dcarch

MSG! dcarch

Happy Valentine to all! dcarch SV rib eye steak with scallop, crab meat sauce, followed with tiramisu.

Making a crust on the bottom of the rice pot is easy, getting the crust out from the pot is impossible. Rice sticks to everything. dcarch

You may try just plain freezing the chickens without bagging. Chicken skins are fatty and protects moisture from evaporating. If you stitch the openings tight that may protect the interior for freezer burn. dcarch

What?! No Starbucks? MacDonalds? Pizza huts? How can you live there?! Welcome! dcarch

In fact, That was what Obama ordered for lunch, when he was golfing in Hawaii. dcarch

That is what created the entire confusion. Friends become enemies arguing about sous vide. It is not about pressure, and it has nothing to do with vacuum. If you use a transducer to measure the inside of a sous vide bag after "vacuuming" you will find out that there is no pressure, and of course no vacuum. In sous vide you do not have a vacuum machine, the so called vacuum machine is just a pump to remove air bubbles. To create vacuum and pressure, you need to have a rigid container, such as in canning. When you open a canning jar, you hear that pop, that is vacuum. You don't hear that when you open a sous vide bag. (A chicken rib cage is a rigid container, there fore you can create pressure and semi-vacuum). dcarch

1. vacuum sealing a whole chicken - The 14 lbs/in. sq. atmospheric pressure may collapse the chicken's rib cage. 2. Assuming the chicken's rib cage is strong enough, the vacuum machine will pull air out, and water inside the chicken will start to evaporate and boil (water boils under vacuum) to replace the air. The chicken will start to dry out until equilibrium of vacuum pressure and water evaporative force is reached. Then some scintillation (freezer burn) of water inside the cavity may happen. 3. Theoretically, if you place a blow up balloon inside the cavity, the balloon will expand quickly to fill the entire cavity under vacuum, preventing freezer burn inside and outside. The balloon will also prevent the chicken from collapsing. dcarch

Perhaps it would be interesting to know also what time you have breakfast, and lunch, not just dinner. I don't eat breakfast. I don't think breakfast in our working culture makes sense. Rushing to work and eating all kinds of unhealthy food. There is no proof that breakfast is important for health. I eat a light lunch around 12:30. I eat a full dinner around 6:30. I eat a full meal (second dinner?) around 12:00 just before I go to bed. This has given me good health and good energy all my life. dcarch

I agree with the above comments, but I would add the following: In general, electric heating elements are nichrome resistance wire protected inside ceramic insulation, which is inside a metal tubing. When the heating wire burns out, you will not see anything. Just in case, very unusual, if somehow there is a ground short someplace, smoke, fire, sparks can happen. You may want to have it checked out just to be safe, if you can't do it yourself. dcarch

I think the Chinese seldom bake, but steam a lot. They believe baking is not good for health. dcarch

I was digging to bury some kitchen scraps. The ground was somewhat frozen. I was pleasantly surprised to find these that I missed to harvest last fall. So carrots and steak for dinner. dcarch

I made this because I saw this chart that each different seed has a different ideal germinating temperature; Also, 99.5F is considered to be ideal for egg incubation, 110°F to 115°F for yogurt, and 80F and 90F degrees for dough proofing. I will also be growing micro greens. dcarch

There are people who cannot digest J artichoke. dcarch

That shows it needs a convection fan to brown the sides more. dcarch .

Don't peel. Use a rough steel wool pad to rub the thin skin off. dcarch

Punxsutawney Phil Punxsutawney Phil, the official groundhog, has predicted that there will be many more weeks of freezing weather. Which means frozen ground and problem starting seeds for the garden. I put together this quick and inexpensive precision seed starting chamber. A digital temperature controller. ($15.00) A 12V muffin fan to circulate air ($2.00) An old light bulb for heat ($0.00) Some old 1" foam board to make an insulated box. ($5.00?) Time for construction - about two hours. Essentially a big SV cooker using a PID controller to circulate hot air instead of hot water to keep temperature within one degree of accuracy. I can't think of another reliable way to start seeds quickly. This box can be used for bread proofing, yogurt making, egg incubating, hot food keeping for transportation for long distance------ The box is very strong, and can be taken apart for storage in one minute, and put together again in 5 minutes. dcarch

If they don't have Jerusalem artichokes, ask them if they have sunchokes. Same thing different name. If you have a garden, grow them yourself. dcarch

Actually, as I remember, sometime ago there was one discussed here that has a camera which can recognize what kind of food is being cooked. dcarch

I noticed that in all their advertisements, they don't say the "flatbed technology" cooks more evenly than a turntable. It seems to me that when you reflect a single frequency wave beam which exit the source at the exact moment, and arriving a fixed geometric surface, there may be amplitude reinforcements and cancellations within a space in three dimensions which will always be the same because nothing is moving inside the space. How that can effect cooking ? I don't know. Inverter technology has nothing to do with pattern of wave distribution. It only means variable cooking power. Flatbed takes less vertical space, but more horizontal space. dcarch

That is correct. Microwave ovens can operate without a turn table. However, microwave wave length is fixed and directional. Depending on the dimensions of the cooking chamber, in a space with all 90 degree angles, just like a pool table, the outgoing and incoming waves, similar to the paths of a billiard ball on a rectangular table, travels at a predictable and fixed path. That in a microwave is called standing wave, a standing wave pattern cooks food unevenly, unless the wave path, relative to the food is more or less randomized by a turntable. dcarch

I find this appliance very interesting. First, it is technically difficult to combine microwave, roasting oven and steamer into one small box, even more difficult to have convection feature. For a counter top appliance, it is important to make the outside small and inside big. The microwave electronics (high voltage inverter and magnetron) are very big. The plumbing system for a steamer takes a lot of room, and the heating element for 1000 watts cannot be miniaturized. To avoid burning from the hot case, there is a need to insulate the high heat from baking, and that requires thickness for good insulation. An effective convection needs a good motor and fan and space for return air. ---. I can't see how this can cook faster, because you cannot microwave, bake and steam at the same time. Each process requires the full 1000 watt power, and your outlet is rated oat only 1800 watts. Is there a turntable plater? I wonder how even it can microwave. Just curious. dcarch

I will be making battered deep fried Eagles (chickens) dcarch

It was about $400. $400 was a lot of money 20 years ago. I would not use the Panasonic combi for just microwave, and I would not use it just as a steamer. I think the Panasonic combi is three appliances in one. I don't know what happens if one of them breaks down . dcarch

As I remember, Panasonic has always sold a microwave oven that also has extra heating elements that can bake. I had one. It was expensive. They just add a steaming function to this one. dcarch