nickrey

Sorry to hear you've been unwell. Nice to hear things are picking up.

Traditional techniques used by someone who doesn't understand cooking and their appropriate use can lead to absolutely atrocious results. Modernist techniques used by someone who doesn't understand cooking and their appropriate use can lead to absolutely atrocious results. The common denominator in these two sentences is not the cooking technique. Modernist, conventional, whatever. Don't blame the techniques, blame the idiots who are using them wrongly.

I'd think keeping them in the stock would affect the texture more than keeping them in the fridge. If you have a vacuum sealer, I'd drain them and bag them so that they are not affected by the drying atmosphere in the fridge.

Not full dinner but these were a summer appetiser that we had this evening. Vacuum compressed watermelon topped with goat's cheese, a small round of basil (not visible), some pepper, and vacuum compressed heirloom tomato. They look big in the picture but were only around an inch in diameter.

Stefano De Pieri is an Australian based Itaian cook from Treviso, near Venice. One of his books that may fit your needs is Modern Italian Food. Another author from the North is Giorgio Locatelli, who is from Corgeno in Lombardy. He owns a Michelin-starred Italian restaurant in London called Locanda Locatelli (menu here). His book is called "Made in Italy Food and Stories." It is a cookbook that can be read cover to cover because of his good writing style and use of anecdotes. The recipes are exceptional as well. Good luck.

Let me throw in another variable here which I'm not sure we've talked about on eGullet but fits with my experience. The colour will depend on the cooking temperature. The texture is a combination of temperature, cooking time, and also the structure of the individual meat that you use. Even the same cuts will vary in their response to cooking depending on the type of cow, how it was fed, raised, housed, and slaughtered. To butcher a quote from 'Animal Farm' some meats are more equal than others.

Same as Johnder and Choux. Works perfectly and its position doesn't interfere with the steam wand's operation.

I prefer them, and even when making sausages normally I don't pierce them, too much flavour is lost this way. Just don't buy sausages that are too fatty and it'll be OK. If you've ever made sausages, you will know that they need around 30% fat or they become dry and inedible. Cooking such that you remove fat leads to the inevitable outcome. The only way I've found to reduce fat is to use some tofu as a substitute for part of the fat; it works to keep the product moist and has a similar mouth feel to the fat.

I bought one recently Chris. Somewhat cheaply made but it works well enough. Basically it is a mini vacuum cleaner such as one you use to clean computer keyboards. It is set up to blow out rather than suck in and has a small brass receptacle for the sawdust to go into on the top (think a miniaturised version of the tobacco bowl on a hookah). It also comes with a mini mesh filter to stop the burning sawdust falling down into the mechanism. It is run by 4 AA batteries. You light the sawdust in the top and press a button on the side. I experimented with it by putting some tea leaves in the top and lighting them. It pours out a lot of smoke over a short period of time.

Three hours at 140F will pasteurize your fish (figure taken from Douglas Baldwin's practical guide for sous vide for fatty fish; non belly would be a slightly shorter cooking time). I would have thought tuna would be overcooked at 160F.

That truffle just keeps on giving doesn't it? Wonderful dish. I can work out the truffle bits, what are the white/clear circles? Are they finely sliced radish? Did you vaccum seal the fish with the covering and cook it sous vide as Daniel Humm does with his zucchini scaled turbot?

What Kerry said will definitely be pasteurised and with this longer cooking will break down some of the more chewy elements of the shoulder.

If you have an iPhone, get the sous vide dash utility. This allows you to calculate cooking time, temperature, as well as time to pasteurisation for all different types of meat.

Looks delicious. I'll try out the Farro as I can see it being a more substantial version. May wait until we're through summer though.

How did you end up smoking the potato?

Don't just put it in the refrigerator or cool it in water with a few ice cubes. Make sure you use around 2/3 ice, 1/3 water. And leave it submerged in this mixture for a few hours to make sure it cools quickly and thoroughly.

This is an interesting (and disturbing) by-product of global warming and consequent shifts in terroir. I know a number of our winemakers are buying wineries in the cooler climate regions such as Tasmania to hedge their bets on future changes in growing conditions.

For a large group of people with varying tastes and not much experience with sous vide cooked food, I'd be cooking at around 57C (135F) rather than 55C. I also agree with Bob. You've already pasteurised the meat after cooking and you will not be over four hours below 55C on your trip. Plus you avoid chilling and reheating.

Time to revive this thread. I bought myself a Thermochef a while back (cheaper version of Thermomix) and used it for Risotto for the first time tonight. Because it's a food processor as well as a cooker, I first chopped the onions then added olive oil and cooked at 100C for a little while to soften them. Before cooking further I added the butterfly attachment, which makes it more of a stirrer than a chopper. All subsequent cooking was conducted with the stirrer on power setting one. I then added the rice and some chopped garlic and cooked it for a bit longer on 100C, then some white wine, continued cooking on 100C until it was mostly evaporated. I then added the stock all at once and turned the temperature down to 90C. Cooked for fifteen minutes then added some sous vide pre-cooked prawns. Cooked for a few minutes more then added salt, lemon juice, grated lemon rind, and some butter. Because I've made heaps of risotto, I then continued cooking until it was finished. Basically rather than keeping it on for a set time, I kept checking and stopped cooking when it looked (and tasted) appropriately cooked up the resting point. Rested for three minutes and then served with some chopped parsley as a garnish. I'd like to think that the wholly hand made risotto is better but I'm not sure. I suppose the issue is that I was able to fiddle a recipe to mimic conventional risotto cooking processes because I'm very familiar with them. After a while, I'm sure I could write down a recipe and timings that others could use to get similar results. It took no less time than a normal risotto but I wasn't tied to the pot stirring as I normally am. Am going to do this again.

Pop sawdust in a wok on some foil. Heat the wok until sawdust is smoking. Place the potatoes on a bamboo steamer with lid. Place on wok. Smoke. This way you will only be able to use that steamer for smoking but it's cheaper than losing a hotel pan.

Why not use a ziplock bag and use the water displacement method? That will remove all of the air and negate the issue.

So far I'm considering: Shrimp consomme from the new Astrance cookbook served with sous-vide cooked prawn meat and some julienned spring onion. The consomme is made by putting all the prawns in a food processor, making a paste, adding vegetals and spices then cooking and straining. Looking forward to trying new 100 micron superbag with this. Home-cured hickory smoked ham. Turkey Breast injected and cured with apple juice and milk (I'm going to use home-made buttermilk for this) from MC @ Home recipe. Cooked sous vide. Accompanied by poultry gravy of some sort or another and a redcurrant preparation (details of both yet to be decided) Sous-vide carrots, Duck-fat roasted potatoes, and garlic-buttered French Beans. Dessert still a work in progress.

Understood, but I could accomplish the same thing in a slow cooker if I bought the $26 sandwiched perforated stainless circulation plate along with a tube air diffuser and air pump for about $35 total, correct? http://freshmealssol...9&Itemid=100079 Thanks! ~Martin Most likely. A number of us have used aquarium air bubblers in the past to give some circulation. These improvised solutions fit somewhere on the continuum between no circulation and the significant circulation coming from the professional models. ps. Thanks for the brining calculator on your web site, I used it yesterday.

Modernist cuisine at home has a recipe for sous vide cooked hollandaise that is dispensed via an ISI and not stabilised beyond using the egg yolks in the recipe. Cream also does not need anything added.

Like other circulators it moves the water while cooking thus making temperature differentials in the cooking medium less likely. With a good circulator you can in effect "crowd the pan" and still be confident of stable temperatures and cooking times. In a rice cooker, hot pot, sous vide supreme, etc you need to be very careful about keeping natural water flows around your product. Hence the rack to keep everything upright and separate in the SVS.