ElsieD

I too am hoping to attend next year. Kerry, I don't have any chocolate equipment to bring but I do have a Thermomix I can bring should you want another one. Elsie

Speckled trout but since they are as scarce as hen's teeth, I'd go with black cod.

Yes, I know and I have been following that thread. What I am interested in is whether anyone knows anything about the chamber vacuum he talked about in his interview.

I just read an interview with Duncan Werner, maker of the SideKic. In the interview he indicates that he is thinking of trying to build an affordable chamber vacuum. Anyone know anything about this?

I cooked cooked it sous vide for an hour. It was perfect. I did separate the steak into two halves and each would have been slightly over a pound as the whole thing was just over a kilo.

Thank you all for the help. I cooked it sous vide at 134F followed by a quick sear. I thinly sliced it across the grain and I dare say it is the best piece of beef I have ever tasted. Better yet, I cut the thing in half and packaged each separately so I have the other half for another day. The butcher had several of them in the freezer so I think I'll go back and scoop me some more.

I was at our local butchers today to buy a brisket which I plan to turn into corned beef. While there, I saw they had hanger steak which is a cut of meat I have heard lots about (and maybe even eaten in a restaurant). So, not having had one before, I had to buy it. It is now sitting sitting in my fridge waiting for me to do something with it. I was thinking of cooking it sous vide and I am wondering - will it take a long cook, say 48 hours? Or does it need a quick cook much like, say, a striploin, followed by a quick sear? Should I put a rub of some sort on it before cooking it? Any thoughts are appreciated by this sous vide newbie. Elsie

I too really find the Sous Vide Dash useful. I would also like to see times for frozen foods. Perhaps once you get used to cooking sous vide you get a handle on how long something needs to be re-heated but for me, at this time, it remains a guessing game. The other night I took a previously sous vide cooked boneless braising rib out of the freezer and tossed it into a 134F water bath for a couple of hours then seared it. It worked out well, but I really had no idea what I was doing and I didn't know, really, if it would be done when I took it out (it was). All in all, though, a great app, especially considering the price. Well done.

Nickrey, I looked on the Vac-Star site and could not find any mention of the polycarbonate container nor the thermal balls. Did you mean to reference some other site? I have the Polyscience circulator and am looking for a cooking vessel but find theirs to be expensive.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/27/science/earth/27fish.html This is interesting.

Well, I never heard of this guy before but I won't be buying his books now, either.

In August, we have several garlic festivals. I buy braids of the stuff, different varieties and store it in a cool cupboard in the basement. It lasts quite well. In fact, I just used some tonight and there is still not a sign of any germ. in June or so I will see germ in it but by then the festivals are just around the corner and I make do. If I should happen to run out, I will buy American garlic. I stay away from the Chinese stuff.

Gee, for a minute there I got all excited.

http://blog.sousvidesupreme.com/2011/12/how-to-temper-chocolate/. This from the sous vide supreme web site

Well, I'm Dutch by birth and all my life my parents bought and ate Gouda. I have NEVER heard the cheese referred to as Goudse. I also shop at a Dutch store from time and they call the cheese Gouda as well.

The G in Gouda is actually more of a hard G, coming from the back of the throat. The ou part is pronounced like the ow in how.

http://thegourmetproject.blogspot.com/ Here is one. This one is written by a math prof who is cooking her way through The Gourmet Cookbook. She is almost finished but I think this is what BadRabbit is referring to. Elsie

Todd, what a great write-up!

Pee Wee Herman is funny? I've never seen so much forced laughter. Did anyone else notice that when the judges were being served, Pee Wee said something inane which, of course, meant everyone had to ho-ho, and I do believe Padma must have thought the camera was no longer on her because her expression resembled flipping a switch from ho-hoing to that my-god this-is-painful look. I'm surprised the editors didn't catch it.

Thanks so much for all your comments. I do grow rosemary, thyme and bay leaf all year. They go outside in the summer and sit inside in a south facing windowsill in the winter. I recently placed and received an order from Penzeys and included in that order was dried cilantro. That, I found out, has nothing to recommend it. Dried cilantro is completely tasteless. We love cilantro and usually use it all up. I have tried to grow it in a pot using "pot cilantro" seeds but it refused to grow. Anyway, after the disappointing cilantro, I wondered what other herbs would also prove to be disappointing. Hence this post. I know dried parsley is pretty useless and did not get any. I know for you basil lovers it must be hard to understand why someone doesn't use their basil up but, GASP! we simply aren't In love with it. Cilantro yes, basil, no. I have purchased the small pots of basil but they usually die on me after I have clipped a bit off. I do leave the bottom leaves on when I trim them which is what I have been told to do. I have a vacuum sealer so will try freezing some of the herbs when it becomes obvious that they will not get used up before they go bad.

I realize that fresh herbs are, in general, preferred over dried herbs. However, I don't necessarily want to buy fresh herbs when all I need is say, 10 leaves of basil and end up throwing the rest of the bunch out. So, my question is, which herbs are acceptable to use in dried form? I don't have a problem buying fresh herbs if it really makes a difference but it seems to me that in some instances, the dried version will do. Thank you.

Jaz, I tried your method and it worked like a charm. Thanks for passing it along.

Thank you for your help. I will re-heat the ribs to 133 using the time as calculated by the app and then sear them. I think what I am lacking is confidence as this is so new to me. I will also be getting 2 sous vide cookbooks next week and I expect that will help.

So in the case of my braising ribs, they were cooked sous vide for 48 hours at 133F, quickly chilled in an ice bath and then frozen in their vacuum packs. I guess then I would thaw the meat in the fridge, set the water bath to 133F and, using the sous vide app calculate the time to reheat? In this instance, the meat is 11/2 inches thick and the stuff that comes out of my fridge is 34F so that would take 2 hours, 47 minutes and 48 seconds. Reheating the meat this way will not alter the texture but simply bring it back to just-out-of-the-water bath consistency that it was at when I initially cooked it? Am I understanding this correctly? If I am, that sure fills quite a big gap in my knowledge of things sous vide.

As a newcomer to sous vide cooking, I am still on a steep learning curve. However, this app has really helped me. I don't know if this is feasible but in addition to starting food from frozen, it would be nice to know how long to re-heat food. For example, I have beef braising ribs which have been cooked sous vide in the freezer and I have no clue as to how to go about re-heating them. I had cooked sous vide pork chops back when I first got my immersion circulator and then had to guess at how long to put them back into a water bath from a fridge temp to re-heat. The chops were not as good as when I seared them immediately after removing from the hot water bath. Like I said, this might not be feasible and maybe there already are instructions for this somewhere and I haven't found them yet.