Foodservice tips – Foodservice.me

Gravity Slide System on a Sammic food processor

Sammic Food Processor with gravity system to eject the cut product without contact. This unique feature avoids the centrifugal force of the ejector disc and allows the product to slide without hitting anything, thus allowing the product’s organoleptic qualities to be better maintained.

The best and fastest way to slice tomatoes. In this video we slice at 1000 RPM! No juice is lost, the tomatoes are perfect coming out every time. Learn more here Sammic Food Processor with gravity system to eject the cut product without contact. This unique feature avoids the centrifugal force of the ejector disc and allows the product to slide without hitting anything, thus allowing the product’s organoleptic qualities to be better maintained. The best and fastest way to slice tomatoes. In this video we slice at 1000 RPM! No juice is lost, the tomatoes are perfect coming out every time.

Tips & Tricks – Making IDDSI and Baby Food With Sous Vide

When we think of baby food we think of pureed food. Stuff that is easy to eat, not to thin and runny, not to thick or chewy. This same concept however applies for people with dysphagia as well.

In short, dysphagia is a condition in which a person’s ability to eat and drink is disrupted. This is very common, more than 3 million cases a year in fact. IDDSI (International Dysphagia Diet Standardization Initiative) framework consists of an eight level continuum to provide common terminology to describe food textures and drink thickness.

So the next time you make something such as baby food, realize 590 million people worldwide are living with dysphagia. This has been a very interesting learning experience for myself as I work deeply with equipment that serves all fascists of the healthcare industry as well as recently having identical twin girls to feed.

I have found great joy in making meals for my little ones and have been enjoying coming up with new ideas, flavors, and textures to get them accustom to. What I have found works the best, has been utilizing Sous Vide to cook down food without losing the valuable nutrients. Below, is a video I made on how I use my cool Sammic tools to help me make baby food.

The equipment used (I’m a huge fan of kitchen tools)
– SmartVide7 (check out sous-vide.cooking)
– SE-206 (Chamber Vacuum Sealer)
– XM-12 (Immersion Blender)

A huge benefit from Sous Vide, is all of the moisture that would otherwise be steamed off, stays in the bag! Imagine a chicken breast cooked any other way. For one, you need to make sure it’s cooked safe, right? So generally we tend to over cook it, just to be sure. No over cooking with Sous Vide. Set to 165F, and the chicken can’t ever go past that temperature… Even if you are busy changing multiple diapers and extremely sleep deprived, and forget about the food that has been sitting in the tank. It’s all good, get to it when your ready, it will be waiting for you.

Foodservice Equipment – Commercial Food Peeler

Why Buy a Commercial Food Peeler

Commercial Food Peelers, commonly known as Commercial Potato Peelers or Potato Rumbler Machines, are the best solution for foodservice operations that produce high quantities of product and need to majorly save on labor cost.

It takes on average around 10-15 minutes to peel a 5 lb bag of potatoes by hand. At this quantity, using a quality hand peeler is a perfect option as your labor cost is only around $3.75 per batch (assuming labor cost $15 an hour). To break this further down into the cost of labor per serving, we use a serving of 5.3 oz., or the size of a large fry according to McDonald’s. So, 3 servings per pound or 15 servings total come from a 5-pound bag. That puts us right about $.25 a serving in labor to peel potatoes by hand.

Sammic Corporate Video for Food Peelers

Five pounds of potatoes is an extremely small quantity in some cases. A restaurant featuring fresh hand-cut french fries will need to determine how many servings a day they will go through. Sammic rates their Commercial Food Peelers in a few convenient ways. Down below is their selection guide to help you choose what is best for you. The different examples are by Capacity per load (how many pounds are being peeled at once), Production / Hour (this is if you were living in an unrealistic world and loading/unloading times were nonexistent, none the less, it gives you a good idea of how many spuds you can send through these things), and my favorite, by Covers (notice they give you a minimum amount of pounds of product. They want you to be sure that you get in the sweet spot of production to maximize the value of the machine. In other words, don’t buy an expensive machine that is designed for more than you need).

Let’s knock down some of that labor cost from before now that we have a better idea of how many servings and pounds of potatoes we’re going through. At 300 servings or 100 lbs (two 50 lb bags) of potatoes, that would take 5 hours of labor to do by hand and $75 of labor cost. This isn’t a huge problem for the old school military punishing system, but for employees that are getting more and more expensive, you might find that their time and your money is better spent someplace else. Especially if you add this to a yearly cost of $27,375!

Using a Commercial Peeler, such as the Sammic PI-30, you can knock out 66 lbs, or one of the 50 lb bags, in about 3 minutes. Let’s call it 5 minutes a load and make that 100 lbs a total of 10 minutes. Now we are doing 100 pounds of potatoes in around the same time it takes to hand peel a 5 lb bag. This new labor cost for the entire 100 lbs is $2.50, or per serving, is now less than $.01. That’s a new yearly labor cost of $913 and a savings of $26,462 every year.

These peelers are not just for potatoes though. Many concepts use them for just about anything that needs peeling, such as bulk ginger for ginger beer, loads and loads of carrots, and really any of the globe vegetables like beets, and radishes. If your looking for a better way to get the peel off your produce, look no further.

Foodservice Tips – How Long to Cook Fish

Source: How Long to Cook Fish | LEAFtv

By Andrea Cespedes

Unless you’re eating sushi, no one wants undercooked fish. The amount of time it takes to cook fish depends on the type of fish you’re cooking, the size of the fish and the method that you’re using.

Methods, such as baking, sauteing, broiling, poaching and steaming, follow a 10-minute rule. For baking, set the oven to about 400 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

Determine how thick the fish fillet or whole fish is at its thickest point. For every inch, plan for 10 minutes of cook time. So, if your fillet is 1/2 inch thick, you’ll need about five minutes.

Tips

Use the 10-minute rule for stuffed or rolled fish, too. Simply measure right before you put the fish in the oven, when the fish is completely prepped.

Turn the fish approximately halfway through the cooking time. But, if the fish is thin — less than 1/2 inch thick — turning is unnecessary.

The fish is safe to eat once it’s reached an internal temperature of 145 F when you insert an instant-read thermometer into the thickest portion. Thin fillets — such as sole — can be visually inspected for doneness.

Tips

For fish that’s cooked en papillote, wrapped in foil or parchment paper, or in a sauce such as curried fish, add five minutes to the cook time. If you’re cooking fish straight from a frozen state — double the cook time. For example, a 1/2-inch steak needs 10 minutes.

A fish with pink or white flesh will appear opaque rather than translucent when fully cooked. The flesh should feel firm, but still look and feel moist. If you’re not sure, use a fork to break into the fillet. The meat should easily flake. Avoid overcooking fish as it dries out easily.

Fish steaks, including salmon and swordfish, respond well to grilling. They’re firm, so they stand up to the grates and this less precise method of cooking.

Preheat the grill. Ensure your grill is clean or you’ll risk having the fish stick and fall apart during the cooking process.

Place the fish steak directly on the grill in the hottest portion. Sear the outside for1 to 2 minutes per side.

Move the fish steak to a slightly cooler section of the grill to finish cooking. Use the 10-minute-per-inch rule.

Tips

If you’re grilling fish that still has skin attached, such as whitefish or coho salmon, place a greased layer of foil over the top of the grates and grill the fish, using the 10-minute rule.

To cook fillets on the grill, wrap them along with seasonings in foil and use the 10-minute rule. You should also wrap whole fish — and the 10-minute rule applies as well. Enhance the flavor of grilled fish with a flavorful marinade.