitchen. It doesn't mean that the creative skills of chefs
are lost, since recipes have to be adapted and tested
before they are used and accepted by discerning palates.
=20
It's early days, but with further research to establish
ideal cooking times and temperatures, and balanced
microbiological and nutritional levels, it may well become
an internationally available alternative to canning,
freezing and conventional cook-chill.
=20
Plans are afoot to prepare sous-vide packages for shops,
which would allow us all to have perfect dinner parties
where the only requirements would be a pot of steaming
water and scissors to cut the pouches!
=20
For more information about this technique, The Sous Vide
Handbook, edited by Julie Sheppard, is available from
Convotherm, I Devonshire Gardens, London W4 3TW. It was
then =A312.50 including postage and packing.

Wayne <[email hidden]> wrote in
:"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Nancy Young <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:40DEEFF6.91EB1472 @monmouth.com:

Quoted message said:

serge said:

Hi ! I bought a FoodSaver machine (VAC1050) used
generally for vacuum packaging. I would like to know if
it's possible to do "sous vide cooking" with the
FoodSaver bags. Thanks for the information !

As most of us are not chefs or speak French, perhaps you
could explain. I don't feel like looking up the
expression, myself.

nancy

Basically, it means cooing food in a vacuum-sealed pouch
or bag. Quite a few chefs have done this, including things
like foie gras, vegetables, etc. Supposedly it
concentrates flavors and maintains vitamin and nutrient
content.

Wouldn't the manufacturer of the plastic bags he intends to
use be a better supplier of this info? He must have some
contact info that came with the unit. As the bags would be
the big concern here not the vacuum sealer.

--
Once during Prohibition I was forced to live for days on
nothing but food and water.
--------
FIELDS, W. C.

Margaret Suran said:

Nancy Young wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

As most of us are not chefs or speak French, perhaps you
could explain. I don't feel like looking up the
expression, myself.

Quoted message said:

Sous means under

Vide means void or vacuum

But I have no idea what sous vide would mean in terms of
cooking.

Thanks! Also to everyone else. Well, I know they can be
boiled, they can be microwaved if you slit the bag first.
(talking about the tilia bags) Still don't know what the
person was really asking.

nancy

"Wayne" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Basically, it means cooing food in a vacuum-sealed pouch
or bag. Quite a few chefs have done this, including things
like foie gras, vegetables, etc. Supposedly it
concentrates flavors and maintains vitamin and nutrient
content.

--
Wayne in Phoenix

Sous vide!!! That's it!! I am all for anything that will
eliminate the ghastly fumes produced when searing foie
gras. LOL..

Wayne said:

Nancy Young <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:40DEEFF6.91EB1472 @monmouth.com:

Quoted message said:

serge said:

Hi ! I bought a FoodSaver machine (VAC1050) used
generally for vacuum packaging. I would like to know if
it's possible to do "sous vide cooking" with the
FoodSaver bags. Thanks for the information !

As most of us are not chefs or speak French, perhaps you
could explain. I don't feel like looking up the
expression, myself.

nancy

Basically, it means cooing food in a vacuum-sealed pouch
or bag. Quite a few chefs have done this, including things
like foie gras, vegetables, etc. Supposedly it
concentrates flavors and maintains vitamin and nutrient
content.

A bit off the mark. It means prepping food now and being
able to serve it later after holding cold or frozen. Of
course it can't concentrate flavors since everything that
went into the package is still in there and maintaining
nutrients is a very complex subject that won't be much
influenced by being in a bag.

Pastorio

Nancy Young said:

Margaret Suran said:

Nancy Young wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

As most of us are not chefs or speak French, perhaps you
could explain. I don't feel like looking up the
expression, myself.

Quoted message said:

Sous means under

Vide means void or vacuum

But I have no idea what sous vide would mean in terms of
cooking.

Thanks! Also to everyone else. Well, I know they can be
boiled, they can be microwaved if you slit the bag first.
(talking about the tilia bags) Still don't know what the
person was really asking.

nancy

I suspect the OP is trying to find out if this is like the
Jolly Green Giant's boil-n-bags or something like that. I'd
be concerned that whatever bag he uses with the sealer would
be able to withstand the heat of boiling water. Hahahbogus
suggested contacting the mfg; excellent advice since how are
we to know?

Jill

hahabogus <[email hidden]> wrote in
:"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Wayne <[email hidden]> wrote in
:"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Nancy Young <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:40DEEFF6.91EB1472 @monmouth.com:

Quoted message said:

serge wrote:
>
> Hi ! I bought a FoodSaver machine (VAC1050) used
> generally for vacuum packaging. I would like to know if
> it's possible to do "sous vide cooking" with the
> FoodSaver bags. Thanks for the information !

As most of us are not chefs or speak French, perhaps you
could explain. I don't feel like looking up the
expression, myself.

nancy

Basically, it means cooing food in a vacuum-sealed pouch
or bag. Quite a few chefs have done this, including
things like foie gras, vegetables, etc. Supposedly it
concentrates flavors and maintains vitamin and nutrient
content.

Wouldn't the manufacturer of the plastic bags he intends
to use be a better supplier of this info? He must have
some contact info that came with the unit. As the bags
would be the big concern here not the vacuum sealer.

Sure it would. I wasn't suggesting he use his sealer bags,
just trying to offer a definition. There may be special bags
for this process.

--
Wayne in Phoenix

If there's a nit to pick, some nitwit will pick it.

"Bob (this one)" <[email hidden]> wrote in
:"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Wayne said:

Nancy Young <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:40DEEFF6.91EB1472 @monmouth.com:

Quoted message said:

serge wrote:

>Hi ! I bought a FoodSaver machine (VAC1050) used
>generally for vacuum packaging. I would like to know if
>it's possible to do "sous vide cooking" with the
>FoodSaver bags. Thanks for the information !

As most of us are not chefs or speak French, perhaps you
could explain. I don't feel like looking up the
expression, myself.

nancy

Basically, it means cooing food in a vacuum-sealed pouch
or bag. Quite a few chefs have done this, including
things like foie gras, vegetables, etc. Supposedly it
concentrates flavors and maintains vitamin and nutrient
content.

A bit off the mark. It means prepping food now and being
able to serve it later after holding cold or frozen. Of
course it can't concentrate flavors since everything that
went into the package is still in there and maintaining
nutrients is a very complex subject that won't be much
influenced by being in a bag.

Pastorio

I'm sure you know much more about it than I do, but some of
the accounts I've read mention it only as a cooking medium
for the effect that using a sealed bag has on the food. The
subject of prior storage, cold or frozen, did not appear to
be a factor. Frankly, I don't think it would be a cooking
method I'd care to use or even try.

--
Wayne in Phoenix

If there's a nit to pick, some nitwit will pick it.

Besides reduced loss of vitamins and some flavor, Sous vide
has a number of advantages

1. absolute portion control - food cost and weight
consistency
2. zero cross contamination from subsequent storage,
handling or preparation areas
3. lack of oxygen reduces the development of most food
borne pathogens

Larger foodservice operations would give much more weight to
those advantages than a small scale operation.

"zuuum" <[email hidden]> wrote in
:"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Besides reduced loss of vitamins and some flavor, Sous
vide has a number of advantages

1. absolute portion control - food cost and weight
consistency
2. zero cross contamination from subsequent storage,
handling or preparation areas
3. lack of oxygen reduces the development of most food
borne pathogens

Larger foodservice operations would give much more weight
to those advantages than a small scale operation.

That's probably the right venue for it. I can't see any
possible advantage in home cooking.

--
Wayne in Phoenix

If there's a nit to pick, some nitwit will pick it.

zuuum said:

Besides reduced loss of vitamins and some flavor, Sous
vide has a number of advantages

1. absolute portion control - food cost and weight
consistency
2. zero cross contamination from subsequent storage,
handling or preparation areas
3. lack of oxygen reduces the development of most food
borne pathogens

But scary anaerobes like C. botulinus can thrive unless
temperatures and pH are very carefully controlled.

Quoted message said:

Larger foodservice operations would give much more weight
to those advantages than a small scale operation.

Not really. The first restaurant I used it in (before it
even had a name, in 1976) had 72 seats and turned no more
than about 150 covers at its busiest. Later, when we'd
expanded the operation to about 5 times that size, the
bagging went a long way towards levelling out our prep and
spoilage/waste concerns.

Pastorio