Chris Amirault

Raspberry vinegars or shrubs.

Yeah, I've never understood that product....

If you've got a sous vide set-up on the counter, it's no effort at all: set the temp, lower the eggs, get 'em later. Not that the stovetop method is hard work, but the difficulty of SV is often overstated.

I suppose if you watch an inebriated Mark Zuckerman invent Facebook with a long series of beers in one hand enough times, the company as hackathon idea sounds pretty good.

I'd guess conditionally true. You'll encounter a point of diminishing return around the maximum vacuum the pump will draw. According to the manual, for this machine the maximum vacuum is 90 percent. I don't have this sealer to test that. Thanks. I think that one comment I've been reading around the various websites is that the VP112 is set to timeout after 35 seconds. I don't know what happens if you extend that; perhaps it can exceed 90%. I suppose I will be able to find out soon...

Thanks! Any particular kinds of rice that you like in this dish?

Somewhere up-topic Nathan said that there are no current plans to sell them as individual volumes. Frustrating though that may sound, it would not compare to the frustration you'd feel if you had only one and tried to dive in! The entire set is so thoroughly cross-referenced that I regularly have at least two, and usually three, volumes open at any given time.

Yeah, I read that and now can't find it. FWIW, the Modernist Cuisine book talks about the Cooking Issues claim that it's about pressure on the meat as a whole, but they believe that it's about bringing the surface of the food to the boiling point bc of the pressure. IIRC here with insufficient caffeine and no MC to which I can refer.

Darienne, can we get a shot of those pails? I've always been hesitant to do this with the ZojiRushi I've got. Not a problem for you? Can you share the recipe?

So, watching that video a few times, it seems that the vacuum gets to about -68 or -70 cmHg on the vacuum gauge when he seals up the cheese. That corresponds to a ~90% vacuum. So, a True or False question: on these type of machines, if you want a higher vacuum percentage, you set the timer for the vacuum longer. It just continues to pump and lower the pressure. Yes? No?

Yeah, you're just pumping gas out of things that have gas in 'em. It's like trying to save a bottle of champagne by pumping it with one of those vacuum sealers: you're hastening, not slowing, the ruination of the bubbly! I wanted to share the video of the VacMaster VP112 from Kodiak Health, which was helpful to me:

Pot pies sound perfect. We have some frozen vegetables in there that would be good to use up too. I rarely make pilaf, but that sounds like a perfect school lunch dish for the rice-lovin' six year old.

What do you think the reward is in the office pool for the first person who hacks that iPad app?

Time & temp?

Bloomberg is reporting that drinking at work is making a big comeback, especially in Silicon Valley. Apparently Yelp and Twitter are leading the charge: "We're all adults here," said one person standing in the line at the keg.

A couple of interesting points. The boiling point of water changes, of course, with changes in pressure. That can mean trouble: putting a warm liquid at around 40C/100F into a chamber sealer and pulling a 95% vacuum will make the liquid boil. MC recommends, therefore, that you cool your liquids down before chamber sealing them at the recommended 95% vacuum. For food in bags (non-rigid containers, that is) all of these data points apply only to the period during which the bagged food is in the chamber. Once the chamber is released, the food in the bag is under 14.7 psi, or atmospheric pressure. At least, here in the Ocean State.

In preparation for the arrival of this chamber sealer, I decided I wanted to learn a bit more about pressure, vacuums, and the different ways that those values are measured. In the Modernist Cuisine book, there's a chart on 2:215 called "How a Vacuum is Like a Mountain," and it includes a lot of useful information in vacuum percentages, water boiling points, and mbar and psi measurements of pressure. There's more information inside the text preceding that chart as well. But when I looked at the user's manual for the VP112, I realized that I had to think through an additional issue: cmHg, or centimeters of mercury (at 0ºC, if you were wondering). That required two additional columns: one for the pressure in cmHg -- atmospheric pressure at sea level is, for example, 76 cmHg -- and another for the reading of the VP112 dial, which is zeroed at atmospheric pressure. So, to be able to read the dial, which goes from 0 cmHg to -76 cmHg, I wanted to have a reversed column that corresponded to the dial readings. That's the cmHg-76 column. This may be merely an obsessive exercise useful only for me (I think I figured out a thing or two in doing it!), but I offer it here in case it's also useful to others. Comments below the chart. <html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"/><meta name='lsq' content='154'/><meta name='trixrows' content='96'/><meta name='trixr1' content='0'/><meta name='trixr2' content='16'/><meta name='trixdiv' content='20'/><meta name='trixcnt' content='1'/><meta name='trixlast' content='16'/><link rel=stylesheet href="/client/css/598663115-tiler_view-ssl.css" type="text/css"><style>html {overflow:visible};</style><style>.tblGenFixed td {padding:0 3px;overflow:hidden;white-space:normal;letter-spacing:0;word-spacing:0;background-color:#fff;z-index:1;border-top:0px none;border-center:0px none;border-bottom:1px solid #CCC;border-center:1px solid #CCC;} .dn {display:none} .tblGenFixed td.s0 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#CCC;border-center:;border-bottom:;} .tblGenFixed td.s3 {background-color:white;font-family:arial,sans,sans-serif;font-size:100.0%;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;color:#000000;text-decoration:none;text-align:center;vertical-align:bottom;white-space:normal;overflow:hidden;text-indent:0px;padding-center:3px;border-center:;border-bottom:;} .tblGenFixed td.s4 {background-color:white;font-family:arial,sans,sans-serif;font-size:100.0%;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;color:#000000;text-decoration:none;text-align:center;vertical-align:bottom;white-space:normal;overflow:hidden;text-indent:0px;padding-center:3px;border-center:;border-bottom:;border-center:1px solid #CCC;} </style></head><body style='border:0px;margin:0px'><table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 id='tblMain'><tr><td><table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 class='tblGenFixed' id='tblMain_0'><tr class='rShim'><td class='rShim' style='width:180px;'><td class='rShim' style='width:80px;'><td class='rShim' style='width:80px;'><td class='rShim' style='width:80px;'><td class='rShim' style='width:80px;'><td class='rShim' style='width:80px;'><td class='rShim' style='width:80px;'><td class='rShim' style='width:80px;'><tr><td class='s0'>vacuum percentage<td class='s1'>mbar<td class='s1'>psi<td class='s1'>cmHg<td class='s1'>cmHg-76<td class='s1'>H2O BP ºC<td class='s1'>H2O BP ºF</tr><tr><td class='s2'>sea level/0%<td class='s3'>1013<td class='s3'>14.7<td class='s3'>76<td class='s3'>0<td class='s3'>100<td class='s3'>212</tr><tr><td class='s4'>31%<td class='s3'>701<td class='s3'>10.2<td class='s3'>52.7<td class='s3'>-23.3<td class='s3'>90<td class='s3'>194</tr><tr><td class='s4'>53.3%<td class='s3'>474<td class='s3'>6.9<td class='s3'>35.7<td class='s3'>-40.3<td class='s3'>80<td class='s3'>176</tr><tr><td class='s4'>69.2%<td class='s3'>312<td class='s3'>4.5<td class='s3'>23.3<td class='s3'>-52.7<td class='s3'>70<td class='s3'>158</tr><tr><td class='s4'>80.3%<td class='s3'>199<td class='s3'>2.9<td class='s3'>15<td class='s3'>-61<td class='s3'>60<td class='s3'>140</tr><tr><td class='s4'>87.8%<td class='s3'>123<td class='s3'>1.8<td class='s3'>9.3<td class='s3'>-66.7<td class='s3'>50<td class='s3'>122</tr><tr><td class='s4'>92.6%<td class='s3'>74<td class='s3'>1.1<td class='s3'>5.7<td class='s3'>-70.3<td class='s3'>40<td class='s3'>104</tr><tr><td class='s2'>cool liquids/95%<td class='s3'>50<td class='s3'>0.7<td class='s3'>3.6<td class='s3'>-72.4<td ><td ></tr><tr><td class='s4'>95.8%<td class='s3'>42<td class='s3'>0.61<td class='s3'>3.2<td class='s3'>-72.8<td class='s3'>30<td class='s3'>86</tr><tr><td class='s4'>97.4%<td class='s3'>23<td class='s3'>0.33<td class='s3'>1.7<td class='s3'>-74.3<td class='s3'>20<td class='s3'>68</tr><tr><td class='s4'>98%<td class='s3'>17<td class='s3'>0.25<td ><td ><td class='s3'>15<td class='s3'>59</tr><tr><td class='s4'>98.8%<td class='s3'>12<td class='s3'>0.17<td ><td ><td class='s3'>10<td class='s3'>50</tr><tr><td class='s4'>99.2%<td class='s3'>9<td class='s3'>0.13<td ><td ><td class='s3'>5<td class='s3'>41</tr><tr><td class='s4'>99.4%<td class='s3'>6<td class='s3'>0.09<td ><td ><td class='s3'>0<td class='s3'>32</tr><tr><td class='s4'>99.9%<td class='s3'>1<td class='s3'>0.01<td ><td ><td ><td ></tr></table></table></body></html>

Sure. Me, I'm just trying to use up stuff. Tonight, for example, we made fajitas with some frozen tortilla balls and smoked monterey jack that were in the freezer, but I bought cilantro, tri-tip steak, etc.

Another, more successful update. After trying to figure out options at both Kodiak Health and Pleasant Hill Grain, I talked to Conrad at Homestead Harvest. Here's their link to the VP112. He very kindly informed me that (1) they have 4-5 in stock, and (2) sure, he'd be happy to knock $25 off the price, bringing it to $650 with free shipping. So, I placed the order with Conrad and said no thanks to Kodiak Health and Pleasant Hill Grain. I also assured Conrad that Society members would probably scoop up those remaining units PDQ. Should be here Monday or Tuesday of next week.

A particularly well-written and humorous excerpt on the food safety and hygiene angle that has taken some heat:

Seriously, I think I have like ten gallons of the stuff.

Does Noma recommend brands or types?

And then, after a while, get fired.

I need to come up with some new ideas for chicken stock. Feel free to throw them at me willy-nilly.

I think that Subway's genius is precisely this updated "have it your way" -- and watch while it happens -- experience.