This week I am sharing the first part of a story about what I do with Simulink during weekends!

Introduction

Last Christmas, I received the book Modernist Cuisine - The Art of Science of Cooking.

Throughout the book, the author Nathan Myhrvold puts a lot of emphasis on a cooking technique called sous-vide.

In you are not familiar, sous-vide is a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bath for a long time at an accurately determined temperature much lower than normally used for cooking. This results in tender and juicier meats.

I have to try...

The Research

I did some research to figure out how I could try this at home and found this amazing flowchart about how to choose a Sous Vide Machine. Give a look, and post a comment below if you are also an electrical genius.

After studying all my options, I decided that, even if I could afford a nice expensive machine like the SousVide Supreme, I am going to build my own... and this will involve Simulink.

The Plan

So I began thinking about the details.

To keep my water bath at a fixed temperature, I will use a cheap, easy to use, micro-controller called an Arduino Board. I have never used one before, but I found the Simulink Support for Arduino Boards under Hardware for Project-Based Learning in the Academia page.

To measure the temperature of the water bath, I will use a cheap temperature sensor chip, (like the LM35), solder a cable to it and isolate the extremity with silicone so I can drop it in the water bath.

Now... the water bath. For this part I hesitated a bit. After some reflection, I decided that will use a crockpot I already own and will switch it On and Off using a relay. If found on the web a device called PowerSwitch Tail that will be perfect for that.

The following schematics gives an overview of my project:

What's Next?

I ordered all the stuff needed online and now I am waiting. If everything goes fine, next week I will follow up with the implementation and testing of my Simulink sous-side cooking system.

I can't wait to try the 24 hours pork ribs!

Update: Click here to see part 2

Now it's your turn

Please share any tips and suggestions to help with my sous-vide system. Leave a comment here.