gfweb

I've been looking at buying a couple of these size cambros, one for brining and one for the Anova (or similar unit). Would you fit a whole chicken in this size tub? I would guess that this is big enough for brining, but do you think there would be sufficient liquid-to-chicken ratio (ha) to SV a whole bagged one? Or two separate halfs? Would one want to SV a whole bird? Breast is best at one temp and dark meat at another.

There's a sweet spot where the water volume is large enough to give thermal stability, but small enough to be within the ability of the SV unit to maintain the set temp. (Insulation could change the size of the container) I can't tell you what that point is, but I bet the Amova people can.

How is this different than an oven?

One of the perks of flying too much. US Airways has upgraded the food in FC a bit. Still some horrors, but occasionally decent stuff on domestic.

Hey,how you doin?

Where do you live now?

I do pretty much as you plan, except I sear <2min per side and for a really thin steak, less....... being careful to remove the steak from the oven at about 115-120 midsteak temp. The resting period mentioned by dcarch is key...the cooking finishes and juices are reabsorbed by the meat so that your steak isn't sitting in a pool of blood (actually myoglobin) when you cut it. A little salt before cooking, then salt, pepper and perhaps a dab of butter at the end.

For what dish does one need 0.1 degree precision?

Courtesy of USAirways. Could be worse...

Do regular Chinese homeowners have blast furnaces on their stoves or is it just a restaurant thing?

Over longer cooking times the temp drop from a big load of food is negligible assuming your heater is adequately powered. You can minimize the effect by using a large volume of water to cook in and insulating your vessel.

I second that.

I would SV steaks, then salt and sear on a hot pan then salt again. If you salt prior to a longish SV (eg >3 to 4 hours) the meat may get a slightly "cured" taste. I recall a pork tenderloin that I salted well then cold smoked and then SVd with rosemary and garlic. It tasted like a hot dog. . You can season with spices or herbed butter etc prior to a long SV, just not salt in my experience. Perhaps someone has studied this...

Keeping it in the already pasteurized bag is better. changing bags can introduce bacteria.

It will be interesting to see if Polyscience tries to convince us that it is Lexus and Anova is Ford.

I'll drink anything but milk or hot tea with dinner. My parents drank coffee with dinner till they died.

"one of the reasons she had to move away was that she couldn't get used to everyone canning things all the time" Makes perfect sense. Canning really gets on my nerves too.

Ruhlman is the guy who ages his egg nog for a year and keeps stock on the stove top, unheated, for days.

I have one of them, but the bags are pricy, so I just use water immersion to get the air out of the bag, because I'm a cheapskate.

I routinely use ziploc bags (the ones without the zipper, which tends to leak) when I intend to eat the dish within a day of SVing. If I'm going to freeze it then I vacuum seal it to prevent freezer burn. I gather that there is concern that heating the polyethylene makes bad things happen. I haven't seen anything authoritative saying that this indeed a real problem and my family seems to be fine. (for perspective, consider that browned crusty meat and smoked meat are chock full of proven carcinogens). Beer coolers are great, but with a powerful immersion heater you might do great using a small pot with a towel for insulation. Worth doing? But of course!

RFID wouldn't be cheap. A reader is a few hundred dollars and the chips vary in price from $ 0.50 to a buck or two depending on features and number purchased. That's a large percentage of the cost of food in the freezer and saving stuff from spoiling might not be enough of a savings to justify the cost of the system.

I was thinking the same thing. Very do-able.

Sounds odd. What altitude are you? And how much different was the boiling delta?

Ditto

Toast your spices!