Time, Temperature, and Doneness
Look out, I have assembled a sous vide set up! I'm late to the party with this, as it's a well established trend in restaurants. As I understand it, sous vide is French for "under vacuum," although that's not exactly correct. Sous vide refers to a cooking process where the food is sealed without air in plastic bags or plastic wrap, then poached at precise temperatures in a waterbath (or steam oven). It's a relatively new technique. Theoretically, this can be done with plastic wrap and carefully monitoring the temperature of a pot of water on a stove. But since the temperatures are quite low, often in the danger zone (between 40F and 140F), and very long (12 hours, 24 hours, 36 hours and beyond), most people buy scientific laboratory equipment that is used to automatically keep water at a specific temperature. What's used is called either a heated waterbath (a tank with a built-in heater) or an immersion circulator, which is the heater and pump used with a tank or pot of your choosing. I'll be using a FoodSaver and a VWR/Polyscience immersion circulator.
Conventional cooking is usually at a High Temperature, for a Short Time. To cook properly, the cook must judge when enough heat has been applied. By comparison, sous vide is often Low Temperature, for a Long Time, with that time having been computed in advance. That may remind some people of the barbeque mantra, Slow and Low.
Initially, sous vide was created to eliminate some of the variation in large catering situations. Let's say there was a 1000 plate dinner with a grilled filet mignon, medium rare, as the entree. Normally, they would be marked on a grill, then reheated in an oven. Timing becomes extremely critical - and even if everything goes well, there's a good likelihood that some filets will be either overdone, or cold in the middle, or may not be right because of size and/or shape variations.
With sous vide, one of the approaches is to pick the target temperature, for instance, 140F for medium rare. All the filets are marked on a grill, sealed individually in a plastic pouch, and put in the waterbath at 140F. So for a long window of time, it IS medium rare. Period. No variation. Cut open the bag, put it on a plate, presto - perfectly medium rare filet from plate number one through plate number 1000. Eventually the meat will change or "cook," but the window is more like an hour or two, rather than seconds. More than enough time for a banquet. Another benefit of sous vide is that flavor and aroma are retained in that small bag, and so it may seem more intense.
But the sexy aspect of sous vide is to create food with unusual textures or appearance. Beef shortribs can be cooked for 30 hours, be meltingly tender as if it had been braised, but appear to be a pinkish medium in doneness. So the relationships between time, temperature and doneness are stretched, twisted, and turned on their head.
There are some food safety issues to be aware of and cautious about, but it's not an inherently dangerous method of cooking. In effect, it's like low temperature Pasteurization.
For more info, check out these eG threads: about waterbaths and sous vide recipes.
Comments
I've actually seen this... Alton Brown (Food TV Good Eats) did a show on Poaching and introduced this method. He used an immersion circulator. Very interesting! How practicle is this in a home situation?
Posted by: slosam![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.foodzealot.com/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
|
March 9, 2006 08:22 AM
It can be very practical, as timing becomes less critical at the time of serving. But I suppose it depends on what type of cook you are and in what type of situation you're trying to use it.
First, you'd have to like gadgets. The equipment consists of a vacuum sealer (about $100) and an immersion circulator or a waterbath (between $100 to $200+ on eBay).
Second, you'd need to plan a bit in advance. The actual cooking is methodical, but easy. Depending on the results you're trying to get, fish or chicken recipes might be an hour or two of cooking on the short end, and meat might be in the five-hour range. Sorta like a slowcooker kind of mindset.
I've heard that people break up the process into chunks, like doing a batch of steaks, cooking them sous vide, and throwing them in the freezer. When needed, thaw, sous vide up to temp again, and sear the outside for crust and yummy appearance.
Third, the big benefit could be the longer serving window. Like at a dinner party, you could have everything ready, greet your guests, and anytime in the next hour or two, cut open the bags, sear if needed and plate. Or if your family eats at different times, the food could just be waiting for the latecomers.
It's not likely to appear on a Rachel Ray or Sandra Lee show, since it won't help you get dinner on the table when the kids are screaming, unless the work has been done ahead of time.
And as I mentioned above, there are a few food safety issues to be cautious about, but nothing insurmountable.
Posted by: FoodZealot![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.foodzealot.com/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
|
March 11, 2006 06:42 AM