What to cook sous vide in front of a class full of young students?

Hi there,

I was asked to do a small introduction on sous vide cooking in front of a class full of young chefs doing their apprenticeship. I got roughly 45 minutes to explain the technique and its specialties behind sous vide-cooking. But I am still unsure what to actually cook that is kind of cool to see and taste. My main problem is time constraints. So far I was thinking of cooking some eggs sous vide, to show the neat texture of egg yolk and white. Still, this is not awesome enough.

Another idea was to cook salmon in ziploc-bags with oil and roasted garlic. I have a vacuum machine on hand, no chamber-vacuum though, and some whipping siphons. I do not have any kind of stove to cook on, so it needs to be quite nice right out of the bag. There might be a stove to work on, but it was not confirmed yet, so I will just have to wait a bit and we'll see.

Any ideas what to do? It can take some preparation beforehand, that won't be a problem at all.

Thank you very much!

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Samuel_68313

I find it so ridiculous to expect to give a presentation like that with basically no other cooking equipment and a crazy low time constraint.

Does everything have to be done within that time constraint or can you start something in advance? And do you have access to multiple sous vide set ups? If you do then something like the classic short ribs show the amazing transformations possible, and I would still do eggs but some kind of comparison with different temps would be the most interesting/informative.

Salmon sound great as that is another almost unique benefit of the technique.

com-chefsteps

I'd cook-chill an egg, a steak, and a salmon filet in advance. Have them in the bath when the demo begins; show how to seal something to drop in the bath, and then *presto!* pull out the already cooked items to show off.

AKA switch outs are your friend?

tshewman

I would tend to agree with Ted. It's likely the eggs can be done well in advance and held at 57C while you talk (which would be both impressive and instructional if a number done at different temps). If you put a steak and eggs in straight away and talk for a few minutes you would be fine. At about the 15 minute mark, you might be able to lower the temp (if ice is available) and drop in the salmon. and shw the steak at about medium rare (if thin enough) and the salmon done at about 45C. Food for thought. ;-) Good luck and have fun!

Tim_Sutherland_52834

I have done this a few times and I use eggs.

I cook two eggs each at 60°C, 62°C, 65°C, 68°C, 70°C and 72°C before the event and reheat at 57°C. I crack each one explaining the effect a degree or two of temperature can have on proteins. It also surprises people that the yolk firms before the white, as their experience is the other way when cooking eggs.

Without having the ability to sear proteins before and after SV it is difficult to do much else. 45 minutes is not long and after explaining what SV is, the equipment, the work flow, a demo with the eggs and Q&A your 45 minutes will be up.

malte.evers

Thanks for your ideas!

Tim, for how long do you let those eggs you are preparing beforehand cook?

Tim_Sutherland_52834

I start at 60°C and cook two eggs for 35 mins, take them out, chill in ice bath, turn the temp up and put two more eggs in, set the timer for 40mins and walk away. Repeat until all the eggs are done. Make sure you write the temp on the eggs before they go in. I have kept the cooked eggs for up to two days with no noticeable difference.

I reheat for ~10 minutes at 57°C.

marcyboy1

In order to show a whole class the advantages of SV cooking, they' have to be able to taste the quality of the cooked stuff. If you ask me there are 2 very cool products you can perfectly make within 45 Minutes that will most probably blow their minds.

1 - Sous Vide Salmon - I use soja, ginger, sesamee oil and sweet chilli sause as Marinade)

2- Chicken Breast at ca. 60°c - awesome with the Jus-Gras or Vin-Jaune-Jus of MC - put in a couple of morrels and they won't leave the classroom

With these products you have a perfect example of what is cooked totally wrong through out the world in 98%. You could also show them the advantages of brining and inject the brine with a suringe (chicken). When you have time to make the jus you can show them how cool soja lecitine works. When you put in the duck fat they will all be like "uurrrrhhhgggggg"... but when they try.... ohhh boy...