In conventional cooking using a pan on the stove, the oven, or a barbecue grill, the cooking time is the main variable you have to decide upon. We all know easy rules like bake a turkey for 20 minutes per pound. And even though such methods are not fool proof, we feel comfortable because we have grown up seeing others cook that way. Sous-vide is quite new, and it provides less visual and tactual clues to what is going on. With conventional cooking it is easier to see or feel if the food is cooked to your liking.

With sous-vide cooking it is not just about time, but also about temperature. It allows you to achieve a much higher level of precision, but this also means that you have higher expectations. Since you have two variables (time and temperature) to consider, it takes a longer time to gain experience. In this…