HISTORY OF LOW TEMPERATURE AND VACUUM COOKING

In history reference is always made to certain and documented dates to state when and who did something or something happened. It is an important chronological method which makes history a science and not an exercise of opinions which can inevitably create myths, which are not always entirely true. In the free pantry we talk about low temperature cooking (now named sous vide)

In gastronomy and culinary, as already mentioned on this page and in the handout that can be downloaded, falsehoods and myths have been voluntarily passed off for marketing needs of tourism and even politics such as the history of the centuries-old culinary identity of nations, with clear ethnic reference, and therefore of the food industry. And I will briefly tell a great classic with the story of "Nutella". produced by the Ferrero industry.

To return to the main topic, it is historically dated back to around 1790 as the first scientific documentary source on low temperature cooking. The first to make scientific observations on low temperature cooking was Benjamin Thompson, Earl of Rumford.

But are we sure that there weren't cooking techniques for long times that weren't already used previously in cooking? Is it correct to date a method to a date corresponding to the understanding of the method itself?

Certainly the popular use of this method can be traced back much earlier, for example by going back to a date for the "Kebab" of Turkish origin. The first account in the West was made by Bertrandon de la Broquière, who between February 1432 and mid-1433 made his first trip to the Middle East via Bursa in Turkey. Theodore de Bry, a famous engraver and printer in Frankfurt, made prints in the 16th century showing how Native Americans in Puerto Rico cooked their prey at a low temperature over wood embers. The English word "barbeque" comes from the "barbacoa" word of their idiom.

To continue our tour around the world we will return to Europe, to Sardinia, and then ideally we will cross the Atlantic again, to land in Argentina.

We will also discover that vacuum packing, often associated with low temperatures, has a slightly different story from the better known one, which travels between the United States and France, passing by scientists, technicians and chefs such as Carl Rietz, Ambrose McGuckian, Bruno Goussault and George Pralus

Of course, the subject of the history of cooking is broader and this is only part of it. The whole is divided into various pages, like handouts.

Below you can download a free handout, saving or printing it.