dmg

Based on this thread discussion, I bought a mini griddle. My observations supports Santiago's comment: the cast iron griddle seems to have much more temperature variability than the mini griddle and it was clearly above the target temperature in some areas several times. I am so happy with the griddle that I gave away my round cast iron griddle. There are two issues to consider using the mini griddle: weight, and the time it gets to temperature (and it takes to cool).

yes, with the adapter. I did an experiment today. I boiled around 3 L of water in a small pot. I used a kill-a-watt to monitor the power consumption. From 20 to 75, the maximum draw was 14.7 A (steady), but at it reached 80, it went up as high as 15.7A (steady). It did not tripped my breaker (I think it is 15 A) but the Kill-a-watt started beeping above 15A. So this is reassuring. I will keep using medium, though. I don't need the speed of fast

I used the probe.

This weekend I cooked okonomiyaki in a cast iron circular griddle. I was a bit surprised by the variability of temperature in the surface (and some areas overheating while reaching temperature), even if I let it warm for 30 min or so. And frequently it would go over the desired temperature. I suspect any steel-only griddle would have similar problems (great heat capacity but not as good head conductivity). But it all makes sense. I guess the aluminium sheet in the stainless steel pans helps dissipate the heat (difference between heat capacity and heat transfer). Are there any clad griddles in the market? The mini griddle is available in Amazon.ca as of today, but the full cost makes it exorbitant (shipping ~40). By the way, the price from the US, including shipping (~US$50) is cheaper than the Amazon CAD price.

The one I bought, via amazon, came from them. Yes, it is new. It looks like they are trickling the CFs in amazon. They only offer one at a time. I bought it via amazon because 1) I did not have to pay PST, and 2) no shipping.

I made creme brule. it was extremely easy. I used chefstep's recipe. You heat the cream to 70 degrees, mix with the egg yolks/sugar mixture, fill mason jars and cook at 80 degrees. I did all with the Control Freak (small pot for the cream, large pot for the jar cooking) and it was, well, almost trivial. The results were delicious. The recipe asks for a circulator for the jar cooking, but I the CF worked great.

thank you for the info. I have not used Max/Fast because I fear tripping a breaker. but.. it annoys me that it is the default. does anybody know if there is a way to change the default to medium or slow?

Thank you all for the welcome. I am in Victoria, BC. I did the eggs because it looked like the simplest recipe I could try. I tried doing a pancake too (as in the Breville youtube video). The bottom side looked perfect, but I did it without oil (as in the video , I guess it was a demo, not a recipe) and the pancake got 1/2 stuck to the bottom of my stainless steel pan I guess I needed to add butter. Oh, my nonstick are aluminium and are not detected, so I ordered 2 days ago the Anolon Copper (the ones you use). I'll do more experiments over the weekend. Happy Canada day,

Heston Blumenthal uses a plate. He fills the pot and puts a plate upside down. You can search youtube for a video where he does it. it works. (typos fixed

I joined the club! I got mine from Testek in canada for 1.5k+gst (CAD) via amazon. I have only used it 3 times. It feels like magic. I just clarified butter (116C for 25min) without any worry and it came out perfect. I also did Heston style poached eggs (80C for 4 and 5 min) and in both cases they came delicious. I am looking forward to sharing experiences.

I simply cut a piece of aluminium foil to use as a container where I pour whatever solid I am measuring. Granted, it would not work for liquids. --dmg

Thanks Fauxpas, It is good to know. As I said above, I'll probably leave it as-is in this case. -dmg

That is correct. There was no duty on the circulator. I only paid Fedex handling fee + regular taxes. Potential duties was something that concerned me (hence my rational for posting) since duties are the hidden shark under the surface waiting to bite you at the least expected moment Regarding bringing goods over the border, it also means you have to buy it first which is usually the main problem. I know shops some would ship to hotels, but I find it inconvenient and risky. -dmg

keep in mind, fedex charged me the proper tax according to the declaration form, so it wasn't their mistake. The mistake was the amount filled in the form. So to contest this means several steps, I suspect: 1. anova submits some sort of erratum to the form; 2. fedex receives it and credits me for the extra tax I paid. As I said above, because I suspect it was an honest mistake, I am ok with it. If it was 10 times more, I'll be thinking about it --dmg

I suspect it was an honest mistake from Anova's part. I know Anova has a good reputation, and I already got a good deal from them. I emailed them let them know that they should pay more attention to this issue. If they reply to me saying "sorry, we messed up, we'll be more careful in the future" that will be enough for me. -dmg

Hi everybody, I just received my Anova One. I live in Victoria BC. While I was ordering I could not get a definite answer on what the charges would have been, so here they go: * Anova One was US$150 (50 off due to promotion) * Shipping via Fedex was US$43.99 * Fedex Import fees were C$10.50 * GST C$10.80 * PST C$15.12 One thing I noticed. Anova filled in the declaration form a value of US$199, so the taxes I paid are based on that amount. Anova only ships to Canada via Fedex. This made the cost almost 50% of the cost of the circulator I would have been cheaper via USPS. Another important aspect, you have to have a person signing the package. It arrived exactly in 3 business day after I ordered it. --dmg

why didn't I check? I feel soo stupid... I have recently got MC and have been poking here and there... but trying to read it sequentially Thank Keith. I see that the MC recipe is more precise... I'll give it a try. --dmg

I recently tried the recipe for scrambled eggs from Ideas on Food Website. The recipe there is wrong. It calls for 1hr at 82 degrees, resulting in totally solid eggs that could not be dispensed through the ISI. They suggested I checked the "right" recipe in their book (which is kind of annoying that even though they know people have been having problems with the recipe, they don't update it... but that is a different story). I finally had a chance to do it. The recipe calls for 6 eggs (inaccurately). In my case that meant 340 g (Canadian extra large eggs, even though the recipe called for large). 75 g whole milk, 4.5 g salt, and 50 g of unsalted butter. All goes into a bag and cooked for 25 minutes at 72.5C. Then into the ISI, one charge, and presto. Everything worked well. The flavour was there, and as they are were extruded, the look was very impressive (like whipping cream), but they didn't hold their shape for many seconds. (I used them instead of egg in a Salad Nicoise, inspired by the recipe of Thomas Keller that uses tuna carpaccio.) Has anybody tried this recipe? I wonder what magic-white-powder can be used to make them stay in shape for a bit longer. I suspect cooking them longer could help too. Any suggestions? --dmg

Does that mean that the self cleaning setting could be used to make a really mean pizza? Yes, some people hack their self-cleaning oven for the purposes of making pizza. Potter [Cooking for Geeks] suggests doing so, a process he calls "Oven Overclocking". He also recommends being careful. He mentions that he cracked the glass of the window when a liquid from a pizza hit the glass. He replaced the broken glass with PyroCeram. He also suggests that ovens that go to 540C are too hot, while 315C is too cold. That the ideal, according to his experiments, is 400C-425C. He, nonetheless, recommends an upside-down cast iron pan [or a pizza stone] instead, and ends: "I'm afraid I have to recommend that you skip the oven overclocking, even if it is fun." --dmg

It is only one month since I acquired a Sous Vide Professional, and during this time I have been experimenting here and there. This includes cooking meat for 3 days (twice) and 2 days (once), and several experiments with vegetables and pears (cooking at around 90 C). I have finished 3 rolls of bags without any problem, and milk at 90.5 C. But yesterday I started a new one. The new roll (8", Foodsaver) has resulted in two bag failures out of 2 bags. The failures have been in the sides of the bags, not in the seams I make (I usually seal them twice to make sure they will not leak). The first case was 1 l. of milk at 90.5 for 40 minutes. As I was extracting the bag the seams gave up IN BOTH SIDES at the same height. Second time was 1 leg of duck at 82 degrees (after around 7 hrs). It opened in one side, as it was cooking (the smell of duck gave it away, fortunately it wasn't too much of a mess). Has anybody else experience something like this? I might start double sealing the seams just to make sure... --dmg

For lunch in London, my personal favourite is "Textures", a 1-star Michelin. It is perhaps the best lunch I ever had (1 year ago). They were willing to offer me the degustation menu (I had the fish one) even though I was by myself. Another one I recommend is Tamarind (also offering lunch). It has 1-star too. Good luck! --dmg (from Victoria, BC)

Does anybody know where to buy lactic acid? I have searched online but I usually end in sites that sell it for skin purposes. I want to try making the ricotta using the recipe from MC. I tried it making it sous-vide with citric acid instead, and it worked great: 1 l milk 1.5 g citric acid 1 g of sea salt (next time 2g) 125ml of heavy cream I followed Emily's instructions http://emilysculinaryadventures.blogspot.com/2011/03/everyday-yumminess-perfect-ricotta.html and the result was phenomenal (although I feel it could have benefited from more salt, as noted above). --dmg

Next time try preparing it with cilantro instead of parsley (at least that is the "authentic" way in which I frequently ate it growing up in Mexico City. --dmg

Anybody in Victoria, BC, or Vancouver area who would be interested in tracking and sharing some of the ingredients? So far I only have the Artistre Kit. --dmg

As you probably know, the MC team has published a PDF with the concordance of the kitchen manual (thank you, thank you MC team)! One suggestion to those wanting to print it double sided. Print it double sided starting in page 2, not from page 1. The reason is that the PDF assumes that it starts on the left-hand side page (the even page), not the right hand side (the odd page). So you are better off printing page 1 by itself, and then printing the rest double side. That way the big letters at the corner of the page and the page numbers will be on the non-bound side. --dmg