zemvpferreira
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Posts posted by zemvpferreira
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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.
Those are fairly simple engineering challenges to overcome. The ability of the cooler is more of a concern. In computer systems, peltiers are often water-cooled, because they put off a ton of heat in order to generate their frosty side.
Another thought regarding open bags: I would engineer the lid to serve as a clamp for bags, especially open ones (or at least build clamps into the top of the tank). There is too much room for user error with just dropping open bags into the tank, and one messy tank is going to be enough to turn off some skeptical customers.
Another cool idea would be to integrate the bag clamps into the lid, so the bags can be lowered in and taken out with the lid. This would be nice for anything over 60C, which is about where my hands start hurting trying to fish bags out of the bath. It would also minimize the risk of open or poorly sealed bags leaking into the bath
You're hired. Come by on Friday for your paycheck.
I'm kidding but everything you described, we're either using, tried in the past, or have on the list for iterating into version 2 someday. Way to go!
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Noise is one of the specs most difficult to be precise on before pre-production units are ready, because small details can have such an impact. Like dcarch said, the noisy bits in Mellow are a diaphragm pump and a fan, and in those we're prioritising quietness. However, I'm not comfortable giving you a set dB value we might have to change in a few months. I hope you'll appreciate the intention; we're making Mellow as quiet as we can, and we think it'll be on par with circulators.
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Be happy to test one out for you, Zem'.
Shall I PM my shipping address?
No worries, preorder a unit and we'll get your shipping address later
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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 :-)
You got it! That's why we need creative home cooks like yourself to grab a unit and have a play
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Guys, I'm sorry if I'm not very responsive, I'm spread out all over the web right now. Feels great! Caffeine kicking in! Happy to be here!
lordratner explained it better than I could. Thank you!
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Edit: Haven't used dye. Would be happy to! I'll put it on the to-do list immediatly.
I've cooked plenty of marinades, sauces et al likes this, though.
Double edit: ups, something weird happened here.
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Are you submerging the open end of the bag? I'm sorry, I'm not quite following. All I can say is that I've never had a problem with the technique.
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I'm probably making the open bag thing sound more alien than it actually is. Look at the part in our video where Catarina (catv here) walks you through the use-case:
If you notice, the bag she puts inside Mellow is a HDPE bag for vacuum sealing, unsealed. There's a jump cut or whatchamacallit, but that's how we cook using Mellow. Regular non-ziploc sous-vide bags, open. Did that help at all?
On the time to temperature: Mellow will usually be loaded with under 1 US gallon of water, and has a 1000 Watt heater. It's pretty quick to heat up. I don't want to get into the mechanics too much, but it share a lot of similarities with an electric kettle, if you've ever used one.
On subscriptions fees: screw that noise. You have my word we'll never charge for ongoing use.
Dchard: No worries, I appreciate you being skeptical about our claims, and am happy to be tested on them. Peer review is no bad thing.
Let me know if I haven't addresses all your concerns (very sleep deprived right now), but on what seems to be the main one: You're right that we use peltiers for the cooling aspect, but heating the water is done with a nice big resistance heater, induction-welded to the bottom of the water bath. There's not metal-to-metal contact involved in the heating process, it's all continuous.
We do have a probe in the waterbath, it's just not visible in the video. It's a tiny thing potted into the base. Mellow does come with a cover, and is PID controlled.
EDIT: We're achieving +- 1F precision, yes. There's a big connector block that handles the fluid and electrical connections. Don't worry, we won't send you a leaky unit
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Happy you guys found us! I'm a long-time egullet member through another handle, and happy to field any questions you guys might have.
Subtext: 'Now making it easier for the stupid and the lazy to attempt things that are trendy.' Yay.
ETA, If the programming is anywhere near the calibre of their spelling ('You deserve piece [sic] of mind of mind.'), this should prove quite entertaining. To pathologists.
Thank you for catching that one; our web designer isn't a native english speaker and a few typos do get through.
We're not trying to call anyone lazy or stupid; we just recognise some people are too busy and otherwise occupied to devoted themselves to food and cooking as much as they'd like to. Surely helping them isn't a bad thing. Do you beat your own butter or press your own olive oil?
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
It not's visible in the video, but there's an NTD thermistor in the bottom of the water bath. Mellow controls temperature as precisely as your standard circulator.i may be wrong, but did the web site suggest that the bags did not need to be 'sealed?'
are they using zip=locks? hard to tell.
PS buried deep is they do use zip bags.
We recommend zip bags, but it's also possible to use open vacuum bags, as in, non-zipped, nothing. Water pressure seals them fine, and Mellow's geometry keeps them upright. Actually works better than zip seals, because any remaining air that'd puff the bag out exits as it expands.-
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A lot, but it still needs a sear post sv to bring some more out.
I'm starting to do mine sous-vide at 56C for a couple of days, they're really good, totally different from traditional confit. Chek it out:
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When you convert a traditional stew to sous vide, the sauce will lack the taste that comes from searing the meat. A workaround is sacrificing a small portion of the meat to give flavor to the sauce by grinding and searing, the rest of the meat may be cooked sous vide LTLT.
I did this method with Ossobuco sous vide
I have a different method: When I debag the meat, I empty the bag juices and scrape whatever clumps of protein are left into a bowl. I then microwave it on high until all the protein coagulates together. I strain the coagulated protein into the pan I'll build the sauce in and carefully sear it untill it all goes from grey goo to lovely maillardized protein.
It's a bit fidgety because you run the risk of charring the whole thing if you're not super cautious, but the results are impeccable. Plus, no waste.
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Guys,
I'm currently starting to design a sous-vide cooking appliance. This thread has been a great source of both inspiration and information, so I'd like to ask you all to help with the design process by answering a couple of questions. I hope I'm not out of order, but I think this thread is possibly the biggest collection of sous-vide cooks in the whole internet, and you're exactly the people I'd like to design a better sous-vide machine for. When I get further down the project I'll share sketches and prototypes, and hopefully any knowledge I've picked up along the way. Please feel free to add any comments.
1- What kind of sous-vide gear do you have (and how much did you pay for it)?
2- How regularly do you use it?
3- How much food do you usually cook at once?
4- What annoys you in the process of cooking sous-vide?
5- Would you make any improvements to your gear?
Thanks a lot!
Mellow, The Smart Sous-Vide Robot
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted
I'm glad you like Mellow so much! I'm happy we inspired you to build.
I think your plan is pretty solid, but I'd look out for one or two things:
-Can your crockpot heat water fast enough through the danger zone? This could be really risky without circulation, since the controller would only be measuring temperature at one spot. I'd highly recommend hooking up an aquarium pump or something of the sort. Also, do 3 or 4 trial runs, measuring the temperature in multiple points through time.
-If you can spend the cash, why not build a remote thermometer for $30 or so? You'll learn a little bit of electronics and programming, while making a pretty useful device for yourself. That'd allow you to monitor everything from a distance. (though not control it).
Let me know if I can help with anything. I'm not on egullet a lot these days, but feel free to reach me at ze@fnvlabs.com