Vacuum cooking
As a vacuum cooking or sous vide ( suːviːd ; French sous under '; vide , vacuum') refers to a method of cooking of meat , fish or vegetables in a plastic bag at relatively low temperatures of below 100 ° C. Vacuum cooking is a variant of low-temperature cooking that uses the higher heat exchange (compared to the oven ) from a water bath or temperature-controlled steam.
Procedure
The food is shrink-wrapped in a plastic bag, from which the air has been sucked out with a vacuum sealer, and then prepared at a constant water temperature in the range of 50 to 85 ° C. To monitor the core temperature of the food, short meat thermometers (welded to the food) or infrared thermometers are used. The vacuum bags are usually made of several layers of polyamides and polyethylene in order to avoid extraction of plasticizers from the foil of the bag into the food. Alternatively, there are also steamers ( combi- steamers ) that have a special steaming function. In this case, the bag is placed directly in the steamer and the contents cooked with steam to the exact degree.
In the meantime, ready-made sous vide baths for commercial use or handy sous vide sticks for private use are also available. This works somewhat like an immersion heater. It heats the water up to the desired temperature and the integrated circulation pump ensures that the water is heated evenly and therefore cooked evenly.
Advantages of vacuum cooking are that by the vacuuming nothing can escape from the bag, neither volatile flavors or aromas or water. In addition, the influence of added ingredients such as herbs or spices on the food is more intense. By removing most of the air in the bag, oxidation of the food and its aromas is also reduced. Since in the vacuum cooking due to the relatively low temperatures no Maillard-reaction takes place and no crust can be formed on the food to be cooked, the food is short sharp usually before or after the vacuum cooking fried or shortly at temperatures above 200 ° C baked .
history
Cooking at low temperatures was first described by Benjamin Thompson in 1799 . In his experiments, he used air as a heat transfer medium to find out if he could roast meat in a machine he had developed to dry potatoes. In Thompson's own words, the meat was "Not only edible, but perfectly prepared ..."
The preparation of food under pressure with or without heat was developed by American and French engineers as an industrial method for food preservation from the mid-1960s , but was not able to establish itself on a household scale due to the difficult handling at the time, as there were only a few suitable devices. The equipment used came from chemical or biological laboratories and was expensive and impractical. At that time, the process was mainly used for the production of convenience food . There are now special devices for vacuum cooking on the market, such as built-in steamers. This means that this preparation process can be implemented in restaurants and private households.
In 1974, Georges Pralus, a French chef at the Relais & Châteaux Restaurant Troisgros (owned by Pierre and Michel Troisgros ) discovered that foie gras , when cooked this way, retained its original appearance, did not lose excess amounts of fat, and had a better texture . Another pioneer in sous vide was Bruno Goussault , chief scientist at Sterling , Virginia- based food company Cuisine Solutions , who continued to research the effects of temperature on various foods and was known for training top chefs in the method. He developed the parameters of cooking times and temperatures for various foods. In the 1970s, Goussault and Pralus first worked independently and then together on the further development of sous vide cooking.
Tables (excerpt)
| Food | Weight / thickness | Cooking time | Water temperature | Cooking level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| flesh | ||||
| Chateaubriand (fillet head) | 800 g | 2:15 h | 57 ° C | À point |
| Beef fillet (middle piece) | 600 g | 1:45 h | 57 ° C | À point |
| Fillet beef steak | 200 g / 3 cm | 0:50 h | 57 ° C | À point |
| Tournedos | 100 g / 2 cm | 0:30 h | 57 ° C | À point |
| roast beef | 800 g | 3:00 h | 57 ° C | À point |
| Entrecote double | 400 g / 4 cm | 1:20 h | 57 ° C | À point |
| Entrecote | 200 g / 2 cm | 0:45 h | 57 ° C | À point |
| Beef rump | 800 g | 3:20 h | 59 ° C | À point |
| Beef hip cover | 600 g | 0:48 h | 66 ° C | Bien cuit |
| Lamb fillet | 80 g / 2 cm | 0:35 h | 56 ° C | À point |
| Lamb hip | 220 g | 1:10 h | 62 ° C | À point |
| fish and seafood | ||||
| Salmon fillet | 2.5 cm | 0:30 h | 57 ° C | |
| Calamares thawed tentacles whole, head in strips |
2:10 h | 60 ° C | ||
| Miscellaneous | ||||
| Onsen eggs | 45… 64 g / egg | 0:40 h | 64.5 ° C | |
literature
- François Choain, Philippe Noël: Le sous-vide et les technologies actuelles en cuisine . Delagrave, Paris 2004, ISBN 978-2-206-03316-7 (French).
- Evert Kornmayer (Ed.): Sous-Vide basic cookbook . Knowledge and recipes from top chefs and experts. Gebrüder Kornmayer, Rödermark 2010, ISBN 978-3-938173-68-8 .
- Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young, Maxime Bilet: Modernist Cuisine . The Art and Science of Cooking. The Cooking Lab, Seattle 2011, ISBN 978-0-9827610-0-7 (English, 2438 pages).
- Hubertus Tzschirner, Dr. Thomas Vilgis: Sous Vide . The easy entry into the gentle cooking technique. Fackelträger Verlag, Cologne 2012, ISBN 978-3-7716-4506-9 (256 pages).
- Heiko Antoniewicz : Sous-vide . Matthaes, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-87515-054-4 (328 pages).
Web links
- Douglas Baldwin's Handbook of Sous-Vide Cooking (translated from English) (PDF file; 403 kB)
- What happens when you cook sous vide in meat and the advantages and disadvantages of the sous vide process at a glance
- Instructions for building a temperature-controlled water basin with circulation for Sous-Vide
- How long should which meat be cooked at which temperature - cooking time calculator
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lava vacuum sealer: Vacuum sealers & vacuum sealers from the manufacturer Lava - Sous-Vide-Sticks - the handy alternative for home. Retrieved September 3, 2019 .
- ↑ Benjamin Count of Rumford, "Essay X: On the construction of kitchen fire-places and kitchen utensils together with remarks and observations relating to the various processes of cookery; and proposals for improving that most useful art", Essays, Political, Economical, and Philosophical , vol. 3 (London, England: T. Cadell Jun. And W. Davies, 1802), pp. 18-20.
- ^ Sous Vide Historical Note: Count Rumford . In: Medellitin . Retrieved October 14, 2012.
- ↑ a b Amanda Hesser: Under Pressure . In: The New York Times . August 14, 2005, ISSN 0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed August 1, 2020]).