Sous Vide Cooking Technology (Part Three)
Temperature control
When we cook food, especially tender meat such as poultry or fish, the change and control of temperature is the most important, because it will bring about the change of tenderness. When the temperature of meat is between 50℃ and 65℃, the tenderness of meat will increase. When heated above 65℃, with the denaturation of protein, the hardness of meat will increase rapidly and become difficult to chew. The tenderness of the best taste can be obtained by controlling the temperature by using the
vacuum low-temperature slow cooking technology, and this tenderness will be maintained all the time, instead of becoming tasteless as in the traditional cooking method.
As for the temperature control of steak, under normal circumstances, rare steak, medium steak and well-done steak represent respectively that the temperature is in the range of 49-53℃, 57-62℃ or above 69℃. Because the traditional method of steak cooking relies more on experience and intuition than thermometer and stopwatch, it will make it difficult for consumers to obtain stable dish quality. The
sous vide cooking technology can control the maturity of the whole batch of steak products by controlling the water bath temperature at a specific temperature. Accurate temperature control provides better repeatability and better quality control level, which is impossible for traditional cooking methods.
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Sous Vide controls the maturity of products through water bath temperature.)
In terms of food safety, the traditional cooking method makes the cold point temperature of poultry meat reach 72℃ or above to achieve the goal. In fact, it can also achieve food safety at a lower temperature, but it only needs longer cooking time. Pasteurization is the combination of heating time and temperature. The application of pasteurization in
vacuum low-temperature slow cooking technology can maximize the flavor of food and minimize the risk of food-borne pathogens. Accurate temperature control and longer time can also make you pasteurize poultry or other meat at a lower temperature than traditional cooking methods, instead of thoroughly cooking to ensure food safety. In fact, cooking chicken and turkey breast at 60℃ for a long time can achieve the food safety effect at 74℃.
Inactivation and growth inhibition of pathogenic bacteria depend on many factors. In order to prolong the shelf life of processed food in food industry, adding acid, salt or spice in ingredients can reduce the number of active pathogenic bacteria. Bacteriostatic food additives such as sodium diacetate or nisin can reduce and inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria spores. Other industrial technologies such as ultra-high pressure sterilization have also begun to be applied.
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Sous Vide products need to be combined with fence technology to ensure safety.)