pep.

I'll have a look at the metric recipe for you.

Why? I found the recipes to be very accessible, but quite good nonetheless. (I even bought a copy for myself after we gave the book to my girlfriend's mother for christmas.)

Yes, but the Cream Profi is intended for whipped cream and nothing else (pastry creams will work fine in all likelyhood, but they don't mention that in the ads). Anyway, the two heads are different apparently: some piston that's fixed in the others is supposed to be removable in the Cream Profi. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any schematics online.

I'd say it's the other way around, at least if by "Profi" you mean "Cream Profi". (I haven't been able to find another model containing "Profi" on the iSi website.)

Get a bigger iSi. (I know, easy for me to say: I own three: 0.5 l ThermoWhip and both a 0.5 and 1.0 l GourmetWhip ;-))

Definitely. Recently I was served overly tender langoustine tails at a restaurant... let's just say I'm not going back there soon.

Could have to do with how the animal was treated during slaughtering. For pork and poultry meat, there's a defined condition called "PSE" that leads to excessive water loss. Don't know about beef, but there could be something similar going on.

Yes. Not exactly cheap, but great quality and shipping is included (and 10 % VAT as well). (I know both the people doing the webshop and the butcher personally, but even if I didn't, I think online sale of quality meat is a great idea. Unfortunately, the number of butcher shops in Vienna has decreased sharpely during the last twenty years and supermarket beef is ... lacking.)

My oxtail is this one: http://www.porcella.at/shop/ochsenschlepp-vom-waldviertler-blondvieh/ ( Waldviertler Blondvieh is an old cattle breed from around here). The cows are slaughtered at 24 months or older (probably not that much older, though, for the obvious economic reasons).

Thanks! Presentation-wise, I like the fried slice the best. However, my slices are pretty thick, so one would be a bit much for a single serving. I guess I'll do the glazing then (I'll have to search the freezer, I think there is some MC red wine glaze in there somewhere

That's what I wanted to know. How do you serve it? Have you got a photo maybe?

For lower temperatures, I would have estimated the cooking time more in the 72-100 hours range. (I've done beef shank at 54,5 °C for 72 hours and while the flavor is not for the faint of heart (a lot more beefy than the more tender muscles), texture eventually does get steak like.)

I've got a few kilograms of freerange organic oxtail in the freezer. Should I do it at steak tempatures (55 °C) or more braise-like? (60+ °C)? Has anyone experimented with sous-vide oxtail? What were your best results?

Fluids containing alcohol have to be VERY cold for any significant amount of carbonation to hold. Dave Arnold talks about it at length in his radio show (not on the now defunct blog, unfortunately).

Well,if it gets soaked with juices, I would assume that there will be some taste transfer. (I'm not going to argue about health issues because I don't really know enough about what goes into a paper towel.)

Somehow that technique has never worked very well for me. For various reasons (liquid sealing being one of them), I switched to a chamber vacuum machine in 2012. I haven't looked back.

Let me know how it turned out for you. A quick caveat: The olive oil instructions assume you have got access to a chamber vacuum machine. I never had any luck with liquids while using a clamp style vacuum machine. If you use one of those, either freeze the oil into an ice cube before or leave it out.

Yes, I've read that too, and I initially even bought some granulated garlic because of that "taboo". However, after some further reports by other people and some experimentation, I've found out that this is not an issue for me. In theory, there might be two (or even three) different aspects at work. Localized flavor "hot spots" because of tight vacuum packing. Less flavor loss, so people unfamiliar with SV might "overseason" their meats. A possible tendency by plants of the allium family (garlic etc.) to change their aroma in very long cooks (possibly enhanced by anaerobic conditions in a vacuum bag).Issue 1 is not a problem for me, never has been. Yes, some parts of the meat probably taste slightly more of rosemary than others, but that has always been the case even with oven roasting. As for the garlic, I took care to mince it and to coat the meat pretty evenly. The additional tablespoon of olive oil probably also helped to allow some "flavor circulation". Issue 2, well, I like my pork roast to be garlicy. And if you want to be more subtle, just use less. Granulated garlic IMHO is an abomination. As for issue 3, for really long cooks (> 12 hours), in general I season my protein very frugally. I have not tried garlic in a long cook, so I can't say if there really is a problem.

Presets: I'm all for less conservative settings. The current ones are the one big gripe I have with the app, i.e. the need manually change temperature settings for every use.

I have had good results at 58 °C (136.4 °F) for 3 to 4 hours. I've documented the recipe on http://mundschenk.at/schweinsbraten-sous-vide/ (German language, but the pictures should be universal ;-). If anyone is interested, I can translate the ingredients here (although it is pretty self-explanatory with the photos).

Just a quick update on our feast. We did the following dishes: various botanas (from salted almonds to marinated sardines ... sorry, I can't be more specific, that was done by my "co-chef") and cocktailscarne apache (tasted good, but based on optics, I definitely prefer steak tartare. Gray goo, anyone?)a red and green salsa, frijoles refritostamales costeños with shrimp filling (The recipe is already on my blog, albeit in German only. Maybe it's because I had to use corn husks instead of banana leaves, or maybe my scoops were just too large, but I had to double the amount of dough to fill all the tamales.)molcajete-style fryup (carne asada, queso, chorizo, some chiles, some sugar snaps as a textural replacement for nopales)mole negro oaxaqueño (so that's what it's like to get a face full of pepper spray)Originally, I wanted to make fresh tortillas, but we didn't really have the time, so that project has been postponed. Unfortunately, the stuff you can get in our mexican supermarket is dosed liberally with preservatives (even the frozen tortillas). And we had an inadequate setup for heating them. So now I've learned that cold corn tortilla tastes vile, while cold wheat tortillas are at least passable. Oh, and good tequila is fantastic!

Got my first Kennedy book today (Cuisines). Nice! Some recipes (e.g. chorizos mexicanos) sound slightly unsafe, however ("mix ground meat with salt and spices and let age for a week", more or less). Ah well, it was a different time

Thanks for the link, I will look through the thread. And yes, definitely salt.

The flowers and the syrup work very well in conjunction with some sparkling wine. The combination makes for a nice apéritif.

I've ordered vintage copies of The Cuisines of Mexico and The Art of Mexican Cooking. (Did I mention that I'm also book person? I'm not very big on compilations, but I like old books.)