Mallet

I was always told that as eggs rot, they release gasses which get trapped in the egg. Rotten eggs are full of gasses (incl. some sulphurous compounds), which is why they float. It's a bit less benign than evaporation. Unfortunately, not all farmer's market eggs have packing dates, which can make things difficult. Can you simply ask the farmer how old his/her eggs are?

Behold! The stovetop modification thread.

We made a 5X recipe, so about 8 hours (including all prep, cooking, stuffing, individual wrapping for the freezer, cleaning etc...). Relative to other sausages, stuffing was pretty intensive. One would be well advised to use the widest mouthed funnel practicable, we spent a fair amount of time just trying to cram all the stray bits of diced fat in the casings. Also, it's very important for the funnel to be quite high above the working space in order for the initial length of casing to be vertical (this prevents air bubbles).

Thought I'd add some boudin pictures (not much of the process itself, my hands were tied ). I was definitely glad to be doing this with someone else! stuffed tied up poached and ready to freeze

Seems like Hamilton Beach might have the makings of an affordable consumer-level sous vide setup if they subbed a PID for the thermostat on their units ...

I just can't stand the waste involved with using gloves properly in a food safety context. When I worked in a molecular biology lab (slightly different, granted) we would burn through 500 glove boxes in no time. If you're really anal you end up changing gloves every 5 min or so (Need to season your meat? new gloves. Non gloved finger accidentally touched the cutting board? new gloves). Slightly OT, but do you folks distinguish between vegetables cooked with the meat and vegetables served on the side (would you change your gloves to cut the onions that go into the stock pot/roasting pan with your meat?)

Welcome to eGullet, Douglas! This is exactly the sort of information I've been looking for.

I think the espresso litterature would be the most helpful to you, since those modifications involve replacing the built-in thermostat with a PID. I'm guessing the basic principle is the same.

Random (and potentially wrong/useless) thought: if you seal a package without applying a vacuum then put it in a chamber-type machine, would the internal contents try to expand? Assuming your bag doesn't explode, this might provide some interesting textures or grounds for further experiments.

Cool ideas! Just a thought on the light idea: I think the SSR already has an LED on it which blinks on and off according to the PID's instructions. It might then just be a matter of making the SSR visible.

I don't think the second or third concerns are much of an issue: 1) the PID controller takes care of maintaining the constant temperature, and takes into account the relevant variables (latency, output of heater etc..) 2) to the best of my knowledge the dial on the hotplate (or range element) remains functional after modification and can be used to set the maximum output of the unit. Once desired temp is reached, simply dial down: if the control fails you might get a slow simmer but it shouldn't be catastrophic (especially if the vessel you're using has a lid). Lab hotplates usually incorporate a magnetic stirrer, which could make for a cheap circulation system as well.

I don't see their claim about convection on the pdf, where was it? Lack of insulation might be an issue, but Pielle seems to operate his PIDed stovetop with minimal problems. I'd be curious to see some numbers on bath heterogeneity, as I'm currently trying to figure out the best compromise for a cheap(ish) water bath (leaning towards the stovetop mod).

Wouldn't PIDing a hotplate be more flexible? The pot size is unlimited, it takes up less counter space, and heating from the bottom should give you more convection.

One year later: how is the mod holding up? Any new insights, features you wished you incorporated?

Interesting reference, but see also this edited to add: this link Certainly not to say that raw milk is safer than pasteurized ( I haven't looked carefully enough at the evidence ), but I found the number of examples of outbreaks coming from pasteurized milk pretty surprising.

congratulations!

Dextrose should be easy to get from any homebrew store (bottling sugar). I envy you.

I don't wash anything..... ever.

They're not in danger NOW...but they were when the boycott by many top seafood chefs was in place. They've rebounded. ← Not to stray too far OT, but this report recommends avoiding Chilean Sea bass. I don't think I've ever had chinese seafood served to me, perhaps as a consequence of growing up on the East Coast, so boycotting won't be a problem .

Although to be fair the 2004 stuff was labelled 'closeout hops'. I notice that no harvest date is listed for the pellet hops (only whole hops), is this because pellet hops last longer?

These guys appear to have Kent Goldings (organic, no less ) available.

I payed about $50 for a 6 gallon batch, so it seems I'm paying significantly more. Here was the breakdown: $2.70/lb crystal and chocolate malt $5.90/lb dry malt extract $2.22/lb liquid malt extract $3.00/oz hops

I posted this in the BC forum, but it may be of general interest as well: abstract]

Another wrinkle in the farmed salmon story (the study was done using BC farms), which appeared in Science today: abstract]

Of course, checking on it twice a day can't help for contamination and humidity problems either