Being a scientifically inclined restaurant owner, I enjoy every page in Modernist Cuisine. I am absorbing everything from the first book to the fifth, page by page. There is no doubt in my mind that the studies will result in an even more efficient production of traditional Swedish dishes in our, already very profitable, summer restaurant in south of Sweden.
My original training is MSC Chemical Engineering. In the 1970‚’s I developed simulationprograms for calculation of heat gradients in cables, for determination of required linespeed when manufacturing crosslinked PE-insulation. I guess that the simulations, that I worked with was similar to those used in the tables on the pages 2-276 to 2-279 for Sous Vide cooking.
I am concerned about findings in the tables. Let me explain:
[*]I have a circular slab of meat with diameter 15 cm and thickness 1 cm that need to be heated 60 degrees C. Hence I look up the time requirement on page 2-276: cooking time 17m51s
[*]I have a 15 cm square slab of meat with thickness 1 cm that need to be heated 60 degrees C. Hence I look up the time requirement on page 2-279: cooking time 5m38s
I would expect that, say the innermost circular sq cm in both slabs, would have a very similar temperature gradient development over time and thus the same cooking times instead of a difference of almost a factor three.
I am confused and obviously I have misunderstood something. Looking forward for guidance.
Best Regards and thank you for an amazing effort in practical science
Bo Duvmo
bosse@duvmo.com
Café Utsikten
http://www.cafeutsikten.se
