Chris Hennes

Chad- I notice in your presentation on slicing an onion you make your second cuts by pressing down on the onion with your palm and cutting from the tip of the onion to the root straight in, using the flat part of the knife. I recently switched to using the tip of the knife to sweep through the onion side-to-side to make this cut, having observed various television chefs doing it this way. With a sharp knife (a given, I should hope!) it seems to go a little faster. Do you have any particular reason for the technique you present, or is it pure personal preference?

I use charcoal for two reasons, neither of which has anything to do with flavor. First, the upfront cost was lower and I was feeling broke at the Lowe's that day. Second, because I enjoy grilling over charcoal. I admit, I am something of a "method man," that is, I enjoy the process of cooking as much as the result. I have certainly been known to over-complicate cooking projects, and this knowledge does not bother me: I like cooking. There is something very Neanderthal about tossing a big steak on a pile of burning embers, and I am quite fond of it. It helps that the results taste good, of course, but if they tasted exactly the same as with gas, I'd still choose charcoal because I think it's more fun .

Thanks for the info: it was indeed Kramer and Carter's knives I was eyeing (though Bob Kramer is not taking orders at the moment: I get the feeling his business exploded after his mention in some popular magazines. He has a three-year backlog, according to his website). I was thinking of the knife almost more like a work of art than just a tool, at least that's how I was trying to justify the expense to my wife! There are indeed some wonderful "faux-Damascus" knifes out there, and given Kramer's backlog I may end up going with one of those instead, so thanks for the recommendation.

Chad, thanks for writing this book: I have three knife books at the moment and this one is by far the most readable, and contains the most practical information. I especially appreciate the "knife myths" section: I was aware of some of them, but you articulate them so well I am trying to memorize your arguments to use every time I have to hear some random cooking-store clerk try to tell me that I absolutely must buy (full tang, drop forged, Wüstof, etc.). My (first!) question is about damascus steel: it is my understanding that in modern practice there is no particular advantage in terms of hardness, resilience, etc. but that the knives do tend to cut differently due to the slightly different edge that the damascus takes after sharpening. Is this correct? Do you own any of these blades and have an opinion of them? They are certainly beautiful, but are they practical?

Well, to get back to the main complaint about the title of the book, "pressure" is completely incidental to sous vide cooking, which has nothing whatsoever to do with pressure. We use pressure as a tool to remove air from a bag: the bag being the only barrier between the food and the water is the real point. So while sorta clever, the title is also sorta absurd. That won't stop me from buying the book, but it will give me something to complain about when it arrives .

Allow me to second the vote for "food enthusiast." I have at various times in my life come close to deciding to kick this engineering gig to the curb and go to culinary school, but it keeps occurring to me that I can cook as a hobby: it's tough to be an engineer as a hobby (at least, the kind of engineering I do!). So, I work 40 hours a week as an engineer, from a home office, even, and have plenty of time to cook. Obviously not at the level of a restaurant chef, but enough to keep me entertained. And the nice thing about cooking being a hobby is that when you are sick of making item X, you just say, "okay, moving on, not gonna make X tonight!" Plus, I have enough time to spend an inordinate amount of it here at the eGullet forums! Don't get me wrong, being a professional cook is the right job for a lot of people, but don't think that just because you love food and cooking that becoming one yourself is the only way to go. I wouldn't survive a day in a pro kitchen!

Kerry, I'm confused as well. It's an ordinary inkjet printer. What is special about their conversion kit or software? Why can't you just buy edible ink in cartridges and then print anything you want? What does their software do? Because really, I'd rather use Adobe Illustrator to make patterns than anything else...

Knives are at stake?!? Get out the Sawzall, the cabinets have got to go!!

The article is Park, Dong-Kyoo, Gabriel Bitton, and Richard Melker. 2006. Microbial inactivation by microwave radiation in the home environment. J. Environ. Health. You can view a video report at the University of Florida's website.

Welcome to curing! Bacon and Duck Prosciutto are excellent places to start. As for the firmness of bacon, I think it is difficult to describe, especially since I don't know how large your piece of belly is. I find that it still feels basically like raw meat, so it doesn't get firm like a dry-cured sausage (or your prosciutto) will. A half belly will bend some when held by one end, but it's not floppy. I actually usually cure a little longer than seven days, with no ill effects. Frankly, your bacon will taste pretty good even if you don't hit that "sweet spot" so I'd be inclined to go 5-6 days, then try it out. If it's not done enough for your liking, next time give it a little longer. Can you tell us how large the piece is that you are trying do cure? As for wood, I am usually able to buy it in the grilling section of my grocery store: have you looked near the charcoal to see if yours carries it? Otherwise, I'm sure there are a number of online sources (I'd be willing to bet you can get it through Amazon...).

I believe it is in the brining, in that it does not seem localized to the breading. In the CFA, all the flavor is the breading, the rest is just typical white meat chicken. McDs has done something to that chicken, which I assume is a brine, or injection, or something, and there is some kind of vinegar flavor in there. "Pickle" may be too strong, since it doesn't necessarily have that spice combination, but it seems to me that there is a distinct, if subtle, vinegar flavor.

It will be interesting to see if it makes it in. Do you happen to know if they do any truly "under-vacuum" cooking at The French Laundry or Per Se? I wouldn't expect Keller to cover it if he didn't have a great deal of personal experience.

Exactly. Now of course, keep in mind that once the bag is conforming to the food, the food is acting like a rigid body (i.e. it can resist the force applied) and you can, if there is air inside the food, drop the pressure inside the food below atmospheric, if the food does not collapse (or, remove the air to cause it to collapse). For example, imagine doing a whole chicken SV: the rib cage could resist collapse and if dropped the pressure inside the body of the chicken, the whole chicken would be "under pressure." Of course, that is sort of irrelevant for SV cooking... just random physics babble

This is scientifically incorrect. The air pressure inside and outside the bag are the same. ← Dave, could you explain your reasoning? I'm a social, not a physical, scientist, and my last college physics class was over 40 years ago, but it seems apparent to me that the air pressure is greater outside the bag. ← To quote an explanation from slkinsey over on the main Sous Vide topic,

Blasphemy! I too have done a side by side test when McD introduced their total ripoff around here and the CFA beat it like a red-headed stepchild. ← I would use the phrase "inspired by CFA" instead of "rip-off of CFA" but the sandwiches are darn near identical. Except the SSC tastes better... I'm curious about why you liked the CFA better: I wonder if for me it was just over-sold. So many people seem to be raving about it, especially since the McD SSC came out, that perhaps my expectations were just too high. But there is no doubt that the SSC was juicier and it had more flavor. After all, it's not like a chicken breast has much taste: you have to add something to it, and McDs is adding more than CFA. I really wanted to like the CFA better, I swear I did, and it is still a good sandwich (as far as fast food chicken is concerned, anyway ).

eGullet is making me fat. Naturally, given the nature of the discussion I was forced, forced I tell you, to eat two chicken sandwiches for lunch today: one from Chick-Fil-A and one from McDonalds. This was not quite a head-to-head competition since they are a five-minute walk from one another so I ate the CFA first, then went to McD and had theirs so as not to handicap CFA due to freshness. Here are my reactions (note that this was my first CFA): Appearance - Virtually identical, with the CFA chicken patty being slightly larger in diameter, but also slightly thinner and less uniform. The breading on the CFA is slightly darker than the McDonalds. McDonalds' packaging is better as it prevents the sandwich from being crushed, lets some moisture escape so the chicken doesn't steam, and it's recyclable besides. Bun - Also virtually identical, each having a soft steamed quality to it, but due to the packaging, the CFA was a bit soggy near the chicken itself. Could be a sandwich freshness issue (the CFA was premade, the McD was assembled to order). Pickles - Both sandwiches had two slices of pickle. The McDonalds pickle seemed to be crisper, but this could be due to the sandwich being fresher . Breading - The darker Chick-Fil-A breading had more (and better) flavor than the McDonalds breading, but the McDonald's breading was crisper. The CFA had some unpleasantly chewy end pieces of breading, whereas the McDonalds had a uniform texture throughout. Chicken - McDonalds' chicken was much moister and more flavorful than the CFA: no contest here. In fact, one might argue that the McD's was unnaturally juicy. This results in a fairly soggy bun once the eating begins, but since the juices are flavorful, with a slight brininess to them that the CFA lacks, I found the McD chicken superior. Of course, if you don't like that brininess, you won't like the sandwich. Where the CFA had pickles on it, the McD seems to have pickle-ness infused into it. I don't know how critical a factor the age of the sandwich was here. As I mentioned, the CFA was premade and prepackaged, so I don't know how old it was, but I was there in the middle of the lunch rush, so my feeling is that turnover was pretty quick. The McD was assembled to order, minimizing bun- and package-time. So, the verdict: as a CFA newbie, unless you can get them super-fresh and that makes a big difference (debatable), I gotta say, I'd pick the McDonald's Southern Style Chicken every time.

I can't speak on the original location, but we've got a pretty new franchise location up here in central PA. I like the burgers: I mean, are they the greatest burger in the known universe? Hardly. But for the price point they are tasty. Using two patties doubles up on the Maillardy goodness is a nice touch, they have a good beefiness to them, they aren't too dry considering they are well done, and I like the buns. But the fries? Not so much. In my opinion their fries are crap: even when super-fresh they are soggy, greasy, and bland. And they give you too many of them besides! Yesterday the kid offered to just give me the whole batch he had fried up, even though I only ordered a small (the place was dead, this is summer in a college town). No thanks!! I have a hard time wrapping my head around those of you who like them: are my fry requirements way off-base here? I want crispy outside, creamy inside, a little salty, and a little savory.

Right. For your case I am getting A = 72.5 sq ft and D=45 deg F. R is a variable, I'll choose 10 ft^2 F hr / Btu arbitrarily for now, which would give you 325 BTU/hr is heat coming into the chamber through your insulation. You need to counteract this heat addition by either using that heat to do work (i.e. to melt ice) or you need to remove the heat using a cooling system. If you are using ice you will need two more equations: one that calculates how much energy it takes to raise the temperature of the ice from whatever your freezer temperature is to 32 deg F, and one that calculates how much energy it takes to convert ice at 32 to water at 32 (melting energy). Theoretically, of course, you could add a third that calculates the energy that it takes to raise the water temp to 35 F, but I'd say that once the ice melts, time to put in a new batch. This calculation will give you the amount of heat that will be added to melt the ice: from this you can calculate how long it will take, based on the BTU/hr calculation, to melt a given mass of ice (by this point we've made quite a few idealizations, but it will give you a rough idea). Et voila! You know how much ice to add and at what frequency to add it to maintain a given temp.

Meanderer, glad you liked Herwigs. They crack me up! While I'm thinking about it, I want to comment on another local restaurant I haven't yet mentioned: Green Bowl (website, map). This place is an "invent your own stir-fry" place, where you go up to what looks like a salad bar, fill up your bowl with stuff, scoop on one or more of their sauces (they have 15-20 on any given day, I would guess), and then hand over your bowl. They stir fry it for you (or they can make it into a soup or a wrap) and bring it to your table. It's pretty hard to fault them for any bad food you have there, since you made the combinations yourself, but they do have a (long) list of suggested sauce combinations on a board behind the counter. The most critical thing to remember when you are at the bar is that you are not making a salad, you are making a stir-fry. It's easy to slip into a salad bar mentality, but you have to remember that all that spinach you filled your bowl with is going to be cooked down to only a few strands! Remember this, and go easy on the sauces, and GB is a great place to enjoy lunch.

f = A * D / R where f is going to be the heat flow through the insulation in Btu/hr, A is the surface area of the insulation in square ft, D is the temperature difference in degrees F, and R is the R value in English units (U.S. standard, ft^2 F hr / Btu). To maintain steady-state (i.e. assuming your chamber and everything in it is already at 35 deg F, your "cooling unit" will need to be capable of removing at least this much heat from the chamber. Of course, if your cooling unit is just a tray of ice, it can't remove any heat from the chamber, and then calculation needs to take into account the thermal mass of the ice, and calculate how long it will take to melt. I will think on that for a while... I'm not sure quite how to proceed.

Good point, Bob. I wasn't even thinking about the seasonal variation in my Scotch-drinking habit, but in the summer I am (almost) loath to come anywhere near an Islay, much as I love them in the colder months. Do you all switch to other cocktails (of the chilled variety) during the summer, or has anyone found the perfect Scotch for 100 degree F weather? ETA: And great analysis, db_campbell: no need to worry about lengthy posts around here! I haven't had the Ardbeg recently, and can't really call to mind any particular impressions of it. As for the Balvenies, I have to admit a certain indifference towards the 15 year, which is the only one I've had. I wouldn't say it was bad, per se, just that it didn't strike me as particularly memorable. Again, perhaps a repeat tasting is in order...

What is your highest expected ambient temperature? The difference between that and the desired locker temperature is the critical factor here. The amount of time spent at that temp is important, too, but I think we can do a back-of-the-envelope estimate based just on temperature.

Well, I'm not Dave, and I have been known to be wrong on occasion but I don't think that aging fresh pork is beneficial to either flavor or texture in the way it is to beef. I have been told by several butchers that there is no point in aging fresh cuts of pork, and that you can basically eat it right away. Assuming that is true, your four day window would best be spent in a brine to up the salt content and moistness of the meat.

I gotta agree with Dave here: the requirements for a refrigerator that can keep a pig cold for four days are quite a bit different than the requirements for a curing chamber. The fridge needs to stay around 35 F, whereas the curing chamber should be between 50 and 60 F. The curing chamber should be at about 75% humidity, but your AC is going to drop it way, way below that. We have a discussion about ideal curing chambers over here for information on that aspect of the project. To create your own refrigerator is a bit different. I also doubt you can keep an air conditioner working reliably at those low temperatures: I suspect that the coils will get ice buildup on them and end up freezing solid, preventing airflow. If I was you, I'd just build a curing chamber, but not try to use it as a temporary refrigerator. Keeping the pig in an ice bath for a few days seems like the way to go. Add some salt and sugar and you you will have a heckuva tasty pig when all is said and done.

The ones here definitely have a briny pickle-ness to them, even when there are no pickles present. I am a sucker for that vinegary flavor profile, so I like it, and I would be happy if they ODed me on pickles!