nickrey

Once again we come up against Western versus Eastern. I can see where Huiray has an issue with this statement. It shows a strong amount of cultural bias.

It was around 7cm, which is just below 3 inches. I wouldn't go larger for aesthetic reasons.

There was no extra prep such as searing or dipping in boiling water. No nasty smells. No ill effects. It was in 57C for 32 hours so I'm fairly sure all the nasties would have been killed off (to misquote Jacques Pepin, if they lived they probably deserved to make me ill).

It's heat. Commercial ranges sautee wonderfully well within three minutes. If you're using a home range, you'll need to adjust. See also Mjx's comment because it isn't going to work well if you have comparatively low heat and crowd the pan.

I've been wanting to try this out for a while. It worked extremely well. Took inner skirt steak and trimmed off all non meat (membrane, etc). I then oriented them in parallel and doused them in a transglutaminese slurry. Rolled the product in PVE kitchen plastic to resemble a fillet and left to set in the refrigerator. I then vacuum sealed it and froze the product (related to time to conduct experiment rather than part of the process). Cooked the meat sous vide at 57C for 32 hours. Removed from bag (reserving juices for a future sauce). Patted dry and cut into medallions. The meat at this stage is pictured below. Heated cast iron skillet to extremely hot on wok burner. Rubbed surface of meat with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt then seared before serving. Flavour was exceptional, as you'd expect. Because the fibers were aligned along the cut it was easy to slice through. Texture was toothsome but not chewy. A winner all around (except for trimming the meat, which was fiddly and time-consuming)

A new film, El Somni, was created in conjunction with the Roca brothers from El Celler de Can Roca. Description of the movie from iTunes is as follows: El somni (The dream) is a remarkable film directed by Franc Aleu, which shows the creative process of over 40 international artists who participated in a dinner put together as an opera in twelve dishes, with gastronomic creations by the Roca brothers, from the restaurant El Celler de Can Roca. A visual experience that enables the spectator to get to know the dynamic approach and the challenges that have taken the Roca brothers to the top. Images, matter, music, flavor and smell converge on this journey with guests such as Ferran Adrià, Zubin Mehta, Miquel Barceló, Freida Pinto, Sílvia Pérez Cruz and Harold McGee. Haven't watched it as yet, but looking forward to it.

So cook it at a higher temperature. We all want to seek out what is appropriate for our tastes. The thing is when you get the temperature/time combination right for your tastes you can replicate it perfectly every time. Sounds a bit like developing skill in cooking to me. After many attempts I can cook poached eggs perfectly to my tastes both conventionally and sous vide. Conventionally it takes me about ten minutes and is a process that I apply consistently. Sometimes I use sous vide to do this if I want many eggs done perfectly. Most often for one egg I use a saucepan and simmering water. Am I a bad cook because I use sous vide cooking when appropriate? I'll let the question hang....

Perhaps it is referring to the fat and skin overlap that often occurs around the meat duck breast. Normally the instruction would be to trim excess skin; perhaps they are saying trim excess fat instead.

For sous vide you need something that will not reset when the power is interrupted. So no fuzzy logic I'm afraid.

My rice cooker is a 10 cup Tiger that I used to use it for sous vide cooking. Bigger than your 3 litre cooker. I've never been game to go below the 3 cup minimum the Tiger people specify for this particular cooker. This is one of the reasons I use the microwave for smaller quantities. It's also easier to get out the microwave container in my kitchen and easier to throw it into the dishwasher. One doesn't know others individual circumstances so I mentioned the microwave option as this may better fit the OP's (or others) needs. I rarely see evidence for single best ways of doing things as the environment is likely to be a large determinant of what can be done.

I seem to remember saying that I use a rice cooker for larger quantities.

Seems that it's a further reflection of the inaccuracy of using cup measurements. No standards, no consistency.

I use a rice cooker for larger quantities. For rice for two of us, I use the microwave. Rinse rice until clear. Place rice in microwave rice cooker. Add water so that it is one knuckle above the rice. Microwave for 12 minutes on high. Let sit for 8 minutes. Serve. Takes about as long as conventional lost-water cooking technique rice but far less monitoring required.

I do 63.2C for one hour then rapid chill. For serving I then break the egg onto a saucer and slide into low simmering water for two minutes. So similar to lordratner but with the option of cooking a dozen and reheating them in smaller batches.

Yes it does have around 2-3 mm give.

I well remember my heresy of doing a terrine sous vide (see this post) so I have deja vu about this type of response. "Unlearning how to cook." What a load of emotional ... Let's all go back to the open fire; how dare you use these new fangled oven thingies. Viva tradition. Around 30% of us are going to be change aversive. 30% are going to go with the flow and 30% are going to try new things. How about we all get along and don't criticise others for what we don't want to comprehend?

For deep frying I use peanut oil.

I take it that this method is an attempt to model the stall at phase change when the ice turns into a liquid. Most of us just add a somewhat arbitrary time constant to take this into account.

Grapeseed

Because it is time to temperature I'd be surprised if anything is "undercooked." The difference is more likely to be how long the piece of meat is held at temperature. This impacts on factors such as pasteurisation, which is big in the sous vide dash application and could explain the variance.

Could easily be used to create a vegetable nage as well. Recipes abound for this and as it isn't boiled the sous vide method would seem ideally suited. The only difference is that you'd need to boil and cool the wine first.

I make my chicken stock in a pressure cooker so there's no evaporation there. The amount of chicken you are using is actually on the low side. Even with a conventional process I wouldn't expect a lot of chicken flavour. As highlighted in other posts on the site, most of the flavour comes from the meat rather than from the carcass or feet so I'd at least put in more wings, preferably jointed to allow full extraction from the meat content. Not sure why the four hour bag would have the strongest chicken flavour. Longer cooking should extract more flavour. Interestingly this is the obverse of normal sous vide cooking, which tries to keep as much flavour in the meat as possible. It may need a rethink of your procedure. One last point, if you are cooking sous vide at 95C for that long, why use sous vide? I'd be getting a pressure cooker (noting, however, that you are in Yokohama and there may be kitchen limitations driving this).

PedroG has posted on this. You may like to search for his posts.

I often cook for 50 but not with the cost constraints that you have. So I'll only give the tips. 1. Cooking for 50 is not 50 times cooking at home. 2. If you are cooking on a low budget, figure on using low cost, high nutrition ingredients (lentils and beans are good, rice is a filler, try to incorporate vegetables in season as they are going to be cheaper). 3. Soups and stews are probably the way to go. 4. Potatoes provide a substantial filler without affecting the taste of the meal. 5. Match the seasonings to the local tastes. I perhaps wouldn't recommend curries with your target market. 6. Cook over lower heat for longer; you're not going to burn it if you don't put too much energy in. 7. Stir often and with big paddles. 8. Follow the order of cooking given in recipes to ensure everything is cooked appropriately. Dumping everything in and hoping for the best is not going to work. 9. Spices are your friend. Flavour will be appreciated. 10. Learn to season for large meals. Don't dump in 10 times the recipe specification for salt. Add and taste, add and taste. 11. Dont undervalue some acid to add interest to the meal. A dash of cheap vinegar will bring a meal to life (more will kill it). 12. For desserts, try rice or custard with sugar, plus in season fruit and spices such as cinnamon. Look to some of the commercial custard powders if you are using cooks of variable abilities. 13. Despite what I said about curries, check out the Hare Krishna cookbooks, these people have been doing what you're trying to do for years with cooks of varying abilities. The recipes will work. Good luck. I respect your efforts.

Easy answer, temperature range for Anova is 25°C to 99°C. Pop it in a colder bath and the heater will not cut in. Voila. Circulator without heater. ​Although if it's a real ice bath with mainly ice and little water, not sure why you'd want to do this.