Porthos

@rotuts I think I liked the Mural. We will see what my Sweetie thinks Saturday. Has anyone used the Reynolds Oven Bags for SV? On to my trip-tip. Only a couple of pictures. This was a small tri-tip. After trimming only 40mm thick. I did a light rub of Garlic Festival brand Mesquite Grill and sealed it into a Food-saver pouch. I SVed it for 4 1/2 hours at 134 F. I then patted it dry and seared it in a cast iron pan with corn oil heated to about 400 F. I served it with Ranch Style Beans and steamed carrot slices with butter and Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute (which my Sweetie reminded me has a lot of pepper in it - oops) I put a generous dusting of fresh-cracked pepper on mine after taking this picture. I was pleased with the results. It was tender and very flavorful. The flavor from the rub had penetrated the meat deeply and I especially liked that; I had not expected that much flavor from a lightly-applied rub. My Sweetie was pleased with it. When I realized that my SIL was going to be later coming home from his job than I had thought he would be, I turned the Anova back on, put his portion in a ziptop bag and put it back into the bath so he could have it served warm. I was jazzed about that benefit. I know I have a lot to learn but I am encouraged both by finding a cooking technique that aids in preparing food that for a while had not been accessible to my Sweetie, and for it opening a new vista of ways to cook meat. Outside of pasteurizing in-the-shell eggs I don't see myserlf branching out in other directions for a long time, if at all.

The feast is a mid-day meal, eaten on stage in full view of the traverlers (the paying customers). Our run is seven weekends in the spring. We are roughly 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. Our guild, The Guild of Saint Cuthbert, does several parades during the day, including the opening and closing parades, puts on pagents in the streets, and has some demonstration stuff in our enviromental area (dedicated area in view of and accessible to the travelers) allowing the travelers to see and touch and ask questions. Some of our people also go out into the streets to gig with the travelers. This faire, the Southern California Renaissance Pleasure Faire, is the original renaissance faire that Phyllis and Ron Patterson created in 1963. It has gone through many changes since then. Our guild mistress has been part of faire since 1967. I have been part of it since 2000.

Apparently Invision didn't think much of the picture of the log sheet I cobbed up, which did show up in the post preview. Here it is again.

I made to Penzies yesterday afternoon. I purchased nothing but will be taking my DW there Saturday when we go to cook a dinner for my FIL. Penzey's is about 2 miles from is home. As soon as I saw the smell-testing vessel of Chicago Steak Seasoning I knew it was out of the running. The second ingredient is pepper. One of the balancing acts I do is peppering foods that I prepare. My DW had weight loss surgery 7 years ago and one of the unexpected changes was that she became very sensitive to any kind of pepper as a taste issue. I can use small amounts but if I peppered a steak the way I think it should be done she would be unable to eat it. I keep a pepper grinder next to me at dinnertime to add pepper to my servings. The majority of their seasoning mixes had predominant amounts of pepper. There are a few others that I want my DW's opinon on. I do appreciate the suggestion and it did get me off my keister to finally go there.

It has been recommended to me, and I like the idea, of keeping a log of my attempts at sous vide. I don't handwrite anything if I can avoid it. I am big into using tables in Word. Here is my first cut at creating a log. I can see adding to it as I refine my technique, but for now I am trying to track the basics. Considering that this is for a sous vide beginner, is there anything major that I should include?

I just found a picture that a guild member took during the feast. The raised platform at the back is where the widow of the former mayor and her special guests preside over the feast. On the table pictured you can see the meat platter, the veggie platter, the cheese platter is farther back, a server at the other end of the table is offering vegan-prepartion potato chunks, etc. If you're a peasant you eat with your hands. I love feeding my friends. I generally loos about 5 pounds (and this is a good thing) during faire because I don't eat enough on the weekends. I'm thinking that I will probably eat a little better in the future now that I am not the manager.

I have bookmarked the page and already printed out the beef pasteurization table, still need to print out the poultry table. And, yes, after more reading my temperature was too high.

I would not be surprised if Anova runs the sale they had for Mothers Day (Bluetooth for $129.00) again for Fathers Day. It included free shipping.

I'll stop by the Penzey's in Anaheim (about an hour from my home) tomorrow morning and have a look for future pieces of beef. I am sticking with the Mesquite Grill seasoning for this meal because we all like it's flavor and a cannister of it is arleady here in the house. My FIL, who lives in Anaheim, is fighting cancer and I am his transportion for treatments. That makes getting to Penzey's easy. For now my main goal with SV is moist chicken breasts and pork loin steaks. I have missed being able to have the pork in particular. My DW is forever telling me to make it for the rest of us and she'll have something else but I have always rankled at and resisted the idea of more than one type of dinner being served for everyday at-home dinners.

It's a small tri-tip and I doubt it will be more than 50mm thick when I'm done trimming. Looking at DouglasBaldwin.com sight under the "Pasteurization Time for Meat (Beef, Pork, and Lamb)" table, 3 hours 15 minutes is the minimum time at 134F. Will holding it longer benefit me?

I'm really bad about remembering to take pictues. I will do my best. The tri-tip will be at 134F. I won't know the time until I trim it and measure it.

@Shelby, my DW does not have a robust immune system so I am reluctant to go with 142, but I still appreciate the suggestion. Of course, right now I am blanking on what temperature you have to achieve to kill salmonella.

So now that my southern faire season is over I had time to try out my Anova circulator. I went simple with chicken breasts. I seasoned them, put them in a bag and did an hour at 153F. My DW was pleased with the moistness. I did something out of character and picked up no-name house-brand boneless skinless breasts. Poor choice, they were moist but they were stingy. When I do breasts again I will go with Foster Farms. I have been consistently pleased with FF over the years. Things I learned. I used too large of a stock pot, a cheap thin-walled one that I usually reserve for cooling down steamed hard-cooked eggs when doing batches of 5 dozen eggs. It took way too long to come up to temperature. I will try using my heavy-walled 12 qt stock pot when I try SVing some tri-tip Monday night. On the good side suspending the bag clipped to a long wooden spoon made positioning very easy. Because storage space is a bit of an issue I will buy a lidded plasic tub to store it in and keep it in the storeroom. I'm being lazy on this. I want to keep the circulator in the pot clamp. Otherwise I would just use the packaging it came in. For the tri-tip I am planning on a mesquite dry rub from Garlic Fesival, and instead of a ziploc I will vacumm-seal it in an 8" bag. The gallon bag is almost the diameter of the 12 qt pot and I want freely-circulating water. I did a bit of reading from some of the links provided and the information gleaned was very helpful. Thank you one and all for helping launch me into the world of SV.

Welcome, Spork. Relax and I hope you enjoy being here.

On your canister of Wondra did you check the date first: Recalled Better if Used by Dates 25FEB2017 thru 30MAR2017 (From their website)

My Wondra is safe also.

ChefMD, thank you for taking us along on your trip. This is fun and enlightening.

Oven guy here. Foil-lined half-sheet pan sprayed with Pam, into an already-heated 400 degree oven. Start checking after about 18 minutes. Remove bacon to paper towels, letting the fat drain from the slices as you remove them. Drain fat into whatever you save your bacon fat in. Carefully remove foil. About 25% of the time I am not careful enough and have to wash the pan. I abandoned pan-frying the day I saw food service workers baking and have never looked back.

I took pictures this weekend before I began the end-of-season tear-down. Here is a plot of the overall layout: (The kitchen stove shown in the layout is no longer used.) The kitchen area (inside and outside), but not the dish-washing area, is off-limits to everyone except the kitchen crew while preparing the feast. This layout makes it very clear where that boundary is. There are additional feast helpers who sit "on stage" and prepare platters of "salad." Each platter has fresh veggies, fresh fruit, black and green olives and pickles on it. From this kitchen we put out grilled beef, grilled chicken, grilled pork, lil' smokies in BBQ sauce, coined kielbasa, meatballs, steamed potatoes, 4 types of cheese that we cube fresh daily, steamed veggies, sauteed veggies and baskets of various kinds of rolls. All items except the rolls are cut into finger-food serving size. And now onto the kitchen pictures. This is looking through the pots-and-pans shelving at the doorway into the outdoor cooking area: This is standing next to the pots-and-pans shelving looking to the right showing the unused stoves and the steel prep table: Turning to the right shows the pantry shelving across from the steel table: This is standing next to the pantry shelving looking down the rest of the wall, showing the other prep tables and storage. The prep tables are 6' banquet tables with leg extensions to raise them to counter-height. one is 36" and one is 39". The table area next to the pantry shelves has the spice, oil and vinegar shelves: As of ths year we had plenty of under-table storage for gadgets and tools, and we need 2 knife blocks to contain all of the knifes we have on hand (including 5 paring knives - yes we use them all). Across from the above prep table is shelving for our serving bowls and platters, some misc Cambro pans and bread products on the top shelf. The shelving seen out the end of the feast tent is the drying shelving. The top drying shelves have vertical supports for drying cutting boards, lids, platters etc. This is the view looking across the washing station at the drying racks. The flow works very nicely. The dish washers put the items to be dried onto the shelves from the dish washing side and we pull dried items off of the shelves from the kitchen side. And, last but not least is a view of the 3-burner stove and the big grill. The pot on the ground is where I keep wooden spoons for my 2 y/o grandson to play with in the afternoons. He is not allowed in kitchen (as best as I can control) when we are cooking. It is his mother, my daughter, who is taking over managing the kitchen next year. That is my home-away-from-home on weekends in the spring.

I never refrigerate mustard, say sauce, vinegars, or oils. I don't happen use nut oils. I refrigerate ketchup because it is so rarely used. I always refrigerate mayo.

I think I failed to mention that our Guild Mistress has chosen my late 20s daughter as my successor. She has cooked with me for about 3 years. She really shines in sauteing vegetables. I will still be Mr Meat. For this final weekend of Spring 2016 I will be grilling top sirloin steaks for Saturday and chuck eye steaks Sunday for the beef portion of the meat platters. Pork will be boneless shoulder meat that I have already oven roasted and will finished on the grill to set a BBQ sauce glaze. Carnivores don't go hungry.

I have cooked in the So Cal Ren Faire kitchen for 14 seasons, the last 7 of which I have been the team leader/kitchen manager and a cook. Although chronologically I am still sort-of young (62) my body has been betraying me for the last 20 years. Between my lumbar spondolosis and my diabetes I have had increasing mobililty and decreasing engery issues. I noticed last year that I was starting to have trouble putting in the long weekend days that being the manager requires. My day starts between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m. and if I'm lucky I can eek out a 15 minute break somewhere before I am able to walk away at 2:00 for a few hour break. On Saturday I am back at it at 5:00 and put in another couple of hours. On Sunday it is almost the same but I will put in another 3 1/2 to 4 hours starting at five to close the kitchen for the weekend. I had to make the decision this year to renlinquish the team leader/manager position at the end of this season. I will still cook for the faire and do the purchasing during the week, but I will no longer have to do the closing of the kitchen, the hardest part. The kitchen consists of 4 areas. The first area is a 10 x 20 Costco "garage" (we call it the feast tent) which serves as the food pantry, ice cooler for meat, prep area, pot and pan storage and serving bowls/platters,etc storage. the second area is sandwiched between the feast tent and a 20' ocean shipping container. For cooking in this area I have an 8-burner event grill, a 2-burner freestanding camp stove (25k BTU per burner) and a 3-burner freestanding camp stove (30k BTU per burner). There are also ice coolers for dairy and for vegetables, shelves for drink pitchers and other bits and bobs. The third area is dishwashing. There are shelves for dirty dishes, a table with a 3-sink approach to dishwashing using 10 gallon Rubbermaid totes, the sink for filling and dumping the tubs, and shelving for air-drying the pots, pans, bowls, etc. I actually use a 4th tub for pre-wash to keep the wash tub from getting too dirty too fast. There are also paper towels available to wipe out visible food bits. The fourth area is the ready-to-serve area with shelving for foods ready to serve and a table to plattering (10 platters of meat and 4 "specialty" platters). As I said the hard part is the closing of the kitchen. By the way, my crew has a paying gig in the afternoon so they are not available to help with the closing. We cook from scratch each meal. Since we use ice coolers, any leftover food has to be removed from the coolers, the bags of ice removed, and then the water in the coolers has to be dumped. All of the serving pieces have to be pulled off of the drying shelves and stored in the tent. Any serving pieces that have come back late have to be washed, drying and stored also.There are 8 trash cans that have to have their liners pulled, and placed upside down to prevent errant trash from ending up in them. The wash area has to have the tubs dumped and generally cleaned up. Tarps are put in place where needed. I also have to do the rounds of 6 propane tanks to see if any are nearly empty to be put with the ones already emptied. The ready-to-serve area needs a once-over. It may not sound like much but it is a minimum of 3 hours work for me, usually more. This closing of the kitchen is why I am stepping down. My body has said, "No more." I know that their are several member here that have heard me talk of running the kitchen and I wanted to share why I am stepping down. The good news is that I still have what it takes to do my share of the cooking. I am grateful for that.

Just a guess but I would say cast iron with a tin alloy coating on the outside.

Some Smart and Final Extras in southern California (same parent corporation) have some of the meat offerings found at Cash and Carry stores.

Seasoning is done about 45 minutes before grilling.