Camano Chef

I am an experienced chef. I have a cryovac machine. I have a Polyscience circulating heater. I have just read Thomas Keller's new book- 'Under Pressure". Thomas Keller's cooking is elaborate to the extreme but is certainly an inspiration and goal. I do virtually all of the cooking in our home. My wife, of many years, thinks that my fixation on food borders on a fetish, although she certainly enjoys the food. I have always done the preparation and most of the cooking for all family and other social events for many years. I need suggestions as to the first sous vide entrees to prepare for our home. I am thinking of tender meat, steaks or pork chops, pan seared with a sauce such as mushroom cream or bernaise. Any other suggestions would be appreciated? Thanks

I have had several FoodSaver machines over the years,including the original Tilia machine. All have worked as advertised, FOR A WHILE. My last one died just as I was ready to vacuum seal 30# of smoked salmon that I had worked on for several days. I called FoodSaver and was haughtily advised that the machines could not be repaired and that they would not supply parts. My only choice was to buy a new machine. I use the vacuum sealer quite a lot and really did not want to buy another that I knew would fail soon. I did some research and found http://kodiakhealth.com/catalog/product_in...roducts_id/2562. A VacMaster SVP-15 chamber vacuum sealer. The firm I purchased it from did a superlative job with the transaction. It was very expensive but I was convinced that I would not have to replace it. They sell parts and can make repairs. It has been wonderful and now lives next to my cooking area. We use it many times per day. We have sealed: Smoked Salmon-first use. Meat Fish Apple cider-from a nearby organic farm Apples and fruit for baking Watermelon-the vacuum makes it look like rare beefsteak Plums-they become translucent leftovers Soup and chowders cheese-we haven't a piece go bad in many months crackers mashed potatoes gravy- did our Thanksgiving turkey gravy ahead and froze it cookie dough sweet potatoes sous vide dishes partially used onions and vegetables Specialty flours Dry waffle mix sausage spices and curing compounds chili The bags are MUCH cheaper than FoodSaver bags. This thing will seal food saver bags so we are using up the old supply. This unit can easily seal bags containing 1 gallon, two whole ducks, a chicken, a 5# roast, etc. Remember you are sealing the exact volume of the product, not part of a cup in a 16 oz. container. We frequently warm sealed items in the microwave, in a hot water bath and in our sous vide circulating bath. We frequently re-use bags such as ones used for cheese, just by making them shorter by the amount of the seal. Based on the many FoodSaver machines I have had and the cost of the bags, I am convinced that this unit will easily save any frequent user money. Plus, it is so easy to use I have gotten some decorative bags for gift presentations and they make a truly professional presentation. Still cheaper than FoodSaver bags. I hope this helps someone.

I purchase quite a bit of food products from Costco. I have a VacMaster, chamber type, cryopac machine. This is an industrial vacuum sealer that will probably last my lifetime. They work daily, all day, in meat markets and other commercial food preparation locations. The bags come precut and are very cheap. The bags alone probably will pay for the machine in a rather short time based on use. I prefer to cut my steaks, I then cyropac them in eaches. They keep perfectly. Costco packs whole chickens in packs of two. I cryopac the chickens in eaches then I only have to thaw one at a time. The remaining chicken never freezer burns. Much of their bulk shrimp, scallops, etc. do not reseal well and develop ice crystals after opening. I either cryopac the whole remaining bag or break the product down into more useable amounts. I break down the large packages of prepared soups into smaller packages, then I have to only open a smaller package when needed. If I need a greater volume, I just open two or three packages. Any food product that is of a liquid or flexible nature,gravy, corn,wine, soup, goulash, stew, etc. when laid on a cookie sheet or similar items freezes flat and is easily stacked in the freezer, thus saving a great deal of space. IMHO Costco has some good values. The big problem seems to the the very large initial quantities. If one can break these quantities down it makes the trip to Costco much more practical. By the way Costco sells a vacuum sealer called a "Food Saver". It is cheap but doesn't last very long, cannot be repaired, cannot handle liquids and the bags are VERY expensive. I hope this helps

Does anyone have a source for "reasonable" quantities of freeze dried powdered products such as turkey powder, etc? I have tried International Dried Foods, and Oregon Freeze Dry but they only sell their products in very large quantities Thanks

I have been using a Bradley smoker for some time with excellent results. I purchased a controller from BBQGuru, it is the ProCom 4 with the Raptor power relay. I can set any temps I need and pretty much forget about the smoker until the estimated time is up. The controller backs off the pit temp as the meat temp approaches done. This controller also does a fine job with sous vide cooking. I get bulk quantities of Bradley smoker pucks or bisquettes from www.bulkbbq.com. I believe they just drop ship them from Bradley so I would think those in Canada could buy through this firm. The package is four 120 puck packages in a master case. Hope this helps. Phil

I haven't followed all posts to this thread, so I may be redundant. I usually do Boston Butt using a Bradley Smoker. I completely season the meat with a spicy dry rub then completely coat the meat with yellow mustard and refrigerate for about 24 hours. I use about four hours of hickory smoke. Set the pit temperature to 190 degrees F. and cook until I reach an internal temperature of 180-185 degrees F. This usually takes 12-18 hours. The mustard seems to disappear and leaves a beautiful crust on the meat. This method takes a while and has to be pre planned for a dinner but the results are outstanding with very few leftovers. I hope my experience helps. Respectfully