Cooking in a Vacuum at a Constant Low Temperature Gives Consistent Results
Although a cooking process that has been used for decades, sous vide has really only made into the American restaurant kitchen in the last ten years. The problem is, it really requires specialized equipment to do it, and up until recently, this equipment was difficult to procure. Nowadays, not only is the equipment readily available for restaurants, but the home version of these items is hitting the shelves of home kitchen equipment purveyors all over the country.
For Vernona, we use two commercial pieces of equipment for cooking sous vide. The first is a PolyScience thermal circulator, once used only in science labs. The advantage of this piece of equipment is that it can maintain the temperature of a water bath at a constant temperature (within +/- .5°C) for an indefinite period of time. The advantage of this is quite simply control. It allows the cook to control the final cooked product with a degree of exactness never before available.
The second piece of equipment is a Technovac vacuum sealing machine, used for sealing food before sous vide cooking. A home version of this will work, such as a Food Saver, as long as the product is sealed completely so that the cooking process in anaerobic.
Why Diver Scallops Are So Special and So Delicious
Just recently I read some confusing and misleading information regarding diver scallops, and upon further discussion with some of our hotel staff, realized that many people do not understand much about why these scallops are special.
At Vernona we buy from a fish company called Browne Trading at Merrills Wharf in Portland, Maine. Browne Trading, specializes in pristinely fresh seafood from all over the world, and particularly the US northeastern Atlantic. The owner of this company, Rod Mitchell, is a pioneer in the industry of fresh domestic seafood, and diver scallops are a good example of this.
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