A Kitchen That Cooks by Itself
wired.com
wired.com
The reason you're seeing lots and lots of new entrants in the "smart cooking" space is because engineers are trying it and the results are really really delicious. When you can use sensors to accurately cook the exterior of foods to the right properties, and use thermodynamics to accurately cook the interior to the right properties, it brings restaurant-quality food to the hands of a novice chef.
But how can it possibly work if it only has a surface temperature sensor and no way to know either internal temperature or both the weight of the food and area of the food-pan contact surface of the food? (or even better, a full 3D model of the food)
I mean, an extremely thin but large steak will likely need a different cooking time that a more "spherical" steak (even if they weight the same).
Otherwise it seems an amazing product.
The steak software also asks you for desired doneness. Then it adjusts the cooking time on-the-fly based on the real data coming back from the pan, so it knows that if the temperature is X degrees too low, it's going to extend the time a little bit to compensate. But that's all done behind-the-scenes in software.
Let's take the mushroom for example. If the pan's surface temperature is too low or their are too many mushrooms in the pan the water comes out of the mushroom and prevents it from being caramelized and browned. Yes, there is a lot more than just the negligible about of sugar in a mushroom when it browns and I would have been more accurate to use an onion to describe this but I'm sticking with the mushroom. What is caramelization? It is cooked sugars. Caramelization starts at 320 degrees F so if the pan doesn't get past 212 degrees F because water is being released from the mushroom.
There are two ways to brown a mushroom. One, start with very, very high heat, brown the mushroom's surface, then lower the heat so the inside cooks. Or, second, use low heat, let the mushroom release all its water, then after the water evaporates raise the heat. This is the same for caramelized onions. One way is to use high heat which even leaves the inside of the onion crispy[1], and the other is to use low heat for a long time until the water is evaporated[2]. Also, most recipes for ground beef in pasta sauce say to brown the meat on med-high before the moisture comes out, however, adding water initially, and then cook it until the water evaporates before browning it is a valid approach also.
I'm not sure the usefulness of this app in determining the proper final temperature. Plus, anyone can stick a $7 thermometer into a piece of meat. However, many people and professional chefs make the mistake of putting way too much food into a pan. Your app might be a ton more useful warning cooks that their pan is below or above the proper cooking heat. Sea scollaps are the worst for this. There is a huge difference between cooking 4 u-10s or 8 in the pan at the same time because the water being released cools down the cooking surface temp to the point that they are boiled instead of pan fried. However, with sea scallops raising the heat to the pan or changing the cooking duration isn't a solution. The solution is have the right amount of scallops, in a right sized pan, at the right cooking temp.
I think this app can be much more useful in helping cooks learn to maintain the proper surface temp of a pan for wilting spinach, cooking mushrooms, making fried rice, searing scallops, ect. than telling when the food is done. Perhaps, telling when food is done can easily be done with a cheap thermometer but using the right surface temperature is the hard part of cooking.
[1]: http://www.lemonythyme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Carame...
[2]: https://corkandspoon.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/crock-pot-c...
Rare, medium-rare, medium, ect. are temperatures, literally the internal temperature of a piece of meat. It's not just weight and dimensions of the cut that are involved in the cooking time, but also things like specific gravity and percentage of water. (Have you ever been to a restaurant that makes home-made french fries that are soggy and overcooked? They don't know about specific gravity of potatoes.[1]) Cooking is also multidimensional, for example, medium-rare by definition is 130 to 135 degrees F, however, the rate of cooking determines different outcomes. For example, lower heat and a long time to reach 130 degrees F has a very different end product from high heat over a short time. In the latter, the meat will be more unevenly cooked by cross section. Freshness is one of many factors that determine how much moister is released during pan frying. So sometimes the pan heat needs to adjusted in order to make sure that surface of a piece of meat or fish has the right amount of crispiness which in turn changes the cooking time
One of my favorite parts of being a yacht chef was not knowing which foods were going to spoil first. Survival was about strategy and knowing how to make everything from scratch like bread, mayonnaise and pasta. The night before I'd look in the fridge and see what needs to be used first, it might be the spinach or the broccoli, and then design meals around that item. This is what imagination is for. Not only the state of the food needs to calculated, but also if we are moving between anchorages or marina the sea height. If the guests have been active fishing or scuba diving so there are psychological considerations also.
Cooking is about imagination and to imagine different outcomes whether the internal state of a salmon or steak requires experience and that only comes from cooking, failing at it, and making mistakes. The only way to get good at cooking is to suck it for a long time. But, that is the same for everything. Don't cook just to eat, cook because it is a challenge like playing a video game where the ball needs to bounce off the paddle at just the right angle to make it hit the target.
No, sorry, we're not doing anything with grills at the moment!
Edit: it's probably too late since this is off the front page of HN, but I just got my sales team to put up a one-day coupon code special for Hacker News readers: IBOJRFOTZS (expires 11:59pm tonight PT).
Low-hassle domestic stock control / inventory maangement though, that would be genuinely useful.
You could buy a lot of ready meals (which are just food that's been prepared offsite in bulk)
So, to the degree that technology can help average people do more in the kitchen it could be genuinely useful. I have no opinion on how likely the tech in the article is to actually do that.
1. The liquid must be delicious (ie. not water) and almost covering or just barely covering your meat. It must also fill the crock pot at least half way. Think tomato sauce or stock.
2. The meat must be browned well before throwing it in the slow cooker. Fry the outside edges at high temp first.
3. Using well used muscles results in far better flavour -- rump, blade roast, flank, shank, and chicken thighs. Fat (but not toooo much) is your friend. It will dissolve over time and add flavour.
*. If you throw in a parmesan rind all your dreams will come true.
Slow cookers on top of being tasty are also super convenient. You don't really have to pay attention to it and it's a large batch so you can store it in the fridge and eat it through the week.