Dave the Cook

I haven't done brisket, but sources that I trust suggest much longer times. Modernist Cuisine prescribes a 7-hour smoke at 149°F followed by sous-vide bath at 146°F for 72 hours. It's worth noting that they're after exactly what you say you want: a facsimile of Texas-style barbecue. ChefSteps recommends 154°F for 24 hours. However, they brine it, apply a glaze of liquid smoke (and a couple of other things) and finish it in the oven. Without having tried it, the recipe sounds as much like pastrami as smoked brisket. Nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't sound quite like what you're after. Having said that, the cook time alone says to me that your brisket might benefit from a longer swim in the hot bath.

Where, please?

When I saw their assertion that salt evaporated, I quit reading.

We don't do many casseroles, either. But recently, we found Kenji's Tuna-Noodle Casserole to be very high on the reward-to-effort ratio, and much lighter than the traditional versions.

I'm not opposed to MSG, either. However, it's worth pointing out that, along with mushrooms (and presumably mushroom extract), autolyzed yeast extract and hydrolyzed soy protein are significant sources of glutamates.

As a place to start, the New York Times' remaining four-stars are EMP, Le Bernardin, Sushi Nakazawa, Jean Georges and Del Posto. Of course, Wells also liked Senor Frog.

Bar Keepers Friend will remove most rust. Once you've done that, you'll want to reseason your pan.

If you click on the photo of the Gourmia, you'll get several more pictures. One of them shows it clipped to a pot with a pretty serious lip on it. I usually use a 16-qt. stock pot or the bottom of our 6L pressure cooker. I think I once had to resort to a 22-qt Cambro, but i can't remember what for, and I was almost certainly being over-cautious about maintaining good circulation. The point is, you probably already have what you need.

+1 on the chicken breast. That's what convinced us.

Having said that, if you're not interested in a lot of byplay and theorizing and just want to jump in with some times and temps, ChefSteps just released a week-long intro-to-sous-vide set of recipes and techniques. I've found Chef Steps to be pretty reliable.

I'd venture to say that you're already there. I mean, here.

I have a PID controller with a slow-cooker, but that setup is extremely slow to come to temp, as well as to recover. In teaching cooling classes, I've also used the Sous Vide Supreme (and the bafflingly sized SVS Demi), as well as the Nomiku. As Chris says, most devices on the market now work pretty well, so it's really just a matter of price. If you have a little patience, and you're in the US, the Anova goes on sale pretty regularly, for the flimsiest of excuses. I got mine last year for $100, based on a Father's Day discount.

What I remember from bottled Italian dressing is the oil-vinegar combination, along with fairly sharp garlic (probably from its powdered form), and general herbage -- nothing overtly basil-like. But it seems to me that there's other stuff in bottled dressings that might avail: gums and so forth that will assist in cling and assure enhanced viscosity. Those things might be as important to a recipe as any specific flavor.

When I worked on a restaurant line -- a lifetime ago -- this was a significant part of the traditional hangover cure.

I don't subscribe to any food magazines, and you can make of that what you will. But my advice to cooks just starting out is to subscribe -- or check at your library -- two or three years' worth of Cooks Illustrated. It gets repetitive, and you'll tire of the straw-man construction of their narratives, but there's lots of "here's why this works" stuff (along with some canards that even Christopher Kimball won't admit to). Then move on to Fine Cooking, which, despite a less ambitious editorial program of late, is still solid stuff. After those, you know enough to choose the next step for yourself.

In addition to its wetness, crappy ice often includes small pieces that melt more quickly when stirred or shaken, leading to an overly diluted product. I think your best bet is a decent cooler with a perforated hotel pan to hold the ice and let it drain. Large holes will let you shake the little chunks out and at the same time bring the bigger pieces to the top (I forget what that principle is called, but it applies, in my experience).

I don't know which food they should revolve around, but I can tell you when they should be. I was thinking about this the other night while explaining the true origins of Cinco de Mayo to a student, and how it was, well, as Jason explains. In the US, CdM comes conveniently about halfway between two other food-related holidays: about six weeks after St. Patrick's Day, and four weeks before Independence Day (or Canada Day, for that matter). After that, we don't have another food holiday occasion until Labor Day (for those not in the States, the first Monday in September). So there's mos def an opportunity to wedge an occasion into early August. Then, food-holiday-wise, it's dry until Canadian Thanksgiving (second Monday in October) or --even worse -- US Thanksgiving (late November). Seems like we need a floating holiday on a Friday in late September.

I used to use a combination of oxtails and short ribs, until short ribs got expensive. Now it's oxtails and shanks, or some form of chuck if shanks aren't available. But you say you'll be grinding it first, and that makes oxtails kind of a pain-in-the-ass cut to use. So I'd say shanks, shins, and chuck, alone or in combination.

Some good news: Full article here.

Hi Graeme! A quick way to find many of our immersion circulator topics is to use the Advanced Search feature: At the top of every page, you'll see the Search box, and a little gear just to the right of it. Click the gear.On the Search page, scroll down a little until you see the Find Tags box.Type Modernist in the box and click on the Search Now button.You'll get 27 pages of Modernist topics, many of which concern immersion circulators and sous vide cooking.The default listing is by date, with the most recent listed first, but you can sort however you like by clicking on the sort buttons in the bright blue bar at the top of the list. See you on the forums!

We actually paid $1.50 each for four limes at a supermarket the other day (what can I say? we like daiquiris and margaritas and Pegu Clubs and and and . . . ). That store is still at 2/$3; a similar establishment a mile or so away has them at (the now seemingly reasonable price of) 79 cents. All from Mexico. My guess is that a few smart (or lucky) produce buyers locked in prices before the crisis, and now some producers or distributors are getting squeezed.

Oy. I got confused between making two drinks and making one. So for one cocktail, it's 2 oz Laird's Bonded 0.25 oz lemon juice 0.25 oz grenadine Yeah, maybe it's a little rough, but I like the base spirit forward.

Sorry to be the source of your disappointment! And to fess up, that's no longer how we make them. It's more like: 2 oz Laird's Bonded 0.25 (1T) oz lemon juice 0.25 (1T) grenadine We will try an Autumn in Jersey -- once we've replenished the orgeat. Thanks for the tip.

That looks very much like what we in the US would call a "Boston Butt." Here, it's usually rolled and tied for roasting, but to me it looks like it would be fine for Coppa. However, given the large isolated areas of fat, it's probably just as good very coarsely ground, in any number of other pork-based sausages. Myself, I'd be thinking Cajun-style andouille. (But then, I'm often thinking about Cajun-style andouille.)

I don't have any experience with this unit, but I just finished building a computer that incorporated a number of components made or OEM'd by Rosewill. I was impressed with the quality, fit and finish. Seems like a solid company.