paulraphael

Yes, that would be possible. I think I won't have to do this, though. The temperature the manufacturer gave me is probably as low as I need to go. There's egg custard in my recipe as well, and that needs cooking.

I don't understand this. Collagen breaks down according to time and temperature; not according to anyone's liking. An immersion circulator simply lets you control the environment to achieve whatever your liking happens to be. You're also free to check on what's going on inside. I use ziplock bags instead of a vacuum machine; one of the advantages is I can check on the textures during a long cook. And holy wow, do you ever get the makings of a sauce. To such a degree that I've incorporated an SV element in most of my stocks and all my jus/coulis making. Bag juices are like gold, because you lose none of the aromatic compounds. The techniques involved are not the same as with a braise, and that's kind of the point. You have to figure out how to work with the strengths of a technology. Technically yes, SV cooking is poaching (or in some cases is a close cousin). While I love braising, I find myself doing my old braised dishes in parts, typically with a S.V. step because the advantages of the oven (the combination of radiant and moist heat, for example) are outweighed by the disadvantages (inadequate thermostat). I can't get the oven as low as I want. A combi or cvap oven would be a totally different story ... If I had an oven that was reasonably accurate and that could hold temperature down below 150F, I'd probably do more traditional braising. These ovens aren't terribly stable, but a heavy braising pot events out the bumps well enough. Unfortunately, as of this writing, such ovens are way out of my reach (as S.V. was a few years ago). Re: ovens with thermostats ... my point is that this is a 20th century invention. Considering that people have been cooking for thousands of years, it's not significantly more new-fangled than an immersion circulator. Not that this distinction matters to me. But it might matter to people who make appeals to tradition or worse ... "authenticity."

Finally got a scientist on the phone. She said 80°C. I asked what happens at lower temps and she said that fractionally smaller amounts of the gum would hydrate. So, at 75°C, maybe only 80% or so of the gum would disolve and contribute to thickening. And she said this was independent of the time spent at temperature. She said this had to do with normal organic variation from one molecule to the next.

I don't think silicon is the answer. In every restaurant kitchen I've seen a cotton side towel was draped over every pan handle. No pot holders to be seen. This is on ranges spewing many times the BTUs of any home range. I've got some scorched towels around here, but nothing dramatic. There may be something funny with the burners on that stove that's setting things on fire.

I've been experimenting with stabilizer blends for ice cream, and am currently using a variation on one recommended by Francisco Migoya: xanthan, locust bean gum, and guar gum in a ratio of about 1 : 1.4 : 1.4. My one hesitation with this blend is that LCB requires a lot of heat (according to some sources) to hydrate fully. Modernist Cuisine and a couple of other sources say it needs to go above 90°C. I'd like to not have to cook the dairy this high. Some other sources say LCB only needs 80°C, and others say 47°C. This is a lot of variation, and I'm curious if it's because of actual variation in versions of the product, different standards of solubility (including different amounts of time), or because someone's misinformed. If it's just a question of time, I'm wondering if I can get away with lower temperatures, because my base has some egg custard and needs to be cooked anyhow (I cook in a water bath for about 30 minutes but could go longer ... temperature of at least 79°C) and the mix then ages at least 8 hours in the fridge. Any thoughts? Edited to add: I've been trying to get information from the manufacturer, with no success. My LCB comes from CP Kelco, who were nice enough to send a sample, but I can't get them to return email or phone calls.

I assume anyone rejecting sous-vide for anti-technology reasons would also reject thermostat-controlled ovens.

Do you know what wolf range it is? I wonder if it's a really old commercial one.

This one from Zojirushi. A friend of mine has it and won't shut up out it.

There's overlap, since some rice cookers are themselves pressure cookers. I use a pressure cooker for rice, and like the results a lot. I also the stovetop, especially when Im not sure how much water the rice is going to need. Being able to see what's going on helps to adapt if I've guessed wrong. I've used my girlfriend's rice cooker several times, and have a hard time with it. It's not a good one ... kind of the worst of all worlds. It's nothing like the high-end, fuzzy logic rice cookers that people say give them perfect rice every time. These seem ideal if you make rice often enough to justify a dedicated appliance. My favorite use of the pressure cooker for rice is risotto. It cooks in 7 to 9 minutes without stirring and is as good as anything I've made traditionally. I think the method for Japanese sticky rice would be similar, except you rinse the sticky rice for a long time first.

Regarding Migoya's using an 85°C water bath ... this may have to do with the hydration temperature of the gums he uses.

Powdered milk is just the most straightforward way to increase the nonfat milk solids, which improves body and texture, and helps with freezing point suppression. It's certainly not the only way to do this. My point earlier is just that you you shouldn't expect flavor problems with this approach, considering that pastry chefs like Migoya and Laiskonis and Adria use it in their recipes.

Bad dry milk does. I don't think you can detect good quality, 100% milk solids versions. Every pastry chef I know uses it, with the exception of one who uses a paco-jet exclusively.

I'm not using gelatin anymore, but when I did I used the powdered kind (easier to use in small quantities than sheets). I just mixed all the dry ingredients together thoroughly, including the sugars. This keeps ingredients like gelatin, gums, and milk powder from clumping. Aging in the fridge is important for several reasons, so I never experimented with omitting this step. Theoretically it should allow gelatin to reach a higher viscosity.

What's the difference between using over-the-moon and using regular milk with nonfat dry milk added?

A lot chefs use a spoon alongside their fish spat. I'm not sure why a spoon beats a palette knife of other spat, but they must have their reasons.

That's a beautiful looking steak. Thanks for sharing. Unfortunately you're going to have to a few more runs of the experiment (so the results will be scientific ... : )

I'm not convinced this is an issue. I have a weak home stove, but for most fish don't even use the highest heat if cooking all the way in a pan. Unlike with most meats where all the way up isn't even high enough. I suspect if if it won't release, there are other issues, like the fish being adequately dry, or the pan adequately preheated. I cook even thin fish like trout, skin on, on a stainless surface without sticking. You have to be more precise about everything than with non-stick, but it rewards you with a slightly crisper and better browned skin.

One other minor trick. If you dust the fish at the last minute to promote release and crisp skin, try wondra flour. This is wheat flour with modified (pre-gelatinized) starch, so it doesn't need long cooking to dissolve or to lose the raw flour taste. I learned this from the kitchen at Le Bernardin but haven't tried it on my own.

The last part that Anna mentions seems to be the biggest secret. If everyone knew that, the market for non-stick pans would collapse. Leave the fish alone! When the surface browns adequately, it will release. Having the right tools is helpful as long as you remember they're not crowbars. You shouldn't ever be prying the fish off the pan. I like a standard fish spat (I use it for everything, but it really shines on fish and pancakes) and often use this with a straight or offset pastry spatula in my other hand. Having a second spat let's you support a delicate fish while turning. For smaller things, the pastry spat may be all you need. I learned the utility of these from alums of Thomas Keller's and Grant Achatz's kitchens. They use them exclusively.

SV Dash is amazing. No pictures, no recipes. It calculates and graphs time/temperature based on the all the parameters you tell it. It also gives the pasteurization curves.

I sent a link to my notes by p.m.. Sounds like you know what to do. I don't like to salt before cooking s.v., because I almost always use the bag juices as a sauce foundation, and they get too salty. And in some cases with longer cooks, pre-salting can start to cure the meat and give odd flavors an textures. So I just salt before searing. If you're using a vacuum machine you don't need to add anything to the bag. I use ziplocks, so I generally add a bit of stock or beurre monté.

I don't know why it wouldn't work. The most important thing is that their releasing the API to developers, so we may see lots of apps for this. The guy who develops SV Dash already said he's chomping at the bit to support it.

Well, I got this from a source that may not be trustworthy in this context ... a conversation with Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry's. He said that Haagen Dazs molecularly alters milk proteins to act as emulsifiers and stabilizers. I've never been able to confirm this with routine interwebs research. It seems more plausible that they're doing something more like Jeni's process. It would let them keep an old-timey looking ingredients list ... the molecular modifications would probably require the word "modified" somewhere. And we know that Jenni's process actually exists!

Since the exact temperature of reheat isn't important, I often just you hot water from the tap. It's 125F where I live, and quite a bit warmer some places.

Yes! And I'm also saying that preference likely has more to do with how a technique was used than with the technique itself—especially with something like s.v. that gives so much control over so many variables. A lot of bad or mediocre food gets made s.v., just as with grilling, baking, and every other technique. It doesn't make sense to blame the technique without looking first at how it was used. This is especially true for something like s.v., which offers all those variables, and is often used to cook the interior while another method is used for the exterior.