Sous Vide vs Low Temperature Cooking

I totally agree with Douglas Baldwin's comments in the FCI Blog.

Whether it is semantically correct to call our method of cooking Sous Vide or Low Temperature is academic as the horse has bolted!

With new products entering the market (Like Swid and Sous Vide Supreme), more books being written such as Douglas' soon to be published cookbook and the massive tome in the works by Nathan Myhrvold all using Sous Vide to describe low temperature cooking in a water bath the name will only be further reinforced.

The term Sous Vide was probably technically wrong since it was first coined in modern times by Chef Geoges Pralus in the 1970s. He was attempting to reduce wastage cooking Foie Gras so the key element to his experiments could not have involved much in the way of a vacuum or the foie would have been crushed.

I think that given the term has been used in this way for around 40 years, any attempt to "correct" it will fail.

Cheers,

Peter.