Having received a real kitchen gadget before the weekend, I certainly had to do some sous-vide experiments. While shopping I looked specifically for meat that was already vacuum packed in plastic bags as I do not have a food saver. There is actually a decent selection available and I got a 1.5 kg roast beef and a chicken breast (a particularily nice one, bred according to the Label Rouge principles). The nice thing about the meat I got was that the packaging had temperature suggestions. Even though I have books and tables and access to the internet it’s always nice to have this information available exactly when and where you need it. And as I dropped the meat into the water bath it occured to me that this was so simple (not that I shun complex recipes), so clean (I’m not afraid of a messy kitchen) and so convenient (I’m not at all a fan of fast food) that given the expected end result this is probably how very many people will prepare their meat in a not to distant future! So to all farmers, butchers and producers of immersion circulators – I hope you read this and act accordingly

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I just came across this fancy egg boiler. It’s designed by Simon Rhymes and bears the name BEM. The egg is cooked in about 6 minutes by the heat from 4 halogen light bulbs with a total output of 500 W.

It sure looks fancy, but I doubt that these eggs can rival the texture of those prepared by the low temperature methods I have described. The reason for this is that the halogen lamps heat up the eggs above the temperature required for the white and the yolk to set. This gives the white a rubbery texture. And even though the BEM has a timer, you still have to figure out (by experimenting?) for how long to cook your eggs…

I think the best part is the cutting ring with a 125 g mass which is raised and dropped to create a crack around the top of the egg. But there is no need to buy the BEM, because a similar egg cracker can be bought separately here for instance! You place the cup on top of the egg, raise the steel ball and drop it. The energy is transferred to the egg, creating a perfectly circular crack. This is actually very neat!