Recently, a cooking competition program called 'Culinary Class Wars' on Netflix has become very popular in Korea. When you watch chefs selected from all over the country compete and collaborate to create artistic dishes, you can't help but get absorbed in it without realizing how much time has passed. This time, let's learn about the various cooking tools and patents that make food.
When you watch cooking programs, you can see
not only cooking, but also various and novel cooking methods that you can't
usually see. From molecular cooking machines that make dishes with molecules to
sous vide machines that slowly heat ingredients in a vacuum, there are so many
different cooking tools. Let's find out what technology was used to create
these cooking tools.
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| clipartkorea.co.kr |
Sous vide machine that heats and warms meat
with water instead of fire
'Sous vide' refers to a cooking method that
slowly heats food such as meat in a sealed bag with water at a precisely
calculated temperature. The core principle of this sous vide cooking method is
to accurately determine the temperature at which the protein denaturation
begins and to adjust the temperature and time to denature it exactly as the
chef wants.
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| Michelin Guide (source: https://guide.michelin.com/kr/ko/article/features/%EC%88%98%EB%B9%84%EB%93%9Csous-vide%EB%9E%80 ) |
In particular, meat has the characteristic of becoming softer as it cooks, but hardens again when overcooked, so it is said that the meat is most delicious and nutritious when cooked at a temperature of 50-65 degrees for a long time to minimize denaturation. In the end, since precise temperature control is the most important for sous vide cooking, the key is which cooking tool you use to do sous vide. I was able to find out that there are various sous vide machines.
First, let's take a look at the most basic sous vide machine.
This device is made to evenly transfer heat
to meat products, and is designed to circulate fluids harmoniously by
discharging microbubbles inside the tube where meat products are put. The
feature of this device is that the impeller is installed inside the tube,
allowing smooth air injection to maintain heat distribution and optimal
temperature control.
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| wipsglobal.com KR10-2022-0116132, 'Full flat reclining device for camping vehicle' |
Meanwhile, a sous vide device that does not require vacuum packaging, which is considered essential for sous vide cooking, has also been developed. In fact, sous vide cooking increases cooking time and is inconvenient due to the process of putting preprocessed food in a vacuum packaging bag and performing a vacuum. Therefore, this device was designed to reduce this vacuum packaging process and implement the same vacuum packaging effect. The main principle is the use of a unique fixing unit that enables sealing and vacuum effects.
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| wipsglobal.com KR10-2022-0166548, 'Sous vide device that does not require vacuum packaging' |
It is said that the vacuum effect is implemented by fixing the fixing unit to the stand and supporting the storage medium by moving the fixing stand. In addition, it is said that it is equipped with additional devices such as sensors, timers, and abnormal condition notification devices so that the user can set the desired temperature and time, making it easy to perform other tasks while the material is being sous vide.
Noodle maker and pasta maker
This is the most basic ‘noodle maker’ for
pasta. This noodle maker is a noodle maker that can directly make various types
of noodles such as pasta, noodles, and udon noodles.
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| wipsglobal.com KR20-2017-0005323, 'Apparatus for making noodles' |
However, this noodle maker is designed to maintain a constant noodle thickness by making up for the disadvantage of the uneven thickness of the pulled noodles. The operation method is simple. This is a method where you put kneaded flour between the rollers of a noodle maker and turn the lever so that the rollers rotate and thin noodles are pulled out.
There is also a portable, fully automatic pasta production device that allows you to make your own pasta dishes. Even simple-looking pasta dishes actually require a lot of processes, including direct measurement and addition of dough for the noodles, as well as final completion.
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| wipsglobal.com KR10-2024-7005208, 'A pasta product production device and method of use thereof' |
With this device, you can make delicious
pasta in no time with just one click order. The pasta production device is
equipped with a powder distribution function to evenly distribute the flour, a
water distribution function, and additive injection function. When the motor is
turned on, these functions perform their roles well and you can perfectly cook
the pasta you want.
Nitrogen-created melted foam and cream ‘Espuma’
Espuma is a technique that creates foam using
a whipped cream dispenser. Nitrogen gas can be injected into various liquid or
puree materials to create a light and soft foam.
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| (source: https://rchemyagent.com/shop/item.php?it_id=1477648360 ) |
What technologies and devices are there for Espuma? First, let's look at the nitrous oxide supply device. It is a device that can safely supply nitrous oxide used when making whipped cream in restaurants and cafes. This device has a pressure control unit that can simply control the flow of nitrous oxide, a safety unit, and 1st and 2nd valves, so it is said that simple pressure control and safe injection into a whipping machine are possible.
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| wipsglobal.com KR10-2020-0111560, 'A nitrous oxide dispension apparatus' |
There is also a whipping cream maker. This whipping cream maker is that can form high-quality whipped cream by mixing only cream and whipping gas and minimizing the amount of air. This machine is equipped with a special part called a ‘elasticity bag’ (like a flexible pocket), and have an excellent effect of minimizing impurities such as air even when the bag is filled with cream and nitrogen gas is injected.
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| wipsglobal.com KR10-2013-0003993, 'Whipped cream making device' |
The
world of cooking tools, even more exciting in the future
This
time, we learned about the technology of cooking tools. Cooking has now become
a new field where science and technology meet. Now that we can easily access
Michelin-starred food, we look forward to seeing what kind of food and cooking
tools will catch our eyes and mouths in the future.
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| clipartkorea.co.kr |
