Having just ordered a vacuum sealer, a lot of the jargon associated with it refers to sous vide cooking. My own thoughts origionally were just that of a posh name for boil in the bag, which of course it is!
However, for my last produce run at the local bazaar I had an 11 kilo gammon made & only about half of it pre ordered, so I thought I would try a nice "Boiled ham" Originally Phil (Wheels) I seem to remember you mentioning a boil in the bag ham, & it set me to thinking. The vac sealer has not yet arrived & so armed with 5 kilos of gammon, a large oven bag, a drinking straw A very large stainless pot & a portable two ring gas burner, I set to work. The gammon was put into the bag, I then sucked all the air I could from the bag & sealed it off. The water in the pot was heated to 70c & the gammon placed in & covered. I checked the water temp about every hour or so with a probe & it was kept stable. After about ten hours the core temp of the meat was recording 70c & I called it a day. The ham was then left to cool overnight, sealed & in its own juices & the next day I sliced it at No 2 on the slicer. The result was delicious & all packs were sold at the bazaar after folks had tried the testers I had provided... A lovely ham !
The gammom was origionally cured using the pump & rub method. The injected brine was flavoured with pure Messinian honey, bay, black peper corms & a hint of cinnamon. Ok not true Sous Vide I suppose, but close & the method would seem to me to have uses in certain applications such as this?