Chris Hennes

Here are some eG-friendly links to the Searzall and accoutrements at Amazon.com (US): Booker & Dax Labs Searzall Bernzomatic TS8000 - High Intensity Trigger Start Torch Coleman Propane Fuel

I second the brussels sprouts idea. A brussels sprout gratin reheats very well.

Last night I cubed the rest of the shoulder and scrap for later use: Today, after 24 hours of a wet cure via the salt-box method, I rinsed, dried, wine-rubbed, and re-peppered the coppa: I also rinsed, dried, and wine-rubbed the Spalla: These are getting dry-cured in my (still-in-process) curing chamber, constructed from a compressor-cooled mini fridge controlled via an Arduino using the DHT22 temperature/humidity sensor. The wooden box beneath it houses a humidifier that it turns out is not currently necessary. The chamber is at 15°C and 60%RH. Obviously eventually I'll clean this up and integrate the control circuitry into a more permanent board and enclosure, but I'm still playing around with it. Here's the interior: You can see the sensor and a small fan on the top rack, and just barely make out the large hole drilled in the bottom as an inlet for the humidifier.

Yes, there is significantly more fat. Part of this is that the hogs were slaughtered a couple weeks later than normal, however, so I don't know how much of it was diet.

This fall I had the opportunity to buy half a hog from a local cheese producer who raised three hogs as a sort of side project. The hogs were pastured and their diet supplemented with whey leftover from the cheesemaking process. (Image courtesy of Wagon Creek Creamery) The hogs were slaughtered a few weeks ago: I asked the butcher to "leave mine in the largest pieces you are willing to deal with." On the order sheet this got translated to "cut in half" so I wound up with two quarters split between ribs 12 and 13. I'm basing the following work on Ruhlman and Polcyn's Salumi using the Italian hog breakdown. I started by thawing the front half of the hog: I split the spine at rib 7: The rear section was then partitioned into a few ribs (I'll just eat these fresh), a chunk of the loin, and a chunk of belly that I cut in half width-wise to give one chunk for Pancetta Tessa and another for American-style bacon: (Salt and black pepper) (Rosemary, juniper, black pepper, garlic, bay, salt) (Modernist Cuisine cure, unmodified) Next I moved to the front of the hog and cut off the ribs to give better access: Next the coppa came off and into a standard salt and black pepper cure: Once the coppa was off I took a portion of the shoulder and boned for Spalla (salt and black pepper): I harvested a couple more kilograms of belly for bacon. The remainder of the front (about 50% by weight) is chilling again before being ground for a number of other cured salami products. I did eat a chop for lunch: the pork is delicious.

Yes, it seems quite sensitive to the angle you hold it at: it's hard to judge the angle from your position holding it normally, but keeping the screen close to parallel to the ground seems to actually me to be a shallower angle than I was expecting.

I have toasted bread quite a few times now: keep the torch close and moving quite quickly over the surface and you can get very even browning. I've also been refining my bratwurst technique, letting the guard just graze over the brat while seeping the torch back and forth. It probably takes about 60 seconds to sear them uniformly now that I'm getting the hang of it. I've also been broiling peanut butter on toast, which is great, and not something I'd ever considered doing before I had the Searzall.

This talk of brats made me hungry, so I went and picked up a package for lunch. I cooked one in a water bath to a a core temp of 140°F and then hit it with the Searzall. Here's the video (sped up 6x) showing that it took three minutes to reach my preferred level of browning. I wasted some time at the beginning getting a feel for the appropriate torch distance, so it would probably take an experienced Searzall user more like 2:30 or so. (Higher-resolution video is available at YouTube)

Fascinating, those times seem completely crazy to me. I have not used it on proteins at all, but I feel like I've broiled everything else in the house this week! I'm using the TS8000 and I'm quite sure that if I put something under it for four minutes the food would literally be reduced to ashes. I've broiled bread, chips, cheese, potato, and peanut butter, and none took more than about 30 seconds to reach a dark brown stage. Slower than a naked torch, but faster than a broiler. Out of curiosity, when using the naked torch how long does browning your items take?

It would add steps to the manufacturing process, increasing the cost and complexity of the unit. I don't see that telling you to do a "dry run" of the torch for two minutes is particularly onerous.

The Searzall gets very hot (obviously): you cannot set that extra large superheated torch head down on any normal surface so you'd have to just keep holding it while it cooled. This seems like a recipe for disaster to me. You'll also find that because the flame is so much more diffuse, the additional control your setup affords you is not as necessary as with a bare torch. Just tell yourself it's an upper arm workout . This is one case where I would not toy with any of the various warranty-voiding strategies one might ordinarily be tempted into.

They are very specific now: only the TS8000 and TS4000 are officially supported, no exceptions. And I would definitely not use a torch with a flexible hose with the Searzall, under any circumstances.

I just made nachos with it so I could get some action shots. I progressively turned down the lights to emphasize the flame: Roughly "natural" light, the way it looked to my eyes as I was cooking: The overhead turned down by half and the exposure time increased to emphasize the flames: Lights out completely, all light from the torch:

Mine shipped from Nevada. Apparently there are some advantages to living in the middle of the country .

It's more like a hand-held salamander now, rather than a super-high-intensity torch. The heat is spread over a much wider area, making control far easier than a bare torch. I haven't used it for anything real, just playing, but so far, so good. It's what I was expecting based on the product descriptions anyway. I'm a bit surprised by how "flamey" it is. Maybe there is still some residual burn-off occurring, but right now there are flames licking around the sides, at least in low-light conditions where you can see such things.

For completeness, here are a couple shots of my Searzall after it has been burned in (the initial two-minute burn designed to burn off the solvents in the insulation and add an oxide layer to the screens). As you can see from the first photo, no amount of design prowess on their part was going to make this look like anything other than a hardware-store torch with a camping tank attached, so I think the utilitarian look works just fine all things considered.

Now that the product is actually starting to arrive in our hands, it's clear that they only recommend the TS4000 and TS8000. Whether for liability reasons or for some genuine problem with the other torches it's not clear, but they only want you using the TS4000 or TS8000 heads and the 16.2 oz propane tanks. No MAPP, no smaller tanks, etc.

It's a thought, but I'm concerned it would add too much flavor. I'm trying to keep things light to make sure the taste of the shrimp is front and center.

That's a good idea, I'll give that a shot. For completeness, here's a photo of the non-spicy version (no radish, kimchee, or gochujang, and a little hoisin added in its place):

OK, so here was today's strategy: I went to the local megamart and found three possible contenders for the base of the app. Ideally I wanted something shaped like a bowl, but choices were limited, so I branched out to include a rice cracker (the app flavors are inspired by dolsot bibimbap so that seemed appropriate). Here were the choices I had: I figured that any decent grocery store would have these, or something equivalent, so availability at the wedding site would be a non-issue. The shrimp were brined in a 1% salt 1% sugar solution overnight, then cooked sous vide at 60°C for 40 minutes (as a side note, the shrimp were excellent cooked like this, though I might increase the salt to 1.5% next time since they are served cold). I cut small rounds of lettuce to act as a barrier, and then made a filling using chopped shrimp, Chinese radish, carrots, cabbage kimchee, cilantro, and a lightly-applied sauce of gochujang, soy sauce, and rice wine vinegar. I then topped with a larger piece of shrimp. The overall effect is only a little spicy, so workable for anyone who enjoys mildly spicy foods. I put a few hot-looking pepper slices on there to warn off anyone who doesn't do spicy (e.g. my mother). Here they are as prepped: Rice cracker version: Potato crisp version: Tostitos scoops version: As an initial cut, flavor-wise I liked the rice cracker the best, then the Tostitos, then the potato crisp. They were all acceptable, but the potato crisp was a bit of an odd flavor combo, and not as successful as the other two. Texture-wise the Tostitos were the best, and the easiest to plate and eat. Next, I put two of each variety in the fridge, uncovered. After three hours, I tried them again. The whole set after three hours: Rice cracker after 3 hours: Potato crisp after 3 hours: Tostitos after 3 hours: After three hours, the rice cracker was the same as it had been at t=0, as near as I could tell, with basically no degradation in the refrigerator. The other two were still crisp, but were starting to lose their crispness near the middle. Not unacceptably so, but enough to give the rice crackers the edge. Next, the last three went back in the fridge for three more hours. Rice cracker after 6 hours: Potato crisp after 6 hours: Tostitos after 6 hours: The results were much the same as the three-hour mark, with the rice cracker staying completely crisp and the other two softening in the middle. Winner: rice cracker. Storing them uncovered did result in a matte finish on the shrimp by the six hour mark, which aesthetically was not as nice as when fresh (though the poor low-light photographs make them look worse than they did in person). One possible solution is to plate the final piece of shrimp just before service, only prepping the bases and salad ahead. I'm not entirely sure how the timing is going to work out at the event, but with only ~100 portions that should not take too long if everything is prepped and ready to go. Any advice for me? Does this test make sense? Am I forgetting anything?

Plan B is to use a different type of cup, but the same fillings (I'm making two: my sister is Korean, so I'm going to do one with a gochujang base as well as a more traditional version). I'm playing with them right now, so I should have some more info later on today.

Yeah, those prices are in Singapore Dollars, not USD . No sign that you can purchase from them.

OK, I've decided to go with the Kueh Pie Tee, that seems like a perfect fit. However, a visit to my local Asian megamart came up empty-handed. Where can I buy the shells? Is there an online source that anyone is aware of?

I own some. It's cheaper than parchment where I live, and I use it to make disposable funnels, mostly. I don't remember the last time I used it for anything else.

Got a recipe? My wife loves the stuff.