Foodie and the Geek: An Argument for Sous Vide Turkey

Seattle is poised to become the food geek capital of the country and who better to lead us there than an ex-Microsoft executive. When Modernist Cuisine drops in March, Seattle will be to food what San Diego is to comic books. It may very well be the most influential book on cooking since Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking. McGee,coincidentally, will be in town Thursday at the University Book Store promoting The Keys to Good Cooking.

While geeks prefer descriptors like "modernist" or "avant garde cuisine" to the more familiar "molecular gastronomy", all of these terms conjure images of specialized equipment and commercial food additives, creating a portrait of a kitchen that more closely resembles a chemistry lab. It's an image far removed from all the at-home connotations of Thanksgiving.

In some kitchens this may actually be the case but as this video with Alinea's Grant Achatz shows, it doesn't have to be so.

Here Achatz makes the case for cooking your turkey sous vide, and performs this feat in a regular home kitchen.

A turkey simply can't taste its best when it's cooked whole. It doesn't matter whether you brine, rub, or deep-fry it. Breasts and legs need to be treated differently--you can quote us on that. We propose that you break down the bird before you cook it. Remove the breast and leg meat from the rest of the body, which can be used for stock, and cook them separately. When done properly, sous vide cooking guarantees that the meat will never be overcooked.

Foodies eat with their eyes first and we understand that the sous vide technique eliminates the spectacle of carving the the turkey at the table. We get that when it comes to holiday cooking, creativity and innovation are generally frowned upon. Thanksgiving is a holiday full of memories, both good and bad, and most of us look forward to it. The dishes are very traditional and the recipes have often been handed down for generations. Some of us expect cranberry sauce to be served in perfectly round slices, but we grow cranberries commercially in this state and home made almost always taste better.

If we haven't lost you, check out part two of Chef Achatz's video for more Thanksgiving innovations.