Tri2Cook

That makes sense. With the one I linked to, controlling temp up and down should be fine but I'd have to choose with the humidity. Which kinda makes it not all that efficient unless the environment where the chamber is located is pretty constant. I'm leaning towards putting it in my basement which is pretty humid during the warm months and pretty dry during the cold months with the temp being fairly stable... so the controller would actually be almost opposite of what I'll probably need.

Just out of curiosity, because I've been bouncing the idea of a curing chamber around in my head for a while now, is what you're doing a better setup than something like this (which is what I was planning to use) or is it more for the satisfaction of the DIY? I think it's really cool that you're working out the setup you want/need yourself but I'm probably not as inclined to make the effort if something like what I linked to will work.

We have a 2-speed exhaust and a thermostat controlled makeup heater at work. When the exhaust is on low, the air makeup stays off. On high it kicks in and we can control the temp via the thermostat. But this in Ontario, Canada... I don't have any idea if it would fly anywhere else. I know that heater is essential and sometimes bordering on insufficient when it's 30 or 40 below zero.

Yes-ish... but not really. That makes a nice spun sugar for decorating but it's not much like eating cotton candy. This should get you in the ballpark for the general technique using fat-based flavors. A little tweaking would probably get it to work with non fat-based flavors. The technique Lisa describes does work and, if you're quick enough, can get some really fine strands but it's still not even close to what you get from a machine. Even the cheap home "toy" machines will give a much better result than doing it by hand if you're looking for soft, fluffy cotton candy like you would buy.

Is that mold available online somewhere? I tried every variation I could think of in google and got nothing.

Exactly. Occasionally you get one that develops an intense sense of entitlement based simply on the fact that they dine at a place frequently... but I find that to be very much the minority. Feedback on food quality should be taken seriously regardless of how often a person eats in the place. Even if you 100% know they're incorrect, if it's not right to them, that's what they're going to tell others.

Absolutely. I'm not suggesting people shouldn't follow what is considered proper procedures. I've just taken liberties with certain techniques over the years and not had problems as a result. Sometimes it was by mistake, just not paying attention. Sometimes it was looking for more streamlined ways to do things. When something results in equal or better quality while saving some time, I hold on to it. But I also accept that there is probably a reason most of the warnings/techniques exist and won't be mad at anybody other than myself if I have a failure. In other words, I'm not suggesting anyone pay much attention to what I say.

I don't wash down the sides and I'm not at all delicate with the pot, I actually swirl it quite vigorously once it really starts to color. I don't add glucose unless the specific recipe I'm using calls for it. I've yet to have crystallization issues. Then again, I've never had trouble getting egg whites to whip perfectly well even if a drop or two of yolk gets in the bowl. I think some of the precautions exist in the interest of "better safe than sorry" and aren't necessarily as big an issue in practice as they're reputed to be.

Exactly the reason I tend towards wet. For the simple fact that I can start it and get quite a bit done with other things while it does it's thing then come back to it when it starts sounding like the water's cooked out. I don't think dry is any more difficult or time consuming, just more demanding of attention right from the start.

Made the pear and almond cake Kerry posted here. Didn't bother with a picture, it looks exactly like the ugly stepsister to her perfect cake. After 70 min. I got impatient, said "it has to be done by now" and pulled it despite thinking the whole time that it was still a little too loose in the center. It needed maybe another 5 min. or so that it didn't get... which resulted in the center sinking fairly significantly as it cooled. Very tasty though. I want to try it with cherries instead of pears.

There's not a large selection of varieties available where I live so I usually use a mix of Granny Smith and McIntosh.

I don't think so. I think we just sometimes forget within the safe confines of the eGullet forums that the vast majority of people are going to bars and drinking Sex On The Beach and Porn Stars, not going to craft establishments and drinking a whiskey sour with organic lemons that only grow on a small patch of soil in a secret location next to a Guatemalan insane asylum while being nurtured by a lactating fruit bat. Their loss of course...

I'd start with 1, maybe 2 if you really like the aroma (because that's what it's pretty much gonna taste like). I had my fun with them but haven't used them in a few years and still have a sealed bag of them in the cabinet that I may never use. In the category of food items that come with a warning, I find the flavor from using cherry pits much more to my liking than the flavor from tonka beans (I'm not suggesting they're at all similar, just both in the "potentially dangerous" category). I've decided tonka beans, at least the tonka beans I have experience with, are a bit on the perfumey side for my liking. Maybe I just prefer cyanide over coumarin?

Sometimes extruded paste is good... just depends on the paste.

The grind shouldn't be a problem, they will be completely emulsified into a paste. The bologna will be a paste of beef and pork. The mortadella will be a similar paste but all pork and different seasonings with blanched fat cubes, black peppercorns and pistachios mixed in after emulsifying the paste.

Yeah, I'm going to cook it right after making it. And it's going to be 4" diameter no matter how I go about it. I've never done the cook for any type of sausage sous vide but I'm not planning on smoking these so it seemed like a good option. With something like this, would I be better off setting the bath to the finish temp or setting it higher and keeping a close watch on the internal temp? I may have to buy that SV Dash app...

I'm pretty new to this sausage-making thing but according to what I've read, the idea behind ramping the temp up over time is supposed to help with not melting out the fat. It's been a while since I read that but now that you mention it, I'm thinking maybe the idea was to allow more time for the smoke without risking melting the fat out and then bringing it up to finish temp for as brief a time as possible. That makes more sense.

That works for me. Thanks! First time making either of these items so I just going to follow the recipes which suggested 160 F. If I'm better off going to 140 F I'm fine with that. Thanks! Thanks! The diameter isn't really negotiable on this one, I already purchased the 105 mm (~4") fibrous casings for this project but that answers my question about ramping up the temp. Just out of curiosity, is ramping the temp over time somehow more risky with sous vide or are we just taking our chances when we do it in the smoker?

Assuming a person doesn't have a probe that can be inserted into the vacuum bag to monitor temp, how would you determine a time for bringing a 5 lb. homemade bologna or mortadella (105 mm x ~61 cm) up to 160 F internal? I'm pretty sure this would be a case where longer is not better and I'd be shooting for a minimum time that would still assure that it's safe to eat without further cooking. I'm not opposed to checking with a thermometer and bagging again to cook longer if needed but would like to minimize the number of times I'd have to do that so I'm trying to come up with a close starting point. Also, would it be beneficial to drop them in a cold bath and ramp them up to temp along with the water? Similar to bringing up the temp in stages when doing them in a smoker.

I'm using these. They're listed as "for water cooking and head cheese". I'm fine with bagging though, just thought I'd ask in case it was unnecessary.

Not sure if I should ask this here or in a sous vide thread but I'm gonna go with here. If I want to cook a bologna sous vide, does it have to be bagged in addition to the fibrous casing (the casings I bought are listed as "for water cooking")? I've seen things cooked directly in the bath without bagging but I always assumed it probably wasn't the best idea. I'm thinking sous vide would be the easiest way to keep from going too high with the temp but bagging it would have to be a delicate procedure to keep from crushing it while still uncooked. Maybe just use a big ziplock and the dunk-it-in-water-to-remove-air method?

Got some 105 mm x 61 cm fibrous casings today. I think I'm going to try making bologna and mortadella. Also got about 160' of shirred cellulose casing. Gonna give skinless hotdogs a try.

Sounds good to me. Thanks!

Digging this one up to ask a question from the department of cheapness. In a fit of excitement, when I got a meat grinder for Christmas last year, I ordered an overabundance of sausage making supplies. Now, almost 11 months later, I have two remaining unopened, constantly refrigerated packages of hog casings. Since they don't smell like sunshine and roses when brand-new, how do I know if they're still okay to use? I ordered a few more supplies over the weekend including some more casings (I'm giving the tubed version a try this time despite the higher cost) but, in the interest of waste not, want not, I'll use up the other casings first if they're still safe.

I'd definitely go for a blue cheese shortbread with fig preserves... that sounds awesome.