gfweb

This almost sounds like a B-school project brought to life.

Interesting piece. The concept isn't even a little bit attractive to me. Pay upfront for membership in a focus group that dines sporadically in places ill-suited for eating a meal (a parking garage, really?). They are going to monetize this by starting restaurants that exploit the recipe data generated from the labs. Doesn't sound promising. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/31/business/dinner-lab-brings-the-wisdom-of-crowds-to-haute-cuisine.html

The hacker special never made sense to me in terms of potential PITA to Anova. Perhaps they are looking for crowdsourcing design of the next version?

Cold smoke (less than 85 depress F) permeates better but often produces an initial assertive harshness that mellows and melds with rest. In general, it takes more time to develop flavor and color at lower temperatures.Depending on what you're smoking, warm or hot smoke can suck big time because it can lead to a nasty warmed-over flavor. Interesting links. When I think of cold smoking it isn't the long process that they describe...over days ...and with drying as a goal. As I practice it, it ta kes less than an hour ...usually 30 mjn and uses dense smoke. I put the meat in chilled and then cook it immediately.

Its my impression that using wet wood ie the standard soaked chip method , leads to an acrid flavor especially with cold smoking. I've switched to well dried wood and find the result more appealing

Amusing little piece. It does draw rather over-broad conclusions based on scanty data. I hope his real science has more rigor.

You can cold smoke for flavor and then cook by any means. Fat or rendering fat isn't necessary for smoke absorption. I prefer cold smoking because it is easier to control temp and doneness if you cook by sous vide after smoking.

If ever a recipe needs to use weights it is one for mayo. Yolks vary in size greatly. In a one-yolk recipe there isn't even the possibility of multiple yolks evening out the variation in size.

LOL FWIW, Kenji Alt says in the above referenced method that EVOO makes for a bitter mayo when made with a high speed blender as opposed to whisking.

The stuff isn't quite as stable as Hellman's over many weeks, but you can make small volumes that get used up before breakage begins.

Thing about reheating it that way is that it will continue cooking it which could make it tougher. If you don't have a sous vide thing than just hot tap water in a pot will warm the a ziploc bag of slices fine. It is how I have done it many times....about 135F

I've seen the TV menu thing done badly. Gotta be legible from a distance. Shouldn't have shifting screens for the menu. If the menu is too big to fit on one screen and read easily, then I'd say forget the idea and go to a traditional method of display.

Our trees have given out. 330 days till more peaches

You might have more success in North America looking for caribou than reindeer. I believe they are the same beast.

Ignoring China's food safety problems is what is dangerous.

Lol. No pork but it does oink! It was a standard ML. Garlic, chopped onion, Worcestershire, little thyme. I wish I'd covered the whole thing in peaches and sugar and then torched it to get more caramelization. But it was tasty nonetheless.

Peach meatloaf version 1.2. Peaches soaked in soy, layered on loaf then liberally coated with sugar prior baking in the Breville

Good point about multinational companies selling tainted food that originates in China. Who do you trust? I doubt that there's a word on the box of Cheerios that says where the oats come from. So how can you know? With generic drugs at least, the manufacturer is listed on the bottle and one can choose to avoid companies with bad enforcement records or those from suspect countries. I guess with food our only hope is that trusted manufacturers do the right testing to ensure that the stuff is safe. But there is still great uncertainty. The recent recalls of ground beef because of horsemeat "contamination" concern me because they highlight the possibility that if a bunch of horsemeat can be thrown in with the beef, so can the meat from a cow at risk for BSE....and (unlike horsemeat) that would not be detectable.

I made a peach meatloaf tonight. Peaches inside, soy-soaked peach slices caramelized on top. Might sound foul, but turned out very tasty indeed.

Agree on quality. Not so sure about the pickle and sides. A good hoagie is a lot of food...does anyone ever eat the pickle that comes with sandwiches? FWIW the most successful hoagie chain in my area, Wawa, just gives you a sandwich.

Our trees are winding down (finally). Too many peaches this year! Lots of cobbler for us.

You mention a cost of about $10 per book. Is that cost to produce or sale price? If the latter I think you are selling yourself short. Aren't there now services that will print up a book almost a la minute? That would decrease your up front cost.

Simply adopting the regulation doesn't ensure compliance. Pharmaceutical manufacture is a great example. Indian and Chinese generic drug makers are bound by US FDA regs and disregard them flagrantly. It would be even harder to control with food.

If you live in a humid area manual defrosting will be a pretty frequent occurrence. With proper packing I haven't seen food problems.

I'm not yet a Thermomix believer. Thermomix seems a great thing for the boat or RV or space shuttle, but maybe not so great for a real kitchen unless one's act is truly together cooking-wise and one understands how to integrate this thing into day to day cooking. A novice cook probably would see no benefit for the expense. Its nice to think that there is magic to be used in the kitchen, but I haven't yet found it and if there is any magic it is in the process of learning how to cook using the techniques refined over the past two centuries. A gadget can't make an omelet or a burger...or even spaghetti. Sounds old-school and cranky, but I haven't seen a short cut to getting decent food on the table. Refinements like sous vide are great but they don't obviate the basics.