Sous vide and slow cooking have a lot in common. Both are very hands off, include minimal clean up, and take much longer than other cooking methods, like oven-baking or grilling. So, what is the difference between the two? And which is better? Let’s dive in!

What is sous vide cooking?

Sous vide is a cooking method in which you put your food in a food safe bag and remove the air or a jar then place it in a water bath that holds at a specific temperature for an extended period of time. So, a consistent cooking heat, usually for longer than you’d normally cook your food.

Vacuum sealed steaks in sous vide water bath on pink surface.

To sous vide, all you have to do is fill a container (this can simply be a stockpot) with water and place an immersion circulator in the water. Like you would set the temperature on a hot tub, you do the same on the immersion circulator.

An immersion circulator is what makes a sous vide bath like a hot tub instead of a little pool. It heats and circulates the water.

Once you press “Start”, the immersion circulator will move the water through the heat coils inside the machine, then back into the water bath. It will bring all of the water up to and then keep it at your desired precise temperature.

When cooking sous vide, you are usually cooking at a temperature somewhere between 110 degrees F and 190 degrees F. Most circulators cannot cool water effectively and therefore don’t work well below 60 degrees F and most don’t heat above 200 degrees F.

This method is well known for steak, egg bites, and roasts best served medium-rare like prime rib.

To learn more about sous vide cooking, check out my beginner’s guide or to really dive in, check out my program called Sous Vide School.

Sous Vide School

My beginner’s interactive guide to sous vide cooking will teach you how to make sous vide dinners, desserts, drinks and more while saving time and money!

Learn More

What is slow cooking?

Slow cooking uses a slow cooker (also commonly referred to as the brand name “Crockpot”) to slowly cook food. How many times can you say “slow cook” in one sentence? Because I think we just found out!

Roast in crockpot with liquid.

You place food in the bowl of the slow cooker and choose either “Low” or “High” temperature setting. Low is usually about 200 degrees F, high is about 300 degrees F. When cooking on low, you typically cook food for 6-8 hours. On high, you typically cook 3-4 hours.

The slow cooker cooking method is best known for fall apart meat like shredded chicken breasts or pork, soups, and large roasts, like pot roast.

What’s the difference between the two?

Let’s start out with the similarities. Both sous vide and slow cooking do the following:

  • Cook low and slow
  • Are hands off – you can leave the house while either is running without worrying
  • Are great for meal prep (I wrote a whole cookbook called Sous Vide Meal Prep!)

Now the differences:

  • Sous vide is precise, slow cooking is not. When you sous vide, you select a very specific temperature for a desired result. For example, I like to cook my sous vide tri tip at 129 degrees F, but I like sous vide ribeye at 132 degrees F. When slow cooking, you simply choose “low” or “high” and it will mostly only produce one result for any cut.
  • Sous vide requires slightly more prep, but slow cooking requires slightly more cleanup. When sous viding, most of the time, you’ll need to season vacuum seal or use another air removal method first. When you’re done cooking, you simply remove the food from the bag and throw away the bag. When slow cooking, you just add the ingredients to the bowl of the slow cooker, but you have to clean the bowl when you’re done (which can be difficult!).
  • Sous vide is great for hard-to-cook food, but slow cooking is not. What do I mean by “hard-to-cook”? I mean the finicky stuff that usually costs a lot of money and you avoid for fear of messing it up. Seafood like salmon and scallops, expensive cuts of steak like filet mignon, pricey roasts like beef tenderloin, desserts like crème brulee and cheesecake. Slow cooking will just obliterate these foods.

Equipment Needed for Each Method

Sous vide cooking requires more equipment than cooking with a slow cooker.

For a slow cooker, that’s exactly all you need and they run anywhere from $30-$60. Some people enjoy optional accessories like disposable liners to make cleanup easier, but they are definitely not necessary.

For sous vide cooking, you need an immersion circulator and a container for your water bath. This can simply be a stockpot, cooler, or any other heat resistant container, or you can buy a container specially designed for sous vide cooking. Beyond that, there are lots of other things that make sous vide cooking easier:

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    So, which one should I use?

    If you’re cooking one of the following, opt for the slow cooker:

    • Soups
    • Stews
    • Roasts with a fall apart texture
    • Meat that you want to shred

    For these, opt for sous vide:

    I think chicken is also better when cooked sous vide so you don’t risk drying it out, but sometimes the slow cooker is the right choice.