gfweb

That is a mystery. Wonder if it really works. Wonder if it activates the bean's own inulase.

Decadent.

Doesn't sound like the Anova I use or the company I've dealt with.

I thought sauciers had more curve on the bottom to aid whisking.

shallow sauce pan

My mother cut them in good episcopalian halves. Rebel that I am, I cut diagonally.

But what about cured (brined) cuts of beef like my brisket? Should be OK if it was a nitrate cure, not just salt. If its pinkish like corned beef nitrate was there.

Clostridium botulinum survives as a spore. Even prolonged pasteurization doesn't kill spores, as far as I know, & neither does boiling. You need pressure-cooker temps to do it reliably. But the little bugger won't grow in frozen or properly refrigerated food.

Many of the answers to this are in the sous vide index http://forums.egullet.org/topic/136274-sous-vide-index/ You can overcook with sous vide, its just harder. Leave stuff in tooooo long and it'll get mushy or dried out depending on the temp and the meat. I'd take it out and refrigerate till serving if more than a few hours are involved. SV units reheat food nicely. Nitrate curing eliminates most if not all C. botulinum spores, so cured meat is safer than uncured in this respect, but why press your luck?

Individual allergies aside...Outside of high fat is bad, Na+ raises BP and too many calories makes you fat, the claims made for dietary effects on health are pretty exaggerated and way ahead of any supporting studies. Oatmeal for example barely barely affects cholesterol levels. The US TV ad touting a 5 unit lowering by eating oatmeal was laughable. Assuming a cholesterol of 200, a 5 unit swing is within daily variation. The whole superfood idea, that anti-oxidants make you healthy is awaiting proof (sorry Alton Brown). No study in people has been positive that i know of. A few have failed to show benefit. All of the snake oil that "Dr" Oz pushes has flimsy, if any, support and he is a scoundrel for doing it. I feel better now.

Cheap Zip Loc bags or brand name ones with the zipper feature aren't trustworthy. Agree with Rotuts, the sediment is coagulated protein. Not a worry

Filters work with a few entirely different filtering systems. 1. Mechanical - filtering out suspended particles, like coffee filter. 2. Chemical - neutralizing toxic dissolved chemicals. 3. Reverse osmosis and activated charcoal - good but expensive. As I understand it, it takes one chemical to react and to neutralize another chemical. They don't tell you what chemicals they use to neutralize other toxic chemicals and their effects on your health. I use a water distiller, which is not technically a filter. 100 % pure water. No expensive filters to replace. dcarch Also ion exchange columns will make "distilled"-like water.

How does one know that the things are actually doing anything? How do you know when they have worn out and stopped filtering?

I am unconcerned about miniscule amounts of HCN that might be generated during cooking. Neither is FDA which has approved the product.

The reviews look great. Think I might have to get one of these. My wife bought one. It is a PITA to get clean. I won't use it.

In this setting the oil would decrease evaporation if kept at less than a boil.

What is it?

Colicchio's "Think Like a Chef" has some of these recipes and is a good book to learn from and to ponder. Host Note: eGullet Society friendly Amazon link to the book: Think Like a Chef

LOL. Check out their Twitter war from last summer.

Saw this earlier. Didn't click on it. Just did. Boy am I happy to be giggling over bits like this: "They arrive at Dong Phuong for some baked goods and Banh Mi. Eddie Huang (Chinese ancestry) from NYC via the Florida suburbs, seems to be an expert in Vietnamese cooking." Acheson and Huang do not like each other. By Top Chef's logic (Rhode Island via NOLA) + (Florida Chinese NYer) = a Vietnamese judge.

Regional variation perhaps?

There's a thread going now about the variation in chili heat and how to control it. It brought to mind a problem that crops up from time to time for me. How does one account for and control variation in produce? Two examples of the problem come to mind. I make a cauliflower gratin that occasionally comes out watery because the veg is perhaps too fresh and loaded with water. If I weigh out the cauliflower that would solve the water problem to a degree, but then I might have a pretty thin gratin if the veg is very wet. I suppose adding a roux is a solution. Another example...last night we had roasted fingerling potatoes. They came out of the same bin at the market, looked the same, and were treated identically, but some were sweet and nutty and others tasted like dirt. WTF. I hate that.

Good points. My objection was much like others'...how are these judges to judge Vietnamese food???

French omelet and green cauliflower with sauce mornay

Wonder how much oil sticks to hydrated pasta.