The use of vacuum for the cooking of food is one of the techniques that has been developed in the field of haute cuisine over the last 10 years. Despite this, vary little research work has been undertaken which analyses the changes that these procedures can make to the product. In this paper, the effect of the use of continuous vacuum cooking, the sous-vide method and the atmospheric pressure cooking treatment on textural changes in the potato (cv. Monalisa) were studied. To do this, potato cylinders were cooked using the previously mentioned procedures at temperatures of 60, 70, 80 and 90 degrees C for time periods which ranged between 5 and 60 min. The samples obtained were evaluated by texture profile analysis (TPA) and the microstructure by the Cryo-SEM. TPA parameters, such as hardness, chewiness, cohesiveness and adhesiveness values, were affected by temperature and treatment duration. (C) 2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd.