Sucky Bags Revisited

I’m road-testing a new sous vide machine.  So naturally that means I’m also vacuum packing the food.  Let me explain:  for those of you who haven’t come across the sous vide style of cooking, it is essentially a very precise manner of slow cooking, in water, at low temperatures.  The timing and temperature varies according to the type, volume, and thickness of the food. The food must be vacuum packed before being submerged in water.  It’s becoming very popular in restaurants around the globe.  So of course my little shop (and tea room/take aways) in Wilmot will have to get on board.

Anyway, before I buy the commercial equipment, I want to try it out.  I know there is a risk that the result I get in a domestic appliance might not be as good as the commercial gear, hence I might make a wrong call, but I will persist with the experiment until properly convinced–either way.

Meanwhile, it gives me practice with my new sucky bag maker!  (You may recall that I have written about sucky bags before, when I used them to cram 3x more clothes into my suitcases.)  Well, these new sucky bags are smaller than the ones I used then, of course, but the principle is the same.  In fact, I can imagine using these little numbers for packing things that might leak in a suitcase.  But I digress. . .

Nuts in a sucky bag

The vacuum packaging extends the shelf — or freezer — life of food by a large factor. How useful is that in a small commercial kitchen!  Anyway, cryo-vac-ing the food is a no-brainer; what I don’t yet know is whether sous vide will also be successful.  I’ll keep you posted.  If anyone has experience with it, I’d love to hear from you…

One of the things that worries me just a little is the very low temperatures that some things cook at.  I’m thinking of meat in particular.  A rare steak, for example, is supposed to cook at 49 degrees C.  (120.2 F).  Well, that sounds fine in terms of energy consumption, but the thing is, I’m a believer in Climate Change, and just recently a town in Australia recorded a temperature of 49 degrees C.  A number of other places here have experienced temperatures near that.  I’m sure you can understand my concern…

Hey, I’ve gotta run now — I need to go turn down the water temperature in the bathroom.           MM