So a lot of cooking is simply about
controlling water - either we're trying to
remove it or we're trying to retain
moisture. When we apply heat during the
cooking process we often lose bright
flavors - take for example bottled
pasteurized lemon juice versus fresh
squeezed lemon juice,
the former isn't going to have that same
bright flavor. Food reacts to heat in
often delicious ways, giving us dishes
like caramels and grilled steaks.
These are called Maillard reactions: it's a
chemical reaction between amino acids
and reducing sugars. Heat transforms
proteins and sugars in browned foods,
providing their characteristic color and
flavor. To avoid these reactions it's
helpful to cook in a vacuum cooker. Water
boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit at
atmospheric pressure;
however, reducing the pressure allows us
to significantly lower the boiling point.
The vacuum cooker uses a pump to remove
the air from the cooking vessel thereby
reducing the pressure.
This allows moisture to evaporate at lower temps controlling the effects of the Maillard
reaction. ICE has a batch vacuum cooker
inside our chocolate lab.
One cool application using the vacuum
cooker is the ability to make fruit-based
caramels. So by avoiding these Maillard reactions we
get a brighter color and much brighter
flavor. For example, with a raspberry caramel
we're getting the really bright flavor
of the raspberry without those cooked
Maillard flavors. And the precision
temperature control allows us to
navigate around those Maillard reactions or caramelization, which can be beneficial or
something we want to avoid. If you can
get rid of moisture at a lower
temperature you can better retain an
ingredient's pure flavor. This is exciting
for chefs because there's really no
other way to control these reactions
outside of the vacuum. Typically vacuum
cookers are huge industrial machines
used for mass-market confectionery
products but now our partner Bottom Line
Technologies has produced this machine
in a more user-friendly format. So it's
exciting for us here at ICE because we
have a lab-scale model that we can
experiment with. Traditional uses for a
machine like this include a wide array
of confectionery applications such as
hard candies, caramels and jellies. This
technology has yet to really be
harnessed in small kitchens so we're
excited to be experimenting with it. And with the vacuum cooker in our lab it allows us the
opportunity to share this technology
with other chefs and our students.
 
