BadRabbit

Like most people I love summertime for all the fresh local vegetables but there are a few things I still prefer canned. For instance, I much prefer green beans in the can to fresh or frozen(not including Haricot Verts). There's something about the taste of fresh beans that is absent in the can. I also much prefer canned English Peas to frozen (though fresh are better if you can find them). It's always embarassing for me to admit because I feel like I've just told someone I prefer Spam to Tasso. Does anyone else have weird preferences for canned?

Lab quality (Polyscience) ICs have no problem with oil. A homemade setup with a fountain pump might not handle it as well though.

Were you using self rising flour? I don't see anything but the BP that would contribute to rise.

Oops. I didn't see you were talking about 40 lbs. That is likely more capacity than most people have for Sous Vide.

When cooking whole pieces on the grill, I cook them sous vide to 138 with the marinade in the bag. I then take them out and immediately put them on the a very hot grill and cook until I like the color on the outside. It makes a spectacularly moist chicken and you don't have to worry about taking a bite out of a drum and seeing blood run from the bone. Technically, this makes for a longer cooking time but I don't usually count my time sous vide since it is practically "set it and forget it." As long as your not going to leave the chicken in for a really long time, you can practicaly ignore it until ready for the grill. Edit: added final paragraph

In my experience (I'm from Alabama so my experience with bacon fat is extensive), you don't need to use 100% bacon fat to get the desired effect. I usually just add a half cup or so to 4-5 cups of either peanut oil or lard and use that to deep fry. Even though you specify you're going to need a lot of bacon, I bet you're underestimating how much it would take to get enough for 100% bacon fat deep frying. I keep a quart mason jar to collect my bacon fat and it takes forever to fill it (we easily eat 2 lbs/ week in my family). Edited: for clarity

I agree. It seems odd to have so many contestants who are former James Beard nominees or with gold plated resumes including work under Balud, Ducasse, et. al. It's no longer about giving a chance to chefs who are unknown and underappreciated. These people are already recognized in the field and fairly successful. Then again, maybe this was always the intention for the show. It may have just been harder to get the top notch talent before the show was so popular.

I don't understand the whole "I'm going to take a risk and do a desert" mentality. It virtually never works. It generally just reduces the risk that you'll be around for the next episode. Oh, and I too was glad John is gone. He looked like what me and the wife refer to as a "bodystacker."

I know that a true brunoise is very difficult with onions but did anyone see a contestant actually doing anything close. They all looked to me to just be cutting onions into fine shreds. None looked even approximately square much less 1/8 by 1/8.

My wife and I are cutting down on fat and I thought sous vide might be a good way to utilize ground white meat (turkey or chicken) for meatballs without the end product being so dry. My thought was that I would cook it to 145F for 1 hr or so. Then I would let cool to near room temp, dry, then brown and sauce. I was planning on just using eggs, breadcrumbs and parmesan to bind and of course adding my fresh herbs plus S&P. Has anyone tried this?

My mother just sent me some flour from a local mill. The label says "soft flour". Is this similar to A-P? Also, is there a way to determine aproximate protein level on a flour with no nutritional label?

Cooked chicken can be refrigerated for 4-5 days after cooking. The only problem you might encounter is if you leave the chicken out for too long before you refrigerate.

Using a Jaccard actually prevents juice loss by limiting the contraction of the muscle fibers. There is the argument that it could drive surface bacteria into the meat but the Jaccard thread has covered several ways to avoid that.

Oh and my grandmother beat them with a hammer before soaking them. Hers were spectacular. I just remembered that and am wondering why I never do that on the rare occasions when I make them.

Soaking them overnight in buttermilk helps. I also have pressure cooked them in chicken stock to soften them before frying.

I know. I was agreeing that he was entering into an argument that no one made (i.e. searing). I thought maybe Ray mentioned searing because he saw my mention of it earlier but didn't read the context of my post.

The point still remains, have you actually used a Jaccard, or are you being "theoretical"? By the way who said anything about "searing"? We know from all that is written that it doesn't work to seal in juices. But we know from real-life experience that a Jaccard doesn't cause juice leakage. It seems you are conflating two arguments to discredit a true one. The only mention of searing above was when I mentioned it as a way to kill any surface bacteria. It had nothing to do with "sealing" in juices.

I've got a bunch of the ones you see at TJ Maxx/Home Goods/Marshalls/Ross that are published by Paragon Publishing. Titles include such interesting titles as "Rice and Risotto", "Tapas", "Indian", and "Soups." They are usually 3 bucks or so. I never actually use them for anything except for ideas. If I'm wanting soup, I may go through the soup book and find a title that sounds good. Then I rely on my own knowledge to build the soup. I may look down the ingredients list or I may not. I sometimes use the ethnic cookbooks as a reference if I'm not sure what all is in Chicken Jalfreezi or something like that. I still don't use proportions from the recipe very often except as a rough guide.

The holes are designed to "sweep" the blades. I have taken mine apart and never seen anything inside the sliding blade cover. My procedure above was essentially a "before and after" approach. Clean regularly and soak it right before using it and everthing should be fine. Edited to correct quote.

There is absolutely no reason why you couldn't be perfectly safe at home with this device. All it takes is a normal procedure to prevent contamination. Because of the dangers of sous vide, one could presear the meat and allow it to rest. While doing this, one could soak the jaccard in 150F water for 5 minutes or more. This would be more than enough time to kill off any bugs and should be a low enough temperature so as not to hurt the plastic casing. I would suggest that the soaking is good procedure regardless of cooking method. I'm suggesting the above on top of your normal procedures (i.e. dishwasher, sanitizing solution etc...). Safety is important but writing off a useful instrument for these kind of safety concerns seems to me less like being properly cautious and more like being too lazy to follow good hygeine procedures.

I think those ingredients scream cajun so I would either go with gumbo, jambalaya, or a seafood heavy dirty rice type preperation. If you just need to get away from the ordinary, you could do Nasi Goreng with Curry.

I just bought the Gatco Pro but after re-reading the article it seems the most severe angle available on this system is 17 degrees because the 11 degree slot is understated by 6 degrees. That seems a ridiculous mistatement of angle by the company and leaves me unable to even match the 15/20 double that is already on the knife. Am I reading the article correctly?

I bought some Meyenberg goat butter the other day and I am looking for something interesting to do with it. To me, it seems to be a good bit richer than cow's butter and I thought that might work well with some sort of acid to balance out that richness(perhaps a sauce for fish with lemon and butter). Any ideas ? Also, does goat butter have any significantly different properties from cow butter (e.g. smoke point, texture at room temp, etc...)? I first thought I might clarify some but then reasoned that most of the unique proteins were likely in the milk solids and therefore it would not be significantly different from regular clarified butter. Is this thinking correct?

I recently bought a jaccard and have been wondering what to use it on. I also am unclear on how many pushes one might use on a particular piece of meat. For example, I have a single row jaccard with 18 blades. How many pushes would I use on a typical 1 in thick 16 oz ribeye? How many passes on a half pork loin? Is there a point at which it is overkill and adversely affects texture?

Anything from Keller's "The French Laundry" cookbook by myself. I now require 2-3 unwitting experienced sous chefs to even attempt one of those dishes. My first experience was doing a 3 course all from this book with noone but my wife to help me (my wife does not cook and really couldn't help with much). It was miserable and took 2 hours longer than expected. My guests finally got to eat at 9:30. It was delicious but so not worth it. I'll probably just head to Yountville next time I want something of Keller's.