Sous-Vide Cooking with Sous-Vide Supreme

I was recently given the opportunity to try out the new SousVide Supreme which is a water bath oven for home cooks.  Have you ever watched a cooking show, and the chefs are vacuum sealing stuff and throwing it in water?  Yes, this is what I am talking about except that now it is available for those at home.  The way it works is that food is brought up to a certain temperature and then kept at that temperature so it’s never overcooked.  The cooking times are crazy.  Flank steak can be cooked anywhere from 8 – 24 HOURS and it will be perfectly done.  To me, this sounds like a dinner party dream.

I found out the machine is endorsed by Heston Blumenthal which makes me feel fairly cutting edge and modernist.  (As I type this I am wearing jogging pants and an old t-shirt…. 🙂  The machine is fairly large, but not enormous.  I’ve put my mixer next to it for comparison.

I filled up the machine with water and my first thing in the oven was… carrots!  I know it’s not normally what you’d think of, but I had a bunch in the fridge and thought why not.  The carrots were good and super orange, but it seemed a bit excessive to throw them in the sous-vide.  I mean, how hard is it to steam carrots.

Next up was the sous vide classic, flank steak.  It was amaaaazing.  Flank steak!  I am a bit of a quick cook these days and was going to skip the final searing step after it came out of the water bath, but imagine boiled meat…. it needed the sear.  I would definitely make that one again.

Next was duck confit.  I first brined the legs for 24 hours, then rinsed, vacuum packed, and let them cook.  They were also unreal.  So good for so little work!

Last up was the famous 72 hour short ribs.  SEVENTY-TWO hours!!  It felt like they were cooking forever!  They were beautifully done, and very flavourful.

So my thoughts on the SousVide Supreme?  First off, you’ll need space for the machine.  However, you don’t necessarily have to have it in the kitchen as you are just transferring the bag to it.  Secondly, you do need to be organized as cooking times are generally in the hours.  In addition, some dishes such as the duck, and sometimes the salmon (which I did not make) require additional brining time.  BUT the results are always perfect.  ALWAYS.  You can’t really mess this thing up.  Plus, you have a very wide time frame in which you can serve the food so if something happens and your dinner is moved an hour later or earlier it won’t really matter.

In my opinion, this is perfect for someone who likes to throw dinner parties (or even just for everyday use) but is not really sure about cooking.  With this cooking method, everything (except the final sear in some cases) is done in advance and there is no stress about timing the food with the guests.  And, it is perfectly done, amazing food every time!  Plus, you can cook cheaper cuts of meat and they will come out excellent.

Interested??  Here are the contact details:

www.cedarlaneculinary.ca
Phone: 289-288-0011
Email: info@cedarlaneculinary.ca
web: www.cedarlaneculinary.ca
Twitter: @CLCulinary

You can also contact Dustin Skeoch who is the General Manager directly.  His contact details are as follows:

The pricing is $469 for just the machine, or $549 for the entire package with the vacuum sealer, some cooking pouches, the Easy SousVide Cookbook and a DVD.  The smaller Demi machines are $369 or $469 for the Demi Package.  You can compare the two models here:  https://cedarlaneculinary.ca/Products/SousVideSupremeVSDemi

For the next few weeks Cedarlane is offering free shipping Canada wide!

ps Bonus points to who can name what famous item the carrots are sitting on!

Disclaimer: Cedarlane Culinary supplied me with the Sous-Vide Supreme to test out, but all opinions are my own.