Sunday, August 17, 2008

A man on a mission

Well Alton Brown was interesting, though none of his recipes were particularly useful for the home cook.

First, he used a whipped cream canister(uses nitrous oxide and cream to make whipped cream) to make home made aerosol cheese. (semi possible at home)

Second, he made ribs that sounded like it would be possible to make at home, but then he cooked them for 20hrs in an water immersion cooker. (Possible with thousands of dollars of equipment)

Finally, he used liquid nitrogen to make a red bull sorbet. Where in the world am I gonna get liquid nitrogen. (not possible, I have no idea where to get liquid nitrogen)

So what was the point of his presentation beyond looking cool? I am still not sure, but it did get me thinking. Is it possible to make an immersion cooker?

The way I have seen an immersion cooker work, is you put your foods(meats usually) is seasoned and placed into a vacuum sealed bag. The immersion cooker is set at the desired doneness of the meat, and then place the bag into the water. The meat needs to be in there long enough to get to that temperature(hence the 20hr ribs), and it can stay there for a long time without ever getting overdone because it will never go beyond the set temperature.

From what I can tell it has only a few requirements.

1) An insulated water bath area. Insulated to reduce wasted energy from the sides of a container.
2) A good heating element to warm water up to the desired final food temperature.
3) A good thermostat to keep liquid at final food temperature.
4) A way to move the water around the bin.
5) All parts need to stand up to the desired heating temperature(140 degrees minimum for food safety)

Side Note: Food grade equipment isn't completely necessary because of the way food is normally cooked in this item. The water is not in contact with the food. This will however eliminate the ability to use the the cooking vessel without the vacuum bags.

So instead of spending thousands of dollars for an immersion cooker, or waiting a few years until a home model might come out, is it possible to find parts that meet the above requirements while still costing little more than 200.00.

1 comment:

Marty said...

Dry ice is nitrogen. I think, but thats a solid. You can buy gas at the bottled gas store.

Nitrous oxide was far to much fun to cook with. if you use it correctly what you cook will not be important.