EnriqueB

mm84321, I have no words for your langoustines, foie & truffle day... I had an anchovies day... First, a trial of 3 of the best brands of canned anchovies around here: Then, roasted broccoli with anchovies, parmesan, fish sauce & lime juice: And a couple of soup-based dishes: 75ºC/16 min. egg, brined & sous-vided chicken breasts (56ºC), steamed green asparragus, and a base of mushroom jus (the jus from Modernist Cuisine at Home): Sea bass, bed of mussels and king prawns, mussels & coriander seeds soup (the soup from The Complete Robuchon), all the elements seasoned with coriander seeds:

Exactly. In fact, one of the changes between MC and MCaH for the Mac&Cheese was to remove the iota. They also changed the ratios, saying that using a lower liquid/sodium citrate ratio would make for the removal of the iota (if I remember well).

Adding iota produced a constructed cheese that was more firm and "elastic" when cold/solid, easier to slide or grate. When tasting it cold, my wife also said the sample without iota had a more intense taste and would dissolve more easily in the mouth. The sample without iota melted much faster and spread more. Again the sample with iota felt more firm when tasting it hot (melted). My wife and I did not agree on which sample had the more intese taste. Both samples felt, behaved and tasted more or less the same before and after freezing to -30ºC for one month, thawing in the fridge, and re-making the tests. We did not perceive differences with the original samples (according to our memory). Each sample was made with 200 g of dry white wine infused with garlic and thyme, 150 g Gruyere, 150 g aged Comté, and 10 g sodium citrate. One sample included, in addition, 4.5 g iota carrageenan

I made side-by-side tests with and without the carrageenan (all remaining ingredientes being equal), used both samples in several recipes and also freeze/thaw both and cooked again with the thawed samples. Iota did alter noticeably the texture, mouthfeel and melting properties, but I could not detect any difference in freeze/thaw stability.

I hope our favorite pressure-cooker blog author Laura from hippressurecooking (pazzaglia here on eGullet) will soon come with her own book...

Pep, I had the same doubts. I wrote to both makers (as well as to Polyscience) asking many details. SWID makers were the faster to answer, providing many more details than Vac-Star and Polyscience. In addition to what you point out, something I really like about the SWID is that, if you don't set a countdown timer, it starts a countup timer automatically that will show how long has the food been cooked. A simple and useful feature no other unit has. According to their specs, SWID is the best to me, but still I had read many people that had have problems with their previous model. The pump tended to fail (I guess that's why they have changed it in the new model), fortunately their technical serviced seemed to work pretty well: a friend of mine had his unit repaired and back at his home in Spain in one week. Another point of difference was the pump: even though Vac-Star claims it not to be noisy, 16 l/min is a lot... Also the people from Vac-Star told me they didn't know what a "beer-can-cooler" was (literally!) and that they recommended their unit to be used only in GastroNorm containers, not with deeper ones... On the other hand, I think the bracket to attach the circulator to the container is easier to use in the Vac-Star than in the SWID. So, while I think both units seem to be pretty good, I´ve finally decided to buy SWID, which I received a couple of days ago. My first test has proven the SWID is really powerful and stable. I put it on a 12l stainless stell pot with 10l water, without any insulation nor lid at all. It heated the water from 18º to 90ºC in 25 minutes, then kept it at 90ºC plus minus 0,1ºC easily. I then added a couple of "cooler briskets" from the freezer at -30ºC and the temperature of the water did not go down at all! (went up 90,3ºC for some seconds, then back to 90ºC). The temperature was compared against 3 other external probes: It was identical to the external probes at 55,8ºC (the temperature at which it is said to be calibrated), 1ºC lower at 20ºC and 0,4ºC lower at 90ºC (which is the good side for errors, as it adds a margin of security). The pump produces no perceptible noise and it seems to stir the water pretty well, I could not find temperature differences inside the bath even when adding the briskets and putting the probes very close to them, but it's true I only tried with two briskets. The fan does produce some noise, though.

Not exactly related, but I was wondering what they refered to when saying the unit is designated "for casual use" and wrote to them. The answer was "This unit is designated for home use and not to be used more than 2-3 days a week at most. " Sorry, but this removes any interest I had on the unit. Even though it was intended to be my second sous-vide unit (after a SVS Demi), 2-3 days a week is too litle for any use I can conceive of a circulator. I do cook tough cuts 3 to 6 days in a row very often with my cheaper demi and it has given me no problem at all! Not acceptable. So I ordered an Addélice SWID instead.

I have the Duromatic Hotel 5 liters pressure-cooker "pan". It is excellent. I have not tried with very sticky foods like eggs or fish, but for browning meats, vegetables and the like it works extremelly well. It has a sandwiched bottom with 5 layers that spreads heat very efficiently. In fact it has became my default pan for browning, frying, rices, etc (with and without pressure). Yes. But for that you should use a standard lid of the same size (not sold with the pan), not the standard pressure cooker lid.

No, I cleaned and seasoned it following Keller in TFL, then cooked SV according to different recommendations I found on webpages.

I guess talking again about the fantastic compositions of dcarch, or the wonderful technique and platings of mm84321 and avaserfi would be repetitive, so I will not insist... Kim, I could be eating that soup the whole winter! Sous-Vide Duck day! First, one of the best French foie gras I've ever eaten, cooked sous-vide in torchon style, 57ºC for 45 minutes: Then leg confit sous-vide, from Modernist Cuisine:

I received the book yesterday. It looks great. The title is precise: the book is structured so that "elements" are provided: an inventory of techniques, of individual components, and then recipes are build combining them. Tables are provided so they can also be combined in different ways. The book is "modern" in spirit, plating, composition... For example, colloids are used (agar, carrageenans, etc.) But, at a first glance, it seems technique is somehow traditional. For example, no sous-vide is used, though it is great for things like custards. As said above, not so many requirements toolwise.

Fresh bay and parsley are given for free every time you buy at any fruit shop here in Spain :-)

Red cabagge gazpacho, from Heston Blumenthal at Home. I didn't love the flavour profile, but it had a pretty color! Veal tongue sous-vide (48 hours at 65ºC), apple, fast-pickled cucumber (from Momofuku), and marcona almonds. Sauce from the reduced bag juices plus créme fraîche. From the Umami Madrid spanish blog: http://www.umami-mad...8-horas/lengua/

Many thanks Kim! And I'm sorry for your loss, hope things go better little by little.

It seems Wondra is not directly available anywhere outside US, at least not in Europe. I am in the same situation. Not a very fortunate ingredient selection ,in my opinion...

Wow Laura, very useful information! Thanks for providing so many details about pressure cookers use and workings.

Thanks, dcarch!!

Great to know this dcarch, I was just thinking about buying a unit like the one you showed, or the Iwatani as I already stock Iwatani canisters for the torch. I was thinking in fondues or searing meats "on the fly" at the table, but keeping food warm is another great use. Are these type of units also strong enough for real cooking with then if needed?

I disagree. Precise measurements and temperatures do not imply accuracy (or, more "precisely", the capacity to reproduce the recipe in an accurate way). They are great because, with respect to the standard way recipes are presented, they remove some of the sources of uncertainty. But only to a (likely small) extent. The quality of the ingredients or the knowledge and experience of the cook are still subject to high variation, not to talk about the huge differences in tastes or expectations from cook to cook. Having precise measurements and temperatures provides a better departure point, but will never ensure reproducibility. In fact, perfect reproducibility would imply an industrialized kitchen, something I would not want either...

Hummus bi tanina: Sous-Vide oxtail, 72 hours at 65ºC, then deep-fried. With rice and the bag juices. Caramelized cauliflower soup, with vegetable stock, grapes and almonds, from Modernist Cuisine at Home. Nice taste, not so nice color...

In MCaH they recommend a french press for adding aromatics to stocks at the last minute, this espro press would be really great for that!!

When he gets humble saying he doesn't do anything special, or he talks about leftovers, I start to tremble ;-) When I grow up I want to learn to create dishes and plate like him...

I had a son one month ago... so I haven't had much time to take pictures and post dinners, getting some sleep has been enough!! In the meantime I've been amazed by the wonderful dinners posted here. And here we go again: Low-temperature roasted pigeons: Quinoa and cauliflower salad, from Modernist Cuisine at Home: Citrus-cured salmon, then confit sous-vide at 43ºC, from Thomas Keller's The French Laundry:

The table shows above seems to offer short times and high temperatures for convenience, but egg pasteurization can be better achieved with lower temperatures and longer times using sous-vide equipment. Modernist Cuisine proposes 2 hours at 55ºC. This article on the Journal of Applied Microbiology proposes 75 minutes at 57ºC or 58 minutes at 58ºC. I understand these are core temperatures for whole medium-size eggs, so you should program the SV one degree higher and increase time if using extra-large eggs. I normally do not pasteurize eggs but have been doing so while my wife was pregnant, and it's very easy with a SV setup.

All the recipes in Modernist Cuisine at Home require high pressure (1 bar / 15 psi).