LoftyNotions

How about Alton? Just kidding. That's really nice, Peter. Larry

Hi Kerry, If you do this again, try shutting the vacuum off a little earlier. I think once vacuum is high enough for the product to boil it's all over. There seems to be a very fine line between success and failure. Larry

gfweb, thanks for bringing up the Instacure #1 versus cure #2 issue. I believe E250 and E251 are european or UK designations for Sodium Nitrite and Sodium Nitrate, respectively. What Phil is using is likely the European version of the US Cure #2, containing both nitrite and nitrate. One additional factor I hadn't considered is that the pancetta mix might contain more salt than a corned beef mix would. If you follow the package directions, you might end up with a very salty corned beef. I'm a lot less inclined to recommend trying it after actually thinking about it. I wouldn't be afraid to eat it, but it might not taste very good. Larry

Hi Phil. Welcome to eGullet. I'm not a big fan of cure mixes, but putting that aside, from a standpoint of curing meat, you could give it a go. I don't know what is in the Sausagemaking.org mix, but the basics, i.e. salt, and instacure are very similar in all the recipes I use. From a safety standpoint, you're probably ok using your mix. From a spice / taste standpoint, my Pancetta recipe calls for Sugar, black pepper, juniper, garlic powder, bay leaf, cayenne and thyme. My Pastrami recipe calls for coriander seeds, black peppercorns, mustard powder,Cinnamon, fennel, cloves, red pepper flakes, and bay leaf. So, can you use it? Probably. Will it produce corned beef flavors? It depends on how you modify the mix. Whatever you do, after it's cooked up, it will probably taste good. Let us know what you did, and how it turns out. Larry

Since both sodium erythorbate and ascorbic acid each act as antioxidants, and either can be used in cured products, I'd go ahead and substitute. You could even do the recipe without either and probably couldn't tell the difference in flavor. Lots of bacon has been made without. Here's one quick web referenceI dug up. HTH, Larry

I'd be very suspicious of horsepower ratings. Lots of manufacturers use a fudgeword like peak or developed somewhere in their claims. Here is a good EXPLANATION. Larry

Hi Shirley, As jduncan mentioned above, if you want 2 to 4 hour cooking times the more tender cuts are probably what you'll want to use. My personal favorite is boneless ribeye. Douglas has some the best food safety information you'll find anywhere. I'm sure you've seen this already, but here is a LINK to his website. Larry

Welcome to eGullet, Shirley. I routinely cook meat at 55c for 48 to 72 hours. I've found that round steak or roast tends to get a bit mushy if cooked that long however. For Sirloin I'd probably shoot for around 24 hours. Chuck (shoulder) in my opinion is a much better cheap cut to sous vide. It has better flavor. 48 to 72 hours seems to work well for it. Searing the exterior of the meat after sous vide really helps the flavor. Enjoy your new toy. Larry

The MVS 31x doesn't have soft release, but I haven't found that to be an issue. The main reason I went with the Minipak over an ARI with oil pump was being able to select a preset vacuum rather than setting a run time. As far as stop on boil, I guess that would be nice, but I find that a finger on the seal button works just fine. HTH, Larry

I've looked high and low. I can't seem to find any supplier.... I even doubt that FMC would sell it to me, 20 kg or not. Anyone have any luck? I ran into the same dead end. Oh well. They will sell through their distributors. Here is an e-mail I got from the western distributor. HTH, Larry

I've seen videos of the MVS31 being used like that, but I haven't personally tried it. Larry

Larry ETA: Sorry, MSK I see you were part of that original conversation. I didn't help a bit. Here are some links for others like me who don't remember it the first time around. Posts Here, Here, and here.

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that this works with mangoes because of their high pectin content. Larry

I use a chamber sealer for the mango sorbet. I don't think the Foodsaver pulls a strong enough vacuum. While I don't specifically watch the vacuum numbers when I make it, if I remember correctly it ends up in the 95 percent range. Aeration and very cold temperatures also seem to be important. It seems to me that if the sorbet gets to the point that it's boiling when I pull a vacuum that the resulting sorbet falls again. I've only done it twice, but there seems to be an "art" element in making it. I also had better results when I froze my jars. Hopefully others will weigh in with their methods. It's really nice when successful. Larry

For my home built SV unit I just submerge an air tube from an air pump. It provides plenty of circulation for the roaster I use for my heat source. Larry

Mushroom broth is on page 5-14.

Lame, Your bellies are beautiful. Is it ok to eat pork on Jewish seeded rye? I'm sure the sound recording of you eating would far surpass any porn soundtrack ever recorded. Thanks for sharing the pictures. Larry

Borgstrom, thanks for doing the comparison. I've only done pulled pork using the traditional method, albiet in a Bradley smoker. My observations so far (nad please forgive the yankee heresy or blesphemy) is that I found the bark to be tough and somewhat difficult to chew. The other problem I had was timing a meal. Granted, it will take longer using the MC method, but at least you can plan for it. I'm glad the cola brine worked. It sounds like I have another cooking project. Thanks again for your effort. Larry

I don't know about effecting color change, but if there's any chance of making anything twitch a TENS (transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) unit would be a good bet. An internet search will yield lots of options. Larry

There is a discussion of this in the Sous Vide: Recipes, Techniques & Equipment thread starting on page 13, post # 376. Probably the most useful information is In post 397 LINKED HERE. Larry

My chamber sealer isn't a Vacmaster, but I've been happy with standard 3 mil bags for everything. I have used Mylar bags for storing Transglutaminase, but that's a special case. Larry

Hi Mike, First, I want to re-iterate that the quantities I posted above were direct derivations from the pastrami recipe on 3-213. The top section was only changed to allow verying quantities of water to accomodate different sizes of curing vessels. The bottom section was changed to allow only making the exact amount of rub needed for the meat being used. Also, I think part of our problem has been my casual usage of the term brine. On page 3-168, which we've been discussing, is the recipe for brines. On page 3-169 is the recipe for wet cures. This is the table that most closely resembles the pastrami recipe, with 2 percent salt called for in all (scaling 1) recipes. I agree with this number, plus or minus a little to account for taste. 2 percent works very well for me in most cases. The percentages for Instacure number 1 vary between the table and the recipe, with the table saying 0.15 percent and the pastrami recipe (again, adjusting for total weight of meat plus water) is close to 0.50 percent. Personally, I always use 0.25 percent based on various web sources, but I don't have a quibble with either 0.15 or 0.5. If you have any questions about how I derived my numbers feel free to either pm me or post here. HTH, Larry

While I'll never be able to financially justify it, for the toy value I'm very happy with my chamber sealer. With my clamp style I could seal somewhat larger items, but that hasn't been a big problem. Now that bags only cost 2 to 8 cents each I find myself using it a lot more than when bags were over 30 cents each. And for food preparations like curry infused apples and mango sorbet, they're awesome. Chris, does your sealer have a manual seal/override button? On mine, if something starts boiling I just hit the manual seal and haven't had a spill to date. Larry

So, please don't readjust your scaling, Msk! I worked very hard on that errata page, and if there was something wrong with the salt in the pink brine, I would probably remember. Anyhow...feel free to send me any messages and let me know if you have any questions. My cooking skills aren't great--sure, I enjoy cooking, but that doesn't mean I can make mojito spheres. Yet. Welcome to eGullet, Judy. If a pink equilibrium brine needs 10 percent of the combined weight of meat and water in salt, why does the pastrami recipe on page 3-213 only use 2.3 percent? Larry ETA of salt

Hi Mike, Yes, the spices are a matter of taste. I used pretty much the amounts shown in the MC pastrami recipe but recalculated them so that I could vary the amount of water and still have everything come out. For the brining phase, here is what I used, calculated based on total weight of meat plus water: Brown Sugar 2% Salt 2% Instacure #1 0.25% Coriander seeds 0.125% Black peppercorns 0.1% Mustard powder 0.1% Pink peppercorns 0.06% Cinnamon stick 0.04% Fennel seeds 0.04% Cloves 0.025% Red pepper flakes 0.01% Bay leaf 0.01% At this point, after you're done brining you have a corned beef and could cook it as such. For the spice rub before smoking, since you're directly rubbing the spices on the meat, I recalculated the spices based on weight of meat only and based on the amount necessary to coat the meat and not have 5 or 6 times the quantity necessary. Here are the numbers I came up with: Juniper berries 1.25% Sugar 1.25% Black peppercorns 1.22% Coriander seeds 0.7% Garlic powder 0.2% Salt 0.2% Chili flakes 0.1% This makes just enough to cover the meat you have. HTH, Larry