Sous-Vide cooking has existed in French cooking for many years. The term literally translates to under vacuum and when done properly can make for some fantastic dishes. When I first learned this process we were using 2 very expensive pieces of equipment: The first vacuum sealed the food in bags while the second was used to keep the water at a specific temperature for as long as needed. Last night while working with one of our line-chefs, Julian Tinnell, we discovered that we could accomplish the same five star results while using some basic household items. We cooked hanger steak using 1 gallon zip lock bags, a wire probe thermometer, and a portable beverage cooler. We heated our water to 140 degrees, poured it into the cooler, seasoned our protein and inserted it into the bags, then began to submerge the bags slowly to let all the air out and sealed them. We inserted the thermometer and closed the lid with the water at 140 degrees. Three hours later we heated a cast iron pan, removed the bag from the cooler ( the water at this point was still in the 130s ; the internal temperature of the steak was 130 degrees ) re-seasoned and seared the outside using a light film of fat. The taste was outstanding and the steak could have been cut with a butter knife.