KennethT

I don't think a hot air curtain would burn skin. I have a large walk-in convection oven at work that I have been in at 275F - I wouldn't want to spend tons of time in there, but certainly it's not dangerous. I'm sure 400F air would be even less comfortable, but because of the really poor heat conductance of air, my gut says it wouldn't burn you.

Being in an apartment in NYC, it's not often we have to think about water. But, as it turns out, my hydroponic gardening uses about 30% of the water used in conventional soil based gardening.

I have this type of setup for most of my spices - but instead of a piece of metal (expensive), I bought a magnetic white board from Staples to stick them to... works very well.

At the time, my vessel was just a large stockpot (All-Clad anodized aluminum (a wedding gift)), uninsulated. Like I said before, my PID controller has a function that displays percent output. So, while the bath is heating and the heating element is on full power, the controller shows 100% - which is 1000W since I was using a 1000W element. As the bath reaches temperature, the controller begins cycling the power to the element. I was most interested in power used once the bath reaches steady state, comparing the covered vs. non-covered values at various temperatures. So, obviously, the covered pot was much more efficient, since it didn't constantly lose temperature due to evaporative cooling - which is much more substantial (depending on bath temperature) than the loss due to radiation/convection with the air around the pot - especially if there is no breeze. Also, keep in mind that in my system, the heater is not submerged in the water, but instead, heats the pot like an electric burner. This type of heating will be less efficient than the submerged type. Anyway, at a bath temp of 185F, the covered pot required an on-cycle of about 20% (200W). An uncovered pot used more than double that amount at that temperature. At 140F, the covered pot required an on-cycle of about 10% (100W), while the uncovered version used about 50% more (150W). At my preferred salmon cooking temp. of 115F (I gradient cook my salmon using SV dash), the covered and uncovered values are practically identical, at about 4-5% (40-50W). I never tested an insulated bath because, at the time, I was designing the circulator with an eye towards production for the mainstream. So, it was designed to look less like lab equipment, and more like a kitchen appliance. How many mainstream people can you imagine wrapping their pot with insulation? And, once I saw the steady state values and compared them to traditional cooking methods, I figured that an extra few percent (meaning maybe 100W max.) would be inconsequential to the eventual marketing. SV, by its nature, is already orders of magnitude more efficient than using your oven. Like pbear said, given enough time, even the best insulation will eventually equilibrate to the bath temperature. But, even though the outside may be warm to the touch, I'd guess that the power outputs would be less than an uninsulated bath. If you think of an analogy to a wetsuit when diving, the outside of the wetsuit will still feel warm, however, the wearer is still significantly warmer wearing it than not. The wetsuit traps water between it and the wearer, and the dead water, once warmed to body temp, doesn't require much more heat to stay at equilibrium. So, let's say you were diving in 50F water - with the suit, you might get uncomfortably cold after about an hour or two (I found this out by experience years ago), but without the suit, you wouldn't last 5 minutes! Paul - in your situation, I wonder if the Reflectix is doing very much, other than limiting evaporative cooling. It might be just as well to use the tight fitting lid without it. Once the air space between the water and lid becomes saturated at 100% humidity, evaporation will stop, assuming there are no leaks where humidity can escape. At a certain point, increasing side insulation is "gilding the lily" so to speak - a lot more effort for not much gain. ETA: Paul - Maybe a way to save a bit more energy would be to wrap the cooler with a reflective surface - like aluminum foil or something to reduce the radiation losses. Having a surface with lower emissivity should help. So then, the primary heat loss would be through convection, which, unless there's a breeze, should be minimal.

In my testing, I've found that most energy loss was through evaporation, so keeping the bath as covered as possible is important. After that, you're right, it comes down to insulation. A well insulated container is not as important when the differential between bath and ambient temp is low. It is more important when cooking at higher temps - like for veggies or confit that mimics traditional confit.

If in Hong Kong, I would suggest LockCha Tea House - located in Hong Kong Park, in Admiralty (Central). It has a great tea selection, on site tea masters, and a very soothing atmosphere. The Hong Kong tourist board also sponsors free tea classes there.

Years ago, I made a few of my own circulators. The PID thermostat I used could display average percent power. Once my bath was up to temperature, depending on temperature, the heater used between 8% and 20% power (8% for a bath temp of 131degF, 20% for 185degF). My bath was just a covered stockpot with no additional insulation, and I used a 1000W heater.

Most UPSs don't have a breaker limited to the UPS limit. In fact, the limit is really only in reference to how much power it can continuously provide during an outage for about 10 minutes. So a 1000W UPS has a much bigger battery which can store and deliver more energy than the 500W UPS. As you drain the battery, it's voltage decreases. There is typically a voltage regulator circuit in the UPS either before or in the inverter stage. So, as the battery voltage decreases, your output voltage stays constant, until it reaches a threshold where it will just shut off. So, you can run 1000W off of a 500W UPS, but it will only last a minute or two. Or you can run 100W off of a 1000W UPS for 20-30 minutes, maybe more. Once the bath reaches temp, the heater draws very little power (maybe 100W) on average. Very short bursts of 1000W look like the average power to the battery.

Right - similar surfaces will read similarly - but, for instance, the refrigerator walls may read differently than a frozen pork loin, or a box of frozen pizza, etc. I know this is OT, but for critical freezing, I use a small, non defrosting chest freezer. It consistently stays at -10F, and a bit colder at the very bottom.

The problem with IR thermometers is that you have to calibrate the emissivity of each surface you measure. Otherwise, your readings could be off by 5 degrees F easily. Also, the temperature of the inside of the cavity (and the food, which is a thermal mass) could be very different from the wall temperature - especially depending on timing, like if the defroster just turned on. I keep my refrig thermometer hanging on a middle rack in the middle of the box, away from the walls, but close to foods with a lot of mass (like a jug of water). I don't open the door very often, so when I do, I get a good idea of the ave temp. In the freezer, it sits practically buried in a pile of food, away from the walls. Just my .02

How do you use a pressure cooker to make sticky rice? I am assuming that by "sticky rice" you mean glutinous rice, which is typically soaked for several hours and then steamed for about 15 minutes.

David Bouley used to talk about using Wondra when frying practically everything. Fish, scallops, chicken, etc.

Sorry, I didnt see that. I had a similar situation, but I guess Igot lucky - they toldme to ship it back and they fixed it for free.

I would call KR - I found their cust. service very good when I had a problem with mine.

Most versions I have seen are distinctly yellow - and have a certain turmeric flavor. Also, most versions I have had are more Indian curry spiced, rather than Thai curry spiced - so I don't know if a curry paste is the way to go. I would tend to use a mild curry powder, and add some turmeric. I don't think I would add soy sauce, but if you're looking for a slight sweetness, I'd use a small dribble of thick soy sauce which is common in Burmese cooking, which has an Indian influence.

But, assuming you grind your own meat, you can save the fat/trimmings, render in a pan and fry the trimmings to get nice maillard flavor into the fat - then griddle the SVd burgers using that fat. I use this method with steak and find the results to be very good. ETA: Granted - this takes much longer than 10 minutes though.. but if you've got the time, I think it's effort well spent.

I've you've got the time, you can cook/chill the well done and medium burgers several days in advance (or the morning of). I would probably even precook the med-rare ones since I would chill it a bit before searing so it doesn't overcook (depending on how thick of a crust you're looking to get). Just retherm the chilled ones to a warm core temp before searing so they're not cold in the middle.

hmm.. I don't know about that chart. I won't reiterate what I said before, but I'll add a caveat: I remove the skin and blood line prior to cooking as I think they can be fishy. Also, since I'm using the 'gradient' method, I don't know what the exact core temp is by the time it hits the plate/table. Once it hits 100, I'll take it out of the bath, but it will typically sit on a plate (in the sealed bag) for a minute or two while I'm getting the sides and rest of the plate ready. Then, I'll take it out of the bags and torch - so it may be possible that the core increased a couple degrees in that time. I'll add something else with the gradient method - it works great when I do it for 2 people - but I'd have to modify it if doing it for a group - since the timing of getting all the pieces out of the bags, plating, etc. would probably be longer for say 8 people than for 2, which will change the core temp. One more thing - an anecdote... many years ago, I read Eric Ripert's "A Return to Cooking" - I was a huge fan of it in my pre-SV days... when cooking fish, he always recommended using a thin metal skewer - inserting into the center of the fish, and then touching it to your lip. The fish is done when it feels slightly warm to your lip - which makes sense with the 100 degree range (just above body temp)

I stopped using the tables just because the dash app is just so convenient.I checked using my settings, and I, too, got 55 minutes versus MCs 34 minutes. I don't know why there is such a discrepancy. I do know that when I do salmon on a routine basis, using the temps discussed above, it comes out extremely accurately, consistently, regardless of the thickness which varies from week to week when using the app.

I find it very reliable and have been a big fan since I started using it. One thing that is not good is its doneness descriptions - so I put in manual mode and set the temps myself. Also, it will change times based on whether you want pasteurization or not, and also the shape is an important variable. To tell the truth, I never use the tables in MC - I used to use the EG tables nathanm posted years ago before the SV dash - but ever since I got it, I haven't used them. I don't have my ipad here with me right now - I'll be able to check out my results with my settings in about an hour or so, and then I'll report back with my findings.

I do salmon usually once a week - I set the circulator to 115, and use SVDash to calculate when to remove from the bath when the core hits 100. I then let it sit out for a minute or two, then torch the top. This yields a texture that many people like - slightly more cooked on the outside, but very moist and just flaking on the inside, consistently. This is skin-off though... I haven't played with skin-on.

I know you wanted to avoid the starch route, but another option is Ultra-Tex 8. It's a cold swelling starch derived from tapioca, and a little tiny bit goes a long way, so it doesn't mask flavors. It yields a very nice creamy mouthfeel.

Yes - can you be a little more detailed about your typical diet?

I've used beef cheeks with pretty good success with this... once trimmed, it's pretty lean, but very beefy.

I never knew hosta were edible! I mean, I know the deer love them, but I didn't know people eat them too...