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Sous Vide Cooking: Essential Gear
15
items After cooking sous vide for many years, I've refined this list of essential gear that yields perfect results every time.
Sections
5
Must-have Equipment
Best Cookbooks
Top Ingredients
My Sous Vide Recipes
My Blog Posts & Videos
Must-have Equipment
Sous vide is cooking at a constant temperature, under pressure. You'll need a heater/immersion circulator/cooker, a vacuum sealer, and vacuum bags. Seal your food in a vacuum bag and cook it with this essential equipment, for perfect results.
This device – also called an immersion circulator – is the key to sous vide cooking. It heats your water bath to a precise temperature and keeps it there for as long as you want. I've tried several different immersion circulators for sous vide cooking. This one is by far the best: well-made, reliable, accurate.
Anova Precision Cooker/Immersion Circulator
To cook sous vide, you'll need an immersion circulator (see my rec) and a water bath. You can use a pot for your water bath, but it's better to have a purpose-made basin like this, with a lid, to help maintain the perfect cooking temperature.
Sous Vide Containers - Anova Culinary
To cook sous vide, immerse a vacuum-sealed bag of food into a water bath heated to a precise temp. So a vacuum sealer is a crucial piece of equipment for sous vide cooking, and can also be used to make food last longer in the fridge or freezer. This vacuum sealer is easy to use and long-lasting.
Food Vacuum Sealers | FoodSaver®
I've used many different vacuum sealer bags. These are the best I've found: heavy duty, various sized bags or rolls, with reference lines for cutting your own.
OutOfAir: Vacuum Sealer Bags & Rolls for Food Savers
This is a great alternative to the Anova immersion circulator. I used both for years. This “oven's” reservoir heats your water bath to a precise temp and holds it there for as long as you want. It's easy to use and looks good on your countertop.
SousVide Supreme Water Oven
By far the best kitchen gadget I ever bought (and I have them all). If you watch the videos on my Chef's Apprentice YouTube channel, you see me use this clever, simple device all the time, to fill vacuum bags for sous vide and food storage, and zip-close bags to marinate foods.
Baggy Opener - Hands-Free Holder - Jokari
Best Cookbooks
You can find any info on the Web, but there's no substitute for the collection of authoritative and tested information in cookbooks. These books cover everything you need to know about sous vide cooking: recipes, sous vide tips, and charts of sous vide cooking times and temps.
Super-chef Thomas Keller pioneered sous vide cooking in the U.S. His big, beautiful book, with great photography, contains creative recipes from The French Laundry and his other restaurants, and recommended temperatures for many types of food.
Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide
Skip the beginners' books because cooking sous vide is EASY. Go straight to this one, which covers everything you'll need to know.
Sous Vide at Home: Modern Technique for Perfect Cooking
Top Ingredients
If you cook sous vide, you're probably a serious cook and use top ingredients. Here are sources for excellent beef, pork, chicken, and duck.
Snake River Farms is a great source of both American Wagyu and USDA Prime beef, along with Kurobuta Pork. These proteins cook great sous vide, but you should err on the low end of recommended cooking times, to prevent the meat from becoming grainy.
Snake River Farms – The Pioneers of American Wagyu Beef
Name almost any type of gourmet meat, poultry, or seafood and this company sells it. And it can all be cooked sous vide.
D'Artagnan Foods
My Sous Vide Recipes
These sous vide recipes from my Chef's Apprentice YouTube channel will get you started.
Pork chops can be hard to cook to perfect doneness. Sous vide solves this problem. By placing the vacuum-sealed pork in a water bath set to 140 F, the pork will cook to that temperature, no more, no less.
Lesson 96: Pork Chop Sous Vide with Sweet Potato Mashers
This combo of the fish’s crispy surface, creamy sous vide interior, and the slightly spicy colorful sauce makes an impressive and tasty presentation.
Sous Vide & Pan-seared Chilean Sea Bass with Nobu-ish Red ...
My Blog Posts & Videos
These resources from my ChefsApprentice.com blog and Chef's Apprentice YouTube videos will make you a vacuum sealing and sous vide expert.
Imagine cooking your favorite steak or chicken breasts with perfect precision every time. That’s what sous vide cooking can do for you. This guide will walk you through the technique, the gear you need, and tips for fantastic results.
Mastering Sous Vide Cooking: Techniques, Equipment, and Tips for Gourmet Results
Vacuum sealing is essential for sous vide. It's also one of the best ways to keep food fresher longer. Let’s dive into how vacuum sealing works, what tools you need, and how to do it right.
Ultimate Guide to Vacuum Sealing Food: Tips, Techniques, and Tools
I've been vacuum sealing food for a long time, for food preservation and sous vide cooking. This video shows everything you need to know about vacuum sealing, including equipment needed and tips.
Bonus Lesson: Vacuum Sealing 1 - YouTube