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I posted this in the sous vide recipe thread, but I found using a steam table pan works well for a vessel. I keep the bag positioned in the water with metal clasps from office depot that have a big magnet on them. I clip the bag and stick to to the side or bottom of the pan.

Nope. I use mason jars and just screw the lids on so they barely seal so they can 'out gas' during incubation. When I take them out I unscrew them a bit to let any pressure out then screw them down tight while they are still warm. I then put them in the sink with icewater. After a while the jar lids will pop and create a good seal. They seem to keep a long time, but not sure how long since I eat them . I was doing yogurt in an electric oven using a light bulb on the end of a dimmer equiped extension cord. I'd put all the jars in a duch oven and fill it with water and then measure the water temp and adjust the dimmer on the light bulb to get the right oven temp. I'd get it right on 109, but it was kind of an ordeal. The water bath solves everything. Watch the agitiation of the pump. You want to keep the jars still if you like solid yogurt. If you like it smooth then the slight agitation is fine. Mine has a lot of force so I had to adjust it down. Sorry if this is getting off the topic, but it's nice to know the equipment investment has multiple uses. When I bought mine it came with a small tank, but I have it mounted temporarily on a full size 6" deep steam table pan. I'm going to get one of those hinged lids for the steam pan and cut a hole in one side and mount the unit. When I have a vacuum bag in the pan I have these metal clips from office depot that have big magnets on them. I clip the bag and stick it to the side or the bottom so it doesn't float around.

I've found that mixing sugar and liquid and chilling can the mix viscous enough to work with in the foodsaver. When I'm sealing things I put the liquids in first. I lay the bag on the counter in front of the FS and slide the bulk into the bag to act as a dam of sorts. I manually press most of the air out of the bag then seal the bag keeping an eye on the liquid. My machine has an instant seal button you can push to seal the bag immediately if you think it's sucking up the liquid. After the seal I squish things around in the bag. I've also cooked in the small mason jars. I have a jar sealer attachment for the FS that fits on regular canning jars. When I've done this I've put things in the jar warm. On the topic of converting starches to sugars (with heat) I'm now thinking about some plantains and barley malt for the enzymes (diastase) and a temperature of about 125F. This is following some concepts from brewing to convert starches to sugars. Yes, because it seems like a ridiculous thing to be doing I'm even more interested...taste and texture will have to come later I have to wonder how much enzymatic action is effecting things in sous vide cooking in general. Most enzymes die above 130F, but some go to 170F. In foods or mixtures that contain some amount of active enzymes a low and slow approach could have an effect of "predigesting the food in vitro" thus effecting texture and flavor. As a side note I found another great use for my circ bath.. making yogurt. I use cup of the Brown Cow brand yogurt as a starter and then let the circ bath hold 109F. I can make a dozen large jars at once. Pretty cool. I've been experimenting with frozen yogurts so making my own yogurt has helped get the right tartness and texture.

From loiosh's post above: "You can buy cheez powder from the King Arthur Flour catalog." A link is included............ ← The link was broken. Here is is without a sessionid Vermont Cheese Powder Note that the product is showing backordered until 9/30/2005. You can find plenty of other products though. http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=Cheese+Powder

Samual, thanks for the information. That makes sense. I must have misunderstood some of the things I was reading regarding starches, sugars and heat. I was thinking of adding sugar etc to the bag and wanted to understand how tings might shift over time. Having fun experimenting with my new circ bath

Great thread! I discovered Cannele's in San Francisco at Boulange De Cole Valley about 4 years ago and set off trying to create my own. I haven't tried the copper cups because I didn't find them locally. I used some of the silicon pans from WS that I found on sale online for under $10. When I got them I found that the forms were much smaller than I had hoped. I tried recipe's that I found online through a lot of searching. There didn't seem to be much available when I was looking. I had found something on usenet for the mid 90's. I think I tried 3 or 4 times before I got anything resembling my first Cannele. They either didn't get cooked long enough and totally collapsed coming out of the forms or I added too much butter and they were strangely flaky on the outside. Here is a picture I took with my phone of the first near success. After I got one batch somewhat right (and consumed them all myself ) I tried a batch with reduced sugar for a French diabetic friend. Being that it was the first time I tried to use splenda in anything baked they turned out a little funny. Completely edible, but a lot more cakelike and less spongy pudding. Now that I've seen this thread I'm going to try the wax trick and possibly get some copper cups. Cool!

I'm looking at trying some plantains sous vide. Does anyone know or have a professional educated guess as to what termperature the starches in plantains will turn to sugar. Does anyone have any recommendations on temp/time for plantains sous vide?

I might suggest looking at doing a corn meal based crust or maybe just corn tortillas as crust for the possible coeliac. I've seen kosher gluten free pizza crust mixes, but not sure what they put in them. I'm sure google will turn up lots of cornmeal crust recipes.

I just went though the process of trying to figure out which way to go on heater equipment. I researched using a slow cooker first because I have two Cuisinart slow cookers to work with. These units only have warm, low and high settings which don't give a lot of control so I looked at integrating an external thermostat. After looking at a number of solutions I determined that the Ranco ETC thermostat was the best solution. These units can control both heating and cooling equipment and have a range of -30 to 220F. The unit can control to a 1 degree fluctuation. These units come in a few different configurations so if you look for one make sure it's a 110 or 220 version and not 24v. What I was going to do was to plug the slow cooker into this unit and then run the probe through one of the handle holes in the slow cooker lid into the liquid. I'd program the unit for the temperature and then let the Ranco unit switch the slow cooker on and off in order to keep the precise temp. I got so far as to find some of the Ranco units on ebay and various other places on the net. They generally go for about $75 usd shipped. I really liked the idea of using one of these units because they are small and can be used for a lot more than just sous vide. You could actually use one of these on a fridge or freezer to get full control over the temp settings. Anyway, in the end I succumbed to the overwhelming promise of power that an industrial strength computer operated recirculating water bath offers and bought a once $2500 lab machine on ebay for ~200. I'm a software engineer (geek) so the thought of having programmatic control of the whole process made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I do think though that a thermostat controlled slow cooker/electric skillet/electric burner etc etc would work very well for most people. If a person really wanted the recircualting water effect to reduce hot spots you could even add a little aquarium style recirculating pump unit for about $10-$15 at a pet supply store just to keep the water moving.

Peanut butter and marshmallow fluff on white bread.

I recently purchased the KA pro-line processor and really like it. You get 3 bowls. The main chef's bowl (16 cup), a second large work bowl that fit's inside the large bowl when opperating and then the mini prep bowl (4.5 cup). The large size is overkill for my needs, but it sure is sexy. Very solid. The price is high, but a combination of an Amazon sale and a KA 20% sale that enended in May put me over the edge. I ended up with a few other pro-line appliances due to the sale. I couldn't be happier with them. Having matching counter appliances is a cushy luxury I'll be reminded of every month when the payments are due

This is my first post on this board. I've been reading a lot of the threads and want to contribute my experiences with my new Cuisinart Ice Cream maker. I wanted to get one of the automatic machines, but settled for a prefreeze model due to cost restrictions and the fact that I thought I would make too much ice cream with an automatic. I've always loved making ice cream. My first memory of making ice cream was actually making 'snow ice cream' from freshly fallen snow, cream, sugar and a splash of vanilla. I'd mix this up in the largest mixing bowl I could find and in one sitting try to consume the whole batch before it turned into slush...mmmm. For many years I was living in California and hadn't seen the snow. I just moved to Chicago and most people are going out of their way to tell me I will learn to hate the snow. I don't know. I may not be making snow ice cream out of what falls downtown, but I'll be thinking about it It's strange I never worked in an ice cream store as a kid really. My sisters first job was at Baskin and Robins and then in college worked at DanKens (small gourmet ice cream shop in Seattle) with the founders. At Dankens I got to watch my sister make batches in a 10 gallon machine in the window of the store. Cool. Being the kind of person that likes to read the directions only after failing to put something together with common sense I've concocted my own recipes for ice creams. I prefer ice milks or Gelato's over than super creamy or heavy ice creams (often making myself an outcast when it comes to a group buying decision at the market) so I use at most 1/2 and 1/2 in my mixes. One of my current inventions is "Thai Iced Tea" gelato. When I was living in San Francisco there was a Thai/Asian grocery store down the street so I am stocked up on the 'official' tea mixture for Thai Iced Tea. If you buy this stuff be careful with it. Treat is like you were working with Black ink over white silk. This stuff stains anything. I'm not sure what's in it or even if it's safe for human consumption since it came in a big clear bag with no label, but it tastes the part. I make what appears to be a basic gelato base (now that I have read some recipes). I sweeten this about 20% more than a normal gelato to give it that authentic over sweetness of the iced tea. After I heat up the milk I dump about 4 tablespoons of the tea mixture into a French press and poor in about a cup and a half of the hot milk. I let this steep maybe 10 minutes while I mix up the yolks and sugar. I put everything back on the stove and finish, then into the fridge. The next day (usually before running off to work) I put the mixture in the machine for about 30 minutes or until thick enough that the blades are leaving voids while spinning. I then transfer this to a Pyrex cake pan that I've chilled in the freezer, smooth and cover with wrap and return to the freezer. Now, this product is good as it is, but I've been playing with a second layer to get the look of the Thai Iced Tea in my ice cream. At the moment I've tried simply taking sweetened condensed milk and 1/2 and 1/2 and putting it right into the machine. This layered on top of the other mixture and then 'sliced' into bowls for serving is really nice. The look is like Thai Iced Tea and sample has the basic milky flavor of the cream with the tea flavor reaching around and poking your tongue. I'm still perfecting the mix though. My next try will be without egg yolks. I'd like to brighten up the tea flavor a little more and I think the yolks are too heavy. Maybe someone has a suggestion? For the cream layer I might try a simple less sweet cream mixture that is a little more creamy. I'll take some pictures after I make a fresh batch and post them. My most basic attempt so far is Sorghum 'ice cream', but it's maybe my favorite. 3.5 cups 1/2 and 1/2, 1 cup dry milk powder, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup real sorghum. It's all mixed without cooking and tossed into the maker. Some people might not like the texture as it's not creamy creamy, but I really like the effect is has in the mouth. Yum. Reminds me of my grandmother making sorghum cookies. I've also taken the sorghum mixture and during the last bit of the freeze added a mixture of spiced rum and raisins that have stewed overnight. The best rum raisin I've ever had. The raisins rehydrated in Rum give a nice kick. Anyway, I hope people find this interesting. If anyone has any tips or suggestions for the newbie I'm all ears..er eyes