Sous vide (; French for 'under vacuum'), also known as low-temperature, long-time (LTLT) cooking, is a method of cooking in which food is placed in a plastic pouch or a glass jar and cooked in a water bath for longer than usual cooking times (usually one to seven hours, and up to 72 or more hours in some cases) at a precisely regulated temperature. The temperature is much lower than usually used for cooking, typically around for red meat, for poultry, and higher for vegetables. The intent is to cook the item evenly, ensuring that the inside is properly cooked without overcooking the outside, and to retain moisture. History Sous vide cooking is characterized by low-temperature cooking, a longer period of cooking than conventional cooking, a container (such as a plastic bag) that separates the food from its heating environment, and pressurized enclosure using full or partial vacuum. Low-temperature cooking was first described by Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford in 1799. He used air as the heat-transfer medium in his experiments while attempting to see if he could roast meat in a machine which he had created to dry potatoes. In Thompson's own words, the meat was: "Not merely eatable, but perfectly done, and most singularly well-tasted." Preparation of food under pressure, with or without heat, was developed by American and French engineers in the mid-1960s as an industrial food preservation method. As with Rumford, the researchers learned that the food showed distinctive improvements in flavor and texture. As this method was pioneered, applying pressure to food through vacuum sealing was sometimes called "cryovacking". The pressure notably concentrated the flavors of fruits, even without cooking. The method was adopted by Georges Pralus, a French chef, in 1974 for the Restaurant Troisgros (of Pierre and Michel Troisgros) in Roanne, France. He discovered that when foie gras was cooked in this manner, it kept its original appearance, did not lose excess amounts of fat, and had better texture. Another pioneer in sous vide is Bruno Goussault, the French chief scientist of Sterling, Virginia-based food manufacturer Cuisine Solutions. In 1991, he established Centre de Recherche et d'Études pour l'Alimentation (CREA) as the service arm of its parent company, Cuisine Solutions. Due to his research into the effects of temperature on various foods, through CREA, he became well-known for training top chefs in the method. He developed the parameters of cooking times and temperatures for