Examples of futuristic meat cooking aka “Sous-vide”

Sous-vide beef with perfect poached egg and beansprouts in beef broth.jpg

So during the past few weeks, I had an epiphany. When I first began exploring the world of molecular gastronomy, I came across a cloudy, ambiguous set of resources and did not know where to start. I wished that there was a one-stop source that gave a briefing of basically everything molecular gastronomy had to offer. I wanted a website that listed special ingredients, techniques, recipes, chefs, and whatever else the mind can think of. I envisioned an online molecular gastronomy utopia. Unfortunately, no such thing exists as of yet. Such state of confusion may change with the release of this book, but unless you are willing to shell out the $500 to buy it, you will face the same problem I had when I first began combining science and food.

Thus, I have began working on Toastable page that basically consolidates everything I have learned about molecular gastronomy—everything there is to learn—and presents the information in a structured, easy-to-digest way. I plan on making the page into a sort of “live” compendium of knowledge—it will constantly get updated. You can check out the work in progress here.

Unfortunately, I have failed to undertake these plans full-force. Perhaps it is the relief of being a second-semester senior in high school, but I have found myself doing mainly the following: cooking, reading, and catching up on T.V. Hopefully, I will get back to working gear, and the page will “finish” in a couple months, but for now, I want to quickly show you a technique called sous-vide cooking.

A quick primer about sous-vide cooking

In French, sous-vide literally translates to “under-vacuum”. To cook something sous-vide means to cook food in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag by placing the plastic bag in a constant temperature water bath. The food will cook through conduction of heat from water, and the plastic bag will prevent an exchange of liquids into and out of the plastic bag. The process results in perfectly cooked meat because you can control the temperature at which the food cooks through the water bath.

I will elaborate on sous-vide cooking in a future post, but for now, here are some pictures of sous-vide cooked meat to salivate over!
Beef cooked sous-vide.jpg

Beef cooked sous-vide 2.jpg

Sous-vide New York strip steak.jpg

Look at how succulent and bloody-red that meat is. Through the magic of sous-vide cooking, I can achieve such perfect doneness without paying attention to the actual cooking—more details on that later!

About Earl

Hi, my name is Earl. I am a student who loves to analyze food and eat healthy. My careful eye for food has caused me to become interested in the science behind food and cooking, and I write about my explorations into food on my website Toastable.com. While I believe in sticking to whole, natural foods, I'm not afraid to work with avant-garde ingredients and equipment such as constant temperature water baths and sodium alginate. I also love photography, technology, and journalism.

24. January 2011 von Earl
Categories: Molecular Gastronomy | Tags: , , , | 6 comments