For the past few days I have been experimenting with a decidedly esoteric cooking method: sous vide. Sous vide (French for 'under vacuum') is a cooking method in which food is sealed in airtight plastic bags and the immersed in a water bath to cook.

The benefit of this cooking method is very precise temperature control. In almost all cases, the temperature of the water bath is the same as the desired temperature of the cooked food. This means that it is nearly impossible to overcook or burn food and allows for long cooking times.

As an example, I cooked a steak a few days ago at 54.5° C for 3 hours. 54.5° happens to be the ideal temperature for a medium rare steak, so when I cut into the steak after cooking it was pink all the way through. Since the steak cannot overcook, I could have left it in the water bath for a few extra hours without any real difference. According to Emily this was the second best steak she ever ate, beating the steak from Hy's Steakhouse but not 529 Wellington.

There are a number of setups for sous vide cooking. The most basic is to put a pot on the stove and carefully watch the temperature and adjust the heat accordingly. Less tedious solutions involve temperature controllers which can be used to control the temperature of slow cookers and rice cookers to within ±0.1°. Temperature controllers can either be bought ready made or assembled from scratch depending on your budget and preferences. For those with a larger budget, all in one units with both a water bath and temperature controller can also be purchased.

On account of both budget and preferences, I elected to build my own temperature controller. The controller is nearly complete and I will be posting more information about the construction, configuration and use of it as time goes on. Stay tuned.