Fix It and Forget It

• With traditional cooking methods, timing is crucial. For a roast chicken to reach 165 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature at which it is safe to eat, you would have to leave it in the oven set to 350 F for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the chicken. If you were to leave it in the oven for two or three hours, the internal temperature of the chicken would approach the ambient temperature of the oven: 350 F. It would also become dry, burnt, and inedible.

  With the sous vide method, food is immersed in a circulating water bath set to the exact temperature you want the food to reach. For the chicken in this example, you would set the water temperature to 165 F. You could leave the chicken in the water bath for one hour or three hours, and it will never exceed 165 degrees F. Sous vide cooking gives you greater flexibility to time your meals.

Never Eat Overcooked Steak Again

• Since sous vide cooking brings food to exactly the temperature you set and no higher, it is nearly impossible to overcook steak or other meats. This gives even the most novice home cook the ability to serve a perfectly done steak or roast without risking either food-borne illness from underdone meat or a tough, flavorless dinner.

Flavor Infusion

• To cook meat and vegetables in a water bath without making them soggy, the sous vide method calls for food to be sealed in vacuum bags. Restaurant chefs use this to their advantage by sealing aromatics into the bag with the meat or vegetables. The pressure from the vacuum encourages flavors to mingle, seasoning the meat as it cooks. You can use the same method by adding a clove of garlic or a sprig of rosemary or thyme to the vacuum bag with the meat before you seal it.

Safety First

• Sous vide is a relatively low temperature cooking method. Most home ovens can heat to 450 F or more, and stovetop burners can get even hotter. Even the slightest contact between your skin and an oven or burner can cause serious burns.

  The highest you might set your sous vide machine is 165 F -- the safe minimum cooking temperature for poultry. Immersion circulators, or sous vide machines, designed for home use have an insulated outer layer that does not get hot when the machine is on, greatly reducing your risk of accidental burns. You could burn yourself if you splashed the hot water on your skin or dipped your hand in the immersion circulator, but those types of accidents are less likely than a simple brush of the skin against the hot oven door or stovetop burner.