Jon Cooks Sous Vide, Sort Of - 2010-01-21 22:58:45
<<< Previous - Becket the Wondercat Recuperates | Next - Bumping into the Lucky Golden Poo, Again >>>I have a lot of Montana images to cover (and then New Orleans before that, yeek), but I must share a little story about Jon's cooking adventure yesterday.
First the definition of
Sous Vide:
"French for "under vacuum", is a method of cooking that is intended to maintain the integrity of ingredients by heating them for an extended period at relatively low temperatures. Food is cooked for a long time, sometimes well over 24 hours. Unlike cooking in a slow cooker, sous-vide cooking uses airtight plastic bags placed in hot water well below boiling point (usually around 60°C or 140°F)."
Jon had decided to attempt this technique. He came home last night with a food vacuum sealer thing, a bag of chocolate for me, and then proceeded to set up the following on our stove:
You can't tell from this photo but the pot on the left is on a burner that's turned on. As in, why look, there's a bath towel sitting next to an open flame!
And then Jon said something about Sous Vide and something about MetaFilter, where I found this thread:
Trailer Park Sous Vide
Note that while Jon called it Ghetto Sous Vide he went for trailer park in this thread. I'd like to point out that I've known lovely people who've lived in trailers. However I suppose Jon went with Ghetto because a blogger quoted in that thread dubbed it that - and I suppose it sounds more hip, though I think it can be considered condescending. Depending on context. Just saying.
Anyway, I was highly skeptical of the whole process.
Here Jon is carefully tending the Sous-Vide pot, making sure the temperature doesn't vary too much.
Here Jon tries to explain that yes, REALLY, this is going to work.
"It's based on actual science!"
You can tell by his expression that I expressed doubt. (Seriously, I love that photo.)
Documenting the process via his Droid:
Ah but the proof is in the finished product. When I had to admit that yes, Jon was right, this did create a tender, wonderfully cooked steak.
For dinner we had steak. No sides. Because this was all about the carnivore moment. And it was perfectly cooked, the same throughout. And juicey. Yum.
Here's
Jon's blog account of the process.
Not quite as amusing. I think I'm beginning to understand why a friend of my parents suggested that we try a blog where we'd both comment in the same entry.
I should add that one of the more delightful things about Jon is that he somehow manages to refrain from saying "I told you so!" I would be MUCH more obnoxious if the roles were reversed. But hey, it's not bad to be wrong in this situation - the result was that I got to eat an excellent steak.
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