ElsieD

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.

We tried to watch it. Gave up after about 10 minutes. What drek. It'll probably be a hit.

This looks fabulous. I agree that the print feature would be nice. Great work.

I second OXO.

It's already available in Canada and I just downloaded it. Thank you.

Emily, I have nothing to add to runwestierun except make these! You'll be glad you did.

I keep a bag of bacon bits in the freezer. They are Costco's Kirkland brand and I quite like them. I find they come in handy when I want to, say, add the equivalent to three slices of bacon to something and I don't feel like dirtying a pan. Looking at the ingredient list, it doesn't look like it contains anything you wouldn't find in bacon. They are also nice sized bits.

Bounty select-a- size. I buy them at Costco. In addition to the usual uses, I also use them to line a plate before putting say, a grilled cheese sandwich or toast on it as I find the paper towel keeps it from getting sort of soggy. Sometimes it becomes the plate.

Thank you Doug and Todd. I have ordered Doug's book from Amazon and watched Todd's video. Many thanks for responding.

We have had the pork chops and they were very tender. Mine had a few bloody spots in them and I found that a bit off-putting. When we have the other two chops I think I will bring them to 140 and see if that takes care of it. I don't want to overlook them, but I don't like bloody spots in my pork, either. The carrots were perfect, the fennel needed to be cooked to a higher temperature as they were too firm. Overall, I'm very happy with the items I have done so far. I am very appreciative of the help I received. I do plan on reading the SV thread, as soon as I have the time. No doubt I will learn many things from it. One last question - (just thought of it) the two remaining pork chops are currently in the fridge in their vacuum pack. Given that they spent 7 hours in a water bath at 135, how long can I keep them in the fridge? Or should I freeze them?

Vengroff, I just purchased the app. It looks like it will be really useful. I have also watched the videos. I do have one question - can I change it from Celsius to farhenite and mm to inches? I'm in Canada which does use the metric system but being a person " of a certain age" I am more comfortable with farhenite and inches. No big deal, as I can use metric, but I'm just wondering................

Does anyone know anything about this? It looks like an interesting app but the Apple store does not seem to have any info on who created it. Neither are there any reviews. I'm a new sous vide user who needs all the help she can get and am wondering if this app would be helpful. Thank you!