Low temperature cooking

Low temperature cooking is an unusual cooking technique, a variant of roasting, which is claimed to produce more tender and tasty results than traditional high-temperature roasting. In low temperature cooking, the food to be cooked (typically a red meat, such as beef) is cooked for a long period of time (in the region of 10-20 hours) at a low temperature (in some cases, as low as 55°C, 130°F). The technique is favoured by "avant-garde" chefs including Heston Blumenthal.

Theory

Meat is cooked for three reasons - to tenderise it, to provide additional flavours, and to kill harmful bacteria. While all three can be achieved by cooking a joint of meat at high temperature for a long period of time, this is not the only way: each goal is achieved at a different temperature, and takes a different length of time to achieve.

Tenderisation

Raw meat is tough because of a variety of proteins it contains, including actin, myosin and collagen. Heating these proteins causes them to denature, and break down into other substances that do not make the meat tough. This happens at a range of temperatures between 55°C and 65°C.

Flavour

Flavours may be enhanced by the Maillard reaction, which combines sugars and amino acids at temperatures in the region of 100°C. A roast meat typically has a brown crust, which is caused by such a reaction and is generally considered desirable.

Bacteria

Bacteria are typically killed at temperatures of around 68°C. Most harmful bacteria live on the surface of pieces of meat, so in the case of red meats, it is usually safe merely to bring the surface uniformly to this temperature and hold it there for a few minutes.

Gravy

Since this method of cooking causes the meat to withhold its fat content, producing gravy from the joint is impossible, however, gravy is unnecessary since the meat is sufficiently moist when cooked using this technique.

Practice

A typical recipe for low temperature cooking would include briefly raising the temperature of the outside of the food to be cooked to a very high temperature, perhaps using a blow torch. The food would then be placed into a low temperature oven for a long period, before being rested briefly prior to serving.

See also

* Temperature (meat)
* Molecular gastronomy
* Sous-vide

References

* cite web
title=Full on Food: Low-temperature cooking
url=http://web.archive.org/web/20070831161204/http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/tv_and_radio/fullonfood_meat.shtml
publisher=BBC
* cite web
title=The appliance of science
url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,1167148,00.html
author=Heston Blumenthal
publisher=The Guardian
date=13 March 2004

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/roastwingribofbeef_74821.shtml Slow-cooked roast wing rib of beef (by Heston Blumenthal)]