mgaretz

At my second wedding my wife I wanted pie instead of cake. The caterer made a huge cherry pie in the shape of heart. There was no top crust so it was big red heart - served about 50 people.

Maybe salt would work?

So if I understand, the thighs will be pre-cooked on the BBQ and you're just using the bath to warm them to serving temp? If so, then you can go with whatever temp you want to seve at and in an hour they will be ready. Probably less but an hour works. I have used this technique to cook breasts SV and warm pre-cooked thighs in the same bath.

Personally, a good latke shouldn't need anything!

It's been cold an rainy here, and my daughter who doesn't like mushrooms wasn't home for dinner, so I made mushroom soup with beef and barley:

Duncan - look into the possibility of creating an add-on chamber with sealer that uses the vacuum of a Foodsaver or similar that has an external vacuum port. That eliminates the cost of the vacuum pump and I'll bet 80% or more of the target market already owns a clamp sealer. There will be those that say the Foodsaver doesn't pull a good enough vacuum, but again I beleive the target market doesn't want to make watermelon "meat" and really only wants to vacuum liquids for Sous Vide or storage and the Foodsaver is plenty good enough for that. I'd suggest an external box that holds the entire Foodsaver (elevated) and a mechanical means to press its buttons (so you are not even including a sealer or anything electrical) but that would limit you to certain models that fit. Then again, maybe that would work for many models if you pressed start, closed the box lid and hoped the internal vacuum sensor that ends the cycle and seals would activate correctly. It eliminates the mechanical button pushing and makes it easier to accomodate multiple models/brands of sealer. Might need to make the sealer intentionally leaky so the chamber sees the vacuum, but that coould be as simple as removing one of the gaskets.

I have an Artisan and a 4200xl. I wouldn't replace one with the other. If I had to give one up, it would be the 4200xl, though I really like it. Except for pie dough, I have always had better luck making dough in the stand mixer and not any success in the food processor.

And this frame same site: http://www.iwritefunny.com/2008/03/10/cooks-illustrated-recipe-boiled-water/

The FoodSaver bags need to be quilted on one side in order to work, so be sure whatever you get also has this. The quilting keeps the bag from collapsing entirely and therefore stopping any further vacuuming. You can seal a zip loc type bag with a FoodSaver, but you can't pull a good vacuum. There are less expensive bags and rolls out there - I haven't bought any because I am happy with the cost of the "bag/roll pack" that Costco sells, and I got a deal on rolls directly from FoodSaver when I bought replacement gaskets from them, but I am sure someone will chime in. ScottyBoy told me of a good source but I can't remember what he told me!

I'm thinking the reason it didn't cling together is that you used water for the liquid element rather than cream or a thick gravy that would have given your hash more body. Being lactose intolerant, cream is out. Anyway I took some photos of the leftovers: And with a poached egg (dinner last night):

I made hash last night too. Onion, red potatoes and corned beef. I par-bolied the potatoes and cut them into just slightly smaller pieces than MJX's. Seasoned with fresh garlic and a small amount of salt and pepper. I sautéed the onions in clarified butter added in the potatoes until they started to brown then the beef, spices and 1/2 cup of water. Cooked on fairly high heat until the water was gone and the hash was getting very crispy. Then turned for another few minutes. It was tasty, but it didn't stick together like I thought it would. Not enough starch from the potatoes?

Chezcherie?

How did it go?

I didn't snap any pictures, but tonight I tried an experiment. I made my regular crab cake recipes but used canned tuna instead. They came out very good and will likely become a regular around here. Served with homemade coleslaw.

I also had this happen once with a single bag. The excess bag material was causing the same blocking effect even though it was not actually blocking the holes directly (like yours it was in the middle). Tucking the "flaps" into the rack fixed it. Here's what SVS has to say: http://www.sousvidesupreme.com/en-us/productsupport.htm Since I have learned to leave some vertical water channels, especially at the edges, I have not had the problem again.

My Foodsaver, admittedly one of the pricier ones (about $130), makes an excellent seal. It even seals effectively if the seal area has some liquid present. I've owned many commercial sealers and the seal on the Foodsaver is every bit as good as the best commercial units I have owned.

Hi Scott, Mine has done that in the past and I discovered it was because the arangement of bags was blocking too many of the holes in the base pan. Rearranging the bags solved the problem. I was recently able to do 10 bags of chicken thighs (two per bag) and it worked fine - but I took care to leave some vertical "channels" so the water could flow.

I have used tapioca flour from the Asian market with good success. If you want it really firm, try 4tbs or so. I recently bought some Instant Clear Jel to try, but haven't played with it yet.

Thanks for digging that out! That is a refreshingly-honest product website. My big red flag is the tiny little heating element and circulator. It doesn't look nearly beefy enough to withstand what I would do with it, even for home use. I still don't have a sous vide setup. And I'll likely go the DIY route. But products like this show me that it's going mainstream. And someday soon we might have the killer product that everyone puts on their holiday shopping list. I agree that the heater may be its biggest issue. By their own admission it takes some time to come up to temp. The circulator is probably fine. My SVS has none and it works great. I also agree that it will go mainstream and you'll see fully integrated units for under $100 (bath, heater, controller, circulator) from the major appliance brands like Cuisinart.

Looks normal to me. I don't think you have a leak. Also remember that juices would also leak out. Is you water still clear? If so, you don't have a leak.

I suggest you call Foodsaver directly. Their website doesn't list all the gaskets or their applications (many fit multiple models).

Yesterday was a almost a full day of cooking. The day before we had bought a massive package of pork shoulders and another massive package of bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs from Costco. I started out by trimming, halving and tieing each pork shoulder to end up with 4 roasts. One went into the slow cooker for pulled pork (that we will eat tonight) and the others were vacuum packed and frozen. (Love the new Tojiro honesuke!) There were a total of 24 thighs. I vacuum packed 20 of them, two to a package, and cooked them sous vide at 175F for 5 hours, then quick chilled them in a ice bath, the froze them for later use. The remaining four thighs were de-skinned and de-boned and cut into chunks, then marinated in hoisin, soy, garlic and sherry for 6 hours. Then for dinner I made them into a stir fry with yu choy, carrots, onion and celery with a sauce of soy, hoisin, ginger and a touch of red pepper flakes. Served with basmati rice.

When I buy Thai basil the package always has way more than I need. So I vacuum seal and freeze the leftovers, dividing into "dish sized" portions. It turns black but it's perfectly fine in stir fries (I primarily use it for pad kee mao).

Hands down (pun intended) the kitchenaid. The attachments are made in Italy so it wouldn't surprise me if they are made by atlas or similar. Hand cranking adds no magic to the pasta. It's not like we're comparing using a rolling pin and hand rolling to using a machine. Just a question of where the power comes from.

I going to venture to say that it probably doesn't matter much. For something inexpensive but decent I'd recommend Rebel Yell from Trader Joes (elsewhere will cost more). I also think that the flavors of bourbon and brandy are quite similar and that brandy might work as well or better given the lower alcohol content.