ElsieD

A quick question - how long does one need to cook a tough cut beef sous vide at 132F to pasteurize it? Doug Baldwin does not list beef over a thickness of 70mm which pasteurizes in about 6 hours. I usually do tough cuts for 48 hours. Would a 100mm piece of beef be pasteurized in that 48 hours? I want to sous vide it, freeze it and use it at some point in the future.

FWIW, Rao's makes a good pizza sauce.

If anyone has the book Chez Jacques by Jacques Pepin, I wonder if they could check a couple of things for me. Does he pre-heat or pre-freeze his molds and secondly, does he initially bake them at 300F and after 30 minutes, crank the heat up to 400F for a further 40 minutes? I ask because a came across a recipe on the internet that purports to be from his book and the baking temperatures are reversed from any other recipes I've seen. The recipe linked to below does not discuss the mold freeze/heat I guess because she is using silicone molds. https://apoundofyeast.blogspot.com/search?q=Canelés

Thanks. Just finished writing a comparison of the different recipes from the links you posted. I haven't really looked at them, but the recipes, at first blush do not seem to differ all that much.

Today I decided to use the last of the mix and make two canelés. I poured this batter into two molds; the amount of batter I had was a bit shy of the amount that would usually go into them. I decided to use room temperature molds as I am curious as to what happens when you neither pre-heat the molds nor freeze them. The oven was preheated to 400F. When they went in, I baked them for 5 minutes and then turned the heat down to 325F and baked them for 60 minutes. For me, they were perfect. Nice crunch on the outside, no "white ass" the inside sort of a cakey custardy texture if that makes any sense. I an going to make up another batch of batter today and test the baking times on a batch of 6. I expect I'll need to adjust the time a bit for the larger batch. I did test them for color as I went along by quickly upending them to see what their bottoms looked like and with this little bake, added time in 10 minute increments to check on them. That is how I arrived at a local bake time of 65 minutes. Edited to add: these were baked on the convection setting of my oven.

I agree with that but given the vast differences in temperatures I'm simply trying to devise a baking starting point. I have tried 5 recommended settings so far, ranging from starting temperatures of 450F to 375F and continuing the bake with temperatures ranging from 325F to 375F. The best one so far has me pre-heating the oven to 400F and when they (in my case it) goes in to bake, reducing the heat to 325F and baked for 90 minutes, using a preheated mold. Can anyone tell me why some recipes say to pre-heat the molds and others say to freeze them? Thank you for those links. I'll check them out tomorrow.

If you haven't already, try the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake. It's very good. You can find comments from her book and other small batch recipes in the Small Batch Baking Topic.

I started testing different baking temps/times/pre-mold treatments today, baking one at a time. I used different baking temperatures and times for each one, as per various recipes. Also, some instructions said to freeze the molds before filling them, others say to get them blazing hot. One was inedible, (surprisingly, that was Dorie Greenspan's) another slightly charred but edible and the third was actually pretty good. I have more batter in the fridge so will be doing some more tomorrow. Any ideas why some say to chill the molds while others say to pre-heat them? I have the proper 55mm copper molds.

Thank you. My understanding is that my little pot contains only the seeds and paste of the vanilla bean. There is no liquid in the little pot.

I have something called Caviar de Vanille that I want to use in lieu of vanilla bean paste. Does anyone know the substitution ratio? I tried to find it on-line but had no luck.

Following with great interest.

I follow this process too, except I use only bones, odds and sods of chicken and water. I started this batch yesterday, let it simmer away until around 9 last night, strained it through cheesecloth, cooled it and stuck it in the fridge. Today I scraped the fat off and reduced it, poured it in ice cube trays, cooled it, and the trays are now in the freezer. When frozen, I'll pop the cubes and put them in plastic bags. At Thanksgiving (ours is in October) a local store sells turkey carcasses. We usually buy a bunch for stock.

I use my meat slicer to slice loaves of bread as I get nice even slices. Works a lot better than me and my knife.

My mother used to make stampot with kale. Delicious.

Pick your own berries They don’t call it the “garden of Québec” for nothing. The fertile soil of the Île d’Orléans means abundant produce: corn, potatoes, rhubarb, pumpkins, tomatoes, and, above all, berries, including strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries. You’ll be stopping and sampling from the ubiquitous fruit stands, but if you’re one to get in on the action, make a stop at Ferme Léonce Plante. The pick-your-own berry farm grows the unique Authentic Orleans strawberry variety that’s known for its antioxidants and found only on the island. (Strawberry-picking season runs roughly from late June through mid-October.)

I've had the ones from Île d'Orléans well into September. I agree with you, they are good.

The pork cheeks will be cooked sous vide for 48 hours at 140 followed by a sear. At least that's the plan. I'm really pleased that I seem to now have a place where I can get them. They are indeed hard to come by.

@rotuts. This is what I picked up today: the picanha steak, tri-tip and 4 pairs of pork cheeks.

Wash Rice the Zojirushi Way Preparation Measure and add the desired amount of rice to the inner cooking pan of your Zojirushi rice cooker using the rice measuring cup that comes with it. Fill a separate bowl with clean, cool water and pour it into the inner pan. Initial Rinse With an open hand, stir the rice in the water 2-3 times, then drain. Repeat this initial rinse step up to three times, until the water begins to run clear. Be sure to spend no more than 10 seconds during each rinse, so the rice doesn’t absorb the starchy water.

Me too.

You're weakening, aren't you?

Sounds like a barrel of laughs, doesn't it.

Can you use pork belly?

I didn't take any pictures because the store consisted of 3 freezers and a cash register. In such a small space I didn't feel comfortable whipping out my phone to take pictures. I could have asked if it was okay but that didn't feel right either. We did buy some stuff, but the only thing I bought that was different was frikandellen. The following is from Wikipedia: "It is the most popular fast food snack in the Netherlands, followed by kroket. According to the AKSV (the General Association of Manufacturers of Cooking Supplies and Snacks in the Netherlands) 600 million frikandellen are produced each year in the Netherlands. Most of these are also sold in the Netherlands, where more than 37 frikandellen are consumed per capita per year.[7][9] ServingEdit In the Netherlands, it is most often served with curry ketchup or mayonnaise, though some eat it with tomato ketchup, mustard or apple sauce. Very popular is a frikandel served together with mayonnaise, curry or ketchup and chopped raw onion: a frikandel speciaal.[7] The frikandel speciaal usually has a deep cut lengthwise through the middle to provide room for the chopped onions and the sauces. Some people prefer the taste of a frikandel if the cut is made before frying, resulting in a larger crisp surface. Sometimes the sausage is served on a bun and is then called a broodje frikandel." There isn't much to look at, they look like sausages, so no picture. The rest of the stuff I bought were things like sausages,, beef patties, beef satay, very mundane stuff and a small tri-tip steak. But, we and the owner had a nice little chat and I found out that 3 of their pigs were losing their heads this week, so to speak, and I am getting 6 pork cheeks for $15 which I think is a great buy. Also coming my way is a full tri-tip, a full picanha, and hopefully some beef cheeks.

And then there is this: Shipping & Returns Standard shipping via common carrier curbside delivery, signature required. Carrier will call to set up a delivery time. Carrier will deliver the pallet to a location closest to the home using a lift gate truck. The entire pallet (1 total) will be dropped and the product not removed from the pallet.