I did read the instructions ya know
All kidding/snark aside…I just prefer to use a pot of water, and I personally have always used the steam method for soft boiled…they come out perfect in 6 min every single time, minimal water. It’s exactly what the machine is doing, I just…have to pay attention. Which you should be doing any time you cook anything with the exception of a crock pot…that’s the only true set it and forget piece of kitchen hardware to me.
The rinse may also remove some arsenic, which is possibly more important to get rid of than the starch.
Holy crap.
That article is entitled bullshit. Full stop.
“Takes the skill out of cooking?” Apparently the article’s authors have failed to understand the fundamental forces that push non-cash-strapped parents to make chicken fingers and frozen pizzas for their kids, or why so many people eat instant ramen even when they are no longer starving students.
Time, and consistency.
If you mess up everything you cook, or it doesn’t turn out the way you expect, you’re not going to “hone” your skills, you’re going to stop cooking and turn to processed, frozen dinners or take-out. sous-vide means never over (or under) cooking meat again, and never ending up with cold food because you couldn’t time everything properly (or because your kids pulled you away from the kitchen too long).
Speaking as someone who actually went to culinary school, the majority of folks do not have the time to cook things properly. Sous-vide solves that, and solves it for a couple hundred bucks, a pot, and some zip-top bags.
You want to learn how searing meat, or butter-basting, or sauce reduction can affect your food? What if you could have a perfect steak - every time - to start with and just worry about honing the skills that, you know, actually provide variety to a home cook instead of giving up because your expensive meats were - again - over or underdone?
what if you could cook healthy chicken dishes for your kids that didn’t require precise timing or standing at the stove, but could be cooked exactly the way your kids like them, every time?
But no, the elitist guardian food bloggers would like you to please, stop making cooking easier and more consistent. Because you have to buy a thing first! Please, buy more frozen dinners! Or eat out more!
Sous-vide scrambled eggs are slow. And like nothing you have ever tasted before. I’ll bet the same is true of these pancakes, and are the opposite end of the slow-food movement. It’s the idea of “why would you ever eat out to have a thing, because that same thing, made at home with whole ingredients, would be so much better!” taken even further. “If you have the time to do this, you will end up with a pancake unlike anything you would ever get from a breakfast diner!”
It’s the opposite of what I said above - for people who do have time on their hands, want to experiment with foods and possibly try things you could only get in incredibly expensive, fancy restaurants - sous-vide also offers that as an option, too.
But yes, you have to buy a thing first. Sorry.
I know further down-topic you updated your remarks, but if, in the future, you (or anyone) ever have issues with products from the store that appear to be counterfeit or “not as described”, contact us, we’ll make it right.
Stacksocial curates these posts, but that doesn’t mean we have any interest in selling counterfeit or not-as-described goods.
In isolation and in theory your points are good and well made - logical even. But in reality it seems to me to be highly unlikely that anyone who cannot even cook basics successfully is ever going to ‘progress’ to sous-vide, which takes time, trouble and expertise, even if perhaps not always to the same extent as basic ‘ordinary’ cooking.
The ‘fundamental forces’ that push non-cash strapped parents to feed crap to their kids are not an inability to cook (consistently or otherwise). Time to cook, maybe. But a time-starved working parent needing to rustle up sustenance at short notice on a daily basis is very much not going to have the time to prepare and cook sous-vide, either, are they.
I very much doubt the people consulted for that article were focused on making cooking easier for the cooking-incapable; they almost certainly assumed readers of an article about sous-vide were vaguely interested in and competent at cooking to start with. If that’s elitist, well, so be it.
I don’t think have ever seen sous-vide specifically advertised or promoted as something that benefits people who cannot otherwise cook successfully. I.e as an alternative to ‘ordinary’ cooking, but with added plastic bags. (I think that’s the third time I’ve noted in passing that sous-vide is not helping reduce our dependence on plastic bags.) It is always promoted as something those with refined taste and seeking new food experiences can invest in.
I’m afraid that my own anecdotal experience with family and friends disagrees with the above statement. This process was much accelerated with the presence of three things: much cheaper stick-appliances that work in a normal pot, being shown the ziploc-bag trick (vs needing a vacuum sealer), and, perhaps most importantly, having a friend or family member actually show them the process.
I’ll take a single ziplock and some butcher paper over the cardboard, plastic overwrap and plastic trays most frozen food tends to come in, any day.
Out of genuine interest - any studies yet on the amount of plastic in SV foods? Or is it too soon for enough data to be at hand?
Surely heating plastic and putting it next to food for long periods must result in some chemical breakdown/transfer? Even more so if bags are reused repeatedly?
We’re all being told that all sorts of plastic degrade in our food chain. Disposable water bottles are discouraged not merely because they are disposable single-use items but for fear of chemicals in your water if used over and over again at home. And only this week it was claimed that nearly everywhere on the planet the average human has several tens of thousands of microplastic bits in or going through their gut.
Of course, SV for the time and cash starved has been around for decades. I remember my Mum giving us Birds Eye boil-in-the-bag cod in parsley sauce 40 years ago! 
Boiling food in a bag, while it may use plastic and a pot, is nothing like sous-vide. For one, there’s air in the bag. For another, the temperature is brought up to be much higher than the final temperature of the food. You can not only overcook your food this way, but the effect of cooking at higher temperatures is precisely what many sous-vide recipes try to avoid for texture reasons, and completely negates the idea of “leave in until you’re ready”, two key features of the method.
The entire point I’m trying to make, is that, despite its initial appeal, I believe the real value, once the sous vide craze dies down, is going to be in being able to tenderize tough cuts of meat while keeping them evenly rare, and therefore providing a net financial benefit to those who can afford a $50-$150 kitchen gizmo once, but can’t afford to eat a “decent steak” very often.
Because depending on your tastes, a “decent steak” could be something like $6/lb, all the way up to $20/lb, and beyond.
I’m just hearing: if you can’t/won’t buy a premium cut, you don’t deserve a tender one.
I mean, I’m not going to force you to use it at gunpoint or anything, and it is currently overhyped and overused, but even once the fad dies down, it’ll still retain a usefulness in the home kitchen, because it can do what slow cookers and ovens can’t do, which is keep food at an exact temperature (that’s significantly lower than the boiling point of water) for long periods of time.
And the plastic bag angle is weird: using a $0.15 Ziploc is a waste of money, but at the very same time, if you want an end result as soft as tenderloin you should go out and buy tenderloin?
I mean, if you’re one of those super sustainable households that throws very little out, I can understand, but the way most people use Ziplocs already, it’s not even a significant amount more waste. I don’t feel like I go through them any faster than I used to, and pre SV, I usually used one for the leftovers anyways.
There are reusable silicone pouches, by the way. I’ve never used them, but they exist.
Season some meat.
Fill up a pot with water.
Put the meat in zip bags.
Put them in the water to displace the air in the bags, and zip up when most of the air is gone: a little air at the top is fine.
Attach the immersion circulator to the pot.
Plug it in, turn it on and set the temp.
Add the bags of meat.
Leave for work.
Come back home, make the sides whenever you’re ready to eat.
Remove the meat from the bag.
Sear meat using a pan or broiler, or I guess torch but I’ve never felt a need to purchase one.
Plate up and eat.
And that’s the long version. You can also make the bags ahead of time and pre freeze them in bulk, then put them straight into the water bath from the freezer, too.
It’s really no more involved than using a crock pot, or at least it doesn’t have to be. The difference is that meat coming out of a crock pot tastes like it came out of a crock pot.
That’s the fad portion of it, and it’s changing over time, as the devices get much more affordable than they used to be.
The Anova brand tries to market to both demographics, calling their product a “slow cooker,” and the lower priced “As Seen on TV” brands, which the bb store brand is, do indeed advertise with a focus on the convenience aspect:
I’m not trying to sell one to you. I’m not making a commission here. I don’t even think it’s a “must have” as I use mine enough to be worth it but I’d still survive without it.
If you don’t want one, that’s perfectly fine.
But if we’re conversing in good faith, at least recognize that it is a uniquely different cooking method from a crock pot or boil in bag dinner because it can keep food at the exact target temp and hold it there until ready to serve.
Any (understandable) revulsion for the “molecular gastronomy” crowd shouldn’t put one off from recognizing new and helpful techniques.
“Caviar” made from fruit juice is not helpful for the home cook, weird foams aren’t helpful for the home cook, noodles made out of shrimp aren’t helpful for the home cook, but sous vide is, even if the home cook is using it differently than the gastronomic hipsters are.
Not to mention that water boiling is a pretty good sign that it’s reached the boil.
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