Sous Vide Cooking Review! (Upvote for Guides and Recipes)

I'm getting started with sous vide cooking. The biggest reason for me to taking on this type of cooking is to reduce cooking times at home (and to cook more at home). Ideally I want the meals ready for me when I come back home - something sous vide cooking might be able to provide. And so the great food experiment begins with the humble objective of cooking automatically when away from home.

Equipment and Tools:

I started off with ordering the Anova Precision cooker. I decided to shell out some money and buy from a reputable brand (really don't want to poison myself). I specifically wanted the WiFi version so I can start cooking remotely whilst at work. I decided having the convenience of being able to access the cooker remotely was well worth the extra price.

I also got myself some zip lock bags. I got the medium sized ones so the food can fit inside without too much space remaining.

Cooking in a plastic bag looks unappetizing at first

Food Safety

Summary of research done on sous vide safety:

• Sous vide is an entirely different type of cooking because of the long cook times (1-2 hours)
• Cooking is required to kill bacteria in the food.
• Traditional cooking requires the center of the meat to be cooked to a certain temperature before it is safe to eat.
• However Traditional safe temperatures are much higher than need for sous vide

Most useful article about sous vide cooking ever:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878450X11000035

You were probably taught that there is a “danger zone” between 4.4 °C/40 °F and 60 °C/140 °F. These temperatures are not quite right: it is well known that food pathogens can only multiply between −1.3 °C/29.7 °F and 52.3 °C/126.1 °F, while spoilage bacteria begin multiplying at −5 °C/23 °F (Snyder, 2006, Juneja et al., 1999 and FDA, 2011).Johnson et al. (1983)reported that Bacillus cereus could multiply at 55 °C/131 °F, but no one else has demonstrated growth at this temperature and so Clostridium perfringens is used instead. Moreover, contrary to popular belief, food pathogens and toxins cannot be seen, smelt or tasted.

This article is also posted on my personal blog, weigu.org