Equipment & Utensils 14

Makassar, 13 September 2018

• Slow Cooker

A slow cooker, also known as a crock-pot (after a trademark owned by Sunbeam Products but sometimes used generically in Australia, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States), is a countertop electrical cooking appliance used to simmer at a lower temperature than other cooking methods, such as baking, boiling, and frying. This facilitates unattended cooking for many hours of dishes that would otherwise be boiled: pot roast, soups, stews and other dishes (including beverages, desserts and dips). A wide variety of dishes can be prepared in slow cookers, including ones typically made quickly, such as cocoa and bread. 

To use a slow cooker, the cook places raw food and a liquid, such as stock, water, or wine, in the slow cooker. Some recipes call for pre-heated liquid. The cook puts the lid on the slow cooker and turns it on. Some cookers automatically switch from cooking to warming (maintaining the temperature at 71–74 °C (160–165 °F) after a fixed time or after the internal temperature of the food, as determined by a probe, reaches a specified value.

Heating element heats the contents to a steady temperature in the 79–93 °C (174–199 °F) range. The contents are enclosed by the crock and the lid, and attain an essentially constant temperature. The vapor that is produced at this temperature condenses on the bottom of the lid and returns as liquid, into which some water-soluble vitamins are leached.

The liquid transfers heat from the pot walls to its contents, and also distributes flavors. The slow cooker's lid is essential to prevent the warm vapor from escaping, taking heat with it and cooling the contents.

Basic cookers, which have only high, medium, low, or keep warm settings, must be turned on and off manually. More advanced cookers have computerized timing devices that let a cook program the cooker to perform multiple operations (e.g., two hours high, followed by two hours low, followed by warm) and to delay the start of cooking.

Because food cooked in a slow cooker stays warm for a long time after it is switched off, people can use the slow cookers to take food elsewhere to eat without reheating. Some slow cookers have lids that seal to prevent their contents from spilling during transport. 

• Air Fryer

Hot air frying is a new cooking technique that allows you to fry, grill and roast without the use of copious amounts of fat or oil. You can get that deep-fried taste and texture without the grease. Hot air frying machines are the first real kitchen innovation since the 1970s, when we acquired slow cookers and microwaves.

These appliances are designed to circulate extremely hot air in a fashion that mimics the movement and flow of heat currents in a pot of boiling oil, to crisp up the outsides of food while cooking it inside.

Air frying VS Deep-Fat Frying

Air-fried food will, obviously, taste a little different from deep-fried food, but most fans think air-fried actually tastes better: you don’t have the taste of the sodden-grease that later sinks to the pit of your stomach. But still, the taste is acceptably close to deep-fried without the terrible cleanup and the heavy oil smell in the house. It’s way less work, so you may end up eating fried food more than ever. On the face of it, it can look like the hot air machines take longer to make a batch of homemade fries than deep-fat would — say, 25 minutes for air frying versus 8 minutes for deep fried, but don’t forget to add in all the hidden warm up and cool down time before and after deep-frying, not to mention the hassle. As much as people might purport to love deep-fat frying, few people rarely do it at home anymore precisely for that reason. There’s the waiting time for the oil to heat up, then the waiting time for it to cool down, the cleanup, the filtering and storage of the oil — not to mention the odour. Hot air frying completely eliminates all that hassle. 

• Wood Trivets

A trivet is an object placed between a serving dish or bowl, and a dining table, usually to protect the table from heat damage. Trivet also refers to a tripod used to elevate pots from the coals of an open fire (the word trivet itself ultimately comes from Latin tripes meaning "tripod"). Metal trivets are often tripod-like structures with three legs to support the trivet horizontally in order to hold the dish or pot above the table surface. These are often included with modern non-electric pressure cookers. A trivet may often contain a receptacle for a candle that can be lit to keep food warm. A three-legged design is optimal because it eliminates wobbling on uneven surfaces. Modern trivets are made from metal, wood, ceramic, fabric, silicone or cork.

When roasting any meat in an oven, trivet racks - which typically fit into roasting pans - are often used to enable the meat joint to be held above the direct heat of the roasting pan and allow the juices of the joint to drip into the roasting pan for the subsequent making of gravy. A trivet can also be made of freshly cut carrot, celery and onion. This not only raises the meat, i.e. chicken, it has the further advantage of providing a gravy-friendly liquid when the vegetables and juices are sieved at the end of cooking.

Sources :

Wikipedia
http://www.hotairfrying.com/what-is-hot-air-frying