paulraphael

Most of the anodizing on my stockpot got removed by far less-harsh detergents (i was trying to clean a found moose skull, which the company probably doesn't recommend, but still ...) At least the pot still works fine, and there's still enough anodic layer that acidic stuff doesn't discolor or taste bad. I'd prefer stainless pot w/ disk bottom for sure, but not enough to replace the anodized one while it's still got some life.

Chicken thighs+sous-vide = magic. Braising is good too, but then so is stir-fry, stew, soup, fricassee... I like s.v. for thighs because prepared this way they're versatile enough to use almost any way imaginable, and they're resistant enough to overcooking that they never seem to dry out when searing, reheating as leftovers, etc. etc... And they have flavor. I've never been compelled to brine them. The texture I get is just about perfect, and the flavor needs no help. Breasts I can understand the case for. But in general I'm anti-brine except for seafood. For thighs, 64.5C x 3 hours is a sweet spot. 2 hours is often enough if they're small / thin. But the extra time will not dry them out or make them mushy in the least.

Even before taking your experience into account, it looks like Anova's really beating up polyscience. The pro version of the Anova only costs half as much as the p.s. creative series, and a third as much as the p.s. lab model.

I've used other brands of bottled lemon and lime juice. They contained oils from the fruit in addition to juice, which made them taste more like lemon or lime than fresh-squeezed juices do. They're a bit more like juice plus zest. The flavor isn't quite as fresh or 3-dimensional as fresh squeezed (probably because it's from concentrate) but is stronger. I use it a lot in sauces, asian dishes, and to balance the seasoning on things like bitter greens. For something that features citrus, I'd prefer fresh, but there's nothing bad tasting about these.

According to KA specs, it looks like the same motor/transmission as the 7 quart "pro line" consumer mixer. Which makes it radically different from previous KA designs. I've had a pro-600 for years and like it very much, but these newer mixers have a much larger, heavier duty motor that runs very quietly. The interior design of the pro-line and the commercial 8-qt is more like what you'd see in a Hobart mixer (minus the multispeed transmission). I'd expect these mixers to be able to handle the kinds of heavy, low-hydration bread dough tasks that cause problems for the older designs. Edited to add: KA refurbs are a great value. If you use the mixer a lot you'll uncover any problems well within the 6-month warranty period. Annoying that the consumer versions don't come with the stackable bowl. The consumer bowl also has a rolled lip at the rim, which I'm betting disqualifies it from NSF approval (harder to clean).

Does using oil make it harder or easier to use bag juices in a sauce?

I don't think oil could degrade the flavor unless the oil itself tastes bad. Oil molecules are too big to pass into the meat itself. But that said, I have no idea what the oil could actually be doing to the scum. That's just proteins in the juices that get expelled from the meat as it cooks. Above a certain temperature they coagulate. I'm curious to know how the oil plays into this.

I just froze some s.v. chicken thighs. Will report.

The thing is, people who care about knives will bring their own, and won't let anyone else near them. People who don't care will use the house knives, and will beat them to hell. I haven't heard of it going any other way.

I'd stick with the Forschner/Vnox knives with the plastic handles. They're cheap, thin, and the steel is quite good ... if anyone cares enough to sharpen them on stones and maintain them, they'll take good edges and will slightly outperform most of the expensive German knives. While I haven't used the Dexters, I haven't heard the same praise of them. The vnox knives are unusual in this price range. At home I use their boning and fillet knives with the wood handles.

Right, i was thinking of the pro models. I forgot they still cost that much. I've used them and they're indeed built like tanks. No idea what value the $800 ones offer.

The professional units (made by both Polyscience and Anova) are built to higher reliability standards. This probably offers little value at home ... if your $200 circulator only lasts 5 years, you did pretty well. But if your $2 million biology experiment depends on these things running flawlessly for weeks at a time, then you spring for the pro models. Professional kitchens beat up on the things day in and day and out may also prefer the pro models, although some will probably save money and go consumer. You see this choice made with mixers ... almost every pro kitchen has a consumer Kitchen Aid mixer kicking around on a countertop. The pro versions cost four times as much, just like with circulators.

I don't know what we're agreeing to disagree on. Neither of us likes cloyingly sweet cake, and neither of us actually wants to conduct the experiment. I'd like to sample the results, though, or at least hear about them. I respect that you're happy with the results you're getting, but I also know from a lot of experience that one person's thumbs-up on the internet has a poor chance at predicting my own perceptions. And since the science points to the sugar making a structural difference, I'll assume that it does until I have a fairly objective reason to think otherwise. Exactly what that difference is, and how important it is ... those will remain questions for the time being.

Have you tried drying them a bit in a warm oven between s.v. and the smoker? The MC books suggest you get the best out of smoking when the surface moisture's just right (slightly tacky). Too wet, the smoke gets absorbed by liquid that drips off. Too dry, it doesn't absorb.

It would be interesting to see the texture of a standard recipe next to one with arbitrarily reduced sugar. I don't see anyone arguing for laboratory precision, but there are reasons for the high dose of sugar. It stabilizes the egg white proteins, it acts as a tenderizer (to balance the drying effect of albumin), and it impedes the formation of gluten (usually in cakes, the fat helps with this). It also raises the coagulation temperature of the egg protein and the gelatinization temperature of the flour starch. I'm willing to bet you'd have to reduce the sugar by a lot for the cake to fail, but that even a modest reduction (without some compensation) would have a negative effect on the texture.

I don't have any plans to bake a big cake anytime soon. I'm just curious since my mom always made angel food cakes for our birthdays. I'm nostalgic for them, but they'd appeal to me a bit more now if they weren't so much like cotton candy.

Has anyone experimented with substituting dextrose for some of the table sugar? Overall sugar content would be the same, but the cake would be less sickly-sweet.

Well, basically the same results from her. After the fourth sample she said, "this is all starting to taste alike." Interestingly she and I both tasted vanilla in several of the samples. It wouldn't make sense that this was power of suggestion, since I made the stuff and knew for sure there was no vanilla in it. Maybe this is just an automatic leap our brains make when we taste custard?

Yikes, how did I miss this?

Ok, I just did a taste test. I figured out a way to blind test myself. Did two rounds of triangle testing, each with two samples doubled (so I tasted 7 samples in each round and wrote down my impressions). First impression: blind taste tests mess with you. In round 1, sample E tasted "overwhelmingly sweet. couldn't taste other flavors." Sample F tasted "very fresh dairy flavors. illusion of vanilla." E and F turned out to be from the same batch. So take my impressions with a grain of rock salt. Overall, comparing my notes from the two rounds, the winner was 75°C at 30 minutes. It had the most natural dairy flavor. Cooking a full batch sous-vide, I'd probably increase to 40 minutes, since it takes a while for the mix to come up to temperature. Coincidentally, this is the temperature Jeni Britton uses, and she uses her pasteurization to denature the milk proteins for emulsification. She cooks for 2 hours, but I believe her goal is a more cooked flavor. This test revealed very minor differences. I'm going to enlist my girlfriend for another round of this. Her palate might be a bit better than mine. Details: this was a 15% milkfat mix, 2 yolks per quart, 0.2% stabilizer. 10% nonfat milk solids, 25% total nonfat solids. Milk and cream were from pasture-fed cows, sold by the 'natural by nature' coop.

Well, it sounds tasty. I suspect the issue is the coconut oil. It's a really tricky fat to have in a frozen dessert, just like cocoa butter. It's 100% solid at any ice cream temperature, unlike milk fat, which is in so many different phases that between 5°C and -10°C you're just increasing the proportion of solid fat. I use coconut oil to make homemade magic shell. Would be interesting indeed to try that in a paco jet.

Sorry to hear. No experience with that. I suspect the problem is the opposite of drying out—it's taken on moisture and glued itself together. Atomized glucose is spray-dried glucose syrup, and so I'd expect it to readily take on humidity from the air. Or from from whatever additional water you add. Not sure what you could do besides physically grind it up, and maybe dry it in a warm oven. Or else convert it back into syrup and use it that way. Let us know if you take one of Laiskonis's classes at ICE. He's a great teacher.

It's not at all non-stick. I've had calphalon stuff since before it was calphalon. It sticks about the same as stainless steel, which is to say, you're dependent on cooking technique to keep it from sticking. It's not as good a cooking surface as stainless. But the thick aluminum cooks well for lots of things; it's conductive and pretty quick. I really like my 20+ year old 5qt anodized rondeau. It's beat to hell but does a lot of things well, and the surface is unimportant. I wouldn't get a nonstick soup pot under any circumstances.

You don't need a circulator to reheat something cooked s.v. ... just a thermometer. Heat a big pot of water to approximately the right temperature (err on the low side) and toss in the bagged food. If the food is thick it can take a while, so you may need to turn on the heat briefly a couple of times. But often the thermal mass of a stockpot of water is enough. You just need to warm the food to the center. Follow by searing if that's would you'd normally do. Edited to add: I sometimes do this at home just because the circulator might be busy or I might not be in the mood to set it up. My hot tap water is pretty consistently 53°C. This is great for reheating a lot of things without any need for a thermometer. The searing step adds some additional heat.

Anyone in the NYC area want to participate in a taste test? I've prepared 5 identical batches which will be cooked differently: 72C 60 minutes 75C 30 minutes 60 minutes 80C 15 minutes 30 minutes No flavorings. Made with organic milk from pasture-raised cows. Right now I'm testing for flavor only; I can fine-tune texture with other variables. I only have facilities to spin one batch of ice cream in a 24 hour period, so this will be a tasting of unspun mix. If anyone wants to come over in the next couple of days to offer an opinion, I'll sweeten the deal with cocktails.