Sous-vide Cooking
Sous-vide cooking is a cooking process that places the ingredient or semi-finished product in a vacuum bag sealed by a vacuum sealer and then heats it at a precisely controlled temperature and time. It has been known for a long time that the meat produced by this method has high sensory quality. This technology has appeared in the 18th century, and the original intention of the French three-star chef Pierre Troisgros was to reduce the weight and water loss of goose liver in 1974. With the rise of molecular cooking, sous-vide cooking has become popular again in the international gastronomy world. Sous-vide cooking started relatively slowly in China, and was first proposed in 2002.
Sous-vide cooking has the characteristics of low temperature and long time. As an emerging cooking method, it uses low temperature and vacuum to maximize the retention of moisture and nutrients, and uses long-term heating ranging from several hours to several days to kill the microorganisms in the ingredients and make the products safe and edible. The temperature of meat processing at low temperature and long time is generally controlled at 50 to 80°C. Compared with the traditional high-temperature cooking method, the meat products made by this method can have better tenderness and appearance.
One of the most popular methods of sous-vide cooking is to vacuum the meat in a bag for heating. The principle is to use water as the medium to cook the meat. This method is a favorite of many Michelin chefs. This kind of cooking method distinguishes it from the traditional cooking method. Putting the meat in a clean vacuum bag not only effectively reduces the secondary pollution in the cooking process, but also eliminates bad smells due to oxidation and the loss of volatile flavor, moisture and nutrients in cooking. In the heating process, the heat can be uniformly transferred to every part of the meat through the water. The process is as follows: pretreatment of ingredients → quantitative vacuum packaging → heating and cooking → cooling in an ice bath to below 10°C → low-temperature storage. What's more important is the precise temperature control of sous-vide cooking.
In recent years, related research on sous-vide cooking has mainly focused on the optimization of the processing technology of meat products. Wenhong Gao and others found that beef prepared at 60℃ had ideal tenderness and sterilization rates. Hongyan Zhao found that as the temperature (55 to 65°C) increases in the sous-vide cooking process, the hardness and chewiness of the steak also increase. B. Uttarol and others indicate that the use of multi-stage low-temperature slow cooking will lead to a decrease in the shearing force of the beef.
Franciscol and others have shown that slow cooking at low temperatures will significantly improve the bioacceptability of minerals in products such as beef liver, indicating that sous-vide cooking has obvious advantages in cooking beef and liver. Mariangela and others have found through a large number of experiments that food cooked by sous-vide cooking can have more minerals, such as grains and beans.
Two key factors in sous-vide cooking: temperatures and time
Heating is a processing method that uses heat to change the properties of food, and food changes can be fast or slow. Most traditional heating only focuses on the process of rapid changes and ignores slow changes, because traditional heat sources are difficult to accurately control the temperature below boiling for a long time, and slow changes often have a very important effect on food. The emergence of sous-vide cooking makes it easy to control the slow and rapid changes in food, and the precise temperature and time is the advantage of sous-vide cooking. By observing the changes in the doneness of some foods at precise temperatures, we can intuitively understand the impact of temperature on the quality of ingredients. When the temperature of the food exceeds a certain value, rapid changes occur quickly. Sous-vide cooking shows us the subtle relationship between food and time and temperature, which also allows us to consider the impact of the heating on product quality from a more microscopic perspective, providing us with an effective theoretical basis for making products with better quality.
Sous-vide cooking has the characteristics of low temperature and long time. As an emerging cooking method, it uses low temperature and vacuum to maximize the retention of moisture and nutrients, and uses long-term heating ranging from several hours to several days to kill the microorganisms in the ingredients and make the products safe and edible. The temperature of meat processing at low temperature and long time is generally controlled at 50 to 80°C. Compared with the traditional high-temperature cooking method, the meat products made by this method can have better tenderness and appearance.
One of the most popular methods of sous-vide cooking is to vacuum the meat in a bag for heating. The principle is to use water as the medium to cook the meat. This method is a favorite of many Michelin chefs. This kind of cooking method distinguishes it from the traditional cooking method. Putting the meat in a clean vacuum bag not only effectively reduces the secondary pollution in the cooking process, but also eliminates bad smells due to oxidation and the loss of volatile flavor, moisture and nutrients in cooking. In the heating process, the heat can be uniformly transferred to every part of the meat through the water. The process is as follows: pretreatment of ingredients → quantitative vacuum packaging → heating and cooking → cooling in an ice bath to below 10°C → low-temperature storage. What's more important is the precise temperature control of sous-vide cooking.
In recent years, related research on sous-vide cooking has mainly focused on the optimization of the processing technology of meat products. Wenhong Gao and others found that beef prepared at 60℃ had ideal tenderness and sterilization rates. Hongyan Zhao found that as the temperature (55 to 65°C) increases in the sous-vide cooking process, the hardness and chewiness of the steak also increase. B. Uttarol and others indicate that the use of multi-stage low-temperature slow cooking will lead to a decrease in the shearing force of the beef.
Franciscol and others have shown that slow cooking at low temperatures will significantly improve the bioacceptability of minerals in products such as beef liver, indicating that sous-vide cooking has obvious advantages in cooking beef and liver. Mariangela and others have found through a large number of experiments that food cooked by sous-vide cooking can have more minerals, such as grains and beans.
Two key factors in sous-vide cooking: temperatures and time
Heating is a processing method that uses heat to change the properties of food, and food changes can be fast or slow. Most traditional heating only focuses on the process of rapid changes and ignores slow changes, because traditional heat sources are difficult to accurately control the temperature below boiling for a long time, and slow changes often have a very important effect on food. The emergence of sous-vide cooking makes it easy to control the slow and rapid changes in food, and the precise temperature and time is the advantage of sous-vide cooking. By observing the changes in the doneness of some foods at precise temperatures, we can intuitively understand the impact of temperature on the quality of ingredients. When the temperature of the food exceeds a certain value, rapid changes occur quickly. Sous-vide cooking shows us the subtle relationship between food and time and temperature, which also allows us to consider the impact of the heating on product quality from a more microscopic perspective, providing us with an effective theoretical basis for making products with better quality.