Sous Vide Wagyu: The Ultimate Cooking Method

Looking for a new way to enjoy Wagyu beef? Consider sous vide cooking, which helps to achieve the perfect doneness level for your Wagyu every time. Plus, you'll get to enjoy especially succulent and flavorful results. Learn more about how sous vide cooking works and how to apply it when preparing Wagyu beef.

What Is Sous Vide?

Sous vide is a cooking technique that involves vacuum sealing food in a bag and cooking it in a water bath. This method of cooking has been used by the world's top chefs for decades. However, the equipment for sous vide cooking wasn't widely available until recent years. Today, it's easy to find home sous vide machines to suit a wide range of budgets and kitchen spaces.

Sous vide directly translates to "under vacuum" in French. The first step in sous vide cooking involves creating an airtight seal around the food. This prevents any evaporation of the natural moisture or juices while enabling an efficient transfer of energy from the heated water to the food.

The next step is immersing the airtight container for the food in a water bath. A sous vide machine maintains a precise temperature and keeps the water moving the entire time, making the cooking process gradual and controlled. This provides an even-cooking experience from edge to edge, and it ensures that your food is never overcooked. When cooking beef, sous vide is extremely accurate for achieving a preferred level of doneness.

Sous vide cooking doesn't involve any direct contact with a heated surface. When a steak is removed from a sous vide machine, it won't have a charred or caramelized exterior. Fortunately, it's easy to achieve that with a quick pan sear over high heat. This gives you the texture you want for the exterior without cooking the interior of the steak any further.

Benefits of Sous Vide for Wagyu

Sous vide cooking is excellent for Wagyu because it maintains the incredible texture and flavor of this premium beef. The vacuum-sealing process traps in juices so the beef remains moist and tender. It allows the intricate marbling to slowly render and add even more richness and flavor to your steak. In addition, sous vide cooking prevents the possibility of overcooking. This is especially important for Wagyu beef, which should never be cooked past rare or medium-rare.

Sous vide is a cooking method that is uniquely suited to certain types of home chefs. Because the process is relatively hands-off, it is ideal for someone who is newer to cooking or who simply likes a more relaxed and laid-back cooking style. It is also a great fit for those who like precision in the kitchen. If you want to know that your Wagyu beef is done to perfection without playing any guessing games or relying on intuition, you will enjoy sous vide cooking.

Check out our recipe for sous vide America Wagyu short ribs and witness an example of this cooking process.