pbear

This year, I tried something similar to &roid. Only, instead of a brine, I did an equilibrium rub. Winged it, really, based on prior experiments with other meats (this is one of my continuing projects at the moment). Here, I figured 1-1/2 tsp salt per pound would be about right. So, for a 3 lb brisket (flat), I used 4 tsp table salt (27 g) and 1/2 tsp curing salts (6.25% sodium nitrite). Tossed together, sprinkled half on each side, set up in a ziploc bag and chilled for four days, flipping every 12 hours. (Not sure the flips are necessary, but figure they prevent juices from pooling against one side only.) Wasn't sure that was enough time but didn't feel comfortable leaving any longer without a vacuum (for which I lack the equipment). Cooked 36 hours at 150ºF, which is my usual preference for brisket. Very happy. Fully tender without falling apart. (The falling apart thing is my least favorite aspect of the traditional dish.) And, perhaps more to the point, it turns out four days was indeed enough, as the color and flavor were uniform throughout. (Sorry, no pictures; don't have a decent camera either.) Oh, and saltier than a normal brisket, but nowhere near as salty as a normal corned brisket. IOW, pretty much exactly the target I was aiming for.

I've not used a stand mixer attachment for sausage, but I have used an electric grinder, which I assume is similar, (Later, I moved to a hand-cranked grinder, which I prefer. Have never used a dedicated stuffer.) Yes, you are very definitely supposed to remove the blade and disk when using the stuffing attachment. (The OP doesn't indicate whether he did or didn't.) It shouldn't take much force to use the attachment. Only enough to move the sausage mixture into the screw, which does the actual work. Assuming leaving the blade-and-disk in place isn't the problem, two other possibilities come to mind. One is that the mixture warmed in grinding. The solution is to chill before stuffing. (Indeed, I would say this is a good idea regardless of the method used to stuff.) Another is that the mixture was ground too finely and/or sheared rather than cut. Chilling the meat well before grinding (preferably until ice crystals just begin to form) will help with this problem as well.

Actually, I'm no fan of no-knead, and said so in Post #16. But, as my mother likes to say, there's a reason Baskins-Robbins has more than one flavor of ice cream. Some people are dedicated enough for the Tartine method, others top out at no-knead, and many (that would include me) come out somewhere in between.

With all due respect, it sounds like you haven't made the Lahey recipe (link above). No, it's not much like the Tartine method. For an explanation of the former, see Bittman's original NYT article.

BTW, I don't think anyone has linked to the earlier marathon eGullet thread on the Lahey recipe. It's here. Of the many, many great insights in that thread, I found Joe Blowe's recap particularly useful. Although, I have to say, when all was said and done, I ended up going back to regular kneaded breads and use no-knead mainly as a suggestion for friends who want something easier. And, yeah, I didn't post in that thread. I wasn't even a member then. But it was one of my inspirations to join.

I think this is the problem. If you look at the original Lahey recipe, it calls for 345 g water and 430 g flour, which is a hydration just over 80%. Your ratio isn't quite 69%. No wonder you can't mix it with a spoon. I've worked with that hydration for a kneaded bread. I needed a machine. As for how much to mix, he says "Add water and incorporate by hand or with a wooden spoon or spatula for 30 seconds to 1 minute." I'd call that a lot more than "the merest stir."

As mentioned upthread, no, this isn't true. Here's a post in the Trader Joe's thread, quoting an emailed explanation from TJ's customer service dep't. BTW, to refresh folks' recollection, KA didn't used to make flour TJ's flour. Rather, the latter was selling KA flour, one of the few non-private label items in the store outside the liquor aisle. In 2009, TJ's discontinued KA and brought in a similarly-formulated private label flour.

It was the other way round. TJ's dropped KA so it could move to a lower price point.

IIRC, both companies say no. Though the former is formulated to emulate the latter.

As this hasn't drawn a response from the MC team, I will hazard a guess. Which would be that they presume folks doing a tailgate party will instinctively give the meat more of a finish than they (the MC team) consider optimal. So, they undershot the sous vide temp to compensate. Notice the regular sous vide steak recipe (p.194) doesn't do this, but there they indicate a very specific finishing technique (deep frying at high temp for 30 seconds). As I said, that's a guess. If someone from the MC team shows up with a different explanation, I will cheerfully defer. FWIW, I'm not a fan of sous vide steak. (Though I love sous vide in other applications, e.g., roasts). Just trying to answer the question.

FWIW, a little googling on the VP-112 turned up this eGullet thread on the machine and comparing it to other options.

Probably just a fluke. What style and brand of rice?

I second the suggestion of Epicurean boards. Read Products makes a similar line (indeed, it's been around longer). Both are woodfiber laminates, basically sawdust bound with plastic. They're sturdy, light and relatively gentle on knives, yet easy to clean. Woodfiber laminates have been my "go to" boards for over ten years now.

I've been thinking about this thread for a few weeks and paid attention to what tools I use often. My list is as follows: knives (obviously), especially an 8" and 10" chefs stirrers, especially a pair of woodfiber laminate paddles tongs, specifically, a silicone tipped tweezer-type one iced-tea spoon (my ghetto Kunz spoon, especially for testing sauces and samples) immersion blender (for the obvious uses) kitchen shears (mostly for opening packaging) pastry scraper (mostly for moving stuff from cutting board to pot) silicone spatula (to clear pots and bowls of product) hotpads (for the obvious use) electric scale (ditto) cutting boards (ditto) vegetable peeler (ditto) Thermapen (guess)There are others, of course, but that's my main "go to" list.

Hmm, I've done short ribs 24 hours at 150ºF and was very happy with the results. Nicely tender, though not falling apart. For that, I'd try 36 hours. Nickrey's suggestion probably gets to the same place as regards reduction of collagen to gelatin, though the texture would be a bit softer (less water extracted, which is either good or bad depending on personal preference). Given your stated objectives, torolover, I suspect you'll like my approach better, but you should try both. But, frankly, I wonder whether the problem is the meat you're sourcing. Have you prepared conventional braised short ribs with that meat? Were you happy with the results? If you haven't done that test, I'd recommend it first. If nothing else, it'll give you a baseline for comparison. And maybe it's simply that this isn't a cut you like done sous vide. Nothing wrong with that.

I've done beef heart 48 hours at 131ºF and was quite pleased with the results. And I generally prefer to do long cooks of beef (chuck, etc.) for 24 hours at 150ºF. With the latter, I find the texture at lower temps to be a bit squishy (to use the technical term). Whereas the former is by nature a "tight" cut texture-wise, so the lower temp worked very nicely. YMMV.

Bear in mind there's a big difference between the roux for bechamel and the roux for gumbo. As for the latter, I agree with HungryC that half an hour is sufficient if one is making it conventionally, i.e., using medium heat and stirring constantly. Have never heard of or tried a low heat, little-stir approach, but don't see the advantage unless one were doing this often and in large quantities (say, in a restaurant). And, if I were to go that route, I'd probably figure out a way to do it in a slow oven (like oven cooked polenta). As it is, the conventional method works fine for me (occasional small batches), so I'm unlikely to invest in the learning curve of a low heat method.

My $0.02's worth. I haven't done an international move, but I did move back to the west coast (San Francisco), leaving behind in storage in my mother's attic on the east coast, an incredibly well-stocked kitchen. My place is tiny, so shipping out that kitchen wasn't an option. Instead, I built a minimalist kitchen from scratch. In retrospect, I wish I'd taken a third approach. What I should have done was cull a minimalist kitchen from the well-stocked one and shipped that. Frustratingly, many of the things I acquired over the years are no longer made. Or their current versions often don't work nearly so well as the ones I had found before. Even if the cost of shipping is greater than the cost of purchase, having tried-and-true stuff you know works and/or suits your cooking style is worth it. Minimalism just goes to how aggressive the cut for what gets shipped. By the way, IMHO, the single most useful appliance in a minimalist kitchen is a countertop convection oven (or combination convection-microwave). It's a great way to cook veggies, will bake small batches of pretty much anything, does a nice job with quick cooking foods like sausage and fish, and is a handy tool for braising. You probably don't have one (I didn't), so buy that when you get there. But seriously consider buying one.

Unfortunately, Elaina, I don't know of a good resource. My mother is on a lifestyle low carb diet for weight reasons (she's morbidly obese with an extremely low metabolism) and I've done a lot of work helping her adjust. But the process was more like what DiggingDogFarm describes, i.e., developing a set of principles, preparing a small (easily used) database of food values, and improvising strategies to combat boredom (which is one of the biggest challenges of the lifestyle). My mother's problem is a little different from your friend's. More difficult, as she has to limit calories as well as carbs, but easier in that she can take occasional carb holidays. Sorry I can't be more help, but I will mention one issue that's pretty important. Your friend should discuss with his doctor and/or dietician (if he has one assigned) just what level of carbs he is allowed, per day and per meal. Everything else revolves around that. Meat, poultry and seafood, of course, are safe, as are eggs. And I assume his wife knows how to cook those. The question is how much (low carb) vegetable, including salads, he can tolerate to relieve monotony. From there, they work backwards from the food charts to develop a diet plan. If there's an "off the shelf" planner to guide those calculations, I haven't found it. OTOH, this isn't rocket science. It's mostly just a bit of research and common sense. If they're computer savvy, a program like MasterCook will help with the calculations. Or they can do it on paper, which is what my mother does.

How hard this is depends on the objective. Is your friend trying to lose weight, manage diabetes, deal with allergies or something else? Is s/he looking for any collection of recipes which fit those parameters or is the goal to have as close as possible to a normal (modern) diet?

Generally speaking, I agree with seabream, except a thick bechamel (e.g., for a souffle) is usually made (I think) with 4 tbsp each flour and butter.

I've not done this, but I've done something similar, to wit, gently-cooked frittatas and crustless quiches. The trick that works for me is a slow oven. As I want the filling ingredients evenly dispersed throughout the egg mixture, I add a step of pre-cooking the latter in a bain marie until thick-but-not set, but can see no reason to bother for an omelet (where presumably you'll add the filling only after the eggs have set). What I'd try is this. Beat the eggs with whatever ingredients you like (for me, that would be a little milk, salt and pepper) and pour into a nonstick pan (ceramic, i.e., non-PTFE will work). Cover, place in a slow oven (say, 250ºF) and cook until mostly set. (Can't be sure of the time, as I start with the bain marie, but at a guess half an hour.) Add filling, fold, cover again and bake another ten minutes to heat through. I'm not certain this will work, but it's where I'd start. I should mention that I always lightly oil the baking dish (very lightly), so that may be essential (though I think not). If so, it's a tiny amount, nothing like one uses for a conventional sauteed omelet.

I'll take a stab at this. It would help, though, if you posted or linked the recipe you're looking at, as there are several approaches to bolognese and similar dishes (e.g., ragu and genovese) and they're somewhat different. Broadly speakiing, this class of sauces aims for three things: (i) a balance of flavors, both meat and vegetable, (ii) Maillard reactions (also known as browning), and (iii) body from converting collagen in the meat to gelatin. Carrot contributes to both (i) and (ii), as it has an earthy flavor and browns well. The proportions are important mainly for (i) and are a matter of taste. For example, your assumption that a sauce with lots of onion probably wouldn't be good is misplaced. Typical bolognese and ragu use some but not much, whereas genovese is loaded with them (e.g., four pounds to two pounds of meat). The latter recipe works, though, because the onions are long-cooked (similar to French onion soup). So, to answer your main question, the best way to get a better understanding would be to make batch after batch of the dish you're trying to master, using one recipe for one attempt and a different one for another. With practice, you will get a sense of what each recipe is aiming to achieve and which balances you prefer. There are only two important rules. Don't scorch the veggies (including the onions) and don't boil the meat. Get those two things right and good food will follow. If you want to better understand the process, the other book I'd recommend (in additkon to those mentioned upthread) is Harold McGee's On Food & Cooking. It's a bit wonky, at times, but well written and one of the best resources on kitchen science ever written for the home cook. Hope that helps.

Tradition? And not necessarily the best technique. Mexican carntias and Filipino adobo typically are browned after braising, not before. Indeed, I've been using the sear-after-braising method for years, based on those precedents, long before I tumbled to low temp cooking.

The thing to understand about tipping in America is that it's not really driven by servers. It's driven by customers. Most of them (not all) like acting as beneficent feudal lords, dispensing a boon to their hapless servers. They'd like tipping cooks too, if they interacted with them, but the don't, so they don't. Whatever you may think of the system in principle, if you're visiting the country, tips for servers are part of the compensation structure. If you opt out (and you can), you're freeloading. Bear in mind that, if tipping were eliminated, wages would rise to cover the difference and so would prices. IMHO, this perennial topic is mostly a debate about form rather than substance. FWIW, I last worked front of the house over thirty years ago, back of the house about ten (both pretty far from fine dining). I don't have an axe to grind either way. Mostly I'm just reflecting on this as a consumer.