IndyRob

I've done it. It was all very neat, being sealed and all. The cure worked nicely. BUT, none of the dill flavor came through. Perhaps aromatic herbs need air to do their stuff. Still, the result was fine in my opinion (although that was my only experience with gravlax so I have nothing to compare it to).

Just curious, but does everyone's copy have signatures on the title page (the page that lists the subtitle, authors, et. al.)? I got mine for Christmas and, while I do have a family connection to per se, I only ever wistfully thought I might get a signed copy. Now that things have died down after Christmas, I have myself alone with the book and noticed the signatures. But my copy was still shrink wrapped. I'm thinking they must be on every copy. But it sure does look like they were done with a Sharpie.

You could assemble my stingy sous vide starter kit.... 1 - Presto Kitchen Kettle - $25 at Wal Mart - It's a slow cooker and a deep fryer, and can also do pasta which can be nicely extracted in the fry basket. But more than that, it can be turned down to levels below 'Warm' - down to below 130F which most slow cookers can't do. The lack of circulation hasn't presented a problem for me yet. I've been impressed at its ability to keep a stable temp within 2 degrees F. (Disclaimer: Mine is many years old and newer models might have changed - but they still look the same) 2 - Sharpie Permanent Marker - $1.50 - wherever. Used after calibration to mark the dial of the Kitchen Kettle at levels below the 'Warm' setting. 3 - Ziploc Vacuum Pump/Bags - $10.63 via Amazon - Not tested by me, but my first sous vide experiment was done with normal ziploc bags. But probably not so good for higher temperature applications. I'd guess that with careful use, the manual vacuum pump could achieve results on a par with my FoodSaver. Okay, we're at about $37. $13 left. Depending on whether he has a decent thermometer already, you could opt for that, or get a propane torch from the hardware store for searing purposes. Then print out Douglas Baldwin's Practical Guide for Sous Vide and you're in business. Stuff all of this into the Kitchen Kettle and there you go.

I agree. If any recipe required, say, exactly 9.28 hours, it would say that.

I'm surprised that the rosemary came through but not the garlic. My small amount of experience with aromatic herbs in vacuum is that they don't work. In my case it was using fresh dill over salmon in a gravlax cure under vacuum. The cure worked fine, but the dill didn't come through. Note however, that Douglas warns against using garlic in sous vide. Though that might only apply to raw garlic.

I think the filling would keep, but because it's a pastry crust I'd try to serve it right away. Unless you chilled the filling and the dough and assembled it and kept it chilled until baking time. But if I were to do that, I'd want to do a trial run first. My Town & Country recipe has mostly butter, but some shortening as well.

Tourtiere Quebecoise sort of launched my culinary explorations. Way back when, my would-be future wife had a copy of James Villas' Town & Country Cookbook and one day I decided to do this recipe because of it's similarity to the pastys of northern Michigan which my family has a long connection with. My would-be wife was skeptical as it involved making a pie dough from scratch, but I shrugged it off (probably naively). "Aww, you just have to follow the directions..." But it worked great and was a feather in my cap. I just looked up the recipe and it doesn't deviate significantly from the recipes posted here. It does add cornstarch, which will just help the slices to hold together. Oh, and some bacon is added (never a bad thing). The pastry is not spiced though. Just a basic pate brisee. From the pasty world could come turnips and/or carrots. Ketchup and pastys is a very controversial subject in my family. I'm not even going to go there. But Mini Tourtieres with puff pastry done in mini muffin tins might well be worth a try.

Jen has been an enigma to me. As if there's a large part of herself that she hides (or perhaps that the editors did). She did shine running the kitchen at the AFB which I thought could serve her well. Of course, having immunity had to remove a lot of the pressure. But perhaps being a great sous-chef (or even chef) is different than being a great Top Cheftestant. You have to get through a lot of crazy individual and team challenges before you can show what you can do as a true chef (in the chief sense). Perhaps a great sous chef isn't supposed to be creative with food, but with people in order to crank out dish after dish - one just like the one before it. In my mind, Harold remains the quintessential Top Chef. Able to win the individual and team challenges while inspiring a loyalty among his peers that served him well in the end. By contrast, Tiffany was - well I'll stop short of saying sabotaged - but was not supported to the fullest by her team. I suspect we may see this play out again. Robin, for instance, could well be back. I think Jen would be able to make good use of her, while others still in might just find her a harmful distraction. Unfortunately, we won't get to see Jen compete again. But I think some of her strengths may show themselves missing amongst some of the finalists.

I'm having a hard time imagining any combination of chicken and eggs that would be appealing to me. Okay, maybe some diced chicken in an egg salad (but with a bunch of other stuff). Maybe some spiced chicken sausage masquerading as pork? No, wait. Chopped chicken gizzard/heart/offal - properly cooked, could I think, work well in scrambled eggs.

For me it's pot roast. Sear the meat on each side, come up with a braising liquid and simmer for a long time until it looks like you want to eat it. For my braising liquid I usually use some sort of beef base, but canned tomatoes are among a ton of other things that will work. Once I just wanted to get on with the simmering stage so I opened the cabinet, looked around, and came out with a couple of cans of alphabet soup. It all works. And a bit of heavy cream at the end never hurts.

I'm not familiar with this book, but a similar thing happened with Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Originally it was developed by Les Trois Gourmandes (sp?) - Julia, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle. But somewhere in the process Louisette drifted away from the project and in later editions, the decision was taken to remove her name. I actually have two editions on my bookshelf. One with Louisette listed and one without. But speaking of Mastering the Art..., if she doesn't already have it, she should. It's one of the 'bibles', IMHO. And it does include some pastry. My pate a choux came out perfectly the first time. A warning though - there were originally two volumes, as well as an anniversary edition that combined them. If you'd like to get it, make sure you know which one you're buying.

Heh. As I was posting that fine temperature control was not important in sauces (was thinking bechamel, mornay, etc.), you brought up hollandaise. Okay, yes, fine temperature control. But it's the emulsification that's the star here. You just can't just mix it and leave it at a specific temp.

With sous vide, precise temperature control in essential because of the low temperatures - and the fact you're trying to get the meat to a specific temperature. A steak done to 135 degrees will have a very different character than one done to 140 degrees. The beauty of sous vide is that no matter the size of the steak, you just need to leave it in a bath of the proper temperature long enough. How long is that? Well, if you can come up with a reasonable estimate, just leave it in there for that long, plus 1-2 hours just to be sure. That's not practical advise, but just something that sous vide allows you to do. As soon as you get above those temperatures - into frying temps, the prospects of overdoneness loom ever nearer. Now it becomes less about the specific temperature and more about understanding the characteristics of what you're cooking. Different cuts/shapes/thicknesses will take different amounts of time. You have to be be the arbiter by judging how the meat is reacting. The tools that will help you best with this are an independent oven thermometer, an IR thermometer, a Thermapen, and a practiced finger. If you lack any of these, put off any other further purchases until you have collected the set. For sauces, fine temperature control will be of no use whatsoever unless you're doing some sort of exotic molecular gastronomy sort of thing.

Molecular Gastronomy. Although I'm just the sort of person who's interested in this sort of stuff, that phrase was bad from the start. It is at once unappealing and inaccurate. For me, 'Gastronomy' itself is off putting. Let's leave the 'gastro' words to gastroenterologists. I wonder if there are any Molecular Gastroenterologists.

For the past couple of years I've been using what I consider to be the ultimate in skinflint sous-videry - a Presto Kitchen Kettle. It only costs about $40 and is a multi-tasker. It can slow cook and deep fry (up to 400F). But unlike most crock pots, the temperature control goes way below 160F. I think I've only gone as low as 130, but there's plenty of adjustment available below that. The temperature markings only go down to 200, so I used a Sharpie to mark the dial around my usual temps. But I use a Thermapen to validate the bath temperature. It takes some fiddling until the temperature stabilizes, but after that, I'm impressed with its ability to maintain the temperature at plus or minus 1 degree F. The only problem I've had is that I'm getting stubborn mineral deposits building up on the non-stick surface. My wife bought me a FoodSaver as a Christmas present and I've been pretty happy with that. Well, except for the cost of the bags. But the SealAMeal folks have made their bags compatible with the FoodSaver so I can buy those at half the price. But meanwhile the zip lock bag manufacturers have come out with cheap vacuum devices meant to be used with special zip lock bags. One is battery powered, and one is like a miniature bicycle pump and it's only around $3. Since I have the FoodSaver, I haven't tried them, but I love the idea of being able to try sous vide for an investment of under $50.