therippa
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Posts posted by therippa
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My old roommate liked to cook and was one of those people that "never used a recipe"...even though she certainly didn't have the experience to ad hoc meals. She made mushroom soup one day, and remembering I added some sherry to mine when I had made it a month or two ago, she decided to do the same.
Thing is, I added maybe a tablespoon to brighten it, she added at least a cup.
I didn't realize this and poured myself a big bowl when she offered. I took a sip and wretched, it was like drinking a hot mushroomy martini. I couldn't finish it and so I was scolded about not taking so much if I wasn't going to finish it.
edit: used sherry, not vermouth
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Whenever I see anything about letter-grading restaurants I'm reminded of this...
http://failblog.org/2008/10/20/sneaky-restaurant-fail/
San Francisco doesn't letter grade, but gives out percentages. I'm really curious how low a restaurant can go before they get shut down by the city. The pho place we go to currently has a 52% (I try not to think about it).
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I picked up this book recently and started with the simple cured bacon recipe. I ended up letting it cure for about 9 days instead of 7 until it felt firm, and when I went to do the roasting today it felt really slimy before I rinsed it off. No off smells, it actually doesn't really smell like anything. Did I mess up?
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Holy crap - http://makeprojects.com/Project/Sous-Vide-Immersion-Cooker/471/1
I'm ordering the parts and building this!
Take a look at my version of this approach. I didn't care for having all the electronics in a plexiglas box directly over the water bath and wanted to be able to plug in different size heaters and multiple circulators. I spent a few bucks more since the heater is larger and I bought the PID from Canada with relatively high shipping costs. There is also no soldering to be done in my approach. I can have the control box on a counter and the water bath on the floor or in a large sink. I usually put the stock pot in a large sink in the basement and the cooler on the floor. This doesn't need to be in the kitchen at all.
I prefer Paul's approach. The Marshalltown 742G Bucket Water Heater plus the cables of the pump and the temperature probe are less bulky on the water surface of the container, allowing to use a cover with only a small notch to prevent evaporation (which is important in LTLT cooking), and the electronics are away from the moisture in the bath.
If the aquarium pump should quit service when you cook at 60°C or above, you might consider a heat tolerating pump, see my post in the old SV topic (it's 6V, so you need a power adaptor). And as Paul stated, you are more flexible with the PID-controller in a separate box. As for the temperature probe, I should recommend one with a long mantle tube, so the junction with the cable does not have to be submersed.
The thing though is I already have the Auber PID/rice cooker setup. I'm looking for something more compact and love projects like these...also I love that it doesn't cost $800 like the Sous Vide Professional
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According to my DOC,(MD),2 "proof OZ".daily of(pure alcohol,(ie 5oz of 80proof,(40%alc), is good for you...
Who am I to argue????
Bud
I like your doctor's formula.
I've given up booze for January and have eaten primarily lean fish and salads since the new year...and the way my pants fit already shows it.
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Holy crap - http://makeprojects.com/Project/Sous-Vide-Immersion-Cooker/471/1
I'm ordering the parts and building this!
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If there is a little sliver of an opening I can use my thumbs/fingernails to eventually get them open, but if the shell is completely fused shut I treat them like mussels that never opened in the pot and throw them away.
Other than an xmas-themed toy solider nutcracker, I imagine you would have to use a hammer.
edit: grammar
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The meat was served with truffled mashed potatoes (using the retrograde starch method described here) and a porcini mushroom sauce using the juice from the bag and the mushroom soaking liquid reduced and then mounted with butter.
I made retrograde mashed potatoes over the weekend (using yukon gold) and had two problems...
1. Cooking them the second time at 180 took FOREVER for them to get even close to the texture I'd normally pull them out at (I usually pull them out when a piece can be easily crushed using a pair of tongs). I put them through a ricer, but there was still a lot of graininess to them. Since we set the starches first, is it ok to cook them at a more aggressive simmer?
2. I almost feel like even if they weren't as grainy, the texture wouldn't have been much better than if I just did them the way I usually do, which requires a lot less work and time
Steps I took
sealed potato slices in bag, sous vide at 160 for 30 minutes
rapidly cooled in sink, stuck in the fridge for an hour or so while I prepped the rest of dinner
removed from bag, simmered in salted water at 180 for about 45-50 minutes (method detailed in Potato eGC said it should take 30 minutes, they could have cooked longer, paring knife was just able to pierce and slide out easily)
put them through a ricer, added butter, mixed, added milk
Am I missing something here?
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This photo on the Blog Sous Vide blog shows that the Ziploc vacuum bags actually say "sous vide" on the bags, for what it's worth: http://blogsousvide.com/2010/04/eggs-sousvide-supreme-style/
Yeah, I always thought it was weird they put that on the bag. I imagine an overwhelming majority of people using them will have no idea what that means, at least in the culinary sense.
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I use the Ziploc bags for sous vide and they work great...although, if I'm going to be doing something that takes a long time (like 48-hour short ribs), I'll put a piece of tape over the gasket to make sure they don't leak.
I find them handier than foodsaver bags for keeping things in the freezer you'd like to reseal quickly and often. For instance, I keep cubes of veal demi in them so I don't have to bring out the foodsaver to reseal it every time I need to grab one.
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I read this tip in Cook's Illustrated a couple years ago - they suggested going to garage sales or a thrift store to buy plates and dishes you can give out without having to worry about being returned.
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Does anyone else have experience using this? Santa brought me 250 sheets of it and I just baked some preztels on it...which are now fused to the paper. Did the low ph from the baking soda bath cause this? Any ideas on how to release them?
This sucks -
Sent from my Droid Incredible using Tapatalk
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There are posts further up the list that talk about a 30 second dunk in 180F to kill any pathogens before a long cook. I found it when I recently had some short ribs that smelled a bit off. Essentially, there can be pathogens that while they are eventually handled by the long cook, can create lactic acid in the initial couple of hours that will cause the odor. The dunk takes care of them.
I'm trying short ribs for the first time this week and am thinking about the anti-pathogen dunk -- but would it also work to give the short ribs a quick sear with a blowtorch prior to bagging?
...might want to do both unless you are incredibly thorough blowtorching the surface. Cooking Issues recommends searing meat before and after sv'ing, and I can certainly taste the difference.
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I think the lines blur when those terms are interchanged as cooking methods and "recipes".
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I have no dishwasher or garbage disposal. I hate doing dishes. Last year I did three weeks of work to put together a full thanksgiving meal for a dozen people or so. At the end of it my hands had a rash from doing so many dishes over that time.
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As for the rest, that's how I've done it, s&p and a quick 60 sec sear in a very hot cast iron pan. Turned out fantastic. Maybe dab it a bit dry to allow for better/quicker sear.
I took Dave Arnold's advice over at Cooking Issues and have been pre-searing my beef, bagging with butter, and searing again afterward. There is a significant difference to me in the color the meat gets when searing twice...if I wanted it that color post-sous vide without the pre-sear I'd have to leave it on the skillet long enough that the gray band would appear around the meat, defeating the purpose of sv'ing it in the first place.
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It's that time of year again...
My kitchen is so well stocked with equipment the only thing I could imagine asking for would be a pressure cooker simply to save time making stocks.
...or money towards a Sous Vide Professional to replace my Auber controller/rice cooker setup (I want this REALLY bad, but damn, $800? Really?!)
How about you guys?
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I had a sous vide go bad. I created a 2” roulade using a top of the rib pounded 1/4" thick with a mushroom filling. It was placed in the foodsaver pouch with some tomato paste and sealed. It was stored in the coldest part of the refrigerator. The next day, I placed it in a 133F bath. The next morning, over 12 hours later, everything looked fine. I went away for a day and upon my return, the bag was inflated and the contents had obviously gone off (one sniff told me the rest of the story). I know what happened, but don’t know how. Twelve hours at 133F should have pasteurized the contents. It didn’t. Does anyone have any ideas?
What setup are you using? Is it possible that it's a couple degrees off and 133F was actually under 130F?
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Kim, if you stick the handle of a wooden spoon into your pot and make a line with a sharpie at the liquid level, then it's very easy to figure out when you've boiled off about half -- just use the spoon handle to measure.
Janet, that's brilliant. I might even forget about the Sharpie and just lay the spoon aside and use the color and stickiness as a guide. Or use a cheapo chopstick or long cheapo wooden skewer.
Again, brilliant.
I have a very small rubber band I keep on a wooden spoon for this purpose...I just move it up and down as needed. If you know someone with braces ask them for a couple, they are about the size of a cheerio.
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Today I came across an awesome recipe for lasagna on Serious Eats, but their bolognese sauce calls for 2 cups of veal stock.
I make the french laundry stock about twice a year, freeze it into cubes, and use it primarily to boost the flavor of pan sauces and braises. While I have enough of it right now for this particular recipe, something tells me it would be a waste to use 2 cups of such a high quality/time consuming stock.
Would anyone consider tfl's veal stock more of a demi-glace? I mean, we're reducing 48 quarts of liquid down to about 3, and the stuff is so thick after being refrigerated you can stand a fork in it. If that's the case, would water dilution be acceptable?
Unless someone has already done this experiment, I was planning on doing a taste test...making something that should let the flavor of the stock shine (although I'm aware it's not technically supposed to impart it's own taste), but I'm not sure yet what the proper cooked dish for testing would be.
2oz tfl stock
2oz tfl stock diluted in 6oz water
8oz ruhlman oven stock
8oz of my butcher's veal stock (tastes a little salty to me, but at $4 for 16oz it's quite the deal/time saver)
Any thoughts?
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I've cooked both the run-of-the-mill supermarket turkey and a fresh-free-range-never-frozen turkey, and the only discernible difference I found was the price. This could be due to me brining both of them though.
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Although I am highly biased because I grew up eating them, my hometown has a company that produces award winning hams...
http://www.smithprovision.com/Semi-Boneless-Ham-0019.htm
They also make the best hotdogs I've ever had. Around the part of PA where I grew up, whenever someone is serving ham or hotdogs you automatically assume it came from Smith's, because serving anything else would be offensive to the guests.
edit: improved link
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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...
Even if juices come to the surface, most of it would be fat which would just meld with the fat in the fryer. I think your legs will turn out crispy as hell
Dough Hook Tricks
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
I had the same problem until I finally broke my habit of trying to run the thing at high speeds. Say if I'm making dough for pretzels, speed 6 will just spin it around the bowl and just twist it a little bit, but if I lower it to 4 the hook is able to dig into it better.