bmdaniel

This is good if you put a chive in the middle of the roll

I'm going to try to make a homemade version this year; for the sauce, I'm going to make something similar to Keller's Beef Stroganoff sauce in ad hoc at home; that's probably one of my favorite things out of that book and I think it will work well with the casserole.

WOW what a great thing to know! Thank you. Is one kind of potato better to use that another? I often use a mixture of waxy (red or yellow) with your basic Russet to get the consistency I want but I do this mostly to avoid that "glue" effect. EDIT: Thanks for the link to the potato primer. I will read it all. I never met a potato I didn't like! That primer may have been the first thing to bring me to eGullet - it's spectacular, and the mashed potatoes work great.

Has anyone done the retrograde starch mashed potatoes sous vide? I've always just done them with a pot and a thermometer, but it would be simpler to bag a bunch of potato slices and do them in the waterbath (at least the first cook, but probably both). Do you think there would be an issue with them being bagged vs. in the water? Is that a good or bad thing?

I think that sounds reasonable; the only issue is that I would prefer to pasteurize them if I can without a significant degradation in quality (I really don't want to poison my breastfeeding wife) - that's really what led me to 60C for 50 mins. I would love to hear if anyone has tried that and not turned their shrimp to mush or overcooked?

Here's my plan for 6 adults - Appetizers: Shrimp Remoulade Sriracha Devilled Eggs Cream Cheese with Pepper Jelly Main Course: Red wine/port braised dark meat Sous Vide Roulade of Breast with Truffle Turkey Mousse (both turkey dishes shamelessly stolen from Sam Kinsey) Honeybaked Ham (wife insists) Sides: Robuchon Pomme Puree Glazed Carrots Green Bean Casserole (with homemade cream of mushroom knockoff and frizzled onions) Dorie Greenspan Brioche Rolls Macaroni and Cheese Bacon wrapped cornbread dressing roll (also stolen from slk), featuring Fifi's cornbread recipe and some Ruhlman breakfast sausage in the dressing Cranberry sauce Desserts: Apple crisp (sister bringing) Cooks Illustrated Pumpkin Cheesecake Drinks: Regent's Punch with appetizers Siduri Pinot with the meal (not sure which) We are hosting thanksgiving at our place with our 5 week old baby, so trying to do as much as possible in advance. Hopefully on thanksgiving day itself it will just be throw rolls in the oven, throw roulade and dressing in circulator, glaze off the carrots, and finish off the mac and cheese and green bean casseroles in the oven.

Question on shrimp (apologize if I missed something similar upthread) - I am planning on serving shrimp remoulade as a starter for thanksgiving; ideally what I'd like to do is SV poach the shrimp the day before, and just toss the whole bag in the fridge (after ice bath) to serve cold the next day. I was probably going to go for about 50 min at 60C with a little oil and maybe some flavoring. Any suggestions/thoughts? Do you think the shrimp will hold up well the next day with this treatment? Any other ideas on cooking temp/time (I've never done shrimp SV and never done any seafood in advance)

I'd read this thread:

Kenji Lopez-Alt actually had an interesting food myths post on serious eats where he discussed that the amount of oil absorbed is directly proportional to frying temperature (at least in the context of French fries), but that they seem less greasy the higher the temperature.

Put the bag in boiling water for 20 min to reheat - will destroy any botulism toxin.

Steamed half and half, one equal one sweet and low. Not interested in regular milk. (cold half and half is fine for drip coffee, can make do with only equal, but that's it)

I'm very surprised by how brown those look at 60c; I think your problem is the 3 minutes in the deep fryer (although 55c would be better too). A torch is a worthwhile investment here.

Hate to disagree, but we ate at Biga a month or so ago and thought it was truly mediocre. I wish I could tell you a great place to go, but we didn't find one in the weekend we were there.

Rico - Your picture looks very nice, but I am not sure how I feel about a Texan posting a picture of chili with beans.

I was thinking about this today and had a question - on garlic infused oil, what about infusing with garlic and then removing the garlic and ensuring that the oil goes to a sufficiently high temperature after removal (say 300 degrees). You could use whole cloves to ensure adequate removal. I am not planning to eat any garlic infused oil that wasn't freshly prepared (don't use much in the first place), but was curious about this from a theoretical perspective.

Tried Louie Muller's for the first time this weekend on the way to San Antonio; the barbecue was obviously well made (on par with the best Lockhart places or Snow's) but the rub was just too peppery for my wife and I. We are not great lovers of black pepper and I think you have to be to appreciate this barbecue.

So does washing the potato help or is it similar to chicken?

General commentary on Tender and Uyeda would also be greatly appreciated (especially so since my planned trip to Japan and Tender got unfortunately cancelled).

I wonder what would happen if you sealed a bag of water in a chamber vac and then froze?

I err towards fish in that situation, just because you get to eat it that night. Fish is probably underrepresented in our cooking in general, because we are more once a week shoppers and so tend towards proteins that don't mind some time in the fridge.

I did grilled/smoked chicken halves in the Weber tonight - unfortunately no pictures, but brined the whole chicken for about 2.5 hours in 7% brine, then dried and rubbed (sweet and smoked paprika, garlic powder, homemade garam masala, ancho chili powder, dried oregano, sumac, and a little more salt). Cooked indirect at about 420 on the grill with apple/chicken smoke, then finished over the coals. Skin could've been crispier; I waited till about 165 on the thighs to put them over the coals and probably should've moved them sooner. Chicken was very juicy though with nice smoke flavor and the rub was nice (the garam masala made it smell a little christmasy, but flavor was good). How long are people doing the skin direct in this kind of preparation? The thighs crisped up pretty nicely, so I'm a little concerned that the skin there would've been over if I had given it much more time. Served it with a wilted spinach salad with bacon dressing - I never have great luck with trying to make the dressing in the pan, and end up with a pretty sad emulsion. I think next time I'll deglaze with the vinegar, then move to a bowl and hit with the immersion.

I am sorry to keep harping on this, but as an avid user of sous-vide cooking methods this kind of stuff (e.g. the categorization of low-oxygen cooking as russian roulette) is something I worry about. Obviously, food safety is an important issue and any discussion of these techniques should mention simple care procedures that minimize risk (although I don't for instance see similar posts on the grilled chicken cook-off, even though the incidence of salmonella poisoning is about 70 times higher than botulism). Having said that, a little perspective on the issue might be helpful. The CDC reports that there are about 20 cases of food-borne botulism reported per-year across the US, with a 3-5% fatality rate (i.e. on average less than one person dies of botulism in the entire US, per year). About 250 people get struck by lightning each year, and about 80 die. About 34,000 people die each year in car crashes. I greatly encourage people to make duck confit - it is delicious. Make sure you exercise a modicum of care about refrigerating and/or freezing if you intend to store it (just like you should exercise care to properly cook and store meats, clean work surfaces, etc.). Don't worry that you are indulging in Russian Roulette by eating tasty duck. http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/divisions/dfbmd/diseases/botulism/ http://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/prevguid/m0052833/m0052833.asp http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5510a1.htm#tab1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year ETA: Sorry, made a mistake above (outbreaks vs. cases in Salmonella). Salmonella is actually 840x more prevalent, with 20x as many deaths per year.

The above highlighted text is substantially more valuable and less-fearmongering than your initial post. The only misleading information I have read in this thread to-date is your blanket assertion that refrigerating confits is a "good way" to cultivate botulism toxin. A reminder to be vigilant about refrigerator temps is always useful as well. Trying to scare people away from making confit, less so.

I am very skeptical that there is any scientific basis for the above (in particular the idea that keeping food at refrigerator temperatures is a botulism risk). Do you think botulism toxin is produced at proper refrigerator temperatures? ETA: Maybe put a better way - is there anything to indicate unsafe behavior in the original post? It strikes me as fear-mongering to say that confit preparations are good ways to cultivate botulism rather than saying "just be careful to eat it within a week if refrigerated or throw it in the freezer".

I am pretty sure there were quotes that established that the best overall dish of the day would be the winner (i.e. it didn't have to come out of the dinner service). I think it just happened that way.