dcarch

I consider a smoker is an essential appliance which can add a lot to eating pleasure. So I decided to put a little effort into coming up with a smoker which can deal with many of the common short comings of a typical smoker. 1. I want a smoker which can cold smoke and hot smoke, year round. 2. Flexible control of smoke quantity and quality. 3. Minimum creosote generation. 4. Easy to light. 5. economical to operate. 6. minimum supervision, Long running time. 7. Precise temperature control. 8. Good humidity control. 9. Most importantly indoor smoking!!! As it turned out, it was not that difficult to accomplish all the above. Using a 4.5 cu ft operating refrigerator, a PID controller, a heater, a motor driven blower with a speed controller and an ultrasonic humidifier, I was able to get things done. The smoke generator using a speed controlled blower ( B) gives me much better smoke control, much better than a Venturi aquarium air pump. The smoke passes thru a standard brass accordion pipe which cools the smoke as well as condenses a lot creosote into a bottle (A - cancer-in-a-bottle). Thru a two-way valve (D), the smoke passes thru a viewing port (E) which has an LED light to show quantity of smoke without having to open the smoker to check. If I have to open the smoker to check the food, I would turn the two-way valve (D) and turn on exhaust blower ( C ) to evacuate all the smoke inside the smoker to outside, this way I would not smoke the whole house. The smoke generator is a 4" stainless steel tube with a variable air intake port. One pound of pellets can last about 24 hours burn. So far, everything has been working well for a few years. dcarch

Inverted sugar? dcarch

Teaser picture. More later. Cold smoke and hot smoke, PID control, indoor smoker. Smoke generator uses pellets, 24 hour burn with no supervision. Quality and quantity of smoke are adjustable. dcarch

Not my kind of knife. Not my kind of art. What is "living" art anyway. But she will be successful and she will make lots of money. Very good in PR. Not very skillful in knife making. I wish her a great future, and she will be more famous. Just a word of advice to her, never show so much cleavage when making knives. It's dangerous. Flying sharp metal, flying burning sparks, flying machine tools, flying knives ----. Always wear thick protective clothing. dcarch

I was wondering about that also. The lowest temp it will go is 70F? Assuming your room temperature is below that. dcarch

You eat "fast food" at the same speed as regular food. "Fast food " only means the food was prepared "fast". To avoid weight gain, once in a while you need to fast. dcarch

I swear, no Photoshop. Found these in NYC Grand Central Terminal food market. dcarch

A nice concept and a useful idea. If I buy a slow cooker, hook it up with a PID controller and put it under the Kitchen aid mixer, I may end up with something similar and $200 richer? dcarch

There is no reason why a well designed grease filter should not work. A well designed one is one with a very big surface area for the filter and a reasonable fan to draw air through it. The problem with many is too small a filter and too small or too big a fan. dcarch

The problem can be minimized by installing a recirculating non-venting hood with a good grease filter, and a removable high speed window fan. dcarch

That is a very dangerous situation. When a powerful kitchen exhaust evacuates air from your kitchen without proper makeup air, it draws air from your boiler backwards together with carbon monoxide into your home. Do not Try! A plumbing vent should never be used for kitchen exhaust. It is not big enough, it is against all building codes. There will be no plumber who will do that for you. As I said, look into an electrostatic air precipitator (filter). dcarch

Be very careful with connecting kitchen exhaust hook fan to bathroom vent. It may not be Code compliant. A bathroom vent is around 100 CFM, the duct work is sized for that quantity of air, and a kitchen hood fan can be from 500 CFM to 1000 CFM. For sure the grease smoke smell will be blown into the bathroom. In an apartment building, you can be blowing into someone else's apartment. dcarch

Get a powerful electrostatic air cleaner to put near the cook area. It can filter out particles in the air (grease and smoke in the air), but not smell. If you want to also filter out smell, you can get an electrostatic air filter with an activated charcaol filter section. The filter section can be washed in your dishwasher and never need replacement. charcoal filter will need to be replaced once in a while. dcarch

Start a new thread. I will answer your questions. Don't want to hijack this thread. dcarch

Home made cold smoke generator. These halogen bulbs. Very easy to find. I think HD has them also. http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/image_12990.jpg dcarch

I will be curious about this device in how it can keep good temperature for deep frying. I think for a PID controller algorithm (if that is the electronics used) to work best the quantity of food has to more or less remain constant. dcarch

You can't tell the wattage of a mixer very well. The name plate wattage may not be the actual wattage it draws. It depends on what you are mixing. There is only one way to tell, that is if you connect it to a watt meter. BTW, it is perfectly legal to have more outlets on a line than the rating of total connected load, depending on your local Code. dcarch

1. Pasteurize milk to make yogurt. 2. Make perfect eggs. 3. make tea, coffee. dcarch

I seem to remember GE(?) came out with a stove which has a probe for you to cook sous vide. dcarch

Actually, that is one appliance which will never need temperature control. It is self regulating by definition, at exactly 250F, always. dcarch

Suppose Meld turns the gas fire to very low and a breeze blows out the flame. Meld senses the temperature is getting low and turns the gas way up in an attempt to raise the temperature.!!!!! What would happen? dcarch

Poor reviews.(Amazon). I don't see the use of this item. If you need to use the oven to finish anyway, why not also use the oven's broiler (IR heat) to sear? dcarch

There is a lot of guessing, of course. To make calculation simpler, assuming a 12" x 12" bag. That would be 144 x 2 = 288 sq. in. Assuming 1 psi of pressure, then every inch of the bag will be stretched by 288 lbs of tension. Can the plastic be strong enough softened under 212F of heat to take 288 lbs of stretching? Assuming it can. the temperature inside will be about 216F. For reference, the temperature inside a pressure cooker is 250 F. dcarch

Here's one I did. Happy Easter to all! dcarch