boudin noir

My final statement in this string. I have enjoyed and have been enlightened by the discourse. I am a technophile and was looking for justification to add another device to my crowded kitchen space. I think I have found a limited place for sous vide in my cooking arsenal. I will probably wait until the cost of good immersion circulaters comes down since I don't believe I would be using this more than several times a month. PedroG's lunch was the coup de gras!

PedroG, Your lunch looks to be very seductive. You could win me over with that one. Unfortunately life expectancy following that meal can't be more that 48-72 hour as the result od massive coronary occlusion.

I think what this discussion can be boiled down to (or sous vided in 12 hours ) is the whether what is technically possible makes a significant and positive difference in the food experience. I can soft boil and egg with set whites. The yolk will be creamy with perhaps some of the edge of the yolk more firmly set. I can do this in a short period of time. Is this a less satisfactory culinary result? It may not be a technical tour de force, but it is fine eating. I have not eaten sous vide brisket, beef chuck, or ox tails so I can't comment on how they would taste cooked rare. I have had sous vide medium rare pork shoulder. I would not trade it for my 24 hour slow roasted pork shoulder. Just because something can be cooked and eaten rare doesn't mean that it should be. I do love a good rare or medium rare steak that can be done quite nicely in a cast iron pan. I see sous vide being useful in restaurants. I'm waiting to be convinced for home use.

I’m new to egullet. I find it to be a useful and novel source of cooking and food related information. I love the input from home cooks ( of which I am one) and from people who cook in a more professional capacity. I have been cooking about 40 years. I have traveled a great deal and have eaten wonderful food around the world. I am an accomplished cook. I don’t understand the trend to making cooking complicated, expensive and time consuming. I’m referring to sous vide technique and other so called technological advances. I am not a luddite. I embrace technological advances. However, for me the most important issue is what ends up on the plate. I have eaten sous vide cooked meats at highly regarded restaurants. It was OK. I can do as well or better with traditional methods. What am I missing?

I find foil sprayed with non-stick oil works very well.

I store in plastic containers of various sorts. I lable with a marking pen on masking tape. Works well.

I have a viking with heavy cast iron grates. Only rarely have I seen rust on them.

Tonight having slow roasted St. Louis style baby back-ribs with cornbread and shreded brussel sprouts sauteed with bacon, onions and caraway seeds.

This all seems to me to be an awful lot of trouble and time to make soft boiled or poached eggs. Why the fuss?

Chicken of the woods indeed taste like chicken breast. They're best young and small as they get woody fast as they get larger. Not bad with shallots, cream, parsely over pasta.

Mushrooms. I'm now picking a large second crop of trumpet de mort. Dramatic harvest this year.

I have always cooked pasta in just the amount of water to allow free movement. I recently cooked pasta for an old italian woman who considered herself to be an expert cook. She caught me in the act of cooking pasta in what she felt was a far too small amount of water and gave me a severe chewing out for the error. However when she ate it she reluctantly admitted that it was perfect. I don't think however that it would change the way she would cook pasta.

This was the first visit to Istanbul for my wife and myself. We were staying in the old city: Sultanhamet. Since we had only 2 days we never made it out of that district. There is more than enough in that area to keep you busy for several days. We are walkers constitutionally and since It's the best way to see a new place we walked pretty much the whole area. We stayed at the Ottoman hotel located on a small Street on the left side of the Hagia Sophia. Nice unpretentious hotel. Being tired when we arrived we thought it would be easiest to eat at the hotel restaurant which had a menu based on 16th century Ottoman recipes. The food was very good. The turkish wine was reasonable both in price and taste. We had lunches at several places mentioned in Istanbul Eats. The food in these places was simple and fine but not something I would go out of my to eat. The fish restaurant was recommended by a guide. It is not in Istanbul Eats. It was an unpretentious looking place. We had booked a table. It was packed with long lines waiting to be seated. Service was abrupt. Meze selection was large and very good.There was a large selection of fish to choose from. Grilling was the cooking method of choice, done perfectly .

I just returned from two days in Istanbul. Some observations. The most beautiful and delicious "baklava' type sweets I've ever seen. Two restaurants in the Sultenhamet district of the city. In the Ottomen Hotel Imperial restaurant I had squid stuffed with rice, pine nuts and spices. Subtle and very good. Followed by a lamb shank in a bed of eggplant in a phyllo bowl. I think a variation of Hunkar Begendi. Delicious! Next had a meal at Balikoi Sabahattin a fish restaurant. Very nice meze selection followed by perfectly grilled fish. Good selection of fish to choose from. Interesting cuisine.

I will be in istanbul for a few days in Sept staying in the Sultanahmet district. I would love some dinner restaurant recommendations.

Years ago I bought a large box of various size pot tops. I used them for decades. you can never have enough pot tops.