The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

And because the water bath is maintained at the final
serving temperature of the meat, there’s absolutely no way
you can overcook it. Need to walk the dog? No problem—
your steak will be waiting. Forgot to add the fabric softener?
Take your time. The steak will still be there, exactly as you
left it. This makes hosting dinner parties extraordinarily
easy.
Because the Maillard browning reaction doesn’t take
place at standard sous-vide temperatures, most recipes call
for searing meat in a hot skillet to add color and flavor after
removing it from the bag.
In addition, meat naturally contains enzymes called
cathepsins that slowly break down tough muscle tissue at
first and then work faster and faster as the temperature
increases. Giving the meat extra time in the lower
temperature range means the cathepsins work overtime,
making an already tender steak even more tender. And
tender meat is not just about texture—the more loosely
packed the muscle fibers, the less they contract during
cooking and the fewer juices they expel, making the slow-
cooked meat more juicy as well.
The advantage for restaurant chefs is obvious. Even at the
best restaurants in the world, when using traditional cooking
methods, the occasional over- or undercooked protein can
be a problem. The seasoned line cooks at Peter Luger’s,
who’ve been turning-and-burning steaks since before
vegans existed, still produce the occasional slightly-too-
well-done porterhouse. But with sous-vide cooking, even a
monkey with a toupee can produce perfectly cooked
proteins without fail: Chicken with a juiciness the Colonel’s