Low-temperature cooking

The low temperature cooking or the low-temperature method is a very gentle and easy way to cook meat in the oven or the like. The oven temperature here is about 80 ° C, the core temperature of the meat reaches about 55-70 ° C. The low- temperature method takes the place of the roast, but largely avoids dehydration and possible toughening - the meat remains juicy and pink. The cooking time is much longer than at higher temperatures, but it requires no supervision and they can be significantly extended without any loss of quality.

Since the temperature is not sufficient for browning reactions such as the Maillard reaction and caramelization, the low-temperature method is usually associated with a searing of the flesh, in the form desired roasting substances.

Good low temperature method is both sensitive meats such as filet or sirloin, which are usually fried briefly, as well as in connective tissue pieces like Knuckle of veal, which are usually braised, as well as for poultry and fish.

Background

When cooking meat, two reactions are crucial: From 50 ° C, the protein begins to clot, increasing with increasing temperature increasingly previously bound water is free, which makes the meat dry and hard after all. In just under 70 ° C, the collagen of the fixed connective tissue turns into gelatin, which ( just bindegewebsreiches ) meat is crumbly. Any existing in the flesh bacteria are killed at 60 ° C well.

In the usual roast with oven temperatures of 150 ° C and higher, a strong temperature gradient arises from the outside to the inside. If the core of the piece of meat reaches the ideal temperature, it is further out already exceeded, which can be recognized by increasing gray coloration that signals complete coagulation of the egg white. This is accompanied by an increasing loss of fluid from inside to outside. According to the traditional method optimally fried is a piece of meat, when applied according to the type and size of the best combination of temperature and cooking time, so the desired core temperature at as short and low overheating of the other areas is achieved.

In the low-temperature method, this temperature gradient is largely avoided, which is why the size of the food and the exact cooking time play a much smaller role. The ideal temperature is nowhere to be substantially exceeded, the liquid remains largely bound in the tissue. Add the necessary in low-temperature method, long cooking time, the connective tissue can be completely degraded to gelatin.

Method

Prevent the formation of aromatic roasting substances, the meat is seared first briefly until golden brown on all sides and removed from the fire immediately. It is then seasoned and packed open or in aluminum foil ( or similar material, such as commercial oven bag ), cooked at 60 to 80 ° C in the oven. The order can also be reversed - then cooked in the oven until meat is browned before serving.

The cooking time depends on the nature and size of the piece of meat from: fillet is after about an hour and even pink, roast beef, such as rump after five to six, roast goose after eight to nine hours. The cooking times can thereby be clearly renewable; There are chefs who apply for pieces from the shoulder or the hip times from 14 to 60 hours at 60 ° C.

The so-called " resting" after cooking does not apply to the low-temperature method.

Because unlike the conventional roasting or stewing barely escaping liquid and is not added, the sauce needs - apart from the use of roast set from the searing - made ​​from other ingredients.

Although the cooking time can be relaxed, the temperature must be maintained as closely as possible. In professional kitchens there is this special ovens called Holdomaten. Home stoves - particularly older design - are often inaccurate at low temperatures, and therefore to control an oven thermometer is useful for monitoring the core temperature during a meat thermometer can be used.

History

Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, discovered together with its Küchengehilfinnen that a shoulder of mutton, which lay overnight in an extinct dry box for potatoes, had reached a perfect degree of doneness. The technique was invented again in the 1960s in France, but first used mainly in industrial food production. Among other things, the chemist Bruno Goussault and the chef George Pralus led (the latter from the Restaurant Troisgros ) the procedure in the gastronomy. An extension of the method is referred to as vacuum cooking low temperature cooking in a vacuum bag.

Others

As an extraordinary method for cooking at low temperatures cooking in the dishwasher catchment has been found in relevant media. In this Garweise the dishes are cooked in airtight preserving jars or vacuum bags during a wash cycle.