seabream

For those of you who rely on MC alone, what do you do for the charts that don't have times? For example: best bets for fish, or tender meats? I started by using MC alone, but felt the need to search for other sources because of the lack of times for some foods (although I understand why they offer no times for these - the thickness of the cut affects the cooking time more than tough cuts).

And today I made what is my favorite dish from the book so far: Butternut squash and tomato soup, page 189 Just awesome! I made no changes to the recipe. I'm looking forward to making some of the dishes mentioned in this thread, so thank you everyone for your comments.

Thanks both for the quick replies! How long do you SV them to reheat?

I just sous vided asparagus, without success. I cooked the asparagus at 85C for 60 minutes (per "Sous vide for the home cook") and they came out completely overcooked. Has anyone tried sous viding asparagus? What worked for you?

I've been using 3 sources to figure out sous vide cooking temperatures and times: * Sous Vide Dash iPhone app. Technology really is the best way to access this information, given the amount of parameters that go into the decision. The info here takes many more variables into account compared to the different printed tables I've seen elsewhere. such as the type of sous vide setup, beginning temperature, etc. The app is, as a whole, beyond awesome. However, I noticed that it has no recommendation for "tenderness time" for the different cuts. I picked up a lamb shank, and after consulting the app in the supermarket, I decided I had time to make it for dinner - I needed 5 hours to pasteurize it to core. However, when I consulted my two other sources (below), I realized I really needed 2-3 days. I assume the extra time recommended is "tenderness time". This was disappointing... * Tables from "Sous vide for the home cook". These give temperature and time for all the most common cuts of meat and fish, for different levels of doneness. It would be redundant with the information in the app, except it includes the full amount of time recommended, including "tenderness time", which can be significant for tough cuts. I also like the fact that they include fruits, grains, and vegetables, which are not included in the app. * Tables from "Modernist Cuisine". These include target temperatures (sometimes with no recommended cooking times). They're a nice complement to the sources above because they specify the team's personal favorite level of doneness for different cuts. After many experiments, I came to the realization that their favorite doneness is very consistent with mine, and I now follow their recommendations pretty much every time. I also like the fact that they have more ingredients listed than the other two sources, such as octopus and geoduck. So, for these reasons, I always end up checking all three sources before I cook anything. As much as I'm grateful for having access to information with such variety and quality, I'd much rather check just one source. What source(s) do you check before cooking something sous vide?

This is brilliant! I use a table to keep my notes, but with not nearly as much detail. I have "borrowed" a few of your fields, so thank you! I use OneNote. I have a page per category (such as "lamb" or "beef"), and a table within each page with my notes. One disadvantage of using OneNote (vs a real spreadsheet software) is that it doesn't allow table operations, such as filtering, ordering, etc. However, overall I am happy with OneNote because I have my recipes organized in other pages, and I can easily link to them from the table. Another advantage is that we have Mac, PC, iPhone, Windows Phone, iPad and Surface devices in my household, and I can access my notes from all these devices equally easily. If I'm travelling abroad without access to my technology toys, I access the notes through the very nice web interface (I keep the notes in the cloud, on Skydrive). In addition to recipes and notes, I also use it to make my shopping list. Again, I can link to the recipe, so if I can't find an ingredient in the store, I can quickly look at the recipe and think of another ingredient as a replacement. I also like the fact that I can add my own photos to each recipe I keep. If I'm feeling lazy, I'll take a quick photo with my iPhone and add it to the recipe directly. Otherwise, I'll take a photo with my SLR and insert it to OneNote later. To enter the recipes, sometimes I copy them from the web, sometimes I type them by hand from a book, sometimes I scan the book page and convert the image to text.

I found a recipe with swordfish and banana here: http://www.saborintenso.com/f17/filetes-peixe-espada-banana-batata-salteada-333/ It's not cooked in the oven, so it may be a bit different from the dish your friend had. Look at the video, and if it seems like something you would like to try, I'd be happy to translate the recipe. This site, by the way, is my absolute #1 resource for Portuguese recipes. I grew up in the north of Portugal and don't remember ever having a dish with fish and banana. It may be traditional from Madeira, as Meanderer suggests above. In fact, now that I think about it, the best bananas we get in Portugal are from Madeira, so it's very likely that this dish is from Madeira. The bananas we get year-round in Portugal are just like the bananas we get in the US. But in the right season, we get these small bananas from Madeira that are some of the tastiest bananas I've had. They remind me of the small sweet bananas found in South East Asia.

The myth of passive circulation during steady state has been debunked, see http://egullet.org/p1823461 ! Natural convection occurs only during ramping up at full power, in steady state with a power consumption of some 30-100W, there is no noticeable convection current. And without circulation, surface heat transfer coefficient is significantly lower, see http://egullet.org/p1799312 . Regarding bag position, see my article "Impact Of Bag Position On Temperature Uniformity". Pedro - This is precious information - thanks! My setup right now is a small rice cooker with no forced circulation, where I place one single small bag on a horizontal rack, with a SVM controller. Pretty basic, but I'm guessing also pretty common among home sous vide users. Based on your experiments, in this setup, it seems that differences of temperature in the water are not significant (I always close the lid of the rice cooker). However, heat transfer is delayed because of lack of circulation. I was wondering if I should start using an aquarium bubbler in my setup. However, it seems that simply cooking the ingredients at the higher time recommended would achieve results equivalent to a setup with circulation. Is this correct? I was also wondering if it's worth making a rack to keep bags vertical in the rice cooker. My conclusion from looking at your tests is that it's not. If a covered bath with no circulation using bags in horizontal position only varies 0.1 - 0.2 C in temperature, I see no point in going through the trouble. The water temperature difference is not significant. Unless there are other implications of keeping bags horizontal that I'm not taking into account. Would love for people to comment on this.

Made their miso noodles. I didn't have white miso, so used red miso instead. Rolled the pasta with the pasta roller, and then cut wide pappardelle pasta by hand. The pasta was very good, but we couldn't really taste the miso... The recipe says to do it with white miso because it's the mildest variety, so if anything, I was anticipating the pasta to be too intensely flavored with red miso. Can't think of what I could do to improve the result, other than increasing the amount of miso (and decreasing the water to keep the amount of liquids the same).

I bought my Blendtec with the WildSide jar on Saturday at the Costco store, and the online promotion with the two jars ended on Sunday. So I didn't have much time to make a decision. I ended up buying the one with the two jars. This way I'll have some extra time to try both jars, and to decide which package to return. As you say, Costco has a good return policy, so it should be fine. I tried a few "FourSide" jar recipes in my "WildSide" in the last few days: * I made the blueberry ice cream in the recipe book, which blended fine but doesn't even come close to purchased ice cream (we threw away most of it). I may buy an ice cream maker - I was hoping that the Blentec would fill that gap, but I'm convinced now that it doesn't. * I also made frozen yogurt with 1 cup yogurt + 2 cups frozen fruit (a small amount for the WildSide jar), and that left some big chunks after going through the ice cream cycle. We pulsed a few more times, and that fixed it. Taste was good, but once again texture and temperature don't compare with the frozen yogurt at Menchie's around the corner. I'll continue being a good Menchie's customer. * And last, I made an asparagus soup that came out fantastic. This is where the Blendtec really shines compared to my previous blender. Creamy, smooth, really nice.

Thanks Peter! That really helps!

Thanks for the replies. The rack measurements fit my cooler, but not in all positions, like they show in their site: http://www.sousvidesupreme.com/Shop_Online/SousVide_Supreme_Universal_Pouch_Rack/Product.aspx?ProductID=37&DeptID=1&&.

rotuts - I knew that my husband had a cooler from before we got married, which we never used together and I had only a vague idea of where it was located. Well, I found out, and it turns out that it's the exact same brand and size as the one you link to. Pretty amazing! It's great to know that the FMM fits well there. So thanks With this, I have yet another question for those of you with SVS racks: could you please measure the rack and post the measurements here? Their site only contains measurements for the baking rack, not for the regular one. Also, I would like to hear other people's opinion: is a rack not necessary for those of us with nice bubblers (like the one that comes with the FMM)?

PedroG - I couldn't find the pictures with the skewer. Would be great if you could post them again or point us to your previous post, if it's not too much trouble. Good idea to get the SousVide Supreme rack. I assume the baking rack would be useful for anything that we would traditionally cook in a water bath in the oven? I'm planning to get an FMM and try to find some food-grade plastic bucket to place it in. I already own a SVM, which I've been using with my small rice cooker for over a year. I can fit one small ziploc in the rice cooker, no more without overcrowding or coming up with a solution to suspend them vertically. I can see the skewer solution working for my current rice cooker setup, and a SVS rack for my second larger setup with the FMM. A couple more questions: * Can the SVS rack be placed directly over the FMM, without anything in between? I noticed that the SVS has a perforated metal base that allows for water circulation at the bottom. * How many pouches can you hold with the SVS rack? They say 5 in the site, but I only see space for 3, so I assume the two extra go on the sides. Is it OK for them to be in contact with the sides of the bucket?

I apologize in advance for the basic question... but those of you with a large capacity sous vide setup, how do you keep the bags separate from eachother? I understand that the Sous Vide Supreme comes with a rack that keeps the bags separate and vertical. But how do you do that when using a regular pot, coffee urn, large rice cooker, cooler, etc? Or is it not necessary to keep the bags separate from eachother?

Yes, I think that's the case. Which makes me wonder even more if there's any advantage of getting the FourSide jar, which has higher change of producing cavitation.

Oh, sorry I missed your earlier post, and thanks for the reply. I really think that's the way to go, instead of a candy thermometer - I will be ordering the oven probe and clips too.

OK got it, thanks for the answers. So the Thermapen will replace my old crappy OXO meat thermometer, but not my candy thermometer. I am wondering if anyone has tried their oven probe thermometer with the clip accessory to make caramel.

I am trying to understand the difference between the WildSide and FourSide Blendtec jars. Is it just a matter of size? The manual says that the FourSide jar is "great for smaller-yielding recipes" and that the WildSide is "great for larger-yielding recipes". But is it the case that smaller recipes ONLY work in the FourSide, or could the WildSide be used too? I was under the impression that the WildSide would work for small and large recipes, but the manual says "please prepare the recipe with the jar listed". Really? Or is it also a matter of what is being blended? The manual says that the FourSide jar is great for sauces, dressings and nut butter, and that the WildSide is great for breads, quick breads and frozen desserts. However, many of the frozen desserts in their cookbook then call for the FourSide jar. Confusing. What if I'm using the Blendtec with recipes other than the ones in the cookbook, how should I choose between one jar and the other? I just bought a Blendtec at Costco that came only with the WildSide jar. I'm considering returning it and buy the package that comes with both jars, if the FourSide jar really is required for some uses.

I just got a "Splash Proof Super Fast" Thermapen too. Thanks for the promotion link. The site says that the Thermapen can be used to make candy. I have a CDN deep-frying and candy thermometer and, although it comes with a clip that attaches to the pot, I always have trouble keeping it there (one time it fell to the back, splashing hot oil all over me - not fun). Also, since I never make large amounts of caramel, the thermometer often doesn't reach the top of the caramel and can't read the temperature. I see that the Thermapen doesn't have a clip, and I didn't see onr in the accesories list in their site either. How do people use the Thermapen when making caramel or deep frying? Do you have a trick that keeps it firmly attached to the pot?

I don't quite understand the vinegar solution for peeling eggs. I thought that eggs peel better in base environments, which is why old eggs, which have a higher pH, peel better. The vinegar would lower the pH. Thoughts?

I have seen recipes that call for Julia's trick of adding foil to the rim, and others that call for running a knife around the edge. I assume the goal of these tricks is for the souffles to rise with straight sides? Like this: http://www.bonappeti...th_nougat_whip. I don't follow either of these tricks, and my souffle comes out more "mushroom" shape, like in the photo attached. I think it looks just fine, and it certainly tastes good. Is straight sides one of the marks of a beautiful, well made, professional souffle? What is the perfect looking souffle in your opinion?

Yes, I agree with pbear. I also make soufflé with 4 tbsp each of butter and flour and 1 cup milk.

I use: Thin bechamel: 1 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp flour, 1 cup milk Medium bechamel: 2 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp flour, 1 cup milk (This is the consistency I use for lasagna or pastitsio) Thick bechamel: 3 tbsp butter, 3 tbsp flour, 1 cup milk

OK, here are my impressions on the three new dishes I cooked today: Eggplant zaalouk, page 93 Our favorite of the three dishes. So good. The only thing I would recommend is to really season to taste (similar to cooking Thai) to balance the flavors. The amounts of seasonings we added ended up very different from the original recipe (tomatoes are out of season and not very sweet right now). Tomatoes, preserved lemons, and sweet red peppers, page 86 Also good (although not quite as good as the eggplant). The preserved lemons add a nice touch. Briwats with goat cheese and honey filling, page 147 We made our own warqa from scratch for these, and ended up making them cigar shape like in the photo in the book. Warqa is so time consuming, much more time consuming than I expected! It's also easier to get right than I expected - I thought I would have to throw away the first few sheets until I got the hang of it, but they all came out nice. The goat cheese and honey filling is decadent! Will we make these again? Not sure we would spend so much time to make them from scratch again, maybe for a special occasion. But the same filling would be wonderful on purchased filo dough.