Opinions differ on aromatics + oil in SV bags

mike-chefsteps

I was reading the "Level Up: Sous Vide Presentation" post last night and I have a question about cooking proteins in oil, particularly with aromatics. Actually, it's the same question Evan posed in the last comment: "Any thoughts on Kenji's experiments which seem to show that oil in the bag lessens the effect of aromatics: you get nice aromatic infused oil, but not so much aromatic flavor in the food?"

Kenji wrote:

The results were a shock: tasters unanimously picked the non-butter version as the most aromatic. Some even had trouble telling the difference between the buttered version and the version with no aromatics at all!

and

I've seen it recommended to add butter to the bag for all kinds of sous-vide recipes, and frankly, I don't get it. When added to a bag with steak, it actually decreases the steaks flavor, as many of the fat-soluble flavor compounds dissolve in the melted butter, which then gets thrown away. Same thing with the burgers. The burgers I made with butter in the bag came out with a distinct flavor disadvantage, and no gains in moisture or texture.

The burger recipe calls for adding aromatics directly to the bag, which Thomas Keller expressly warns against in Under Pressure. He goes on to write "we roll herbs and aromatics in food-safe plastic wrap (we call it a sachet)" (p 29). Many of the UP recipes call for liquid in the bag.

Even the infused thyme oil recipe on ChefSteps supports Kenji's conclusion: "Oil is particularly good at extracting flavor because, in general, the molecules we can smell are oil soluble."

Any thoughts, guys? Can we reconcile this deepening schism which threatens to rip the entire cooking world asunder?