A new cooking(?) technique. It sounds intriguing.
Is it new? Worthwhile?
I do like the idea of concentrated watermelon.
Can a Tilia, http://www.tilia.com/
or similar vacuum packer do this?
I haven't posted the whole article, but you can get it by
registering or using http://www.bugmenot.com/
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Under Pressure
By AMANDA HESSER
Published: August 14, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/14/magazine/14CRYOVAC.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all
A few weeks ago at Per Se, Thomas Keller's four-star restaurant in New
York City, a waiter set a salad of diced watermelon and hearts of
peach palm in front of me. ''This is watermelon that has been
Cryovacked,'' he explained. ''It's something new we're doing. I think
you will like it.''
This was a watershed moment on two accounts. First, because Keller had
indeed managed to make something as mundane as watermelon taste
different -- it had the crisp density of a McIntosh apple. But also
because American dining has reached the level of sophistication at which
a waiter will assume that a diner knows what ''Cryovacked'' is, and that
this knowledge will enhance the experience of tasting diced watermelon.
That won't be assumed here. ''Cryovacking'' is an industry term for
putting food in a plastic bag and vacuum-packing it. Sometimes the food
is then cooked in the bag. Other times, the pressure of the packing
process is used to infuse flavors into ingredients. The watermelon, for
instance, was vacuum-packed with 20 pounds of pressure per square
centimeter, to compact the fruit's cells and concentrate its flavor. It
had the texture of meat. Just the thing for backyard picnics.
Cryovacking, which is more often called sous vide (French for ''under
vacuum''😉, is poised to change the way restaurant chefs cook -- and like
the Wolf stove and the immersion blender, it will probably trickle down
to the home kitchen someday. Cryovacking has also given great momentum
to the scientific cooking revolution of the last five years. Chefs have
begun using techniques developed for industrial food production and
advances in science to manipulate the chemical make-up of proteins,
starches and fats to create new textures and flavors -- everything from
fried mayonnaise to hot gelatins.
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Dave S