nickrey

There is an enzyme in Pawpaw called papain, which is a very effective meat tenderiser. Could be related to this.

I've been using sous vide cooking since around 2008, which was when I joined eGullet having found early posts on the technique. Sous vide cooking has now moved from early adopters to the mainstream and even into the reluctant adopters. At this stage of adoption, it is not unusual to get commentators opining that it has lost its appeal. Those of us who adopted it early on typically now just use it as another cooking technique in our repertoire. The situation, number of people, product type, and desired outcome determine which method you will use. I find in many cases that I use it when I'm cooking for thirty or more as cook and hold or cook and reheat/finish can be easier using this process for certain meat and/or vegetable dishes.

Agreed. Nor most cookbook/indexes. May I suggest a google search, which will give sufficient specificities if put in quotation marks.

I searched the same book and got the same result. If I put "chicken" in the search box instead, it came up with 122 recipes. Simple answer is that the ingredient has been added as chicken, not "skinned boneless chicken." If you ask for something that specific and it hasn't been indexed, you won't get any results. eta. Looks like they're categorised as "whole chicken," "chicken thighs," "chicken livers," "chicken breasts," etc. Choose the cut you want and all recipes for that will pop up in the search.

One of bavette, flank, skirt, or flap steak.

I now use cheat's Hollandaise: Some store-bought mayonnaise mixed with a bit of Dijon mustard and some lemon juice. Works a treat.

Use it anywhere you'd use MSG or any other Umami booster.

I think it's time to reference the eGullet Sous Vide Index again. Here is the link: It's full of useful information.

Winning recipes from the Terlingua Chilli Cook-Off (going 75 years and counting) can be found at this link. Note that fillers (such as beans) are not permitted. I remember seeing a cooking show episode on this competition from the 1980s. They cooked the Chilli as per the requirements and then added beans afterwards for their eating pleasure. Enjoy your experimentation: it's a rabbit hole. I also add Worcestershire sauce, cocoa powder, and liquid smoke which are a bit out of the ordinary but give the Chilli extra depth. Enjoy!

Can't see why myself. Wine, brandy, etc. add flavours from either fermentation or maturation in barrels that remain when the alcohol (mostly) disappears. Anyone who says don't put anything other than superior wine in your food is someone who is not used to balancing flavours in cooking. Put a reasonable drinking wine in the food by all means -- keep the good ones for drinking. Pure alcohol, suitably diluted with water, is basically vodka and is mostly tasteless: It, is a sweet, volatile, non-descript flavour. I can't see what it would add to food. Bourbon has cask flavours and sweetness -- the alcohol basically adds zip. I'm definitely open to persuasion on this one but, prove it. Someone expressing it as an opinion is less than convincing. I'm sorry, I don't believe.

At a club. We use their commercial kitchen. The dinner above cost $120 per head, including the wine. Needless to say we’re not paid to cook.

I have just recently finished my term as President of the Wine and Food Society of New South Wales, which was formed in 1939 as a vehicle to encourage and facilitate the association of people interested in fine wine and food. It is a male-only member club at which each week a different member cooks for his fellow members, with numbers of diners ranging from 25 to 50. I was also formerly Foodmaster. Each year the Foodmaster chooses six to eight main courses that he considers to be the best meals of the year and we hold a cook off with members rating each of the competing meals. From this, the chef cooking the top meal wins the Chef of the Year Award. We also have an award for the top seafood dish as well and, from this year, an award for the best cheese accompaniment. Winning the award is an honour, but it also brings the task of cooking at the next year's Chef of the Year Award evening. This time with appetisers, entree, main, cheese, and a dessert course. The function is mixed and this year had 67 attendees. Unusually this year, we also had three chefs as with COVID lockdowns, we have not been able to hold the function for a number of years. I cooked the main course, while my colleagues cooked the appetisers, entree, and dessert. The appetisers were: Three cheese Gougères. Prawn Cocktail on a rice cracker: Chèvre and Tartufata Tartlets: Entreé (this is not a main course in Australia) was Confit Salmon (also cooked sous vide) with a herb beurre blanc sauce: The main was duck three ways: the cheese was Beaufort (no picture) The dessert was Lemon Tart with Lemon and Basil Sherbet and Cointreau marinated blueberries: The accompanying wines were from the Society's cellar (which is around 9,000 bottles) and were served in the following sequence: Photo Credit: Paul Irwin. I also won the Chef of the Year and Seafood dish of the year with this seafood sausage dish (not cooked sous vide) so I will be cooking again next year for this function. The dish was a homemade seafood sausage made from hand diced salmon and ocean trout, smoked trout, egg white, cream, and pork back fat. Served on a Mooloolaba jumbo prawn with a tarragon beurre Blanc sauce. There was also a mango salsa, Canadian scallop, butter-glazed snow peas, and deep-fried forty-layer potato pavé with crème fraîche and Beluga caviar.

Yes.

Dinner for 67. Duck three ways: Confit (82C for eight hours) on put lentils with a red wine and duck jelly jus, Duck spring roll (confit plus carrot, green onion, enoki mushrooms, and peking duck sauce), and duck egg (62.5 for two hours) used as the fat component on a side salad that had been lightly sprayed with balsamic vinegar. Photo Credit: Paul Irwin.

Where I grew up in South Australia, it was called Yiros. Obviously SA Greeks translated the word differently to those in Melbourne. It is lamb, chicken, or pork