HiRoller

I think this is a great idea, and this is the place to do it (assuming there's no TOS issues). I also think that the person with the item should set a per oz (or whatever) price. This has the potential to be a big pain-in-the-butt and the person willing to front the money, as well as package and mail the goods ought to at least get theirs for free as compensation. I'd be interested in a few ounces of the carrageenan. Fred

I've read all 48 pages of this thread, and I think I've got a first... I ordered the set from Barnes and Noble Monday afternoon. It arrived today at my door in Florida - from Nevada. Total of three days from keying in my credit card number to unpacking. The guys selling for big bucks on e-bay ($800+) ain't gonna like this...

For the last few years I’ve pretended I’m in 19th century England and cooked a goose for Christmas. A little absurd for a Jewish guy, but, what the heck, in for a dime, in for a dollar! Since I didn’t have Scrooge to chip in, I’ve ordered my goose – and, given the cost of a nice plump goose, I can see why old Ebeneezer was slow to pull the trigger. On Fannie’s Last Supper (a documentary put together by the America’s Test Kitchen folks) they explained that a goose is like a turkey in that the breasts and legs have very different cooking requirements - only 10 times worse than a turkey. My experiences bear that out – it’s been a real mixed bag of good portions and bad from different parts of the bird in different years. After having excellent results with turkey parts sous vide, I thought I’d try the goose sous vide this year. Turkey legs with a little goose fat at 180F for 10-12 hours were exceptional, so I figured goose leg quarters would get the same treatment. The goose breast would be treated like duck breast; sealed with a little goose fat at 130F for 4 hours. The skin would be removed from both, fat scraped off wherever possible and the skin placed between silpat sheets on baking trays, pressed with weights and put in the oven at 350F for 45 minutes or so. Concerns include – but are not limited to – the fact that the goose breast is different than duck breast, goose leg quarters are different from turkey legs, and that the skin will take a much longer time to render because of the thickness of the fat layer (scraping might not work so well). In fact, there might be so much fat that it will overflow the tray! My sous vide bible – Douglas’ book - doesn’t even mention goose. Since this is for a holiday dinner (with guests – one of whom is a chef) and purchasing a “test goose” will set the price of this dinner into the range of a down payment on Nathan’s book, any suggestions regarding any of this will be appreciated. TIA.

I will be cooking them for 10-12 hrs at 180F. I'm not worry about overcooking during the SV portion, but overcooking while bringing it up to temp in the fryer. Your suggestion would resolve that - assuming that warming doesn't bring juices back to the surface...

Curious to know how our experts would handle this... It looks like I'll have more guests than expected for Thanksgiving. Keeping with tradition, I'll be doing a fried turkey. Can't go with a larger turkey because of the limitations of the fryer, so I thought I'd do some extra turkey legs on the side. I love SV'd turkey legs. But the wife wants them to have crispy skin. Turkey legs come out of the bag so moist that frying the legs directly afterwards would be difficult, if not dangerous. Not sure that merely patting them dry would be enough. I could SV them the day before, let them dry out in the fridge and then throw them in the fryer the next day until they come up to temperature, but I'm not sure that they wouldn't be overcooked in the fry process. Any thoughts? TIA.

I'm curious about sous vide equipment being used for low temp liquid cooking, per the discussion about stock. I wish to concentrate some inexpensive but decent balsamic vinegar into something resembling a condimento. The vinegar will need to be reduced by half, but there's a danger of sugar caramelization and burning if done as a boil. Would setting the equipment up to evaporate (above 170F(?)) be safer than boiling? I'm using an SVM setup, with a hotplate under a stockpot, and am assuming that by using this setup the bottom of the pot would never get to a sugar-burning temperature.

Somewhere while surfing I came across a post from a chef who was describing a solution that was painted on the surface of a meat that would make the crust better when searing. My recollection is that the individual used a mixture of honey and baking soda (and maybe something else) that would quickly carmelize during the sear. Does anyone know this formula, or have other ways of surface treating the meat surface (other than drying) to promote a better crust?