paulpegg

If you can figure out how to do that we can make billions getting old people to be young again.

I don't have one of these but either there is a blown fuse inside (not sure if it has one, check your manual) or the float switch is either stuck in the low water position or has failed. There could be other reasons but these seem to be the first place to look.

Nice effort. I too am spending a lot more money on equipment and ingredients to try these recipes. I agree with your preference for traditional omelettes. I have been making them for years and have often served up to 12 people at once. I pre-heat the oven and plates to 200F and use two pans to cook all 12. The first 10 are partially cooked and plated and put in the oven to finish. The last 2 are cooked through and then all 12 are served. It takes about 15 minutes to complete and everyone is happy.

Thanks for the link. I ordered a supply of 15 items from them and the order was shipped immediately. They have an excellent selection that goes beyond most of the kits I have found so far. Each ingredient is clearly labeled and packaged in a heavy duty resealable pouch. I wouldn't be surprised if they would get an item that is not on their list if you asked.

I made the Carrot Soup from Modernist Cuisine without the pressure cooker and centrifuge. I caramelized a pound of carrots in butter in a large pot with a lid and added a little water to keep it from drying out. I juiced three more pounds of carrots, simmered the juice and passed it through a fine chinoise a few times in lieu of centrifuging it for an hour! Put it all in a blender for a few minutes with a little more butter and it is done. I served it at room temperature with a garnish of a little diced ginger and chives. It was the hit of the evening.

I decided to try the carrot soup in spite of not having either a pressure cooker or a centrifuge. I cooked the carrots and butter in a large stock pot with a lid for 35 minutes until caramelized and soft. I added a few tablespoons of water along the way to keep them from getting too dry and stirred them a few times also. I juiced the remaining carrots, heated them and strained them 4 or 5 passes through a fine chinois. It tastes fantastic and I will be serving it to my guests tonight.

That sounds like a typo in the recipe by a factor of 10. I would try it without any water and only add some if the first shot was too thick.

Sorry, I have never frozen them so have nothing to offer in that regard. They are pretty tender and I would think they might become mushy when reheated.

I have found that asparagus packed with some salt, a little pepper and a pat of butter and cooked at 83.9C for 30 minutes comes out fantastic. I put about a pound in each bag. It can be iced and then reheated in a 55C bath for a few minutes at service. I have done this for 150 people and not a single stick was over cooked. They keep their bright green color and have a nice crisp bite. Doing them this way makes service a snap.

Yes the scaling is correct for 200 g of salt. There is a typo. There should be 20 grams of coriander seeds, not 20 seeds. Good luck, Paul Thanks, Paul! I assume the books include a suggested amount of the cure mix per kg of meat? I'm a bit wary because the 41.5 g per duck leg seem to be too precise to be simple per item estimates. Greetings, Peter If I recall correctly, the recipe in MC calls for a scaling of 18% cure and 100% duck. So the legs probably weighed about 230.5 grams in the linked post. Peter is correct. The MC recipe is for four legs weighing 1.6 kg with 288g of the cure which is 18% of the weight of the duck or 72 grams/leg. From the experience of the person in your link I would guess that you could go down quite a bit and still have a great result.

Yes the scaling is correct for 200 g of salt. There is a typo. There should be 20 grams of coriander seeds, not 20 seeds. Good luck, Paul

Larry, You can easily build a DIY system such as the one I built last year DIY SOUS VIDE COOKER I have cooked for 150 people using this system and it works for 2 or four or eight as well. I have changed the pump since I wrote this and will update it soon.

I can understand flavour-impermeable plastic wrap preventing flavour concentration, particularly when dealing with bagging at a high vacuum in a chamber machine - thus pressing herbs into very close contact with the meat. I've never noticed 'flavour localisation' problems, with my FoodSaver allowing potential juice spread all around the bag. I don't see a paper towel being any sort of a flavour barrier to compare with plastic wrap. And 6-10 cloves of garlic still sounds rather 'personal' to me! The plastic wrap does not totally enclose the herbs since it is trimmed to fit at both ends and left open. I did not find any difference between using plastic wrap vs paper. You're right, I like lots of garlic in general. It keeps the Angel of Death away!! :smile:

You can get it in the US athttp://willpowder.net/locustBeanGum.html

Garlic. I'd hesitate to use 6-10 cloves of garlic even with a big chunk of sv sheep. (See below about meat quantities.) Garlic sv is unlike garlic in a roast. Tread gently. Its easy to make a garlicky gravy/sauce/butter for adding at service or table. Wrapping herbs in something like a paper towel makes it easier to catch them - it won't do much for modulating their potency. Thomas Keller, "Under Pressure" pg 269 suggests rolling herbs and spices into a sachet for the SV bag to prevent direct contact with the meat as this can create stronger flavored areas in the meat. He uses plastic wrap for this.

I would try 55C for 48 hours. It should come out juicy and medium rare. Sprinkle it with salt and pepper, add a 6-10 garlic cloves and a sprig or two of thyme wrapped in a paper towel. This will prevent the garlic and thyme from overpowering the flavor of the meat.

Very nice idea Chris. I just got my copy of MC and have started looking for some of these items in the US. Did you try to stick to the brand names that are often suggested in MC or buy generic ingredients?

Having a hard time envisioning common use scenarios where that is going to come into play? At least for myself, chops, eggs, etc. seems like it would be pretty handy and cheap (can get even better deal with free shipping on amazon). The leg of lamb i did this week was 5 inches (12.7 cm) in diameter. Those short prongs would be useless for large spherical or cylindrical items.

We were going up to Vermont this week and I decided to bring along a SV leg of lamb. I had a 5 pound bone in leg of lamb in the freezer so last week I somewhat defrosted it on Thursday, sprinkled it with salt and pepper, wrapped a half dozen garlic cloves and a few sprigs of thyme in paper and bagged the lot to rest in the refrigerator for a day. Friday I put it in the beer cooler version of my DIY SV system at 55C. Sunday I took it out (54 hours), chilled it in ice water and refrigerated overnight. Monday we drove to VT and I brought along the stock pot version of my system to reheat the meat. The bone stuck out of the pot a little but that was of no concern. I reheated it for 3 hours, seared it in his 450F oven for 10 minutes and served it to my host and guests. It was out of this world! Tender, nicely medium rare through and through and the flavor was top notch. I boiled the bag juices and strained them through a paper towel. They were nicely flavored and almost clear. We didn't really need them since the meat was so good by itself. The next day we made lamb sandwiches. The juices had gelled and I smeared one side of the bread with this gel along with the left over lamb. Another home run. Sorry I didn't take any pictures. PS: My son gave me a copy of Modernist Cuisine for my birthday/anniversary (75/50) last week. This will most definitely have an impact on the things I do from now on. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks!

Chef Shaun Hergatt at restaurant SHO-Shaun Hergatt is an out of the way modernist mecca. Just a block from the NY Stock Exchange in the Setia Hotel, it will fulfill your quest without emptying your wallet. They have an outstanding Restaurant Week lunch for $24.07 that is still avaailable. The $75 dinner is a bargain and the main menu will thrill you. Four of us feasted on the dinner tasting menu and spent about $800 including a very nice wine and tip. You don't need to pay uptown prices in this great place. Ask Chef Hergatt for a tour of his kitchen and let him know you are interested in seeing the procedures he has in place for handling the food from the moment it enters his space. Talk about discipline! My absolute favorite restaurant in NY is Eleven Madison Park. This is the crown jewel of Danny Meyers (IMHO) and never fails to exceed my expectations. Call ahead for a reservation. Lunch and dinner pix fixed menus are offered. The staff is great and another place to get a kitchen tour. Ask Kurt for a tour and you will be surprised at what you get. Ranked 24th in the top 50 restaurants in the world, it is not to be missed. A neat thing about their menu is that there is no menu. You are given a list of potential ingredients and you pick according to the number of courses you have ordered. After a few questions about preferences the kitchen is going to do their thing. You will be surprised!

I posted this MY SOUS VIDE COOKER on the now closed sous vide topic. Since I wrote this i have upgraded the pump to a high temperature centrifugal pump with silicon rubber hoses. I use it every week and it works beautifully. There is also a link to PID Controller settings which are set up for a CD101. i found that these settings are pretty common and will work on other models as well.

I have been using these bags in my Foodsaver 2460 with excellent results. They have a mesh strip down the middle which helps control liquid migration to the pump and they are almost half the cost of the Weston's and 1/3 the cost of Foodsaver bags. I have used them up to 85C with not a single failure.

The VP112 uses commercial bags such as these from VacuumSealersUnlimitedYou cannot use the Foodsaver type with a mesh section.

I did not find a submersible aquarium pump rated over 80C and the ones that I used that were rated at 40-60C failed at 84C. The plastic impeller shrouds warped and jammed the impellers. In one case the entire pump housing swelled and the pump died. I have also found that the temperature control in my DIY SV setup is much better with the 100+ GPH circulation rate of the pump I referenced earlier in this thread. With a low volume pump ~20 GPH the temperature would fluctuate up to +- 1C. At 100 GPH it is rock solid and rarely moves +-0.1C. The pump that vice referenced above looks very good and is easier to get than the one I bought in Hong Kong.

I have found that clod tenders have much less trimming loss and are not as tough as hanging tenders. They also have great flavor. Either one is great at 55C for 2-3 hours followed up with a 2 minute sear on each side. I treat each "rope" of a properly trimmed hanging tender as a separate piece and slice them into 1" thick medallions at service.