Increasingly affordable and easy to do, sous-vide immersion cooking has become trendy among food nerds who want precise control over the doneness of their meats.

Sous vide, which means “under vacuum” in French, involves sealing food in an airtight bag and giving it a hot-water bath. A cylindrical gadget gently circulates and heats the water to a precise, consistent temperature, allowing the food to reach the exact temperature the cook desires without the risk of overcooking. Its advocates say the method is the key to attaining a piece of meat that is uniformly tender and juicy inside.

But gosh, it can take forever.

Enthusiasts who sing the praises of sous vide often try to indoctrinate home cooks with the holy grail of recipes: the perfect rib-eye steak. Set the device to heat up the water to around 129 degrees, immerse the bagged steak in the water and, like magic, you have a steak that is perfectly medium-rare all the way through, not just in the center. Give it a sear to brown the crust, and it’s close to something you would get at a steakhouse.