boilsover

Hmmm, all I did was set the temp, wait for the bath to come up to 77C, and put in the 2 eggs for 14:00 as suggested. All manual, no app, BT, etc. This was in an insulated cooler with 9Q of water, so the temp drop at the dump was <0.5C and only for about 20 seconds. Eggs were at 5C to start. The water was circulating well, moving the eggs constantly. I've checked the bath temp serveral times in these attempts, and the Anova's been spot on.

It's like some fish--it depends what they eat. IME, migratory birds taste better (less fishy) than resident ducks. Where I live, the flyers have more orange feet, whereas the residents tend to have yellower. Wild duck legs are pretty small and sinewy. Legs on wigeon and teal can be tiny. Fat mallards with their gullets full of grain--that's what you want, IMO. Maybe you should invest in a duck press? Christofle makes a nice one!

OK, so how long do you typically sear on this, each side, post SV? And do you use the binchotan charcoal?

Oh, I've already given up on the peeling. I open the small end with a "clacker", and shake/pour them out. You still must scoop out the shells to get all the firmest white.

Fail again. I only had Jumbo eggs, and I did two in a large cooler bath set to 77C for just over the allotted 14 minutes. The whites were only set 3-4mm in from the shell, the rest were semi-clear, clotty gel. Strangely, though, the yolks were too firm--like room-temp butter. Nothing like the result shown at the end of the YouTube video. Sigh.

This is useful, thanks. I'll try it. Thinking ahead, if removal from the bath at the end is critical, isn't immediately shelling also critical for preventing carryover? If so, how would you do, say, a batch of 6 eggs?

Oh, no, not giving up. Just playing with it. I really can see the slow-n-low meat applications, especially larger joints. My S-I-L did an amazing SV lamb prep.

Really, the weed-burning torch won? I can't imagine it wouldn't impart torch taste, and a lot of it. And I'm just not into a blackened char. But I can see the logic in searing that fast to not further cook the interior. I'll dig mine out. I have tried the charcoal chimney method, with a "poor man's SV". No bath involved. You just skewer and bake the cuts at your target temp for about an hour (This is one of the few uses for my Breville BSO I like). Then you suspend the steaks over a half-full briquet starter chimney for about a minute. This works fine, except any dripping fat throws ash in the air and onto the steaks, and it still takes >1 hr.. No Michellin star.

...without catching fire...

Is this a battery-operated device (i.e., no AC cord)?

No problem. I find SV soft-boiled eggs a giant waste of time, but I'm trying to use this area to better understand the concepts of time-at-temperature and doneness. I think there's a common misconception that SV allows the cook to hold (or precook and then store) foods for long periods without overcooking or other degradation. I'm also finding that post-SV finishing (e.g., searing a steak afterward) throws off final results in ways that challenge the putative precision and certainty of SV. For instance, the steaks I've done to some theoretical "rareness" end up more done fairly deep into the cut. Maybe I need to hustle the sear harder, but at some point, it becomes analogous to the SB egg--why not just stop screwing around and cook a little thicker steak the old-fashioned way? Likewise SV fish--I find the Canadian Rule more useful than some time/temp/thickness table. Sorry, don't mean to be crabby. Just underwhelmed with SV so far.

Hi, Anna: Sorry, I'm not understanding. The eggs were frozen? And if the bath is 90C, wouldn't a fuller bath recover faster than a smaller one? Have you measured the yolk temperature when you peel the eggs? I'm concluding that, in order to set the whites and leave the yolk liquid-y, you must NOT heat the center of the egg to such a bath temp (I've watched Dave Arnold's video). Obviously, refrigeration would matter. I'll dig out my copy of McGee and relearn what egg proteins set at what temps. But in the end, aren't we cooking these SV eggs in... eggactly... the same way as non-SV, i.e., immersing them in hot enough water to cook the whites to firmness X and pulling them out before the yolk overcooks? IOWs, is there no magic Mhyrvold Temperature for soft-boiled eggs, where the whole egg can remain at the same temp for some time? Your result looks like something I'd want. Yum. Boilsover

My understanding is that Costco has been labeling their needle-tenderized beef as such since 2012 (before it became mandatory last year).

I keep a single-step, non-folding stool in the kitchen itself. The pantry has one of the mid-Century fold-out 2-steps. But I still find myself reaching with whatever is in hand (e.g., knife, dish brush, roll of parchment sheets) to goose something high to fall into my hands.

I don't buy a lot of meat at Costco, but all their prime cuts have been very good. Last week they had prime ribeye at $13.99/pound, with an additional $10 off the package at checkout. My package of 4 largish 1.5" steaks ended up more like $10/pound.

Keep looking for more. I think these were included in "presentation" boxes of Aalborg that are sold around the holidays, so there must be many more of them out there. I stopped at 6.

I actually admire your approach to cars. Hopefully it means you have extra to spend on something you or someone you love really wants.

It's done all the time. But I would want a manufacturer-certified tech to break it down and set it back up. One lucky friend of mine found a higher-end optioned La Cornue, sold out of a commensurately high-end home, for $2,500. What kind of a used car do you get for that?

My take is if you're going to use a magnetic strip, get one with the rare earth magnets mounted behind wood--safer for your knives. I have strips in one kitchen and a drawer "rack" in another. I prefer the former for ease of access, but the latter for cleanliness--dust, grease and spatter aren't an issue with drawer storage. Two other thoughts: (1) A vertical strip (i.e., horizontal knives) can be a good option See, Photo 1 in the following link: https://www.npr.org/2011/02/23/134005310/national-museum-of-american-history-julia-childs-copper-pots-come-home (2) If you go with horizontal strips, plan both the location and edge orientation so that no one needs to reach across (or pull back against) the exposed edges. Good Luck!

I think the country house should have a solid-fuel Rayburn. http://www.rayburn-web.co.uk/products/rayburn-solid-fuel-wood-series/heatranger-355sfw

How much do you spend on a car? Even the very top ranges typically cost less than a decent used car.

This poster dumped his because it made gnarly, mediocre bread that looked like it was baked in a PTFE-lined blender. Ooh, I just had a PTSD flashback of the bumping and grinding it did!

I forget which machine I once owned. This sounds flippant, but the only good thing about it was waking up to the smell of fresh bread. The loaves were ugly, the crust very strange, the crumb 'way too moist, and the paddles always seemed to come off with the loaf. Maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance, but I was mighty pleased when I dropped it off at Goodwill.

Anyone trying this should know that plumber's cement for PVC pipe (or plain 'ol acetone) will work to glue plexi. No sense buying $$ specialty solvent glue.

I don't know a thing about this one, but it looks suspiciously similar in many ways to the XL Breville. Controls are virtually identical. You should check clearance from the top of your typical boule to the elements. I doubt there's enough.