andrewk512

Fair enough. I'm genuinely curious about the use cases. For instance, the donabe, what do you make in it that requires precise temperature monitoring? At home I generally only use an immersible thermometer for confections and roast chicken. For everything else I use an IR thermometer. I did just use a thermometer for a pork shoulder this week, although it was the one built into the APO. I could probably start doing my chickens in that. The barbecue I did last year was all temp controlled and had thermometers built into the machine. Maybe this thermometer fulfills a more all purpose use case for multiple devices when those devices don't already have built in tech Not trying to be contrarian. I generally find myself trying to think of reasons to push myself to buy kitchen gadgets I might not need

The product seems really cool and I trust it will be produced great, but I don't really see a use case for the home cook. When I want precision I go to the APO or sous vide. I could see it being used for barbecue but I think most people find the charm of barbecue being the low tech nature of it (otherwise why not get a barbecue with a temp regulator). I see the liquid nitro and oil immersion being more for R&D related uses, at least from my point of view

Pits from 1lb of cherries, pour over 3/4C balsamic vinegar brought to a simmer, marinate for 1 hr then drain (from Ad Hoc at Home)

I steep the pits in balsamic vinegar

Hard to tell without seeing the recipe, but generally you will want to increase ingredients with minimal freezing point depression (free water) and decrease ingredients that depress freezing point (sugars, fats, many solids) I think your idea of using less cherries and replacing it with cherry juice is a good start. You could lower the sugar although then you start impacting flavor more

I left the door open on the APO so my koji could get some air and to prevent overheating because I wasn't able to monitor the koji while I was at work this afternoon. I thought the light would automatically turn off but it did not. When I got back a few hrs later the top shelf of koji hit a concerning 40C while the bottom was a nice 31C. Measuring the temp of the light at the top of the oven, it is 120C, enough to seriously overdo any low temp fermentation. Will note for next time.

For grains I am doing rinse then 4hr presoak then anywhere from 100-110C, 100% steam and about 40minutes (but I just taste every 10 mins after 30mins to determine donenness). I am using rear heating element for this one For the koji I am wrapping inoculated grains in a pan in cheesecloth then starting at 30C and 100% RH with bottom heating element. After the koji starts exceeding 30C (creating its own heat) I turn the oven temp down to minimum, this is about 24hrs in. I am misting the cloth with fine spray of water when it dries out. If temps are going above 33 then I pull the koji out and finish on the countertop. The kojis take about 36hr

What is it made of? I tried the beyond meat recently, free from a HelloFresh promotion. It is some sort of modified soy. The flavor wasn't half bad but the texture was like a wet sponge and I ultimately could not eat it all. I'm not against meat replacements, but it has to actually be something that could replace meat

Host's note: the "thanks" sentence refers to a discussion here about using demineralized water and where to find it. Thanks everyone! My container of demineralized water is holding out, but at least I know where to look when it runs out. Does anyone find steaming in the APO insufficient from a moisture standpoint? I think the mandatory oven fan with the steam function is drying things out. I just did presoaked pearl barley at 100C 100% steam as per the Noma guide and it dried out. I also had issues with my koji growing at 30C and 100% RH where the cloth wrapping the koji also dried out and required spraying with water. I am now going to add a bit of water to the pan when steaming and I am wrapping my koji batch today in plastic to prevent moisture loss . Growing koji has been awesome though so far. I can fit two 9x13 pans in the APO which is about 3x what I could fit in my previous setup. The probe and the app really help reduce constant monitoring and tinkering. My first batch was yellow peas with wheat which run really hot so once things started heating up half way through I took it out of the oven and finished the growth in ambient air.

No amazon groceries in Canada I checked 2 grocery stores and a major home goods store, gonna try more grocery stores eventually Interesting, good to know It is a name brand of calcium/lime/rust remover, like the stuff you would use to get rid of scale on a shower glass or a slowly running faucet. The repetitive commercials I watched as a child brainwashed me into brand loyalty

Why is that? I used it on my immersion circulator to good success, but that was something I could visibly see and ensure was well gone, whereas the APO makes me a bit nervous to that regard. What descaler do you use? I am guessing they assume people are using regular water despite the instructions. I am still trying to find a store that will sell distilled water.... but demineralized water is the best I can do for now

Can I use CLR to descale the APO? Do I need to descale if the descale light has not come on? I have ran it for 60hrs so far. I am using demineralized water (only thing available since the stores have all been raided of water)

I have never heard of that, will have to check if it is in Canada I find bluetooth pairing of anything other than headphones very unreliable and it drives me crazy. I think if it was bluetooth I would not purchase

Made the Underbelly Strawberry Sorbet. Had been looking forward to this one for a long time, took me months to collect all the ingredients for it. Frozen through just fine in my fridge freezer for 16 hrs. Processed on lite. Nice creamy texture servable right from the machine. I must say I have a bit of a sweet tooth and do prefer sweeter sorbets, but I could see this being really nice as an intermediary course or part of a dessert composition where you don't want to overwhelm all the other components. I also did the Dana Cree vanilla ice cream custard base. Made it sous vide in my new APO. Processed on lite, came out a bit soft. Took some calamansi curd that I had on hand, lowered the freezing point by adding a bit of glucose syrup, and mixed that in. Into the freezer to harden up more now. My first try mixing something in. I vastly overestimated how much is needed for a pint of ice cream.

I picked up my APO from the post office today, had to go cause I wasn't around for delivery earlier. Somehow I managed to get the thing into my car but couldn't get it out of the car without shredding the box to pieces. I fear any malfunctioning that might make me have to return it

You should be able to get away with 10-13hrs with a non-heated recipe in a deep freezer (or outside ;)). I haven't measured exactly how long mine takes. I do the full time if I put it in the fridge freezer though

Agreed, I think most italian dry goods are easily accessible these days at specialty stores That being said, I'd pick up some white balsamic, it seems to be pretty trendy right now.

I am going to be that loser that waits till it comes to market now that everyone has funded it. Crossing my fingers for cheaper shipping ($30 USD and no combined shipping when I requested to buy 2 units...). I have also been burned lately with 20%+ import fees on everything I am buying from the US ($20 on a cookbook, ~$200 on my blast chiller, 100% import fee on plates from Korin)

I think the APO has been permanently 15 percent off since early November. I am waiting for mine to arrive. Canada Post delayed as usual

Quince custard from La Grotta (I subbed some spared blackened quince that I had on hand) Great texture right after spinning on lite. Came together very quickly - mixed egg yolk, heavy cream, milk, sugar, and honey in a pan, heated to 180f then blended with the quince. Final flavor is a touch on the tart side though I also did a soursop sorbet earlier this week, using my usual sorbet recipe. Texture was nice but I learned that I just don't like soursop (had never tried it before)

Laughing at the Chang and Kimball conversation. Chang was on Dave Arnold's podcast recently and it sounds like he doesn't do much cooking these days - he did talk a bit about how everyone should be microwaving their potatoes My recent book acquisitions: La Grotta: Ice Creams and Sorbets - the ideas are the most impressive part of the book, although I am not quite sure where to find stalks of fresh angelica and had never even heard of rose geranium as an ingredient. I am yet to make anything from it. Interestingly, she recommends the use of a microwave for cooking fruit, I am not sure if this is because it is supposed to be a good idea or whether this was supposed to be a more "approachable" way to cook your foraged angelica and rose geraniums? Tacos by Stupak and Rothman - haven't read this one yet, but flipped through it at a store a month ago. I feel like it's going to be awesome Acorn: Vegetables Re-Imagined - here's a new in 2021 book that most may not have heard of outside Canada (or perhaps even Vancouver). I was supposed to eat there when visiting this fall but then somehow I got my dates mixed up and the restaurant was closed so I got the book instead. Haven't read through it yet but the vegetable prep looks truly next level - shiitake xo sauce, fermented celery leaf, a cauliflower dish with 3 different preparations, this is the book I am most excited to read.

Asides the cream cheese, which looks to be substituted with tapioca (you could try tapioca starch), I am guessing in the commercial product she is browning milk solids and not actually browning butter. Hard to say beyond that without actually trying them. I got a copy of La Grotta ices this week by Kitty Travers as an early christmas gift and read through most of it. I think people who are looking for a very simple, natural ice cream production would like it as her philosophy is to only use fresh ingredients no stabilizers etc. The flavor combinations look pretty good although I have yet to make anything. Interestingly the recipes include bits on how to cook fruit in the microwave, I can't quite tell if this is because it is a good idea or because she felt the reader would not want to cook fruit in a saucepan? I was going make a recipe with some frozen elderberries, which I had never worked with before, but they completely oxidized and were unusable.

Popularization of cooking ruined most meat prices sadly - flank steak, oxtail, shanks, pork belly - prices of the cheap cuts only went up, nothing went down to adjust for higher profit I try to get most of my meat at 50% off these days -- I usually find lamb racks at 50% off once or twice a year and stock up, of course 50% off is still around 15-20 CAD. I even got a regular grade tenderloin for 60 CAD last year just after christmas. Koji is a great meat alternative -- I hope it becomes more mainstream. Won't replace the Christmas tenderloin, but could fit in for a few meals during the year to make up for things

I've had mine vibrate to the point where I thought it might fall off the table a few times, I just kept going. Her ice creams are quite dense like that, some like it, some don't. I think she details this further in either the beginning or end of the book (cultural and personal differences in ice cream texture). If you are processing twice I would definitely let it sit in the freezer for an hour or two; should be fine if just processed once though I should also note that if you are doing a half recipe you'll probably want to account for increased water loss through evaporation, depending on your pot size. I usually add a bit of water back to her recipes

Softness and sweetness were spot on but had a very dense mouthfeel and this made it a bit undesirable beyond a few bites. Next time I would thin it out a bit with a 22 percent sugar syrup. I ended up blending the sorbet with milk to make smoothies