pounce

Maybe the mixture was whipped too much before it was frozen? That's a pretty impressive machine. Does the amount of mix in the machine make a difference? I wonder if you made a small batch when you should have had more in the machine. It's only a guess, really. I'm coveting your ice cream maker.

You can search in the thread using the box a the lower left. I found one Post discussing the use of the wrap, but there may be more with different search terms.

I've done the potato starch retrograde treatment sous vide. It does make for some good mashed. I have not done 3 hours and then steamed though. It might work. What size chunks would you want your taters for steaming? See Jackal10's Potato Primer for some good info.

I hadn't had any for maybe 15 years until a few months ago. It was definately a nostalgic experience. I eat it with lots and lots of fresh cracked black pepper and make it with butter and a little milk. I think I can still see a little orange powder on the stove. Some show on the food network had a segment of a guy that has collected mac n cheese boxes from all over the world. It was funny to see they are all about the same shape.

I mentioned Sears, but not for $100. Their cooktop is reasonable. But that's more like $1800 Black Kenmore Elite 30 in. Electric Induction Cooktop

Yea, what he said. I've been looking at getting a standard size induction cooktop. There just are not that many options in the states at the moment. Sears has one at a decent price, but all the others are fairly expensive still. I'm waiting for more stylish choices, but will buy one eventually. I think in about 15 years a large amount of ranges in the states will be induction. They appear to be safer and more efficient than the other choices. I'd like to see some consumer choices with a mix of burners. 2 gas and 4 induction burners would sell me.

I saw that. I really hated that guy the first time I saw him, but now I like him. He really grew on me. That shot in his kitchen was cool. I like how he just hacked into the meat on the counter and handed some to his dog. That's real TV.

hmm. I think you can do this: Look at the back of your machine and get the wattage. Let's say it's 1000. Now get your electric bill and find the KWH rate. Count the number of hours you think you ran your machine and multiply them together. Say your rate is high and it's .10 and you ran your machine 10 hours a day every day. That's 300 X .10 or $30. For simplicity I used a 1000 watt number. If your machine is 1500 or the like just multiply the wattage and hours and divide by 1000 to get the KWH and then multiply by the KWH cost. If you can't find the KWH cost on your bill just divide the total by the KWH's. Do I pass or flunk math?

I thought that flaming the pan in the kitchen was more of a safety thing. Sort of a controlled burn instead of having the pan burst into flames when you aren't looking. I think if you pour alcohol into a dish and then light it you are only going to burn off maybe 20% of the alcohol at the most before the flame goes out. Even less if there is a lot of liquid in the dish. You would have to simmer the dish over time to get more alcohol out. I seriously doubt any more alcohol is escaping the dish due to the flame. I think that table service of flaming food is fun esp. in large groups or large dining rooms if done with class. Theatrics are important. I've seen a fair amount of this done badly. Nothing kills the moment like a bored or annoyed looking server going through the motions.

Cool. I was thinking much the same lines. Same element for heat. Though I thought I would just have the element in the tank instead of inline. I was going to use a fish tank pump for the recirculation, but I was going to have one that just hung over the side without plumbing. I guess you could have some plumbing. To help regulate the temperature to a tighter degree I thought to have a closed loop cold water line coiled through the tank. This way the heater is working against something lowering the temp slightly. For control I was going to hack a digital kitchen thermometer. You can get ones that have an alarm when they reach a certain temp. I small hack to the little speaker would allow me to shut off the heat. This gave me a digital display as well. I think the larger the tank the better for temp regulation. I was looking at ice chests at walmart. Pretty cheap.

It can be done. You can get a 'controller', heater, insulated vessel and method of circulation under $80. This follow up statement about UL approval cannot be done. I think we should split this challenge off the thread. I think it's a great idea to build something cheap that can be open sourced to the users. For 99% of sous vide cooking you don't need lab quality equipment.

hmm. I took 4 as just being able to hold the temp. In general I don't think it's hard to set a temp like 55.8 and hold it within 2 degrees for 3 hours. Of course you will need to be off by more than 2 degrees when ramping up the temp. I believe the poster set the award at $500. I also do not see where he limited it to one award Looks like he's accepting all submissions. LOL.

Like everyone else, if this item is dropped with item 4 being the most important I'll take the challenge. I don't think 2 is that important.

Take a look at a recent thread from someone with your same or similar take on sous vide. Sous Vide..., What's the appeal?

I'm not sure if this is posted somewhere else, but I found a link to the recipe and process for Chef Ferrán Adriá's Apple Caviar It includes video of the process...COOL!!

A megnestir is sort of a plate that you put a vessel on. When you turn it on the plat moves in circles to sort of "stir" the contents of the vessel through centrifugal force. You don't really want one of these for sous vide. A stirring water bath can be the same as a circulating water bath. Basically you want the unit to recirculate water in the tank. The difference may be inthe method of circulating the water. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. If you are looking to buy something on ebay or the like and don't want to draw attention you can pm me. Id be happy to take a look for you.

jsolomon, if you want to do experiments for the group and the only thing limiting you is water bath and vacuum equipment I'd be more than willing to help. Where are you located? If you are near Chicago I could lend you my setup for a week or two. If you are located somewhere else maybe a few of us can get together and fund some experiements by donating a circ bath or the like. BTW: GSE concentrate is also very acidic. I think something like 2.2. When I washed my salad and produce with this stuff in India I would let it soak in a bowl for maybe 15 minutes. I'd use maybe a half teaspoon to a quart of water. Not sure if it was truely helping, but as you pointed out just washing things goes a long way. I'm really curious about picking things up from dried spices. I know that some US spice companies use fumagation and irridiation on spices, but imported spices ...who knows. I'm interested in seeing what a person could find on spices that wouldn't be killed during the cooking process. Applogies to BryanZ for taking your thread off course a bit. Maybe we can split off some posts into a new thread on Sous Vide food safety considerations?

I've used Citricidal ( aka Grapefruit Seed extract) for washing chicken, seafood and produce from organic sources. When I was backpacking through India in the early 90's I washed my salad with it all the time. In some parts of the world they use black fertilizer (human sourced) on their crops. I did really well until I forgot once and picked up some Entamoeba Histolytica. I'd imagine that spices could carry some evil bugs. These come from all over the world and are not steralized. They are grown with unknown surroundings and dried in the open air. Maybe it is a good idea steralize spices before they go low and slow. hmm. BryanZ, Thanks for sharing your experiments and photo's.

I started out making yogurt in my oven by placing a 60w lightbulb on a dimmer cord inside and adjusting the dimmer to keep a constant 109 degree temp. I'd put the mixture in mason jars and set them in a pan of water inside the oven. The water helped keep the temp constant. I now use my recirculating waterbath (used for sous vide) to keep the temp at 109. I'm pretty careful will getting the temps on everything with a digital probe. The waterbath makes things really easy. Like fannus I put a lot of dried milk in the mix. 1-2 cups a gallon. I like my yogurt firm but not too tangy so I let it go about 5 hours. I use Brown Cow brand for a starter. As a sweetener I've recently discovered Agave nector/syrup. It has a really nice flavor. I'm using a light nector, but would like to try some dark if I can find it. The glycemic index is also low for those watching that kind of thing.

Umm, uhh, ahh, you can't electrocute something that's dead. Source: Dictionary.comThere are methods of using electricity to tenderize meat. I am not sure how widespread it is. When I read a couple of papers about it, it seemed like it was something aimed at lesser grades of beef. ← Words are always getting in my way I should have said electrical stimulation. You may be right about the lesser grades.

I was reading about aging meat a couple of months ago and read that some processing companies use electrocution (after slaughter) to tenderize the carcass. Anyone know how wide spread this might be? I'm just wondering how you might tell what kind of processing your meat had before it arrived at the butcher.

I'm sorry that this is not to your question, but CLEAN that water bath until you think you could lick cake batter off of it...then clean it again twice. We want to hear about how the ribs went

I saw Alton Brown demonstrating how to create your own liquid smoke by inverting a large metal bowl over another bowl of smoking wood. He put ice on top of the inverted bowl to create condensation on the inside. The moist smoke condenses on the inside of the bowl and run down into a catch. Pretty cool. I'd imagine that if you put some oil in a small bowl in a smoker of sorts and kept stirring it you would get a fair amount of smoke flavor in the oil..but it would be nice and subtle. I use powdered smoke from The Spice House for cooking, but haven't used it in sous vide. I'd be careful in using normal liquid smoke in the bag. A little would go a long way I'm sure.

Hey don't quit now. Actually, I can't think of a cut that would not benefit in one way or another. Can you be more specific? A kobe steak can benefit for instance by allowing one to cook at a temp suitable for it's fat melting point. You can keep the cut rare, but still convert the collegen. I haven't tried this myself. Do they charge more for the method? I'm curious about this. Maybe someone who works in a place that serves sous vide can enlighten us on the cost aspect.

Yes, true, but no vacuum. You then need to consider the practical preparation benifits of sous vide that allow this low and slow method to be used in restaurants with some efficiency. A vat of vacuum bags at 140 is easier to implement than 100 burners running low or an oven filled with crocks.