Chris Amirault

Just watched a few on DVR recorded when I was away. A question: What did Colicchio say about cutting up vegetables in even dice? I thought it was something along the lines of "they cook at the same rate," a patently wrong statement, especially regarding carrots. (Want to test it out? Sauté diced onions, celery, and carrots on high for five minutes and eat each one.) Or was I hearing things?

Has anyone ever tried using low-temp cooking for tamales that have been sealed sous vide?

Is that true? I've always wondered about that; seems a bit iffy to me.

I think that the concern that he and others raise is that there have been inconsistencies in the distillation. That's certainly the beef among the critics I've talked to, and it would account for why you and I have had so many good experiences and others haven't.

Fascinating to see the different culinary bents of these approaches, which tend, I think, toward the different cuisines for which the stocks will be put to use. To that end, I usually have at least three different stocks in the freezer: a Mexican stock with garlic, cilantro stems, and a chili or two of some sort; an Asian stock with garlic, ginger, scallion, and perhaps a piece of star anise or clove; and a Continental stock that tends to be richer and sticks to the basics (mirepoix, etc.).

Spain and France in our local Borders. One fewer of each in stock, actually.

Boy, did I get an earful about Bluecoat when I visited Portland recently. Jeffrey Morgenthaler in particular was horrified when I told him about the Viggo I've been playing around with. "Here," he said, tossing a book at me. "Read what Paul Pacult says about Bluecoat." From his Kindred Spirits 2: A review that would make Lester Bangs blush.

Following Nick, just put in two skin-on belly strips (~1 lb each) that I rubbed with some shaoxing, dark soy sauce, sugar, julienned ginger, and white pepper. I'll revisit on Th.

Speaking of which (CAF and Martinezes), I'm enjoying the first of many, many Martinezes this summer thanks to a kind gift of CAF. Luxardo maraschino and Boker's bitters. No garnish. Yum.

Makes sense. I wasn't sure if there are effects of freezing that should be taken into account with low temp cooking. Thanks.

That's the rub with grilling, I think, balancing off the char with the other flavors. It's probably why I use rubs more than marinades, too: no need to fantasize about the interior of the meat getting much flavor, so focus on appropriate doneness instead.

A paring knife is close to indispensable if you make yourself a cocktail every night. You can do most things with other equipment -- halve the fruit with a chef's knife, flick out the seeds with something pointy and easy to handle, peel the rind with a vegetable peeler, trim it into shape... -- but only a paring knife can do all of them easily.

I think I want to give this a go as I have a very good pork belly source here. How did you season them, Nick? And did you keep the skin on them?

A slightly contrarian position prefaced by a question. CKatCook, what happens when you eat something that's past your point of tolerance? Is it wildly unpleasant? I ask because my turning point (after years of uber-bland Yankee food) was eating something with habaneros in it back in college. I had no idea it was going to be THAT HOT, of course, but the fruity complexity of it was what brought me back to chiles after my forehead stopped bleeding. So why not just try to blow right by your base and see what happens?

We are approaching full-on pickle season, and I've got my training wheels off. Made oi kimchi and simple daikon pickles from David Chang's Momofuku Cookbook and Sichuan long beans from Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty yesterday. Surely I'm not alone in anticipating the pickling frenzy north of the hemisphere....

Mushrooms provide that umami boost, too. As does a pinch of MSG. Just sayin'.

Diving in here: Depends on thickness of the burger or whatever, see Douglas Baldwins's table 5.8 Baldwin notes that this is for "thawed meat." Are the times identical for meat that's never been frozen?

jk1002, I've read both the Baldwin and the Arnold/Noren Cooking Issues posts several times, and I decided to put my faith in the CI guys. Ended up with 55C for two hours and 56C for the last hour. A tiny bit overcooked, so next time I'll keep it at 55C and reduce the time some. And we're all still breathing. But back to the topic at hand. I thought that the SVS performed admirably. Following my usual practice, I ignored the booklet and instructional DVD and just started poking buttons and filling up the chamber. As noted, it took 30m for cool tap water to get to 55C. When I put in the steaks, dropping the temp to 54C, I realized I had to add more warm water to get to the top of the porterhouse bag, dropping the temp further to 52C. It quickly got back to 55C and held there. All IR thermometer readings confirmed the temps throughout the interior of the chamber. The unit was a bit warm on the top and sides, but less so than I would have expected. (By the end of the night, long after it was unplugged, the reservoir was still quite warm, suggesting excellent insulation.) It was about as easy to use as one could imagine, frankly; the biggest challenge was avoiding puncturing the FoodSaver bags with the sharp porterhouse bone. When I removed them from the bath, I finished them on a superhot charcoal grill at about a minute per side. I took photographs but there's not much to see, and it doesn't really pertain to the SVS's performance. But, all at the table agreed: best steak ever.

Andie, thanks for the mag strip gadget idea. It may well help with a few of the items. Any other ideas? Dan, I'll try to remember to measure tonight. However, we're thinking more and more that we're going to grab something like this Cadco convection oven.

Nick, do you find that the marinade actually penetrates the flesh at all?

I've also been fastidious lately about washing off blood, organs, and whatever else processing left on the bird. Not sure how that effects quality, but I note fewer off-flavors than I used to have. This is especially true for chicken feet, which I sometimes even blanch in some water in the microwave before adding them. What role are vegetables and aromatics playing in people's stock making? I definitely don't have a keen enough system for measuring and/or timing them....

Eyeball bubbling these days. One every three or four seconds. A lazy, drunken simmer.

I found that I was overrelying on backs, wings, bones, carcasses, and other non-meaty components. When I need stock now, I usually poach two chickens just until they're done, reserve the meat for salad or something, and then use that stock as the base for one that includes the scraps I've saved. I'm also a bit fanatical about keeping the temperature very low.

You think bumping it up to 56C for the last hour will matter? ETA: Even the SVS folks think 56C for 2-4 hours is good for medium rare. They're only 3 cm thick.

Two steaks: a NY strip and a porterhouse. Fish down the road. A few minutes ago I took some IR thermometer readings throughout the interior of the SVS, and they matched the LED readout within +/- 0.2C. That's pretty impressive. Just beeped at me: 30 min to get the full bath up to 55.2C. Steaks going in for 3h.