ElsieD

I was flipping through the pages of Modernist Cuisine at Home when I came across a recipe for Microwaved Beef Jerky. Has anyone tried making jerky using this technique?

I have tried a few more things. The freeze dried berries are good but I would not buy them there again as I can buy them here. We really liked the mustard and prefer it to our usual Maille brand so will bring back some more. The Thai sauce was good, we had it last night with fish. The coffee was so sweet it made my teeth ache so I threw it out. I should have looked more closely at the label. Finally, I did not think the apricots were anything special and they were pretty mangled. Did I get the wrong ones? Apricots came recommended on this thread and TJs had several different ones so maybe I picked the wrong ones up? There isn't a lot left to try from my little shopping expedition. We have left bruschetta, garlic mustard aioli sauce, crystallized ginger and some Chcken Korean Kalbi sausages that I picked up because they looked interesting. We are going back down there next week and will stop at TJ's again on the way home. Mainly, I plan to replenish the items we really liked and look for a few things that were not there the first time. I also noted a few people had some cheese suggestions and I will be jotting them down for reference as well. Any other suggestions are welcomed.

So what was the answer?

Here's another one: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2005/08/long-live-the-k/

Franci, thanks for the links to the two videos. I watched both of them and then found an English "how to", not a video, more like a pictorial with pictures by the same fellow on the vivalafocaccia.com site. This was very helpful. John T, thank you for your very helpful explanation. I did misread the dough thickness. You said your dough arose from 1cm to 15mm which I misread as 1cm to 15 cm. Quite a difference! I am going to try it again, and will start by making the poolish tonight. I now have a much better idea of what to expect.

A couple of questions. Do you know the gluten content of the flour you used? If you can tell me, I will try to get something similar. I used AP flour. Secondly, did your bread rise by a factor of 15 or is that a typo? You said you had 4 rounds - any idea about the circumference of those rounds? As a point of clarification, I did stretch the dough a bit, but mostly flattened it using my hands. Anyway, I want to make this again so if you could answer these questions I would be grateful.

I made the Genovese Focaccia today as per Franci's recipe and instructions. She was also kind enough to answer some additional questions I had in emails I sent to her. As far as I know, the only thing I did wrong was I forgot to put the salt on top before it went in the oven. The bread is somewhat uneven due to my dough stretching skills or lack thereof. In the thin spots, the bread is almost cracker-like, very crispy. The flavour is very good, but in all honesty, I prefer a more traditional, somewhat thicker focaccia. I'd like to make this again but put all the dough in one half sheet pan. I know this will not be "Genovese" focaccia but sometimes I like to do things just because I can.

I think, Rotuts, that you must be the unofficial eGullet cheerleader!

Here i am again, well short of a week. On Monday night I went to take my steak out of the vacuum pack and oopsie, it was wrapped in cheesecloth. Step 2 had been performed ahead of step 1. So I figured the best thing to do was to eat it so I cooked it sous vide for an hour at 132. You could definitely taste that something had happened to the steak in that it seemed beefier. Tenderness was not an issue as it was a Prime cut to begin with. I will try it again doing it the "right" way when I next want a steak.

I am in awe of what you guys create. Some of these pieces are absolutely stunning.

That looks like one mighty fine meal.

Wish I knew. I'd sure patronize them.

Not sure what you're asking. Care to elaborate?

Thank you, Franci, I will be making this and will report back. Two questions - I don't have any malt syrup, is there an acceptable substitute? And secondly, can I scale this recipe to make half the amount? Thank you.

Tried pork chops last night for 1 hour at 140F. Much, much better. They were a centre cut though, not sirloin, so I still don't know if the type of cut makes any difference.

I would love to try it. It looks delicious.

What is a CRAFT moment?

Next up we have the following: Giant Peruvian Inca Corn - I'm almost afraid to say this given how many people like this, but this didn't do anything for us. I don't really know why, but it just didn't. Speculoos cookies - good, not great. Sweet Sriracha Uncured Bacon Jerky - I don't eat jerky but my husband does and he loved, loved, loved this stuff. It's one of the reasons I am thinking of getting a dehydrator. Definitely on the "to get again list" as is, Siriracha Roasted Garlic Barbecue Sauce - this was outasight good. We loved this sauce and pan on stocking up.

Excellent article. Given that it was written 9 years ago and the programming is even worse now than it was then, he should write an updated column.

So my steak, a strip loin, has thawed and I have just applied a thin film of fish sauce to both sides and around the edges. That RB 40 sure is pungent. I put one of those finger bandages over the finger I used to spread the sauce around and I still had to thoroughly wash my hands afterwards to get rid of the fishy smell. I'll report back in a week.

Well, there you go. Using Dash, I see that to cook it to 60C, which would be my preference, takes 1 hour and a few seconds so obviously I had been cooking the poor thing to death. I will try again. I still wonder if the sirloin chop will come out as tender as a centre cut chop might. I guess I am thinking that a beef strip loin takes a fraction of the time that a tougher cut of beef would take and yet there does not seem to be any differentiation between a more tender centre cut pork chop and a sirloin one. Guess I'll have to try it.

Beth, thank you so much for going to all that trouble. When next you communicate with Don Mercer please let him know that I appreciate his sharing his information with us. I will take a look at the Nesco Gardenmaster. One thing that appealed about buying the unit from Costco is their return policy. if you can believe it, they gave us a 100% refund on a PVR that gave up the ghost after 3 years and also a full refund on a pre-lit Christmas tree that we had used for three years when the lights suddenly went out last Christmas. Hard to beat a return policy like that. However, if the Gardenmaster is so much better than the Costco one I will consider it. As mentioned, I mainly want to do jerky for my husband. I may do a few things like berries in season but I don't see me doing a lots of other things. Of course, I may fall in love with the thing and start experimenting with all kinds of things, so who knows? It is probably better to cater to the possibility of using it more, not less. I did not realize you were in Kemptville. We often toodle on over to the Farmer's market there on Sunday's. If you ever come to Ottawa and are looking for a lunch mate, let me know!

Well, now, that's interesting. How thick were they? I may give them another shot.

I did it for 8 hours at 140F. They were sirloin chops.

How did this turn out? Out of the items I have cooked sous vide, the one thing that gives me trouble are pork chops, particularly the sirloin ones. My pork chops inevitably turn into mush or I find them dry.