scubadoo97

I cooked one half on the smoker to 185 and finished in the oven over steam to 205. The other I did SV 140f/24hr. The SV was not as tender nor moist. The collagen was not broken down enough to pull apart easily. This is the traditional smoke one And the SV one I also did a store bought corned beef on the smoker which was also moist and tender Not sold on the SV method from this experiment. It appears 24hrs wasn't long enough to break down the collagen at this temp. Not giving up but haven't found the magic combo of time and temp

Ann_T, your photos always make me hungry. The Gougere is just a beautiful thing.

Tonight I made a roast chicken Zuni style with fava beans and artichoke heart bottoms. The favas/ful still have their jackets on but I like the texture.

The last thing I got from Shoppers Vineyard was a 3 Pack of Zacapa XO for $150. Now I see them at $100 a pop

From my online searching on brisket I've found SV time and temps to vary wildly. All these different times and temps. I'm unsure which one to trust. My last brisket done SV @149f/45 hrs was very dry yet close to what Thomas Keller recommended. I've seen 135f/48h on many online brisket searches. 80C/176F seems like a high temp relative to many other recipes but of course the time is far less. Searches on Egullet have yielded quite vary responses as well. Since I'm entertaining and it's not just a home experiment I'm unsure I want to vary from what has worked for me in the past. Standard low slow smoking which will also give a nice pastrami spiced bark

What about pastrami? Just smoke it before SV?

This is my first time corning a brisket flat. I'm using an 8 lb brisket flat cut in two. Used Rulman's recipe and am curing for 10 days, dry for a day and then coat in pastrami spices for a day and smoke it to make pastrami. Have a couple of people from Chowhound coming over next Sunday for pastrami sandwiches. I'll smoke it next Saturday and then cool, slice and steam it the following day. Hope it works well. Usually just use prepared corned beefs but didn't see them in the grocery store and had a large brisket flat in the fridge wet aging in cryo for 30+ days so figured it was a good time to try doing it from scratch. Wish me luck. I had considered SV but thought this wasn't a good time to further the experiment

They still are. After a big storm they litter the beach. I also were told they were not good eating. May have to bring a few home. That's a nice chunk of white meat in there

The majority of my drinking involves whiskey neat. Tonight I had a Willett Family Estate Barrel 811. Brown Forman distillate that is down right delicious

Made Caldo Verde with some organic kale I recently picked up

I made two batches. One in a basic light rum and the other in bourbon. When fully extracted I have a hard time telling them apart. The vanilla pretty much over powers any spirit qualities

Good reason to use a back up power supply just in case

Nice upgrade to the Anova. It seems like such an important function. I never understood why so many left it out. Well for now I'll keep using my UPS which should give me a 4 hr window if we lose power

Good advice. I'm a Four Roses fan but after recently sampling the basic Yellow Label in a blind tasting of 24 Four Roses offereings I found it dull and uninteresting compared to the other samples. Been awhile since I've sipped an 80 proof spirit. Like water. Their off the shelf singble barrel or small batch are quite good and worth a try Other bourbons that I find good and interesting are from Beam, the Old Grand Dad selections. Love the 114 best and the BIB/Bottled in Bond 100 pf is next in line. These are some of the few Beam whiskeys I really like. From Kentucky Bourbon Distillers, their Rowan's Creek I find interesting and tasty. It's a small batch bourbon so can vary depending on batch. I find some similarites to some of my Willett Family Estate bourbons and who know where the distillate from those came from but most all have been stellar. My favorite off the shelf wheated bourbon is Old Weller Antique.

Wow, that's a meaty belly. Great find Shelby

Funny. Maybe soon I can resale my Anova for 5X what I paid for it.

Beautiful dishes Decarch. Smoked salmon looks great. Your cold smoke apparatus is pretty cool too

Mahi and roasted brussel sprouts

Ginger and rye sounds good

Just saw this and wanted to pass it on http://www.zdnet.com/kickstarter-hacked-change-your-password-now-7000026388/

Beautiful crust

My first and only at temp at pork belly. Bought frozen from a local ethnic market. Not the meatiest as many bellies I see posted here. My wife won't touch it so this was made when she was away The belly was portioned and cooked SV 82C/12 hr, pressed and cooled overnight. Cut and seared before serving

Great dishes everyone Tonight I made a chicken ballottine with artichoke, spinach and Comte cheese

Ann that looks fantastic. Beautiful bagels. Did you make your smoke salmon as well?