jmolinari

Dave, please keep us up to date with the smoke stick!

dougal, that is a very interesting product. I may give it a try at some point. But like you, i do wish they had oak or alder wood.

Thanks Dave, i'll definitely try your method.

Dave, yup, i crushed the peppercorns to a powder, and made a paste with teh garlic and cilantro. That probably explains the heat! Next time i'll try it your way, but how doyou avoid eating the whole peppercorns?

chris, i thikn it was. It was good last night, but i need to up the cilantro, and lower the pepper in that recipe. All we could taste was pepper after a few bites.

HKDave, you are right. It was bean threads. I actually made this last night, following that recipe you posted...used white pepper of course. It was good, but WAY WAY too much pepper, and not enough coriander. I made it with chicken, so i guess it was kai obe maw din. I made it in a clay pot on a stove, so i got some burning at the bottom, also used rice threads as i didn't have bean threads on hand. I'll take your suggestions next time. Thanks! jason

Yes, my grandma in italy has one, and i can tell you she didn't pay $548 for it. That is absurd. It works well for making what italians call "tost" which is just a ham and cheese on white bread. Quite tasty really

I agree that 6g is high. 28g/1oz of pink salt is used to cure 25lbs of meat, so for 1lb you should be using somewhere around 1.1-1.5g of pink salt.

Thanks Chris. I said galangal since it said that in the menu. I'll see if i can find that book somewhere to look up the recipe!

Posted this in the thai thread in the cooking board, but didn't get a reply. Thought i'd try here. There is a dish at our favorite local thai resto called "goong obe mau den". It is a rice noodle dish cooked in a clay pot with galangal (among other herbs/spices) and shrimp. Upon opening the clay pot an incredibly heady aroma of herbs i don't even recognize envelops you...it is amazing. Does anyone know this method or know how to make this dish or a similar dish? thanks jason

Dan, anytime i hand something to dry i use cure #2.

Is the soppressata from the book? What size casing did you use? And yes, dicing meat and fat is a lot of flippin' work.

That's brilliant. Bribe your doctor

Wurst, sure did. Look at this link: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...4entry1207224

Ore, my pancetta is done for at least 30 days, my lamb prosciutto about 45, and i have a pancetta that will be 1 year old in october.

There is a dish at our favorite local thai resto called "goong obe mau den". It is a rice noodle dish cooked in a clay pot with galangal (among other herbs/spices) and shrimp. Upon opening the clay pot an incredibly heady aroma of herbs i don't even recognize envelops you...it is amazing. Does anyone know this method or know how to make this dish or a similar dish? thanks

Joe, give the PID a try, it should work better. Some people on ebay sell autotuning PIDs for $50, they should work well. You could also use a crock pot and splice in to allow the PID to control the on off. I thikn this would work better than a hot plate and pot, since it would be better insultated, and be a cleaner easier solution instead of having wires running everywherE:) Good luck. It is WAY WAY cheaper than a circulator. You should be able to get eveything for about $100 as you said, if not less. If you already have a crock pot, even better. keep us up to date with results. jason

Joesan, i have made a setup similar to yours. I used a Dawson temp controller with 1deg. F resolution, a hotplate, a thermocouple and a pot. It worked well to confirm that i likes sous vide, and it made good food. I did find some stratification of heat, which may or may not have been a problem. If you can find a cheap pump i would add it, i also thought of just adding an aquarium bubbler to the pot, which would at least move the water around somewhat, and the hot water would not be a problem since it doesn't go through a pump. I found that leaving the hotplate on the lowest level reduced the overshoot by a great deal. My controller wasjust on-off, not a PID. A PID may be able to do better. jason

i agree with Russ. The phosphates in processed meats give them a rubbery texture. My brined chicken has always been juicy and chicken-like in texture.

Dave, got it. You should get some bigger casings so you can leave the piece whole. I've gotten casings from butcher-packer in collagen up to 120mm. For coppa i've found the 100mm work best though. jason

I agree with Russ. The hammyness comes from adding sugar to the brine. I normally brine with salt only, and i'm happy with teh results. I'll try presalting, but i'm unlikely to adopt it, as that requires thinking ahead 24 hours. I barely think enough ahead to take out chicken breasts for defrosting that same day.

Thanks Ian

So, let me understand. Instead of brining a pork chop (or chicken breast, or steak), i should just sprinkle it with salt, and let it sit on a plate in the fridge? Overnight? I must try this. jason

Dave, nice looking stuff. Coppa is 1 piece, not multiple chunks. I don't know what you made, but it looks very tasty:)

Thanks for the reply Nathan. How about rare beef cooked at 122-125 for 36 hours? Isn't that pushing the safety limits?