OliverB

I had the short ribs in for 8 hrs at 134 yesterday and they came out really nice. They could have stayed in there longer to melt some more of the fat but we were hungry and it was an experiment. I put them in a very hot cast iron pan for a gorgeous crust. Perfectly cooked! Now, I can do that with a good steak myself, but something like short ribs would be a challenge. Easy in the Big Green Egg, but then you get a lot of smoky flavor. I love that, but it's a different dish. Oven is also possible I guess, but still, won't be the same. Tonight I'll put two salmon steaks in there :-) The temp does fluctuate as mentioned above. Mostly by half a degree up or down, but sometimes jumps a degree or more for a second. I'm not concerned so far, would be interesting to know where the temp is actually taken though. I checked with my handheld and temp was pretty consistent everywhere, forgot to check with my infrared, I'll see what that gives me later today if I remember. I haven't heard back from them regarding the rack, but they probably had gone home already (I'm in California) and hopefully will get back to me on Monday. I'm sure I'll be getting it, but still think it should be part of the package. Or at least very clearly shown as an option on their site. Well, very happy to far, and lots more to experiment. Finally I have a reason to get my Under Pressure book down and actually do something with it :-) Oliver

seems I missed the short deadline where I can edit my post, so here's what I was gonna add :-) I Just filled it and turned it on to 134 for those short ribs :-) And I measured, you have about 4 1/2 inches from the grill to the max fill line for vertical food. I don't how the rack looks like, if that gives a bit more space towards the bottom. I can't even find it on their website, just sent them an e-mail asking. The temperature of the water goes up pretty quick, it's interesting to watch it creep up to the set 134 degree. It hit that temp for a second and started to beep very quietly a bit before, then must have turned off the heating element. Temp dropped down to 132.4 or so, and now it's slowly creeping back up, I guess by turning the heating on and off in short intervals. A nice approach, as I would guess that overshooting the temp a bit would take longer to regulate (cool) than slowly going up to the set temp. The unit is lightly warm on the outside, the lid is basically just an aluminum pan and hotter. I put the supplied insulator thing on top, some kine of rubbery thing like a mouse pad. Maybe neoprene or something like that. It can also be used to protect the counter if you put the lid down there (which can be used as a tray to put the pouches in once removed, again something that shows that the designers gave every part some thought here).

white and red only, which I noticed once I tried to switch from red to blue. Might be over now, but as Caruso says, doesn't hurt to contact them. Yes, 199 is what I paid, well worth it I think. It's a nice looking unit, well built. Keep in mind, this is a really simple machine, which is why I so far did not jump on the other much more expensive options. There's very little "high tech" in there. $200 seems just about right for something that looks nice and is built well. I might try it today, otherwise this weekend.

well, if the food is somewhat flat on the bottom you can probably have it standing I doubt it's an issue though, unless you plan to put a gigantic bowl filling piece of food in there. And then I'm sure you could find something, be it a fork or spoon or what ever to prop things up. The convection is I think pretty forceful. I don't know where they measure the water temp for the control and I plan to measure around in the bowl, but I'm pretty sure they tested this thing and found it to work. The instruction book is not the best, and the recipes are so so. Some say to put your food and aromatics in the bag, seal it and put it in the fridge overnight, but none say if you should put it in the water straight from the fridge or have it come up to room temp first? To be safe, I'll go from the fridge, but they could be a bit clearer. And color printing isn't all that expensive, a couple pictures would be nice too :-) I do think they should include that vertical rack, seems an odd thing to sell extra, as it really can't cost them much and is somewhat necessary if you have more packages than can fit on the rack horizontally. The inside of the "pot" is 11x8.5x6 (deep) approximately. From the 6inch deep you have to deduct the "floor" with the holes and the rack, a good inch or a bit more I think. Then you won't fill it to the top, so you can't really stand large pieces vertically, they'd stick out of the water. But you can pretty much put in there what fits on a piece of letter size paper loosely next to each other and probably propped up against each other as well. Instructions don't say much in that regard, but if you have 3 steaks in there that partially sit on each other, I'm sure they'll all be up to temp after 8 hours no matter which way they sit/stand. So, you can't feed a crowd with this, but neither can you with the regular supreme IMO. If you want flexible bath sizes or large ones, poly Science or the one with the bubbler from fresh meals is the way to go. I think this unit will do what I need though, but we'll see how it performs, I'll report!

mine arrived today. Looks very nice! It is very light, even with all the boxing around it I could easily carry it in one hand, but then, it's basically a glorified rice cooker of sorts, not much to add weight. There's the platform with holes in the bottom and then a small grill to place your food on, no rack to keep several bags standing. Won't be an issue for now, but I'll either get their rack or see if one of my rib racks fits in there if I want to make more than one or two bags of things. I think that rack should just be part of the delivery, but at $200 including shipping I can't really complain :-) I've not had the chance to play with it yet, I did put some short ribs (boneless) in bags and sealed them, maybe I'll get to it tomorrow. The little recipe book also has something like spiced apple in it, which made me think of poached pears that I never had but always admired in photos, might just have to grow a slightly sweet tooth to play with such things. Size seems sufficient for a family of 4 (two little ones, 3 and 7). I can fit one or two steaks in there just fine I think, with a rack even more. I don't server whole steaks though, I slice them. We eat a lot of meat, but not THAT much :-) I took some pictures that will hopefully help me to revive my blog, will continue to take pix with the first things I make. I'll let you know here, but probably won't have time to put the pictures here as well, or did they make that an easier process now? So, without turning it on, I'm happy with the looks and feel of the machine. Little things, like the offset handles that should make pouring out the water after cooking easier etc, the designers spent some thought on this. Size should be plenty for regular house use, if you entertain lots of guests and need to impress you might want the larger unit, or just cook and chill over several days. For my use, this seems just about perfect in size, including the storage foot print. It's about as wide as a toaster oven, and just as deep. More to come :-)

just got my ship confirmation, won't be as fast as a fire truck but as red :-)

I'll report once I get mine, though I have to say that the capacities in numberr of oz of meat are not all that useful to me. I'm much more interested in the size of meat etc I can put in there, does a "regular size" piece of steak fit? Do 4 fit? Thought that's an odd way of showing capacity. I'll find out I guess. I'll most likely use this for family cooking only, though who knows. I just prefer to cook on fire for a crowd, but the above mentioned packages of ready made meats in the fridge are certainly enticing and part of what made me jump on the Demi now. Having several dinners at the ready sure sounds helpful and handy.

ok, no matter what Keller and Blumenthal may come up with, at $199 I simply had to jump at this, thanks for posting that info! For red and white units only, in case that matters. I'm thinking this will be plenty good in size for my family. I shall report.... figure if I don't like it, I can always sell it for the same price :-) EDIT: we'll see if they honor my order, as I'm not a prior customer, but so far I've gotten my confirmation and all seems fine.

LOL, are you sure they're not full of cocaine and the former owner was a smuggler? What an odd thing to find. As for the pantry stuff, I could survive a long and hard winter using up things I needed then and there and never got around to. Of course, living in California brings a very limited chance of that long and cold winter, but it's always good to be prepared :-) I guess in case of an earthquake we'll be eating like kings

I'd certainly shy away from buying a used one from just someone, but at the eggfest they are fanatics and use it correctly, with no ligher fluid. I use the Weber starter cubes, BGE also sells some made of wood and wax or something like that. Never use lighter fluid, period. Not even on my Weber.

I went with the BGE for a couple of reasons. For one, I don't like the look of the little tiles on the Kamado, too much grout to keep clean, whereas the BGE you just wipe off. Also saw photos of quite some (probably on that fraud site) where the tiles started to fall off, no thanks to that, not even to the remote possibility of that happening. BGE has life time warranty if you buy it from a licensed retailer (though NOT if you order it online!) From all I read, they are very good with their warranty, anything breaks they send you a new one or you pick it up at the store. Which brings me to the next reason, I could pick the egg up at the store (barbeques galore in my case, now even Ace has it here) and did not have to pay for shipping. Also, there is quite a fanatical following of the egg online, several forums and sites etc. I could not find any of that kind for the other ones. I have the large egg, plenty big for my family as well as feeding a party with large pieces of slow cooked meat. I still have my good old Weber and use that for grilling things like sausages or where I want/need a two zone fire, though that's pretty rare nowadays. I do agree that you need the plate setter with the egg, at least I use it all the time. Also have the cast iron grill for steak. I actually think they all look a bit goofy, but after reading a lot online all things pointed to the egg for me. Not saying the others are bad, I did consider the oval one for a while. But the convenience of picking it up at a store where I can also get the coals, accessories, and deal with warranty issues should they ever arise made my decision. Oh, and my house is painted about the same color green :-) All in all, the BGE is the best cooking item I've ever bought. From low and slow to super high and fast, it does everything I ever wanted and then some. Hint, check in your area if there is ever an egg fest somewhere. They had one here where all the contestant cooks cooked on brand new eggs that then were sold at quite some discount with full warranty and all. Great deal for a once used egg!

yesterday burgers made of about half pork half beef, s&p, a spritz of worcestershire, chopped onion, one egg and bread crumbs. Roasted parboyled potatoes. Tonight a big skirt steak cooked at 500 degree for some 6 to 8 min, beans, baguette. This week I'll be making a whole bunch of chicken at once, one for that nights dinner, the other to heat up again with teriaki sauce or something like that. There's no week without a hot BGE :-)

well, worth the wait for me, if there are multiple new machines on the horizon. I'm in no rush to cook sou vide, I'm actually not even sure what I'd want to cook that way (or if I've ever eaten anything cooked that way actually, including our once in a lifetime dinner at the French Laundry). I generally prefer my meats and fish cooked over fire on in the pan. I'd like to play with SV, but I doubt it would ever be used more than my crock pot. Of course, I might be wrong once I try it, but if there are some new models in the works I'd hate to spend $300 now and then find one with nicer/better/other features half a year later. Though I'm actually not quite sure what other features there could be, after all, it's just a fancy hot water bath. The Demi seems like a very nice self contained unit of a size that's perfectly fine for a family of 4 and I'd like to see one in person somewhere. I like the flexibility of the Freshmeals set, as you can use any size pot. But is that necessary in home use? No idea. Still, a nice immersion circulator that doesn't look like some mad science experiment, but allows me to use a pot I already have, instead of having yet an other relatively large machine on the shelf, that's interesting to me. And maybe that's what Keller or Blumenthal or somebody else is working on? But for someone that's been dieing to get into SV, the Demi might just be what the doctor ordered, no doubt.

I'm liking that! Worth waiting for, I'm in no rush and have other things on my x-mas list

They look well made to me, I'm sure they're fine. I don't like the All Clad handles and would not buy an other pan from them. I have the non stick, in hindsight that was not a good buy. I did some research later and what I found recommended most is to buy cheap and replace often, as the non stick will eventually come off in all pans. That's what I'll do when the All Clad is loosing it's surface, mine has a small scratch already, despite that I never used metal in it. I guess something fell in or the lid scratched it, not sure. It's tiny and does not seem to grow (yet). What I did not like on some of the larger Sur La Table pans is the extra handle on the opposite side, those handles tend to get entangled in my other pots and pans and also stick into the are of my other burners and are of no use to me.

The Demi is certainly interesting! I was considering the fresh meals setup, but would I need the flexibility in size? I usually just cook for my family, with guests it's usually done outside on the Big Green Egg. I wish I could look at the machines somewhere, compare the size. That I can cook 12 4oz portions is of little use to me, but I would guess it's easily big enough for two large steaks? I don't thin I ever cooked some 4oz portions, but then, it certainly seems large enough for a small dinner party? Did anybody buy the Demi yet and use it? With Christmas coming up, I need to find something to give myself, it's either some cooking equipment or camera equipment...

the only time I ever made it I used only bones, no meat. Turned out just fine, pretty stinky process though, not quite sure I'll do that again. The stock was great, but since I always end up with chicken bones I usually make chicken stock. The veal bones were not that easy to find.

blow torch to get a nice crust going on some meat preparations. needle nose pliers to remove pin bones from fish. That's all I can think of right now. other than that I'm more prone to use kitchen tools (and other tools) creating artwork.

just wondering, can't you use those silica packets to get moisture down? They are to be found in foot packages, so I'd guess it's perfectly safe. And you can dry them out and reuse them. I think you can even buy them online. I've never tried it, too many things to deal with to also go into curing chambers right now, but I'd probably try that.

those squash look amazing! How long and at what temp did you cook them? With plate setter or just the grill over the coals? I have one of those in the kitchen and once I showed it the picture it told me that that's what it wants to be when it grows up :-) Is that butter in there? Lately I always put almost boiled potatoes in there too, get nice marks/browning and they taste fanatastic!

if green is all you want I'd also probably try a chlorophyl extraction. I think there's one in the French Laundry book, but I can't look it up right now. I guess you could foam that up if you need/want foam. Otherwise I could imagine a couple drops of very green olive oil could work great too, blending the oil with basil and straining it through a cheesecloth. The soup sounds great and personally I think a bit of colored oil would look great and add some nice taste too. I have no idea if you can make foam from oil though. If I recall correctly, the chlorophyl extraction does not stay super green for a long time, but it's been a while since I read that. You say no food coloring, but I have to ask, why not? Aren't those extracted from plant material too? If it's just for color. I'd love to see a picture of the finished dish!

hmm, never thought about smoked cheese, now I have to experiment! Interesting idea with the fire in a can, not so sure I'd be into the soldering iron thing, but also an interesting idea. I wonder if putting what ever one wants to cold smoke on a block of ice in a pan would work? Maybe with some foil in between. Turn it occasionally so all sides get exposed/cooled?

just roasted a chicken last night on a beer can stand, came out great and juicy! Put some asparagus on shortly before it was done, great dinner and a nice carcass for stock :-) As a side note, as far as I know you can't cold smoke on the egg. Maybe with a tray of ice or something in there, or with some careful fiddling with a little pile of coals, I've not tried that. But I don't really care that much for cold smoked things, so it's a non-issue for me.

I just picked up a copy of this lovely book! Could not resist and with a 40% off coupon and $10 in Borders Cash I only spent $15, can't beat that! There's a little note inserted with an error correction. In case you did not get that note, here it is: "In the recipe for Speculoos on page 406, one large egg, at room temperature, was mistakenly omitted. Beat it into the butter-sugar mixture." Nice touch that the publisher put that note into the book!!

what I love about the egg is the easy temp control, the wide range of temp it can hold, from 200 to over 600, how little coal it uses and that nothing seems to dry out. I've smoked bacon on a Weber, works fine too, but you can't just walk away, you have to watch the temp, add coals etc. The egg just stays around the temp you want for hours on end with one load of coal. And yes, it's an excellent wood fired oven too. Made fantastic pizza in it and while I have not done it yet, you can bake great bread in there too or bake a dessert while you're eating the main dish. It's not cheap, but considering all the things you can do with it, it combines a smoker with a grill with a bbq with an oven all in one. And anything I've ever made on it came out just great, from the bacon to a high heat seared perfect steak. It's very easy to set and control the heat. I looked at smokers for quite a while, almost got a Bradley, but am so glad I went with the egg. Bradleys and others like it only work with the wood pucks or similar things that they supply, so you can not use other woods. And of course, you can't do anything but smoke with them whereas the egg is a one in all solution. I use it several times every week.