Low-temperature meat cooking in your oven

Low-temperature meat cooking is an increasingly widespread cooking technique: here is how to do it in your oven.

Meat is an important food of traditional Italian cuisine; however, cooking it can be difficult. Usually, the risk is cooking it too much, and losing its texture. Here is how to cook delicious meat-based dishes, like in the best gourmet restaurants, in your oven.

What is low-temperature cooking?

Low-temperature cooking, also called CBT or sous vide, is a very popular cooking method among chefs, and is spreading also to home cooking.

What does this technique entail? With it, food is cooked at very low temperatures, to obtain a perfectly even cooking. This technique makes food retain its nutrients, leaving it tastier, with an excellent texture.There are several techniques: you can opt for water cooking, by placing the food in special vacuum bags (in this case, you will need a vacuum machine), or you can use your oven.

Cooking meat at low temperatures in your oven: methods and times

To cook meat at low temperatures in the oven, first marinate your meat to soften it and make it tastier. Then, if you choose to cook big pieces of meat, sauté them in a well-greased pan to prepare them for cooking.

Now you can do your low-temperature oven cooking. Just place the meat in a baking sheet (well-oiled) and adjust the oven at a constant temperature between 60°C and 90°C.

Cooking times, just like the oven temperature,vary based on the type of meat, cut and weight. For instance, an 800g beef fillet, should sautéed for 4 minutes and cooked in the oven for 1 hour and 30 minutes at 80°C. A 1,5kg turkey breast should be sautéed for 6 minutes, then cooked in the oven for 2 hours and 45 minutes at 90°C.

Once the meat is cooked, check the temperature at the core of the meat, to see that it is properly cooked. To this end, latest-generation appliances are the perfect solution: Haier oven features a Meat Probe system to measure the inner temperature of food and set the correct cooking cycle.

The benefits of cooking meat low-temperature

One of the main benefits of cooking meat at low temperatures is surely the high-quality results: by choosing the oven, thanks to the heat recirculation and constant temperatures, meat cooks evenly, and is eye-appealing and palate-pleasing, since it preserves its juices. Low-temperature cooking also needs less energy, despite the long preparation times, and this is often a sustainable choice.