RWells

Mario's famous quote, "The Italians were eating with forks when the French were still eating each other." Bourdain's quote that I use for my tag, "Even Samantha Brown would have a hard time summoning a "wow" for this" I love the WWTD. A classic for cooking slackers. Bob

. As someone who uses sous vide, very frequently, this statement is simply not true. Is the sous vide process a process that produces consistent and reproducible results? Most assuredly. Is it something that requires a fairly steep learning curve to achieve these results? Most assuredly. Would I like to bet my career on a technique that I had never used, that I was relying on an archrival to tutor me through? Not at all. A process that utilizes new and unfamiliar technology and a counterintuitive cooking process? Please, do you want examples? The easiest sous vide technique in the world, 30mm tender beef steak 1 hour 9 minutes in a 55 degree water finished a minute per side in a searingly hot pan. Easy right?ask Carla (from last year) about that. How did a Top Chef finalist screw this up? She apparently made the wrong choice of beef steak and allowed a more experienced sous chef talk her into something she didn't understand. If you are using sous vide in a one...two... three nonthinking mode you will screw up. One needs to have some basic understanding of what you are doing and some REAL understanding of the different proteins and their characteristics (which many chefs simply don't). The value of sous vide as a "simple" technique is in the ability of a smart insightful chef to work out the process and then give the recipe to a sous or line cook to repeat over and over again with identical results. The use of sous vide by someone who has never used it before was an enormous risk. The hero of this scenario was the V brother who sat down and explained the process to him, truthfully and professionally. Bob

Maybe, but not because of her cooking. Her main weakness on this show has been self-doubt. She let a couple of bad results spiral her downward instead of using them as a springboard to bounce back up. If she gets her head straight very quickly, the cooking ability is still there. I've been a Jennifer fan since the start of the season, I'm not giving up on her 'til Padma tells her to pack her knives. Jen is the weakest link because she has the narrowest range of skills and the bad results and the self-doubt she has experienced are a direct results of that inability to cook outside her box. The OP had it right. A lack of confidence, not a lack of skills, has been her major problem. All of these chefs have limitations. What Kevin does, as Jennifer has not, is to use the skills he has to work each challenge to his own advantage. I still predict that the producers do not want an all-male finale, and if it's at all close Jennifer will make it into the final 3. I also think it's to her benefit that the last two episodes were taped months after all of the others. She, more than any other chef, needed some time off to recharge. I think your last point is very valid, an all male final is probably not in the cards. However if you think of it in the Bravo producer mode, the V Bros in a fist fight? Now that's a great cooking show eh? Seriously, Kevin is in if he shows up. Jennifer needs to not totally screw up. I know I'll take some heat for this, don't discount the Ripert connection. She has already been given a couple of passes, albeit with some others performing marginally worse than she did. That leaves the V boys to kill each other for the final spot in the semifinal. I think they have probably figured this out. Should be interesting to watch. I didn't realize the time lag in taping the final. That definitely benefits Jen. Bob

Can we expand this topic a little? How is everybody going to use sous vide to help them with the whole meal this Thanksgiving? Vegetable dishes, cooking the butternut squash for soup, turkey and stuffing ballotines or roulades (thanks Slkinsey), you name it and your technique. Thanks in advance. Bob

This is too easy, how about if they just look around the building. Let's see Guy Fieri, Sandra Lee, the Neeleys, dare I say Rachel........do we really need to continue? Bob

This is an interesting distinction, one that I have personally witnessed. These guys are culinary school instructors who ran an initial test with grandma's jiggler pressure cooker (the one available at the school) vs. the conventional stock method. To their horror the conventional method won. One of the instructors was not convinced and he repeated the test with his home pressure cooker a more modern Spanish made, Fagor model. Blind taste tests bore out his intuition. The more sealed and frankly, safer pressure cooker beat conventional stock. I have personally used my grandmother's ticking time bomb of a pressure cooker. Scared the crap out of me. I own a more modern Fagor and have been very pleased with its quality and the results. The "pot" of the pressure cooker is one of the best pots I own. High gauge, heavy, an excellent stockpot in it's own rite. The system while obviously not "sealed" is a much more closed system than the weight, "jiggler" models. I have no experience with the Kuhn Rikon models, I hear from colleagues that they are great as well. Fagor is a great company. They are available at Bed, Bath and Beyond. I bought mine with one of their ubiquitous 20% off coupons and it was very affordable. Would make a great Christmas present. Bob

Maybe, but not because of her cooking. Her main weakness on this show has been self-doubt. She let a couple of bad results spiral her downward instead of using them as a springboard to bounce back up. If she gets her head straight very quickly, the cooking ability is still there. I've been a Jennifer fan since the start of the season, I'm not giving up on her 'til Padma tells her to pack her knives. Jen is the weakest link because she has the narrowest range of skills and the bad results and the self-doubt she has experienced are a direct results of that inability to cook outside her box. Kevin is a perfect example of someone who while not particularly comfortable outside his comfort zone knows how to cook well enough and confidently enough to pull it off. He does seem to be "playing it safe" and trying not to screw up and that might come back to bite him. His venture into the realm of sous vide to get a uniform and perfectly cooked protein took some guts. The V brothers on the other hand are supremely confident and rightfully so and the only thing that will do them in is their own arrogance. I will agree with you if the finals are what they have been in the past, "here's a gazillion dollars, no restrictions, impress us", that will definately benefit Jen. However if the semifinal is the more likely curveball and here's some stress on top of it, she's done. Who knows maybe the highlights will triumph. I'm just glad I'm not the one under the gun. Bob

It may be a bit unfair to say that Jen can only cook fish. However I think it is entirely accurate to say that she can only win this competition cooking fish. Would you rather eat scallops prepared by Kevin or short ribs prepared by Jen? That kind of brings it home. I was quite impressed with the general comraderie between everyone save Mike. Jen was a real solid citizen to help Bryan out of the weeds and Bryan was beyond gracious to run through the Sous Vide technique for Kevin. I have nothing against Jen, she is simply the weakest link left. That being said, these guys all know they are one screw up from leaving. And everyone of them has proven that they are capable of that screw up on a given night. I haven't watched every year but this has to be as strong a final grouping as they have had. These guys can all seriously cook. I really enjoy watching them come up with their dishes, the thought process is what has really separated them from the rest. Bob

"People! This is drama not cooking. I think Mike I. was thoroughly disliked by the judges. Robin could have gone home for the past three or four weeks, but Mike was such an unmitigated jerk that they kicked him out the door and reminded him on the way out that Robin was staying. This Jen thing has been a complete setup. If you watched the teaser for next week carefully you will notice that all of a sudden the wan, desheveled, babbling Jen is gone. She's had her hair done and highlighted, she is speaking coherently and I will predict that seafood will somehow reappear along with a miraculous turnaround. I have not been suprised by Jen's emotional breakdown but rather her total inability to expand her culinary range. Putting her out there as broken, stressed and put upon merely hides the fact that she can't cook with the others when her scallops and fish are taken away from her. There will be some Kevin or V Brother screw up where they will barely hang on for drama's sake but hang on none the less. Eli is easily the weakest link left but they may let him hang around for the sake of shock at someone else's expense. " For my next trick I will predict the fifth race at Aqueduct and the national lottery numbers. Is it contrived? Not really, simply predictable. All of you down in the dumps, unfocused people out there remember, nothing is so bad that it can't be cured with a trip to the hairdresser, a little peroxide and some seafood, just like the "dude" on the Next Food Network Star. Bob

What a dope, maybe he should be trying to cook some of it while he's working. Kevin isn't intimidated by that crap. He is a professional and hardly a "boy". All of this talk about "this is how it is in a professional kitchen", the chef's I've always respected were those whose ego didn't run the kitchen. There is no insecurity in Kevin. The only person he berates is himself to make himself better at what he does.

People! This is drama not cooking. I think Mike I. was thoroughly disliked by the judges. Robin could have gone home for the past three or four weeks, but Mike was such an unmitigated jerk that they kicked him out the door and reminded him on the way out that Robin was staying. This Jen thing has been a complete setup. If you watched the teaser for next week carefully you will notice that all of a sudden the wan, desheveled, babbling Jen is gone. She's had her hair done and highlighted, she is speaking coherently and I will predict that seafood will somehow reappear along with a miraculous turnaround. I have not been suprised by Jen's emotional breakdown but rather her total inability to expand her culinary range. Putting her out there as broken, stressed and put upon merely hides the fact that she can't cook with the others when her scallops and fish are taken away from her. There will be some Kevin or V Brother screw up where they will barely hang on for drama's sake but hang on none the less. Eli is easily the weakest link left but they may let him hang around for the sake of shock at someone else's expense. I am not quite sure what is up with Nigella. The comment about the quivering thigh of the medieval courtesan is ironic if not autobiographical. She looks like she is a little the worse for wear. She has always been a little Rubenesque but the other night she looked a little bloated and pasty. I would agree that comparing her to Julia Child is so ridiculous as not deserving of comment. She seems like a very nice person but more Sandra Lee than Thomas Keller.

Did someone die and who elected Fabio "king of the universe"? What smarmy silly waste of time. I half expected Fabio to show up selling cars in the commercials. I think Tom's job is safe. "I have an acceeent, get over it!" And that twit, Mattine (?) what a waste of skin. "I have a 'tude but can't back it up!" I will give him one prop, kicking Tobie all over God's green earth does give you some socially redeeming value.

Do you think for one second that the Evil VBrother would defer to Robin if she called him on altering a planned dish for service? This is about respect, not kitchen organization. Mr. V has no respect for Robin and therefore feels perfectly comfortable in running right over the top of her. Imagine what the video would have shown if Robin had tried to pull the same stunt as the EvilOne did to her. I also for the record think that it is a testosterone issue plain and simple. . This is an assertive good thing if a guy does it and a bitchy, bad thing if a woman does it? I also think that the right way to handle a situation like this is the way the other brother did. Call both of them for disrupting the team. For the record, I am male.

Here is the proof of the pudding. Let's say that the roles were reversed. Robin was in the position of telling the evil VBrother that his plating and portioning was not up to snuff and this is what he HAD to do. Would we even be having a conversation beyond the fact that Robin was the biggest bitch in the world and how justified the Brother would have been in smacking her down? Get this straight I am not a big fan of Robin. She and that idiot Mike, who phoned in his "asparagus" dish are easily the weakest links left. It must be said however that Robin realized her limitations, and frankly outperformed Kevin, Jen, and much to his personal chagrin the evil VBrother. What given the criteria of judging is more impressive. Doing something really well, delivering it on time or overextending yourself, getting lost in the weeds and putting out a late, crappy plate? I also get a kick out of the "Robin is a yammering, obnoxious old woman who doesn't belong here" school of thought. If being a yammering idiot was a criteria for being voted off the island what pray tell is that neanderthal Mike doing slinking around the kitchen still? We can only hope that the "tease" for next week is true and he poisons Natalie Portman and is voted off.

I respect Jen's abilities, however her abilities will not count for much if she isn't able to get her stuff together. I think the most hurtful comment that was made last night was Tom's statement, "Her mentor won't be very impressed with her now." As far as the difference between a chef d' cuisine vs. an executive chef at a Ripert restaurant I think she is the bottom line person who is not expected to hit the line very often. I get a real kick out of the editing process that they use to form the personal dynamics of the show. The spat between Robin and the one brother followed by the underperforming brother trying to take credit for her dessert during judging certainly gives us the "bad" brother" from here on out. At the same time we have the other brother constructively intervening to push the team forward followed by his winning and then splitting his prize with the team. Which give us the "good" brother. The Natalie Portman bit will be a repeat of the Zooey Deshanel (sp) episode on Top Chef Masters. You remember, "I'm having a birthday party for 15 of my closest friends oh and did I mention, I'm a vegan, lactose intolerant, allergic to eggs and have been known to react to lots of other foods which you will have to guess about, but otherwise knock yourselves out." Ditzy hollywood starlet who is allergic to oxygen. This the episode where Old Fried Chicken and Grits, Art Smith, was forced to buy a gallon of icky vegan nondairy raspberry ice cream(?) and make a brittle and call it dessert.

Interesting episode. Whenever I watch this show I repeat "it's edited for maximum conflict" constantly under my breath. The predestined "stars" certainly had it handed to them. Jen is getting a little tiresome. The other thing that I have to keep reminding myself is that this is shot over a short period of time and not the one burst of activity, once a week like we see it. So a lot of the anxiety is more real than it sometimes appears. If memory serves Jen is an "executive" chef. In past seasons these people seem to struggle. Concept and menu planning is one thing, firing and plating is something else. Steaming shellfish to order? Do it all the time at home, busy restaurant, please. Everybody has been busting on Robin and she simply delivered and Mike the token scumbag simply skates as usual. With the tease for next week I think I see how this works out. They show a tricked out Natalie Portman, cut to Mike doing his best cartoon wolf stepping on his tongue, edit to Natalie with a bitter beer face saying something about "this is just bad'. Mike poisons Natalie and is thrown off, his male piggishness and ego in tatters.

Steve This is a special topic in my household. We are a emptynest with two launched daughters and one college student. My kids know that if they get pressed for a birthday/christmas gift for me that a cookbook is an excellent choice! Now to make that a productive choice you do have to be proactive and provide the titles to them that you really want. Other wise it is your fault that you get four copies of Oprah's latest diet cookbook. I have a wishlist on Jessica's Biscuit for the new cookbooks. As the owner of several hundred carefully selected cookbooks I have recently discovered an economical cookbook source. A nationwide franchise, Half Price Books has an excellent cookbook section. I think most of us have an internal list of classic cookbooks that we all would love to pick up. Half Price does an excellent job of rotating the books they receive and has a wonderful selection of classic cookbooks. A list of books that I have purchased over the last six months include, Craig Claiborne's "The New York Times Cookbook", Rose Levy Berenbaum's "The Cake Bible" and the "Bread Bible", Judy Rodger's "The Zuni Cafe Cookbook", Hardback editions of the "The Silver Palate Cookbook" and "The New Basic Cookbook" to replace old shredded versions of the paperback editions, David Rosengarten's "The Dean and DeLuca Cook", Marion Cunningham's "Fannie Farmer", "Roasting" and "The Microwave Gourmet" by Barb Kafka and "Knife Skills" by Charlie Trotter and a couple of beautiful chinese texts by Susanna Foo. All of these books were recent editions and all were hardbacks in excellent condition (Jackets in place). All of the books except "The Bread Bible" were under $10 with most under $8, "The Bread Bible" was $12.98. The other good thing about the Half Price Stores is that if you do have six copies of Oprah's Diet Book they will buy them from you! This as my wife reminds me, "takes the guilt out of cookbook collecting". Bob

Had an interesting experience over the last two weeks. First a little backround. I'm a 55 year old anesthetist who after growing up in Louisiana have always had an interest in food and the professional food life. I worked my way through school in New Orleans at several of the high end restaurants in New Orleans. After a long career in medicine it was time to go to culinary school and live the dream. We have a good, well funded, well supported school at the local community college, so I enrolled about a year ago. It's been a great experience and I am enjoying it immensely. About two weeks ago we were studying the various grains in a Veg/Starch class. The chef has a great teaching method where he teaches all of the basic recipes and then challenges us with a curveball ingredient and assigns us to research and cook it at home. Well we were being taught basic rice, pilaf and risotto techniques in class and the secret ingredient that he sent us home with was quinoa. He told us that while quinoa was basically a simple prep he expected a dressed up pilaf. I had made quinoa before so I set about improving on the basic pilaf with a middle eastern bent of sweet curry, golden raisins and some toasted pine nuts. Normally I bite the bullet and go to Whole Foods for high quality ingredients and since I had quinoa in the pantry I went to the local grocery and grabbed some golden raisins and pine nuts. The local store has recently added a "Health Food" section with the ubiquitous bulk bins of grains, rices, nuts and the like. So suspected that the ingredients would be fresh and a step up. On a monday I made a nice quinoa pilaf with curry, raisins and pine nuts. Delicious, and quite well received by my wife. As usual we had leftovers and the next day I found myself approaching leftover pilaf/risotto the way I always do. A cup of leftover pilaf, an egg and some breadcrumbs voila a browned patty with some aoli and great lunch. Well on wednesday, the next day, I got up and made myself some toast and coffee. With the first bite of toast I experienced a horrid, bitter taste that almost made me gag. I assumed the bread, which I had made two days before, was bad. I rinsed my mouth out with water. I took a drink of my coffee, I experienced an immediate repeat of the awful taste sensation. After tasting several different raw vegetables with similar results I began to run down the possibilities. With my medical backround I went to the differential diagnosis for acute changes of taste sensation. 1) Brain Tumor, 2) Liver failure and 3) Some weird metabolic disease. None of these possibilities were particularly heartening so I turned to the source of all knowledge, "The Internet". After googling "Acute Taste Alteration" I received several returns that immediately pointed to a very recent phenomenon connected to the ingestion of pine nuts. Very few cases reports were from the US, the oldest one I could find was in mid April of this year, most seemed to have occurred starting last year in Europe and seemed to be related to new sourcing of pine nuts from China. A scientist from Britain speculates that it either related to rancidity of the triglycerides or some basic difference in chinese pine nuts. He seems to have ruled out heavy metal or some other toxic cause. Onset is up to three days after ingestion and it seems to persist for 1-3 weeks. Mine lasted one week. My wife was not affected. Research is ongoing. The grocery chain that I bought the pine nuts at has a nutritionist on staff and I sat down with her to explain my story and she states that she has not had any other reports. Anyone else?

Well, unless we're related I don't think he made it up. My mom (born and raised in rural Montana) also called this a One Eyed Egyptian Sandwich. When I started reading this thread and didn't see anyone else mentioning that name, I assumed she'd made it up, but then turned to Google and found a recipe under that name here. ← Thank you KD. My dad grew up in rural Western Colorado. I had a suspicion that there was a history to this name. Still make them to this day. I can cook virtually any cuisine but these are what my grown kids want on Sunday morning.

Boy, is this ever a blast from my childhood. My culinary challenged father would make us this breakfast about once a month (other than a random attempt at grilling it was his only effort toward cooking) and he called it a "One Eyed Egyptian Sandwich". The fact that no one else has come up with this name vindicates my suspicion that he made up the name out of whole cloth. I've got some wonderful homemade Pullman bread and free range eggs and I know what I'm having for breakfast tomorrow.

While I am very reluctant to enter this discussion, I feel there are important points that need to be made to the general public about food "allergies". As is pointed out in the referenced post, a food "allergy" is a very specific and life threatening situation. On the other hand a food "intolerance" runs the gamut from "not feeling right" to consistent nausea and vomiting when exposed to the specific food product. And while food intolerances are certainly nothing to make light of they do not even come close to rising to the severity of the analyphlatic response of a food allergy. The shotgun approach of immunoglobulin testing while "the best we have to offer" is far from perfect. It is obvious that your friend is not "allergic" to eggs and milk, she may however certainly be intolerant of them. I wish her well and hope she finds a happy relationship with her diet.

Alton Brown was talking about presliced mushrooms on one of his "Good Eats" shows, something like "convenience rarely makes for a better tasting product." Then he walked over and slapped the snot out of Sandra Lee.

But the whole point to sous vide/low temp is to both avoid the Caldarium and the Vomitorium! (I know I'm mis-using "Vomitorium" (it's the break in the grandstands through which the gladiators/footballers run onto the field) but I couldn't resist a little really bad architecture humor.) On the point of the fish tank system: as long as you are pre-heating the water that's going into the tank, why not pre-heat the food on the stove also to avoid stressing the heaters when cold bags go in? I'm thinking that if you're doing a long cook, then warming the food/bags in a pot on the stove a few degrees below the target temp would take care of most of the temperature drop when they go into the tank. Also, if the system is having problems with overshoot, you could easily remove some of the insulation from the sides of the tank. (Besides, the best part of using a tank would be that you could see and photograph the bags hanging in the water surrounded by bubbles!) Personally, I just bought a new probe thermometer to try some veggies on the stove top. Chadzilla has some interesting posts on potatoes cooked in the 83C range for 40min to 2h. I think I can handle babysitting a pot for an hour or so! He's saying that at 83C, the starch breaks down, but you still have some crispness from the pectins. I'm going to cube up some Yukon Golds (dunno - 1/2" cubes?) and I'm thinking of olive oil+salt+pepper to start. Anyone have any other veggie suggestions? ← Be careful with the olive oil the 83 degree standard veg temp is one of the higher sous vide temps. Some posters have suggested that you can get some funky tastes. The potato texture is interesting. A little crisp (the remaining pectins), an interesting sweetness (starches to sugars) but definitely cooked through. Someone suggested that 83 degrees celsius is the standard for all veggies. Practice your knife skills and see if you can get a consistent 1/2" dice. I used a little Penzey's smoked paprika, very tasty.

If volume and price are significant issues why not use a Roaster. Presto makes a 18 quart model that is always on sale at less than $40. I have never had any problems controlling at standard auto tune PID with a Sous Vide Magic. Cooked everything from salmon to 72 hr. short ribs with total temp control. I use a rice cooker for most short cooks, but when you need to cook for several folks, Presto Roaster and a rib rack (to separate the bags) are hard to beat.

The temperature granularity isn't all you'll need to worry about. Of more interest would be the distribution of heat. Rice cookers are ideal as they tend to have been designed to have a more even heat distribution because of the nature of what is being cooked. For high temperature frying, this is not as much of a consideration and hence not part of their design. There will also likely be more heat loss from the fryer as they are not typically as well insulated as rice cookers, which are made to hold rice as well as cook it. As a consequence, there will be more heating and cooling, meaning that there is a good possibility of heat differential across the item that is being cooked. It will also use more energy because of the requirement for additional heating. Bottom line, it could most likely be done but you will need: 1. a very good circulator, and 2. to be very careful setting the PiD parameters. You can get a rice cooker for the same price you have quoted for the deep-fat fryer. It is what a lot of us use for sous vide. I suppose your decision is how much you want the other use of the appliance (ie. deep-frying or cooking rice) in addition to using it for Sous Vide. ← If it's volume and cost that are your issues try an el cheapo Rival roaster. 18 quart, under $40 and with a ten dollar aquarium circulator I haven't had any problems maintaining a temp with a Sous Vide Magic unit. I've cooked everything from fish to 72 hr Short Ribs.