dcarch

Except electric cookwares. Different plugs. dcarch

I think Capital Precision Series has convection feature, which makes temperature more even. dcarch

You should check the accuracy of your thermometer. It is impossible to heat water to 290F. Perhaps you meant set the dial to 290F? dcarch

Bitter? broccoli rabe? What are you talking about? Go to a Chinese or indian store and buy some bitter melons and find out what bitter really means. LOL! Serious, it depends on season and where BR is from, bitterness varies. BR was on sale last week here (NYC) $0.99 a lb, normally $2.75 a lb. They were so mild and tender, I must had gotten more than 10 lbs. dcarch

Actually, Hydrofluoric acid can dissolve glass, but not stain glass. dcarch

This is my un-proven theory: Enamel is similar to glass, nothing can stain glass. However, due to difference of thermal expansion coefficient between glass and cast iron, over time, there will be billions of nano cracks on the surface of the enamel, which traps stain, which can be very difficult to remove by cleaning alone. dcarch

Thanks, Basquecook, The gefilte fish for Passover was made with cod because there was a severe shortage of whitefish. I added ground up mushroom stems to give the recipe some nice taste and better chewy mouth feel. I wish I could use skate, but skate is not kosher. The plating was based on the symbolism of “3”, because “All good things come in threes” I had black garlic sauce for the prime rib for Easter. I wanted a lot of color for Easter and for spring, so I made multi-colored pastas. Beet for red, spinach for green, eggs for yellow, and black garlic and black gills from portabella mushrooms for black. dcarch

I hope you all had a great Easter, and a wonderful passover! dcarch Prime ribs for Easter Gefilte fish for Passover

Thanks guys! How long does it take to shape the blanks? About 1/2 an hour. Final sharpening after tempering takes longer because you can't use too much machine power. That would mess up the tempering of the steel. About 1 to 2 hours. I bought my blanks from here: http://www.knifemaking.com/category-s/103.htm As I remember, the kanji says "Sharp matter". dcarch

I have a lot of admiration for people who have the dedication and energy to carry out the extreme complexities of turning a concept into reality. The Mellow looks simple, but it is a very difficult engineering and manufacturing item. I am sure all my concerns have been thoroughly dealt with. Some of my simple minded thinking, if I was to make Mellow work: “----Temp sensor and heater can be wired with simple plugs in the base unit. Think of it like the batteries on power tools, only not a battery, but a tank. I can think of quite a few ways to plumb the air bubbler. Some sort of rubber valve similar to how a heart valve works. When plugged into the base, the pressure from the air pump opens the valve to let the air out, and the air keeps the water from leaking down the tube. Remove the tank, and thus the air pressure, and the valve seals. –“ That is asking for trouble. I would not make an appliance that has the container with a sensitive thermister plug, a high power plug and a water valve attached to it. You cannot count on users being careful in plug and unplug the container. Also unless the rubber valve is spring-loaded, and cleaned often, leaks will happen. Assuming the unit uses a SSR to control the heater, I would think there is a need for a safety cutoff in the design. When a mechanical relay fails, it opens the circuit, OTOH a SSR works the opposite. When a SSR fails, it shorts. I hate to think what would happen with a 1000 watt heater going fulltime unattended. dcarch

On another thread, someone asked me to post pictures of my home made kitchen knives. Here they are. I am not a fancy display/showoff quality knife maker. I just want to quickly, and cheaply make a few knives that are sharp, and comfortable for my own working habits. Basically, 1095 high carbon steel or D-2 tool steel blanks, which are under $20.00 each, heat treated, hardened and tempered. With an angle grinder and a belt sander, they are shaped and sharpened. I used some wood and plumbing parts for the handles. For scale, the blade for the yanagiba is 330mm long. Anyone else here make their own knives? or other kitchen tools? Post away! dcarch

I am guessing there is a muffin fan to cool the heat sink for the Peltier device. Typically the fan is extremely quiet. Then there is the bubble maker. It depends, some are very quiet. There are some diaphragm pumps which can be very noisy. I am sure the Mellow is almost noiseless. dcarch

It can't be, if the temperature sensor and the heater is wired to the base, and the air hole opening will be a problem also. dcarch

Mellow has not explored the many other uses, more than just sous vide: Cold soup for the summer. Punch bowl for a party. Wine cooler. dcarch :-)

One of the reasons for the liquid not to come come from the open bag when submerged is because most of the time (not all the time) the liquid inside the bag is heavier (salt, and colder). By gravity it will not tend to float up. but I don't think that is very reliable. I still want to know how do you empty the water from the container. dcarch

In addition, how do you empty the water? If the tank is detachable, what prevents water from leak out thru the air hole? If the thermister is in the tank, is there a wire connected to it? dcarch

zemvpferreira, thanks for coming in to explain things. I hope you don't mind that some of us have a tendency to be critical. we are serious about cooking and sous vide. There is another thread where I posted the following: Shalmanese, on 23 Apr 2014 - 07:33 AM, said: I am not sure. From the looks, the cooling is most likely done by the use of a solid state Peltier thermoelectric module, not by a compressor. Peltier device is very interesting, by changing the polarity of the DC power, it can be a cooler or a heater. If that is what's going on, it can be a problem. A Peltier device is a low power device, a high temperature Peltier module is less than 200 watts. It will take a very long time to heat up or to cool down that much water. It also makes the water container not removable. It will be a pain to clean the thing. dcarch Edit: Just saw it on their WEB site. Apparently the tub is removable. So the heating/cooling is done by metal-to-metal conduction. That makes it less deficient. I also don't see a thermometer/temperature sensor. How does it control accurate temperature if metal-to-metal contact is the only connection between the tub and the main unit? Is it PID controlled? Does it come with a cover?

I am sure a lot of thinking has gone into the conceptualization and implementation of this unit. I am not saying that it is got problems which I have mentioned. Based simply on information I have so far, I would like to know a lot more. It is possible that the temperature swing can be quite a bit, if there is no direct temperature measurement of the bath, and no PID type of feedback compensation of the entire system. dcarch

May be even bigger problem, Does it keep temperature precisely? I don't understand how the water and food temperature is measured and controlled. Sous vide is meaningless without temperature control. I like to see a lot more specifications. dcarch

I am not sure. From the looks, the cooling is most likely done by the use of a solid state Peltier thermoelectric module, not by a compressor. Peltier device is very interesting, by changing the polarity of the DC power, it can be a cooler or a heater. If that is what's going on, it can be a problem. A Peltier device is a low power device, a high temperature Peltier module is less than 200 watts. It will take a very long time to heat up or to cool down that much water. It also makes the water container not removable. It will be a pain to clean the thing. dcarch Edit: Just saw it on their WEB site. Apparently the tub is removable. So the heating/cooling is done by metal-to-metal conduction. That makes it less deficient. I also don't see a thermometer/temperature sensor. How does it control accurate temperature if metal-to-metal contact is the only connection between the tub and the main unit? Is it PID controlled? Does it come with a cover?

I don't feel foam insulating a beer cooler is at all that worthwhile. A double-walled cooler is not loosing a lot of heat. All the heat lost goes to heat your house in the winter anyway. Feel the cooler case, it's barely warm. Evaporation, OTOH, carries away a lot of BTUs, about a 1000 BTU/lb. dcarch

First, I did a test once. I had a lot of beef and pork bones. I scraped off all the meat from the bones, scooped out the marrow. I made stock with just pure bones. The stock had no flavor. Basically I don't think bones contribute anything to flavor. It's the meat, and marrow. When you PC "bones" without water, you get very nice concentrated "stock" from condensation and meat shrinkage. Meat shrinks 30% to 40% under high heat. How much concentrated stock you can get out with no water depend on how much leftover meat on the bones. Again, I have to be clear. When I PC to make stock, there is plenty of water in the cooker. I use a smaller pot inside the cooker to really pressure steam the bones. I get fairly clear stock this way. dcarch

May I suggest you to give this a try just for fun? First - pressure cook without any water, that's right, NO WATER. You will get a 1/2 cup to a cup of pure pure concentrated liquid gold. Save this for special uses. Second - Then add water to make your regular stock. Third - Use the leftovers from the second step, use much less water and PC the third time. You will get some stock with not much taste, Use it for the second step the next time you make stock. Don't bother with this step if you think it's too much trouble. dcarch

The spring type of pressure indicator can be highly inaccurate. Comparing tastes between two PCs without check temperature is meaningless. As far as the food is concerned, it is all about temperature. You can get a pretty good idea as to what temperature your PC can achieve based on the test I suggested above. dcarch

I am with Martin. I can't seem to think of a scientific reason why and how the stocks would taste different, if the food is cooked in identical environment inside the pressure cookers. Assuming of course the rubber gasket material and the metals of the vessels will not impart their tastes to the food. dcarch