The vacuum cooking is probably one of the most high-tech methods of food preparation that home cooks can perform without a degree in chemistry and / or kill themselves and those around them. That's why I was particularly excited to try the Anova, a circulation pump to automatic vacuum that can turn a piece of cold chicken in a succulent taste sensation in about an hour.
Sous vide is a form of poaching in which meat and vegetables are in bags and then cooked slowly at low temperatures in vacuum sealed recirculated water. The Anova, for example, allows you to seal a chicken breast in a bag and fully without losing any of the juice or burning flesh. Then you can brown the meat surface by hand after cooking, creating some of the best darn chicken you've ever tasted.
The Anova is surprisingly simple. To use it you need a large pot with water and an outlet. You should seal the meat in a plastic bag - zipper bags probably will not work, unfortunately, so a thermal vacuum sealer is also needed. Next, adjust the temperature and time. For example, I cooked the chicken on the right at 60 degrees Celsius for 45 minutes. Then I Salé and seared on a hot skillet.
The system has a temperature range of 25 ° C to 99 ° C and a pump of 12 liters per minute circulates water during cooking. Ideally preheat the system before turning on the food because the food lying comfortably in warm water, not a great idea.
The founder and creator, Jeff Wu, claimed to have made the first vacuum system of affordable housing in the market. Although there are some open source projects and DIY out there, this is one of the most "Apple-esque" fire and forget the models we have seen. Wu has a background in biochemistry, computer science, and finance. He builds hardware for pharmaceutical and chemical companies.
"Most, if not all of the products that I helped develop are directly related to the investigation of new drugs, medical research or the development of new innovative materials," he said. "I'll meet a lot of smart people in my line of work - mostly doctoral researchers, graduate students, and Nobel prizes occasionally. - Which is indeed as I found vacuum"
"I was in Boston visiting a research group at MIT / Harvard / BC (I forget which) about 4 years ago and saw some graduate students sous Viding some chicken in a circulator laboratory and finishing off on a hot plate. This interests me enough to try it in the lab that was a big mistake that almost killed the project, "he said. "I basically had no idea what I was doing because it was really no clear guide to sous vide in 2009 and above all this, my luggage was sucked into the turbines of scientific circulators."
So it's amazing? Yes. I'm a little hooked. The fact that this thing is only $ 199 (which will also have to invest in a vacuum sealer $ 70 and a big pot) makes it very compelling and it made an excellent meal in just a few hours. I've always wondered how the most elegant restaurants make most of their succulent meat and not soggy vegetables and now I know. Because it requires very little preparation you can essentially set it and forget it. You can also leave food at a low temperature for 72 hours, creating some amazing slow-cooked it's not as careless as a pot of baked beans, but it's so tasty as one meal.
Again, $ 199 is a great investment for a pretty cool tool for cooking. However, if you are a fan and want to try sous vide, this is probably the best device out there. There are other online water furnaces, but those passing the $ 400 mark and higher. This is the first "independent" model - you do not need another computer to work, but not much - and it's surprisingly easy to use and elegant design.
Well sous vide is obviously a very intense culinary technique. Fortunately, food nerds like Wu are out there and do interesting things like Anova.
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