LoftyNotions

You'll be on the bleeding edge, Chris.

I'd guess conditionally true. You'll encounter a point of diminishing return around the maximum vacuum the pump will draw. According to the manual, for this machine the maximum vacuum is 90 percent. I don't have this sealer to test that. Here's a link to the manual: http://vacmaster.aryvacmaster.com/vacmaster/pdf/VP112_Manual.pdf

Another place you could try is Pleasant Hill Grain. http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/vacuum_packaging_machine_ary_vacmaster_food_vac_system.aspx They sell them for $670 including shipping. I don't have any personal experience with them, but their site seems to come up quite a bit in the searches I do. Larry

Is it possible that Mr. Brown is concerned that what he sells as the "science" of cooking is about to be blown out of the water or at least relegated to the back burner of cooking wisdom? Regarding the price of Modernist Cuisine, list price for I'm Only Here For the Food was $32.50 US. That's for 287 pages with cute drawings, some of which are in 2 colors. But he does have a recipe for Homemade Microwave popcorn. Beat that, Modernist Cuisine! [Edit] Added a space

+1

I've run into the space limits on my Sous Vide Supreme several times. I can just barely fit 4 or 5 boneless ribeyes into it. Also, if you want to cook quantities of certain ingredients for freeze/reheat the extra size is nice. Other things you might want extra space for would be things like brisket or pulled pork. I also use mine to finish cooking smoked items like Polish Sausage. In cases where I don't have enough space in the SVS I break out my roaster/PID/bubbler combination.

One more safety precaution I don't remember seeing here is to remove all rings, bracelets and metal watches before handling LN2. On another note, for those who feel that welding gloves or silicone mitts are not sufficient protection, here is another (more expensive) option: http://www.2spi.com/catalog/supp/cryo-gloves.php

Maybe there's a secondary (scalper) market for the book. Any offers? Just kidding. You ain't getting mine!

That's part of the reason for only wearing a glove/mitt that can be shaken off. Welding gloves were standard wear for us while handling cryogens. As far as thermal hazard is concerned, we work with oil heated to 375 F and don't think too much about it. Given a choice of quickly dunking my hand in LN2 or hot oil, I'd take the LN2 any day. It's a tool that should be understood and respected, but not feared.

Another option might be to take her steak out early and sear it longer on the grill or pan.

I wasn't thinking in terms of long term immersion in liquid nitrogen. I'd use them more for short exposure and to protect myself from exposure to objects chilled by the nitrogen. I watched an old Iron Chef episode last night where Homaro Cantu was submerging objects with his bare hands.His hands were actually in the liquid nitrogen for brief periods. I wouldn't personally long term immerse either my bare hands or hands covered with any kind of glove. I guess the easy way to answer your question would be to immerse a glove (sans hand)and see what happens. One other piece of advice regarding gloves/mitts... they should be loose enough to shake off if you need to. Best bet: Buy a pair of welder's gloves. Worst bet: Use regular cloth oven gloves. Better than nothing: Silicone mitts. By the way, Cantu didn't wear any protection, so I wouldn't use him as a good safety example. Hopefully this clears up my thinking at least a little. Thanks, Larry

I just did some rough calculations of what amount of air 2.5 liters of liquid nitrogen would displace. At 700 X expansion, it would displace 61.8 cubic feet of air. Assuming you're in a sealed room measuring 10 feet by 10 feet by 8 feet, the room holds 800 cubic feet of air ignoring cabinets, people, etc. That works out to replacing approximately 7.7 percent of the room air. With air being about 21 percent oxygen that would bring the room oxygen level down to around 16 percent. 17% O2 level causes anoxia 10-14% O2 level causes dizziness 6-8% O2 level causes collapse Less than 3% O2 causes death within 45 seconds Of course, a spill in a smaller enclosed area such as a car would have much more dire consequences than a spill in an open area as would a spill of a much larger quantity. As far as protective clothing goes, definitely wear at least safety glasses or goggles if not a full face shield. As mentioned above, absorbent clothing such as oven mitts can be more dangerous than bare skin. We wore Welder's gloves when doing liquid nitrogen and liquid helium transfills. The silicone gloves would work very well in this application.

Try here...

Thanks Kerry and Chris.

I also have an Original Bradley Smoker. My latest projects have been Nova Lox, Polish Sausage, and yesterday I finished 13 pounds of Jalapeno Beef Sticks. As long as it's still cold here I think I'll try smoked cheese next. I might need some for Modernist Mac and Cheese soon. Chris, what cheeses, woods and smoking times have you had the best luck with? I'm thinking about doing some Cheddar and either Gouda or Fontina over Apple for around 2 hours. Does that sound doable? Thanks, Larry

That's the one thing I'll miss about my Weston. The 16 inch sealer bar is nice.

I'm not sure what vacuum it takes to compress a watermelon, but I would assume 99% plus. Here is a quote from the manual: Here is a link to the manual: http://vacmaster.aryvacmaster.com/vacmaster/pdf/VP112_Manual.pdf

Not quite at the sub $600 range yet, but I just got an email from Sous Vide Supreme announcing their own chamber vacuum sealer for $799 I really want one of these! See post #19 in this thread.

Insert a piece of plastic, cutting board or whatever into the chamber and prop up the side closest to the sealing bar.

Pleasant Hill Grain has the same sealer on sale for $670.00 including shipping. http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/vacuum_packaging_machine_ary_vacmaster_food_vac_system.aspx

The lowest price I've seen on a vacuum chamber sealer was for the ARY VP-210. Costco carries them for about $900.00. This machine evacuates the chamber for a fixed time, not to a specific vacuum level. The pump mechanism is a self-lubricated rocker pump which probably isn't quite as good as a rotary oil pump. Reviews for home or light commercial use have been pretty good though. Units like the Minipack-torre MVS31 that pull a specific vacuum and have rotary oil vacuum pumps are more in the $2,000 range.

I have an American Weigh BT2-201 scale purchased from Amazon for $15 plus about $5.00 shipping. It reads to .01 grams and seems to be pretty reproduceable to plus or minus .02 grams. Realistically, if I'm within .1 grams on a 5 gram measurement it's good enough for me. Reviews on Amazon have been good. The lid hinge is kind of bogus but I'm very happy with this scale, especially considering the price.

The Weston Pro 2100 and 2300 vacuum sealers are good external sealers. The only difference between the two that I know of is the 2300 is chrome and has blue plexiglass over the chamber. The 2100 is whiteish and has a smoked plexi lid. I had one for home use and it worked well. I've seen one used on Iron Chef America. I just replaced it with a MVS31 chamber sealer. The only real drawback to the 2100 is sealing bags with liquids. It can be done with the manual seal feature however. The big advantage to the 2100 is the 16 inch sealing bar. You can seal 2 8 inch bags at once with it. If you're doing a lot of vacuum sealing the cost of bags will be a major consideration for you. I think bags for my external sealer cost approximately 30 to 35 cents each. Depending on size, the bags for the chamber sealer run 2-1/2 to 8 cents each. Depending on the chamber sealer you buy bag cost can pay the difference after only 1500 to 5000 bags. I have a Sous Vide Supreme and think it's a very nice unit. As mentioned above, it might be a bit small for restaurant use. I can get about 5 boneless ribeye steaks into mine. For restaurant use I'd probably get the PolyScience Professional. Larry

I've cooked several beef roasts now at both 131F and 135F (55C and 57+C). Temperature variations have been, at maximum, + or - .5F typically. 131F is a bit on the rare side for most of my guests, and 135F seems to be the preferred tepmerature for most of my friends. I'm not sure I could tell 1F difference in cooking temp either. Even if I could, it wouldn't bother me in the least.

Hi Jonathan, If using C, the temperature setting increments are .5 degree. In F, the increments are 1 degree. The actual temperature display is in .1 degree increments, and seems to be very acurate in my unit. Larry