Paul Kierstead

And Pedros numbers are for 30mm thick, which is significantly thicker then most fillets of fish, which will thaw very rapidly in the bath.

It might be better to ask separate questions separately, to avoid confusing answers. I think you are concerned about searing/finishing the meat, and irregular shapes being difficult to sear/finish. They can be. Jaccard'ing/tenderizing isn't the answer to that question. My procedure for chicken breasts; note I leave skin on for flavour: 1) I pack carefully to avoid folds, etc. 2) After I pack, I flatten the skin side by pressing it against a flat surface. Not entirely sure this helps. 3) Cook. 4) Sit/Cool (typically I am putting in the fridge for later use) with the skin side down flat 5) When I go to finish, if I am really picky, I trim the chicken edges so that the flat area will dominate. i.e. I trim off the areas that won't touch the pan. If I am not so picky (average week night), I don't sweat it. 6) Place chicken skin side down in a hot, but not blazing hot, pan. I don't use a non stick. I only use a moderate amount of oil. I press down on the chicken. It will stick some. I wait a bit and let it brown. It will unstick. I only brown the 'backside' sometimes. 7) Sometimes I use the smoke gun to add a little smoke. The heat in this method will allow some seasonings to be used, though usually I even pepper after searing. Excessive heat will not come out so well with skin-on chicken, in my experience; in skinless, you can use a lot more. For things like beef, the procedure can vary. Bone in often won't sear well in a pan, but can do the broiler for some cuts (I like it with veal chops) or the grill. Boneless willl go well in a super hot pan, if you have good ventilation. Fish I don't 'finish' but often use a sauce or chutney.

Has anyone ever tried running a small metal tube into the oven via the oven door and injecting continuous steam for the first few minutes?

Like Kieth, I have made SV confit (duck and turkey, probably in equal proportions) and always did the cure/rinse then SV (typically for a lot less then 24 hours). The result is a bit salty if you ate it 'plain', but is dead on if you eat it in salad, etc. It has always been extremely tender.

Removing it and searing it makes a nice crispy addition to a dish. I wouldn't see searing it on the leg as having a point.

I used the MC method last night using Farro. It worked very well. I'll bet it works great with rice too.

Does anyone think there is a particular, culinary, reason why the buffalo wings are shallow fried? Would the result be the same if deep frying were substituted for that step? I'm making them tonight and my deep frying setup is already there....

The built in translation feature in Google Chrome does a very readable job on the spanish link. Very interesting and useful, thanks! I'd expect other translation mechanisms to work as well, spanish seems to translate well.

I've seen numerous sensible analysis that says the ratio isn't a fixed ratio; as you increase the amount of rice, the ratio of water steadily goes down. So a discussion of how much water is used needs to include the type of rice, the cooking method, the rice age and the amount of rice. Of these, you'll likely find that the type of rice and, especially, the amount of rice are the predominant factors. A rice cooker will always cook the rice such that it isn't soupy because it judges 'done' by the lack of 'free' water.

Not just steak. Two of my favorites for fleur de sel or grey salt is fish and poached eggs. Put them on at the last minute, and you get these crunchy explosions of salt here and there that is just lovely. Has to be used sparingly, of course; you don't want it in every bite. Would never use that salt in an application where it dissolved though.

I'm also a big fan of grilling. Last time I brined them, then dried and tossed with some spices (pepper, cayenne and chili powder I think) and grilled. I really really love them this way and they are a summer favourite. Finishing them is always the tricky bit; I don't want a gloopy, crisp-wrecking sauce. The last time they were pretty spicy on their own, so I left them but put hot sauce on the side. That asian-style sauce might make a great dipping sauce, I think I'll try that out. I also recently tried out doing them SV for about 12 hours and then a quick deep-fry. Served with sauce on the side. These were also quite excellent, and a good indoor alternative.

Yes, per volume would be pretty usable, probably more so then the current format. I like the non-recipe errata, but it definitely isn't necessary.

Made the KC BBQ Sauce from MC the other night. Highly recommended; excellent. Notes: It is likely hotter then you might expect from a BBQ sauce. When cooking, it is harsh, but mellows amazingly well once cooked for a while. I used them to finish some smoked ribs (BRITU), and it was perfect, those this particular batch of sauce had 1/2 the amount of hot ingredients as our guests are sensitive to the heat.

You machine, bags, procedure or settings are seriously faulty. First q: Is stuff boiling like crazy at 50s? It should be. And you don't want that.

I've not SV'd veal, so take this FWIW (0!), but although I am a fan of veal, it tends to be a little squishy to start with, so I'd be very wary of long cook times. Of course, if you have several and are available, you should be able to fairly easily do a 12,8,4 and 2 hour version and to direct comparisons. It would be an interesting experiment.

Actually, even if a writer is a journalist, that doesn't make everything they write journalism. And I think that is the real issue here; its not about the medium it was presented in or the qualifications of the writer, but that the piece was just a hit piece and uncorroborated, with nothing more then hearsay to back up the anonymous source. If the blogger had presented other evidence that backed up the allegation, they might have had more luck. From what I've read, I don't think most newspapers would print something potentially libelous from a writer based solely on the writer saying "I got an anonymous source" without further corroboration.

I can very clearly hear 1st and 2nd crack with my Behmor drum roaster, and I could even hear it over the roar of my iRoast 2, though it required some careful listening for the 2nd crack. I like your popcorn and rice crispies analogy, that seems about right.

From the description of her 'publication', I think it would be very hard to consider it "press" in the sense the law intended it to. I don't think the primary problem was the medium, it was the message. The judge brought up the problem of affiliation because if the publication seems questionable, you might ask, well what do established publications think of the author, and she lacked a third party opinion, basically giving the judge some leeway to make his own finding.

Well, at least they aren't depressed I guess. That article borders on the bizarre. Well, ok, the content of it does. Since some of the ingredients are outright banned, we can expect an inquiry, right? Right?

The last time I tried, mine seemed much too thick. I do think the dough was too dry, but looking at the press, there is a fair bit of space back at the hinge. Is this likely to be a cook problem, or a press problem?

Ah, well, then we can all join in. For example, Japan has much higher smoking rates than the US. Japan has much longer life expectancy than the US. Mozambique has very low life expectancy. Mozambique people very likely don't care about organic food. I'm sure we can all add in random facts about life expectancy.

But testing has revealed contaminated batches of regular beef as well, I am sure. It would need to be shown that pink slime is consistently higher, and that it is because of the process and could not be reasonably corrected. In either case, the problem would appear to be the exemption from testing, the the existence of the product.

Also, "Macau has a universally accessible single-payer system funded by taxes collected by the government from corporations and residents." (wikipedia). Hong Kong heavily subsidises health care.

So, the fact they eat a great deal of sea food (not beef) and maintain much lower levels of obesity is not a leading factor? What is your point? They are shorter too. Does that mean shorter people live longer?

Oh come now, that isn't even remotely valid to your assertion. Many of those countries have very significantly different farming practices and regulations, different eating habits, etc. Their focus on "organic" may well be different, but partly because half the stuff US agri gets up to isn't legal there anyway, or not an issue in the first place. And their life expectancy are very tied up in availability of health care, diet etc. Correlating that to the concern over organic is utter hogwash. Or pink slime, or something...