rec i pe development and cooking tips | 21 |
Recipe Development and Cooking Tips
De v e lo p i n g Recipes
TurboChef ovens use a combination of hot air and microwave energy to cook food. While experience with a convection or microwave oven will reveal both similarities and significant differences, the key to creating good recipes for a variety of different food items is to understand the following rules:
1.TurboChef ovens use a moving shroud of hot air to surround the food and lock in moisture.
2.The hot air provides most of the heating and browning of foods. The higher the air velocity, the faster heat energy is transferred to the food.
3.The microwave provides heat to the center of the food. Do not try to do all the cooking with the microwave.
4.The weight of food determines the Total Cook Time required. The more weight, the longer the required Total Cook Time. (Most medium thick crust pizzas cook in about 100 seconds.)
5.Thick and dense foods may need to be flipped half way through the Cook Cycle.
6.The microwave tends to work best in the earlier stages of cooking, then use hot air to finish off the cooking process.
7.Color develops primarily at the end of a Cook Cycle. Higher velocities of air in the later stages of cooking will strongly control the food’s color.
Development Methodology
When developing a recipe, it is important to keep the following in mind:
1.The Total Cook Time depends heavily on the weight, portion and makeup of a product.
When developing a recipe for the Tornado, a good starting point for the Total Cook Time is to divide the item’s conventional cook time by 10.
2.The two main components of an Event are the Percentage Microwave and Percentage Air. Each affects a product differently.
o Air provides color, caramelization, and texture, when moisture is not active.
oMicrowave rapidly cooks a product and keeps the product’s moisture moving.
Although the Tornado oven is a speed cook oven, thinking in terms of conventional cooking methods can be a great help in establishing a good starting point from which to begin testing and refining a recipe’s settings.
By looking at the cooking process behind three different types of products, the following examples highlight the connection between traditional cook- ing methods and the world of speed cooking.
Example 1: Frozen Pizza
A frozen pizza will have to be defrosted, cooked and then finished. These three stages – defrost, cook and finish – correspond to speed cooking as follows.
Defrost:
High microwave to bring the item out of the fro- zen state.
Cook:
Microwave and air are used to cook the Item. Depending on the item, cooking may need to take place over several Events to maximize the quality.
