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Clarify what you mean by 'approximating sous vide'. 'Sous vide' means under vacuum; how are you planning on sealing this stuff? Are you just talking about extended, low-temp cooking of bagged food in a water bath?

Cook's Illustrated spoke highly of the OXO 10".

It's Rigoni di Asiago's Nocciolata (visible all the way in the upper right of the image upthread).

There are lots of options for flavouring caramels, and lots of discussions of this in the forums, including Variations on Caramel, Caramels with habanero, Creating Ginger Caramels, to name a just a few. There's some discussion of doubling recipes in the Caramel Troubleshooting discussion. I've doubled a caramel recipe only once, and the only difference I noticed was that it took a lot longer to get the sugar to temperature; the results were the same (I could swear I've read that the amount of liquid used should be somewhat reduced, but I cannot remeber where, and didn't do this).

This is the selection at the supermarket nearby (better stocked places have really impressive selctions of chocolate-nut spreads, with various sorts of nuts): At one point or another, I've tried them all. The organic, Italian one is a bit lest sweet, and has distinct hazelnut flavour, the 'Princip' brand one has tiny particles that suggest that they considered doing a chunky version, but chickened out, and the rest are the usual super-sweet, somewhat gluey, faintly nut-flavoured preparations we all know.

This is the selection at the supermarket nearby (better stocked places have really impressive selctions of chocolate-nut spreads, with various sorts of nuts): At one point or another, I've tried them all. The organic, Italian one is a bit less sweet, and has distinct hazelnut flavour (I recommend it), the 'Princip' one has tiny particles that suggest that they considered doing a chunky version, but lost their nerve, and the rest are the usual super-sweet, somewhat gluey, faintly nut-flavoured preparations we all know.

Generally, just go one for one. Also, there's this: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/100238-everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-brown-sugar/?p=663058

Arrowroot is pretty gloopy and starchy; konnyaku (aka konjak, konjaku) will probably give you results closest to those you'd get with gelatin. It's also easily found, reasonably priced, and vegan.

It would be great over risotto or gnocchi (pumpkin gnocchi, in particular).

Several years ago we picked up a the smallest available Azeta commercial slicer, and it's proved itself to be a great unit. It is quite compact (when we got it, it didn't dominate the miniscule kitchen in the student flat we were living in): No chance of replacing the blade on the Hobart?

Both skirt and hanger are skeletal muscle (the diaphragm is skeletal muscle, check any physio. textbook, and skirt steak is from the belly), and although the heart isn't composed of skeletal muscle, it's still striated muscle, and may be treated pretty much the same way (cookingwise; i.e. it won't turn to mush). Tripe is an example of of something with smooth muscle, and I have a hunch that sous vide cooking is not the way to go with it, I doubt the flavour of smooth muscle benefits positively from this approach (and any whiff of the former contents would probably be brought out by cooking it for a long time in a sealed container).

Actually, unless the cattle are cavorting heraldically on their back legs most of the time, the paraspinal muscle groups do nowhere near the work that humans' do; that's the reason these cuts are so tender. Cooked sous vide, I've found these cuts to be virtually flavourless, unless they're also seared/seasoned.

Actually, the alcohol often also has a functional role as an organic solvent, increasing the breakdown of plant material, which is one of the reasons it enhances flavour.

The vacuum packing suggests a botulism risk.

The swelling throat thing sounds suspiciously like anaphylaxis, which can be dangerous or fatal, so before experimenting with standard-ingredient substitutions (which may themselves be a problem), it would be a really good idea to get a medical opinion on the source of the problem. Once you know what the culprit is/are, it will not only be safer, but far simpler to track down substitutions. Without any clue, even if you're careful, your search for answers is going to be extremely frustrating.

Some suggestions, in this discussion of U.S. Prohibition Era Drinks.

Stroll on over to the Truffles: molded vs hand dipped discussion!

The previous section of the ongoing Chamber Vacuum Sealers discussion reached the 20-page mark (after which point topics cause the site to slow significantly whenever they load), so we've split the discussion, which continues, here.

I've seen milk, and, I think – this was a while back – possibly one of the pourable fermented dairy products. I do remember seeing a couple of lemon and other citrus curd recipes, and flinching and thinking 'Ew', which would be my exact reaction to such an ingredient in this sort of recipe.

Might have used water instead of various dairy products, to yield a cleaner citrus flavour. Dairy take the edge off many flavours.

Just to be clear, is your primary concern about losing the liquid (i.e. possibly compromising the recipe in some way), making a mess, or damaging the machine?

The previous discussion of this may help: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/99133-waterrice-ratios/?hl=%2Bwater+%2Brice

Does the book by any chance include the caramelized apricot that is mentioned here (6th image form the bottom of the image set, item 22 in the list above that)?: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/138044-my-last-and-anyones-best-shot-at-elbulli/?p=1804527 I really, really need to know more about this dessert, I have not been able to stop thinking about it!

That's the brand I purchased at Williams-Sonoma several years ago and which was useless. Little flavor so one had to use double or three times the amount to get the same flavor one gets with PURE vanilla powder. How can they advertise and label the product as "pure" vanilla powder when it so obviously isn't? A definition of the word pure is: not mixed or adulterated with any other substance or material, yet this product is mixed with a substantial amount of maltodextrin. All that means is that it is made with pure vanilla. It can be made of 99% rutabas or toenail clippings and 1% vanilla bean, and it still counts. I don't understand why you are looking for 'vanilla powder', when that is not what you want; look for "ground vanilla bean".

Check out Cook's Illustrated's recipe from January/February 2013. If you don't find it perfect, the background to it will make it easy for you to figure out how to tweak it to your taste.