What Is Sous Vide? Chefs Explain, and Reveal Whether It’s a Worthy Investment for Home Cooks

As a child of the ‘90s, I was raised during primetime for infomercials. Everything from the George Foreman Grill to the Slap Chop to the Ronco Rotisserie Oven (“set it and forget it!”) were available for the three easy payments of some “low, low price.”

Witnessing ads for such unnecessary products nearly every day during grade school, you’d think I’d grow up to be extremely skeptical of every gadget and countertop appliance. But teaming up with our Test Kitchen has taught me that a select few of these cool tools are actually worthy of the kitchen real estate and can make life much easier and more delicious. (The air-fryer is a star at reheating pizza and quickly cooking steak, for instance, and the Instant Pot makes quick work out of preparing dried beans or boiling a dozen eggs.)

At the BHG HQ, we put as many new tools through the paces as possible to be able to be able to answer when fans write in to ask “worth it or not?” One recent emailer asked us, “What is sous vide—and should I get one?” So today, we’re diving in.

What Is Sous Vide?

Sous vide (pronounced soo-veed) means "under vacuum" in French. It’s a cooking technique that involves “sealing food in a vacuum bag and cooking it in a precisely-controlled water bath at a consistent, low temperature” of around 130° F, explains Derek Piva, executive chef at The Restaurant at Tu Tu’ Tun Lodge in Gold Beach, Oregon. “This allows for perfect doneness and enhanced flavor retention.”

Since the cooking temperature is consistent—when you hear “sous vide,” think “slow and low”—”it ensures even cooking, seals in and enhances flavors, preserves moisture, keeps yields high, and makes it nearly very hard to overcook food,” adds Kieron Hales, executive chef and managing partner of Zingerman’s Cornman Farms in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Hales likens sous vide to a spa for your ingredients. Instead of using high heat as you might in an oven, on the stove or in the grill, “sous vide allows food to reach the exact temperature you want it to be—never more, never less—resulting in perfect textures and flavors every time,” Hales says.

What You’ll Need

Before you can sous vide, you need to get in gear, explains Nick Ocando, culinary director of Allelo, Juno & The Peacock and Pluma in St. Petersburg, Florida. Here’s the sous vide equipment you’ll need to give it a try:

• An immersion circulator (Anova, Breville Joule, All-Clad, and Ninja all sell highly-rated models)
• A vacuum sealing machine
• Vacuum bags designed for cooking, aka "boilable bags"
• A heatproof plastic container or large pot
• Binder clips or special sous vide weights

How to Sous Vide

Sarah Brekke, M.S., Better Homes & Gardens Test Kitchen brand manager, walks us through how to sous vide anything:

• Season the food and prepare a marinade, if desired. 
• Place the food (and marinade, if using) in a vacuum seal bag. Remove the air from the bag, then seal thoroughly. 
• Fill a large heat-proof container with enough water to fully submerge the entire food and insert the immersion circulator. (You will likely need to use binder clips or special sous vide weights to keep the bag below the water; this is vital for even cooking.)
• Program the desired temperature of the water on the immersion circulator, which heats the water to the programmed temp and keeps it there as the water circulates.
• Once the water reaches the desired temperature, place the bag of food into the water, set the timer, and cook until the food item has reached the correct temperature.
• Remove the bag from the water, then you have two choices:
• Transfer to an ice bath to chill quickly before refrigerating and reheating or searing later, or
• Use scissors to open the bag. Carefully remove the food and serve.
  

The Best Foods to Cook Sous Vide

The chefs we spoke to confirm that the following foods shine when cooked sous vide:

• Lean and tough cuts of meat, including beef, chicken, pork, lamb, and short ribs.
• Thick pieces of fish and seafood, like lobster tails, salmon, and scallops.
• Eggs (no need to place them in a bag; then can cook in the water bath in their shells).
• Root vegetables, such as carrots, potatoes, and beets.

The Worst Foods to Cook Sous Vide

Avoid cooking the following items sous vide, the chefs say:

• Breaded items. The coating won’t ever get crispy, Brekke notes.
• Marbled cuts of meat. You’ll get much better results using a hot pan on the stove or grill, according to Jon Kung, a Detroit, Michigan-based recipe developer and author of Kung Food.
• Delicate foods. Thin pieces of fish and delicate fruits and vegetables (like leafy greens, strawberries, and bananas) will likely turn out mushy, Brekke warns.
• Anything pre-cooked. It can easily become overcooked. That being said, you can pre-cook foods via sous vide to reheat in the oven or on the stove just before serving.

The Benefits of Sous Vide Cooking

We’ve already mentioned a few of the pros of sous vide, but here’s a full recap from Brekke, Hales, and Kung as you consider if this is a good fit for you. Sous vide…

• Allows for precise temperature control and doneness, making it nearly impossible to overcook a food.
• Provides very consistent results.
• Can allow for tender texture and better flavor, since the bag retains the natural juices, seasonings, and/or marinade. 
• Preserves as many nutrients as possible; they stay in the bag instead of leaching out during the cooking process.
• Is convenient. Once the temperature is reached, the food stays at that perfect doneness. “You can set it and forget it,” Hales confirms.
• Excels at preparing large amounts of food in a hands-off way. When you’re hosting a crowd, prep ahead, then reheat or sear just before serving to streamline meal prep.
• Usually results in less shrinkage. “Most, if not all food, loses weight when cooked,” Hales says. Due to the low temperature and vacuum seal bag-based cooking process, “sous vide makes this yield reduction much smaller,” he adds.

The Drawbacks of Sous Vide Cooking

Despite all of those benefits, sous vide isn’t the perfect solution. Read on for the cons of cooking using sous vide, from our pro panel. Sous vide…

• Requires special equipment, which takes up space and can add up budget-wise.
• Has a learning curve. It takes practice to get comfortable cooking via sous vide.
• Takes longer than many other cooking techniques, besides slow cooking. This means you “need to plan much further ahead than with most other methods of cooking,” says Jake Schmidt, executive chef at The Swag in Waynesville, North Carolina.
• Can result in very soft foods, especially if you don’t sear the sous vide items after.
• Lacks the flavor that comes from browning and caramelization, “although this can be remedied by searing the meat after cooking,” Brekke tells us.
• Presents some food safety risks. “Vacuum-sealing warm or hot foods can create bacterial growth risks. Some bacteria (including Clostridium botulinum) thrive in low-oxygen environments, so proper time and temperature control is crucial,” Piva says. Always chill a food before sealing it in the bag if you’ve pre-cooked it in any way. And if you’re planning to reheat the sous vide item later, immediately after preparing it via sous vide, chill the bags in an ice bath, then refrigerate.

Are Sous Vide Machines Good For Home Cooks?

Now that you could answer a trivia question about “what is sous vide?” and are well-versed in the pros and cons, we couldn’t leave you hanging without answering the question we teased at the outset. Is a sous vide worth it or not?

Kung, Hales, and Schmidt agree that if you’re an adventurous cook and a sous vide set-up (complete with a vacuum sealer, boiling bags, and an immersion circulator) is within your budget, go for it! While it’s not an essential tool and does take up some space, Kung deems a sous vide machine a “nice to have” addition to his kitchen arsenal.

"If you’re a busy person or have a hectic busy day, sous is a game changer,” Hales says. “It’s especially useful for meal prep, entertaining, or cooking meats and seafood perfectly every time. Cooking sous vide frees up stove space and takes the stress out of cooking lots of foods.”

The cost for an immersion circulator has fallen rapidly in the last decade—each unit goes for about $150 to $350 these days—”making it even more accessible,” Schmidt says.

It takes some experimentation and training, but most quality sous vide recipes will walk you through exactly how it’s done so the technique is fairly foolproof. Don’t just take our word for it. According to Hales, “once you try sous vide, it’s hard to go back!”