Livin Sous Vide loca

SO we’re doing Production now. It’s cool. But let’s put that aside for a moment. We just had 2 lessons at the end of the previous two classes, totaling 3.5 hours on this relatively new method of sous vide and low temperature immersion cooking.

In brief, sous vide is a method of cooking items in a vacuum. We had a pretty large machine that sucked the life and air out of a package and sealed it. It was a large metal container with a glass domed top. You lay a plastic bag inside with the contents that you want to seal airtight and turn the sucka on. In a few seconds you see the gauge reading the percent of air removed. It reaches a 100% vacuum, airless atmosphere. When the machine turns off, and the bag is sealed with its contents, and air returns to the chamber, the bag compresses as much as the contents allow.

So for instance, we put a stack of white bread in the machine, without putting it in a bag, and we sucked the life out of it. Because the bread is so porous, the air was sucked out, but when it was done, the air easily refilled the pores. When we put marshmallows in, the y first started to expand, as the air was sucked out of the middle (since the outside is less porous, the air inside pushed against the inner walls until it broke free. When the machine was turned off the marshmallows just shrunk! And the texture went from light and fluffy to thick and Turkish delight textured. It was actually delicious and interesting. I enjoyed it. However, when we put the bread in a bag and compressed it, the air got sucked out and as the bag sealed and compressed, it just SMOOSHED the bread. So the point is you can’t just put anything in these things without some thought about the texture and what your goal is.

With that said, we tried a few texture modifications, which uses this concept of removing the air and compressing the item, as well as some flavor infusions (including alcohol).

Before we go on, the chef that instructs this course is Dave Arnold, and he specializes in this stuff. It turns out sous vide (vacuum) stile of cooking is not fully understood, and therefore the Dept. of Health won’t allow it to be served to the restaurant without a full HAACP plan. (I forget what that meant but it was something about food safety and storage and serving, etc. I did get a 96 on that test!!) But Chef Dave Arnold mentioned that if he could, we would do A LOT more sous vide cooking if he were allowed. But he sure does experiment all the time and looks for the right temperatures and the right times. It’s pretty scientific, but what’s great is cooking in a vacuum, provided you cook at the same temperature each time and same amount of time, is a guaranteed controlled method of cooking. The result will be the same EVERY TIME. Kind of like that old experiment of a feather falling as fast as a brick… in a vacuum.

So the first day we just did some basic stuff, learned some concepts, looked at some results of eggs cooked at different temperatures. It was amazing seeing the difference of 1-2 degrees Celsius. As I mentioned, if you follow the time and temp (particularly the temperature) it will be the same every time. There is even one stage of egg that the yolk turns into a moldable clay like substance. It holds together like clay and some chefs are using these yolks to sculpt cute little egg things… so we’re told.

As I touched, the beauty of the sous vide method of cooking, and just immersion cooking, is you can cook something and keep it in the water for HOURS, and as long as the water is circulating and the temperature is constant, the product will not overcook! So if you want poached eggs… set them to 62 or 63 degrees Celsius, and use them as you’re ready. They will all be the same. Always.

So the next day, Chef Dave has a rib eye and a piece of prime rib that were cooking sous vide for a while. We took them out, dropped them for less than 30 seconds in a vat of hot oil and pulled out beautifully crisp, tender, perfectly cooked meats. They tasted INCREDIBLE! We also had a whole chicken skin which had some chicken “meat glued” inside, and rolled. That was cooked for an hour or so in an immersion, then we deep fried that for a moment. Incredible. It tasted so frigging good! I brought some home that was unfried, which I will fry up real quick, and it should be super delicious still. The texture of the meat was so tender and moist, but not like fully cooked chicken, though it was fully cooked.

One of the last things we did was some watermelon infused with different alcohols and a vanilla and vodka mixture. Those were pretty good. They were VERY alcoholic, but still delicious! If they had better alcohol, it would have tasted really great.

Here’s where we stand with our creations.
Pastrami – COOKED! We smoked then steamed it, and it smells incredible!
Turkey breast – COOOKED! We smoked it for a while and it’s looking great
Bacons – COOKED! We smoked those too and those too, look fabulous.
Smoked sturgeon – I almost single handedly did this one. I put it in a salt, sugar and dill and onion cure, and then we cold smoked it followed by hot smoking it. It looks fantastic.
Bratwurst – We packaged and blanched some brats, need to cook on Saturday. I brought some home though. Looks great.
Ham – We put it in an immersion cooker and we let it sit over night. Should be fabulous!

Everything is looking good, and tomorrow is our last class of level 4. Oh my. We’re almost in the restaurant.