But What About the Vacuum?
Surely vacuum-sealing the food is an essential step in
effective sous-vide cooking? As it turns out, not really. The
main reason to vacuum-seal food is that any air bubbles
trapped inside the plastic bag can act as an insulator,
preventing the food from cooking evenly. As long as you
can get all the bubbles out of your bag, there’s no reason it
shouldn’t work just as well as a bag sealed with a vacuum-
sealer and there’s an easy way to do just that. This technique
was demonstrated for me by Dave Arnold, an instructor at
the French Culinary Institute and contributor to the Cooking
Issues blog (www.cookingissues.com):
Place your food inside a zipper-lock freezer bag and
seal it, leaving the last inch unsealed.
- Holding on to the bag, slowly lower it into a large pot,
cooler, or sinkful of water, using your hands to release