dougal

For the avoidance of doubt, Nathan, are you suggesting 'naked' or 'bagged' boiling? And doesn't this crop up again with comminuted meat products, where the 'outside' ends up inside?

Hmmm. You thought you were a massive 4°F above a critical threshold, and yet you are recording an insignificant 4°F difference within your bath. Even though we don't fully trust the actual temperatures reported by the 0.1F 'candy thermometer', if its showing a 3.9°F difference, then we can be pretty confident that there's at least that ~4°F variation with location in the bath. And that was presumably at a time when there were no bags to obstruct convection. With bags (especially while they are acting as a heat sink) there is likely to be MUCH more variation in temperature within the bath. I'm not visualising the location/mounting of your probe, but it sounds like it might be only 1/4" away from (and in indirect metal contact with) the heated base of your bath. However that might be, the better the circulation within the bath (and hence the less temperature variation), then the less the probe location should matter. And, I dare say, the better the circulation, the better the PID can do its control job - seeing more clearly, with less (and less variable) delay, the results of the heat gained and lost by the bath. Forced circulation within the bath (and a damn good old-fashioned stir from time to time, to rearrange the bags) can only help to ensure concordance between the temperature at the probe (wherever in the bath that might be) and the temperature of the water in contact with all sides of all of the bags. The pro kit uses 'circulators' -- they don't rely on gentle convection. Convection only happens because of temperature difference. Stir it up and keep the temperature difference within the bath as small as possible. Right now, it seems to be much bigger than your temperature measurement error ... Whether this is the cause of the strange results seen, I really don't know. But it does sound like one important barrier to predictable, consistently good results. Edit - oops, cross-posted with slkinsey, but we aren't saying absolutely exactly the same thing ...

While the Escali is $30, here in the expensive UK, the supermarket target price for a digital scale is £10 (say $15 or $16). What sort of publishing genius would think that there would be a steady demand for a book at $50 (each year) from people who had not already invested a tiny fraction of that for professionally essential equipment? While you are at it, are you planning to re-write the recipes so that they ONLY use items that can be expected to be available in every US supermarket?

It seems to be an important cultural barrier. Word games, levels of meaning, are greatly appreciated by the gallic punter. I suppose I first became aware of this with those remarkably advanced Citroen models the ID and DS. "It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma ..." as the great man said (although about something else). However, the puzzle-setters are often happy, if asked admiringly, to take the time to explain their cleverness!

Let me guess, would that 'demand' be from the book trade? I sincerely doubt that, even in the USA, there would be such a demand from the pro's who would be considering buying at this price level (several times the price of a digital scale).

Robert, you have previously posted about thermometer calibration, so I doubt that is the root problem. However, I don't recall you posting about the uniformity of temperature in your water bath, and what you might be doing to drive circulation. I don't doubt that the temperature at your probe is very close to 131F, but I wonder if that is what your meat is experiencing? Jackal10's advice about not starting by playing so close to the edge does seem wise.

OK, finally the results are in. Taking the same volume measure (a measuring spoon) ... 10 measures of Maldon weighed 91 grams 5 measures of fine grained, utterly ordinary, table salt weighed 111.5 grams (So, my guesstimate was close. Well, fairly close.) And 10 measures of my coarse (and somewhat hygroscopic) sel gris weighed 150 grams If the recipe calls for half a teaspoon of Maldon, and you sub a quarter teaspoon of table salt, your sub will still be using 22% more actual salt than the recipe expects. And substituting the same volume measure of a coarse grained salt in place of Maldon, could mean that you were increasing the salt content by over 50% compared to the original recipe. Maldon is very fluffy! And, weight-for-weight, expensive for salt, even in England; £1.86 (roughly $3) for 250g (just over half a pound). I am very confident that the accuracy of the scale used is rather better than 1 gram. I used multiple measures to average out variations between individual spoonfuls. So I feel the results are pretty credible - for the specific salts measured. Incidentally (and irrelevant to all the above) 10 measures of my 'standard 15 ml tablespoon' of water weighed 139 grams -- so its more like 13.9 ml in reality.

Just to clarify, Maldon is composed of THIN THIN THIN flakes of salt. I wouldn't call it "coarse", or suggest substituting a coarse (chunky) salt. [patriotic]It is of course quite unique.[/patriotic] I ought to make plain that I do absolutely agree with slkinsey that the 'point' of Maldon flakes is that you get each tiny amount of salt "all at once", whereas with chunky crystals, they take ages to dissolve and so produce a much longer sensation. Its a pretentious bit of conspicuous consumption to use Maldon flakes completely dissolved in water for cooking - for example boiled potatoes. But I'm afraid you will find that sort of thing in many published recipes! My suspicion is that the aim in this recipe would be small bursts of saltiness, (rather than hidden tooth breakers!) Hence my suggestion would be fleur du sel or a relatively fine salt as alternatives. As to quantity, volume measures - particularly of specific salt morphologies - are bloody awkward when you can't get that product. But I'm delighted that it should be an English product pointing this up to the US market! (Kosher salt and Diamond Crystal are unknown in these parts.) Maldon isn't dense at all. Its positively fluffy. So half a teaspoon of Maldon is (as a rough guesstimate) going to contain as much actual salt as maybe a quarter teaspoon of table salt. I don't have any Maldon on my shelf at the moment, but I'll get some today and do some weighing this evening.

The source for pectinase/pectolase (pectin-haze-removing-enzyme) would be a home winemaking supplies store. In the UK, it can be found in Wilkinson's supermarkets (one of the few high street winemaking supplies retailers). But such stuff is nowadays easier to find online. Wilkinsons: http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/invt/0022653 ~ $1 The alternative would be to use a flocculant (which I believe is the winemaking use of eggwhite, cold and very dilute). I suspect that some VERY dilute gum solution might speed up the dropping of the suspension. This seems likely to be what is happening with agar and gelatine. However, neither of these methods are 'instant'. The juices are likely to lose 'freshness'. Hence the interest in centrifuges...

Hygrostats (humidity controllers) tend to be rather expensive. (And need de/humidifying kit to control.) However, hygrometers (humidity meters) are much cheaper. But it is relatively rare to find an economical one with a humidity sensor that is not in-unit with the display. (So check the specs carefully!) Its good to be able to check the humidity (and temperature) without opening the door and disturbing those conditions! This is an advantage of a fridge with a glass door! I found a cheap humidity meter, with a probe on the end of a cable, that was intended for pet reptile terrariums! With a meter, you can be the controller! Which raises the question of how you adjust the humidity. If your fridge has a condensate drain (so that the chiller condensate leaves the chamber), then you can DE-humidify by putting a tiny heater in there (like a fridge lightbulb in a waterproof enclosure) and running it for a few minutes at a time (depending on your heater/fridge/fan/etc) ... the heat causes the fridge to run harder/more often, giving more condensation, which when drained away (or otherwise removed) reduces the moisture inside the fridge ... And of course you can raise the humidity by putting in a dish/tray of (unsalted) water ... the 'power' of that humidifier will depend on its surface area and the airflow over it. Or perhaps you could find a packaged humidifier and dehumidifier that would fit into your chamber - and budget! With a meter, you can see what humidity you actually have, and take (small) steps to adjust it. Expect the needs to change during the curing. If the humidity falls off, you could add some more new product! Tinker! Have fun! See what works for you and your chamber.

Did you spot the link for the downloadable PDF of the user guide? (Look down the right side of that page.) It says that there are 4 cooking elements and that "keep warm" (not for cooking) zone.

Make Merguez sausages with the smoked peppers?

Alas, we kept getting ambitous, so no the book is not close to publication yet. We are working away - there is a team of 6 people working full time on the book. I don't have a firm schedule yet, but will certainly post to the thread when we do. ← Nathan - I don't like to pose an obvious question, but what about the concept of publishing in multiple volumes? That would allow you to go deeper later, and incorporate ever newer information and recipes. My impression is that the project is expanding such that the redshift on the goalposts is appreciable! There's a considerable market (and surely not just right here) for a relatively limited book to authoritatively cover the basics. Let the other stuff wait for Volume 2 (and 3, and more!)

As per the comments above 'prosciutto' is just the Italian for ham. Crudo and Cotto are made by pretty radically different methods. One is not a 'version' of the other. Except that for premium (Italian-exported) products there might be a stricter adherence to the idea that 'ham' means thigh, ie upper rear leg, whereas 'ham' products can be from the shoulder, or even (whisper it gently) 're-formed' meat ... And some of those products illustrated on www.boarshead.com do look very very much like 're-formed' meat products. Most commercial (cooked) ham products have water added beyond what could be naturally picked up from soaking in a brine bath. Typically phosphate additives are used to hold that water in the meat. The water adds weight (and hence profit). Producers claim that consumers demand the "extra succulence" of added water. Personally, I'd rather not pay ham prices for water. But it does explain why you will commonly find "moist" products! Adding water is not quite the same as injecting cure ("pumping"). Its a matter of how much water/cure you inject, and whether you artificially fix it in the meat. Injecting cure is faster (and probably more reliable) than soaking the meat in cure. You can understand how time=cost and that most producers have to go for cost-efficiency. Injected doesn't automatically mean bad. But excessively "moist" whole-muscle product likely means injection with phosphates. Don't US regulations demand an ingredient declaration? (And a statement about the amount of added water?) Sweetness. Most Americans seem to like their products sweet. And cured pork (like ham and bacon) is no exception. I noticed from www.boarshead.com nutritional info pdf that some of their ham products can contain over 5% sugar ... So, in summary, I'm not really surprised that you find USA commercial hams "too sweet and moist". One solution is to make your own 'cotto'. Its pretty easy with an ordinary ('roasting') leg of pork from the butcher or even supermarket (see the Charcuterie threads). And then you can adjust the sweetness (and other parameters) to your personal taste. Cooked ham is very, very softcore Charcuterie. Well worth the experimentation though!

The 'glass' surface is an incidental. What matters is what is beneath the 'glass'. In Europe (and I'm going to presume in the US) there are 'conventional' electric heaters beneath the glass -OR- 'radiant' rings (which you can see glowing) -OR- 'halogen' rings (which are 'glow' very brightly, and give fast heating but don't simmer very well) -OR- 'induction' rings. Its not unusual to have a mix of these types on the same unit. And there can be differences in the control electrical switchgear -AND- (different thing) the 'user interface'. Good old fashioned analogue knobs make a great user interface. But 'touch buttons' are easier to clean, and simple to design into an electronic control scheme. And people still think they look ultramodern. Electronic control can (doesn't in all cases) give 'smoother' simmering -- working with really short on/off cycles rather than the 10's of seconds commonly encountered. Induction always comes with smooth electronic simmer control. It doesn't heat the glass (directly) -- the heat is generated in the pan base, and thus the hot pan does warm the 'glass' a bit. Consequently, spills and boilovers can be cleaned up instantly. And absent any pan, the glass isn't heated at all -- even if the ring is accidentally left switched full on. That safety feature, plus the cool(er) surface makes induction the method of choice for the elderly and disabled. Induction's speed of response and its steadiness of simmer make it the cook's choice of 'glass' cooktop/hob. You just can't use all-aluminium pans. Most stainless is fine. So is cast iron. And aluminium pans with a steel layer in their base. Test with a fridge magnet. If the magnet sticks to the pan's (external) base, then that pan should be fine for induction. If the magnet won't stick, the pan will be ignored by the induction ring - and it simply won't heat up. Two downsides: Price - not cheap. And a 'design' temptation to offer 'fancy' user interfaces and little-used features - research the current offerings!

The fan should be LOW VOLTAGE specifically to be much safer than having dangerous mains electricity loose in the wet environment inside the fridge. You could find a mains AC fan, but it wouldn't be the best of ideas! Yes, almost all computer equipment fans are going to be DC and work from either 5 volts or 12 volts. Find your fan, figure out how you can best mount it to stir as much of the chamber's air as you can, if at all possible without blasting (drying) any of the work in progress. You might decide to put together some ducting made from plastic drainpipe or tape together a simple shroud from a few bits of flat plastic 'card'. Really small fans make a lot of fuss and don't shift much air. Big fans take up lots of room and are probably too strong. A 2" diameter fan is a reasonable compromise for the average fridge ... Once you have your fan, check its label - it'll tell you (or your techie) what voltage and current it wants. This gives you a spec for the wall-wart. If you want the fan to blow more gently, you should be able to get away with 25% (my rough estimate) less voltage than a DC fan nominally asks for - and you can expect it to still run, but rather slower. (So a 9v supply should work to reduce the draught from a 12v fan.) However your wall-wart does need to be able to deliver at least as much current as the fan needs. Not less. If you are generous in sizing the supply, it'll run cooler, last longer, etc ... You can connect the wall-wart to a a cheap (mechanical, segment) timer switch. If the fan runs for something like 15 minutes, every couple of hours, that should be plenty.

Bad moulds are often a sign of too-high humidity. My guess is that the problem might be with the 'water and salt'. It needs to be a saturated salt solution (ie no more salt can dissolve) -- AND stay that way, even after it has taken up moisture from the sausages. That means spare salt - at or above the "water level". (Otherwise you will develop a less salty surface layer.) So it needs to be "wet salt", not a bowl of salty water. And depending on the size of your chamber and the quantity of stuff in there, you may want more surface area to give the wet salt more power. So, a wide shallow dish with lots of salt and a little water ... The less salty the water, the higher the humidity. The humidity above a saturated solution is theoretically still a little higher than ideal, so a little bit of fridge chilling also helps to knock down the humidity some more. Personally, I think that its usually the chiller doing the dehumidifying, with the saturated salt solution preventing the chiller from making it too dry. -- Implicit in that is that there is some means of removing the chiller condensation from the chamber. -- (Otherwise, you have some no-salt water pushing the humidity way higher!) A little air movement is a good idea. Like from opening the door occasionally, or running an old computer fan in the chamber for a few minutes very occasionally. The air movement should even out the humidity in the chamber - no damp patches! Similarly, ensuring that the air can get all round the sausages is a good idea.

Originally 'Flora' was a soft sunflower margarine "high in polyunsaturates". One of the very first - so the name became almost a generic term for that type of product. But now Flora is a 'brand'. There are oils, yoghurts and a wide range of margarines - 'light' (and 'extra light') for the calorie conscious, white for baking, pro-active with sterols, 'buttery' with, you guessed, a more buttery flavour, etc ... and one called 'original'. http://www.unilever.co.uk/ourbrands/foods/Flora.asp

I found the site where I originally found the recipe: Elmwood Inn I thought it was a bit odd but then ... ← Queen Victoria, Empress of India, etc, died 1901. Crisco introduced 1911. Ten years after her death. However, maybe Kentucky has a different Queen Victoria ... ?

I'd profess just a slight scepticism that Queen Victoria's kitchen was ever graced by Crisco! You need to mix your dough lightly, roll it to about half to three quarters of an inch thick, and cut the scones out. I delight in a hexagonal cutter - which means minimal scraps to be re-amalgamated and recut. Regarding the recipe, it needs acid. Cream of tarter is 'traditional'. I like using yoghurt. The acid helps the chemistry of rising and adds the necessary 'tang'. Even for sweet scones. But savoury ones are very good ... Rubbing in the fat by hand is the proper way, followed by gentle hand mixing to barely incorporate the liquid. Those stages are very significant in getting the right texture. I must try andisenji's suggestion of grating frozen butter - I've never tried that, but have a vague memory of seeing something similar somewhere, maybe in Nigella. Sounds very useful for larger-than-domestic quantities! Worth a look - http://www.danlepard.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1705

I've not had access to the product, so I was initially concerned as to what it might be that I was missing out on! I came to the conclusion that it was just flavouring, without any live bacteria, although it was produced by some form of culturing ... (hence my comment above about it being "not 'active'"). IIRC early in the (original) thread there was a discussion of Fermento, an observation that the usage was rather heavier than even its own instructions, and a Ruhlman comment to the effect that 'Polcyn did the recipes and he likes the taste' ...

Yes, and they are often confused - as by Valfrutta's own translator. Somewhat clumsily, I was trying to say that, despite the translation on the linked retailer's website, I believe this product IS Farro ... ! On the manufacturer's own Italian website it is called 'Farro' http://www.valfrutta.com/valfrutta_cottivapore.html ... BUT the English label calls the product (in large letters) 'Spelt Wheat' - and it is left to quite small print on the label to say 'Ingredients: Farro, Water, Salt'

I have bought the cheap tinned pre-cooked ("steam cooked") farro. This stuff http://www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Valfr...-Wheat/34100011 No need to argue whether 'spelt' is an accurate translation. The producers call it 'farro'. Its a nice whole grain to add to bread doughs. Especially easy for Peter Reinhart's 'epoxy method'.

As previously stated, I had zero trouble of any sort with my de Dietrich induction hob. I believe the under-counter ventilation requirement is similar, regardless of the brand. Don't ask the salesperson's opinion -- look it up in the installation instructions! Brandt come out of the same factory as de Dietrich, usually look more utilitarian, lack the fanciest features and are a bit cheaper. I had a fairly basic, 4 ring hob. Only feature I'd look to add would be finer (more steps) control. What I had was great, but that would be one of the few possible improvements. If comparing brands be aware that different makes quote peak power differently. Be aware of what any inter-dependencies (and 'boost' options) actually mean, in daily use. Don't expect salespeople to understand detailed questions! ADDED - so be prepared to look up stuff in the user manual while in the showroom.

'Fermento' is just an (artificial - I gather) flavouring ingredient. Its not 'active', hence not strictly necessary.