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Bob_Davis

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    http:///www.SturgisBikeWeek.com

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  • Location
    Sturgis, SD. USA
  1. I saw the segment and enjoyed it very much. Being a former journalist, maybe I was able to look past Leslie's snarky attitude for the real message in the piece. For me, the real message is that the standard American diet is killing us. A very large percentage of our youth rely almost exclusively on McDonald's and other fast food outlets for their "nutrition". Anyone who tries to reverse that trend and teach people about eating a healthier diet has my support. Even though I live in one of the most rural areas of the country, I don't have a farmer's market in my neighborhood. Nearest one is 35 miles from here. I guess I need a jet airplane to fly in my organics? Bob
  2. Mark, I do short ribs at 135F for 48 hrs. I might try 131F sometime, but some of my friends don't like their meat too pink. Out of the bag into a Hot cast iron skillet with canola oil. First time I dropped a chuck roast into the skillet, it was way too hot! Sent up a huge cloud of smoke that my crappy little exhaust hood couldn't handle. I've learned to tone it down a little using the skillet indoors. I only had to do very minimal trimming on the short ribs. They were already trimmed up nicely at the butcher shop. Bob
  3. Mark, Welcome to the forum! I'm not the expert you seek, as I've only been doing SV for a few weeks. I've tried 48 hr. short ribs a few times now. The first time with just basic seasoning, S&P. Results were OK, and everyone enjoyed them, but I thought they could be better. Next time I used a store-bought beef marinade (Stubbs) and I thought they were excellent, much improved from the first batch. So far, chuck roast with a marinade is my favorite SV dish. 30-48 hrs. really does a nice job on chuck. I suspect you're right on the trimming. The short ribs should be trimmed pretty well. Bob
  4. A couple of months ago I replaced my old dishwasher with a high end LG, the one with steam cycle. I picked LG mainly because I was so happy with the LG washer and dryer I purchased a few months earlier. Then I read some unflattering reviews on the LG somewhere on the internet. My only complaint so far is that my plates don't seem to fit the racks very well, and the racks are very adjustable. For example, if I put 8 plates in the rack, and they're all upright, they have a tendency to tip forward like a row of dominos. Other than that, I'm happy with the "cleaning power" of the LG. I pre-rinse, however. Not sure if I really need to do that. Cleaning cycle is long, 2 hrs. 18 minutes for normal cycle. Over an hour for quick cycle. Cool blue lights on the interior. You have the option to wash just the top or bottom rack, but I don't think I've even tried that. Although I'm reasonably happy with the LG, if I'd known about the Hobart under-the-counter washers, that's the one I covet. 90 seconds a cycle would be excellent.
  5. Thanks. I will try all these methods, deli paper, cutting mat and folding the bag. I've already vac packed enough meat to feed a battalion for a month. Now, a question on labels. Has anyone used a label printer to make bag labels? I was thinking about bringing home a Dymo label printer from the office. I will have to conduct a little test to see if the labels need to be removed before the bags enter the water. Or maybe someone makes a plastic waterproof label? Bob
  6. Hate to follow up my own post, but 3 lb. beef chuck roast @ 135F for 32 hours, marinated in Stubb's Beef Marinade in the bag. Then seared for about a minute on both sides. Stubbs is just something I found at the market last weekend, says "a special blend of soy, lime, ginger and red pepper. Results: excellent. Not fall apart tender, but extremely tender and juicy.
  7. Chef, Naturally, the simple methods are usually best. Thanks for the suggestion. I was thinking something motorized and stainless steel. lol Bob
  8. After sealing literally everything in my freezer, including ice, someone needs to invent a bag-loading device. Why can't there be a chute-like thing that drops a chicken breast into the bottom of the bag, without letting it touch the open end of the bag?
  9. I ended up with the MVS 31 from these people. Your Koch unit seems to be about 25% larger than the Minipack 31. So far I'm very happy with mine. The chamber seems to be large enough to package up anything I'll be cooking in the foreseeable future. On the website, there's a video that shows how to use suction from the machine to vac seal a bag that's outside the chamber. I haven't tried that yet. Probably won't need to. When I got the machine, the compressor instructions said it was shipped without oil, but I checked, and it's full of oil. Also, when I first tried to use it, I could only achieve a 93% vacuum. It's supposed to go to 99.9%. So I called the dealer and they emailed me instructions to calibrate. Very simple. Took about a minute. Now it works perfectly. I'm at 3250 ft. elevation, hence the need to re-calibrate. Like you, I don't have room on my kitchen counter. So I brought home a rubbermaid cart to set it on. I roll it out of the pantry when I need it. If I'm just going to bag an item or two, I just leave it in the pantry. Works pretty good that way for me. If I'm ever fortunate enough to be able to redesign my kitchen, I will create a special place for the sealer. I don't know how I ever lived without this thing.
  10. Yikes! It took three weeks, but I finally made it all the way through this thread. And now I've gotten up the nerve to make my first post. So I'm now equipped with the PolyScience circulator and a brand new chamber sealer arrived last week. So far I've tried steaks, many kinds of fish, chicken breasts, and last night I served a dozen friends 48 hr. short ribs. The ribs were amazing and my friends gobbled them up in a big hurry. I've eaten more fish in the past two weeks than all of the past five years combined. It's so easy to go home for lunch and drop in a bag of fish for a few minutes. I'm convinced that once some low cost cookers hit the market (ala crockpot), this technique will revolutionize cooking at home. Or perhaps, some poor soul will cook up a batch of botulism and kill his family and friends and nobody will touch sous vide ever again. My downtown apartment has become the nighttime crossroads for a large group of friends. It seems I throw together an impromptu meal for them at least once a week. This, I LOVE to do. At least one Sunday per month, about a dozen of them come to my place for breakfast. And so, I have a question about vacuum packing omelette ingredients. It would be handy to package up a variety of meat for individual omelettes. Would it be better to package the meats (sausage, bacon, etc.) uncooked? Partially cooked? Fully cooked? Yesterday, I had some short ribs in 135F water. So I dropped in a couple pounds of pork sausage and bacon. I realize this is only partially cooked. I gave the sausage and bacon the ice bath treatment, then added diced ham and created a bunch of individual servings, which I froze. I wonder if this is a dumb idea, maybe it's better to just package raw, then freeze. I haven't considered vac packing mushrooms, celery, tomatoes, peppers for the omelettes. I don't know how these items will freeze. Thanks, Bob
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