C.cooking with ultrasound: it is not a science fiction movie or the vision of some avant-garde chef. Today it is ua very common technique in restaurants and probably, even without knowing it, you have already eaten a dish cooked with ultrasound.
How ultrasonic cooking works
Technology helps ancient techniques: instead of marinating the meat for days, immersing the product in a little water, which acts as a transmitter, the ultrasound waves compress and decompress the meat proteins, which are thus “massaged”. A technique also approved by Europe, which has recently signed a project aimed at enhancing Ultratender technique (non invasive high power ultrasound processing method for meat tenderization). In fact the process is not used so much for cooking, but to start the so-called denaturation of meat (or fish) proteins, which lose their water content and in synthesis become softer and more digestible, without changing its properties. We can therefore say that cooking with ultrasound is an ingredient of “well-being”.
Where to eat ultrasound meat
TO The FrantoioAssisi restaurant inside the historic Fontebella hotel, not only enjoys a privileged view over most of Umbria, which can be seen from the garden of this famous medieval village, here the chef Lorenzo Cantoniin the tasting menu you can find the dish as an appetizer “Osso”, Roe and Spontaneethat is a fake Jerusalem artichoke bone on which an ultrasonic venison tartare rests and a mix of wild herbs that the chef collects together with the guys from La Clarice Synergistic Garden of Assisiwhich deal with foraging in Umbria.
“Osso”, Capriolo and Spontanee by Lorenzo Cantoni. (Courtesy)
«Ultrasonic cooking changed our lives in restaurants: before, it took 24 hours to marinate venison and I often had to remove it from the paper because it was in great demand and was finished ahead of schedule. Today with 40 minutes of ultrasound we have the venison tartare ready to be served“.
Why not do it at home
The chef Igles Corelli, author of 12 cookery books and 4 Michelin stars in his career (two at Il Trigabolo di Argenta, in the province of Ferrara, then at La Locanda della Tamerice, also in the Ferrara area and finally by Atman, in the province of Pistoia. Both crowned with a star). Today he is among the first and greatest exponents of ultrasonic cooking.
«I believe it is a great innovation in the restaurant because it allows you to serve as a tartare muscular and stringy meats, which traditional cuisine offers only as stews or with long cooking. And it can be used for difficult fish, of important dimensions, such as amberjack or mackerel: among other things, ultrasound also lengthens the shelf life of the meat, essentially extending its duration »tells us Igles Corelli. “Safely clean up the game meat (which we can therefore use lightly in tartare), it is one perfect technique for raw foodists, given that the temperature does not rise above 17-18 degrees and therefore allows, for example, to create “uncooked gardener” but which retain all the properties of the plants. But that’s not all: working by osmosis it captures the essential oilswe can then immerse a wood or a shrub in water and then “extract” perfumes and an oil to be used in the various preparations »explains Corelli.
«The only obstacle for home cooking? A medium ultrasonic machine, used in restaurant kitchens, it absorbs about 15 kWand even with a portable one, which I use for demonstrations, consumption does not drop below 8 kW, it would blow up the light in any home ».
The new frontier: ultrasonic cocktails
And Lorenzo Cantoni himself, famous for the cuisine he uses extra virgin olive oil in the dishesBest Chef of AIRO Olive Oil 2021, he elaborated together with the bar manager Antonio Torrelli of extra virgin olive oil cocktails made with the ultrasound technique.
In this way the cocktail is rounder on the palate and the aroma of the oil more persistent and dense: this technique helps to emulsify and extract the flavor from the ingredients. Thus was born the drinks Donna Elena which you can find in the gallery with other recipes.
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