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Molecular gastronomy has its fair share of detractors, and understandably so. Who has the time? Back in the early 90s I remember spending three days preparing the sauce for a Roux brothers recipe, all the while thinking - who has the time do this sort of thing?
But there are practical advantages to understanding the science of food. My first experiment with MG of sorts (courtesy of the excellent khymos.org) was with the simple steak. The problem with traditional methods of steak preparation is that the outside has to undergo a Maillard reaction which requires a temperature in excess of 120°C, while to maintain its rareness, the inside has to stay below 55°C. I'm sure it's possible to spreadsheet the thermal conductivity coefficients of different types of Hereford, import them into Mathematica and then send them to Heston Blumenthal for sign-off, but there is an easier way.
The method of cooking sous-vide has been used on an industrial scale by top New York kitchens. However, with sous-vide machines costing up to $6k, even the most succulent Wagyu would be flattered by such lavish attention.
A low-maintenance version is to get your Hereford from Harrods, where they will vacuum-pack it on request. Get a digital thermometer, place the vacuum-packed steak in a water-filled saucepan and heat to the required temperature, ensuring that it does not go above this.
You can leave the steak as long as you like (the longer the better since you want the steak to equalise with the temperature of the water-bath). As this was my first time, I decided to go for a temperature of 57.5°C so I didn't end up with an underdone petri dish (actually, this was actually my second try - my initial sortie resulted in a texture approximating shoe leather).
After letting things cook for about 45 minutes (with brief application of the gas to compensate for cooling effects), I removed the steak from the packing and seared both sides in a very hot, buttered frying pan.
Et voila!
2 Comments
I’m certainly no detractor. Just questioned the practicality of following Heston’s approaches at home. Actually I’m well into reading Herve This right now and I’m all in favour of cooking with modern techniques and tools. But there’s a lot of conservatism in the world of professional cooking. It’s a mystery to me how Heston and Ferran managed to survive and get where they have.
I wasn’t being very clear, I’m afraid. I was referring to the Private Eye parody, when I said ‘detractors’. But given that I discovered the cartoon through Aidan Brooks’ excellent site, I linked to his post which displayed the piece.
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