Martin Fisher

My family has cured hams, bacon, etc. the old way for generations, once hams are properly cured they can be hung in the kitchen at room temperature and average humidity to age for months without trouble. Not so with many other things, case hardening and it's associated drying issues being the biggest problem. ~Martin

What's the major difference between the All-American sterilizers and canners? I have two All-American canners. Thanks! ~Martin The primary difference, as far as I know, is that the canners have a traditional jiggle-type weight, which gives you the option of 5, 10, or 15 PSI, but that is relative to sea-level pressure. The sterilizers, on the other hand, have a pressure gauge, and that requires as certain minimum level of intelligence in order to control it -- something that the FDA is clearly not ready to assume that most consumers possess, just as they assume that consumer don't have a thermometer, nor a timer, and can't be trusted to use either one, and therefore everything has to be over-cooked to 165F. If you are at a high altitude, as I am (7000 ft), I believe you can easily convert a canner to a sterilizer by simply replacing the jiggle-valve with a pressure sensor. Otherwise, your canners will probably do just fine, although you might want to modify them to allow an SVM to monitor the internal temperature. Bob Thanks! 878 ft. here, where I do most of my cooking, and 1948 ft. at the place in the hills. ~Martin

What's the major difference between the All-American sterilizers and canners? I have two All-American canners. Thanks! ~Martin

I just ordered the FMM. I've gone a bit over the monthly budget for such projects, but not a big deal as long as the better-half doesn't notice! LOL ~Martin

I buy Spanish olive oil off of Amazon in the UK, it comes post free and in 2Ltr plastic bottles., it is perfect. If you go to your Amazon.com and type in 'Carbonell Olive Oil' you will be able to get it as well. Thank you! ~Martin

The best EVOO that I've had I discovered during a trip to southern Spain , it had a very pleasant fruity olivey flavor, no hint of burning bitter harshness that some olive oil has. Nothing I've tried here at home, even those a bit olivey flavored, at any price or from any source, has come close. ~Martin

For best results, yes, I agree, but any freshly grown herb has the potential to be better than what's available in many markets. ~Martin

If the recipe is generating random unrelated complaints, it may be wise to regroup and consider another recipe, no matter how well you personally like it. Word travels fast in this day and age, your reputation is at stake. ~Martin

Beautiful pool! ~Martin

If you are concerned about your wild cats, the best choice might have been a SousVideSupreme, no cables and tubes that can be pulled out by your cats. But as you already have the SVM controller, the FMM might in fact be your best choice for several reasons: An immersion/submersion heater has minimal thermal inertia, making PID tuning very easy, see the last post in the old SV topic; any system that heats the container before the water has more thermal lag with more overshoot, requiring a broader proportional band and leaving you with extensive tuning experiments to find the best Integral and Derivative values (autotuning values are not the best possible values). The new FMM has the sensor cable buried in the silicon hose, leaving less free cable for the cats to pull out; in fact it would be virtually impossible to pull the sensor out of the water bath, and if your cats pull out the sensor's plug from the SVM, the controller stops heating. As a container, I would recommend a tall beverage cooler where you can lock the lid so the cats can't remove the lid and jump into the water (you would be very sad, and you would not appreciate medium rare cat's meat without proper post mortem aging). I run my FMM in a 28L Campingaz beverage cooler with P=0.5 I=0 D=0 with only ±0.045 °C oscillation. Thanks for the additional information. Generally, the cats aren't a problem, but I brought it up because most hot plates, even some commercial models, have a very small burner and no other support for a large pot....so I could envision something bad possibly happening. I measured one today at a local restaurant equipment supplier and it's only 7-3/8" in diameter....not a very sturdy base for a stock pot. It wouldn't take much of a bump to cause problems. It's very unlikely they'd bother something stable. In summer I can move the sous vide operation to my enclosed porch, no worries at all then, but it's not heated in winter. I have a 5 gallon insulated Igloo commercial beverage dispenser that may work well with the FMM, but the plastic spigot should probably be changed out to something more reliable and sure to take the heat...like a coffee urn spigot. ~Martin

That's very clever! I'll keep that in mind. ~Martin

re: hot plates I priced some of the best options with burners large enough to hold a stock pot in a stable fashion, but they're all quite expense. Another issue, I don't have a large stock pot, so that would be another required purchase. It's looking more and more like the FMM is the route that I should go for what I mostly want to do at this point, but I'll certainly keep the hot plate/stock pot option in mind in the future. The immersed bean pot is a good idea. Thanks! ~Martin

Farm to table, the 100 mile diet, etc. really has gotten silly. 95% of what I eat comes from my farm or other local farms, but I do enjoy fish sauce from Vietnam, anchovies and sea salt from Italy, etc. etc. etc. ~Martin

re: hot plate and stock pot. Thanks, Syzygies! What make and model hot plate do you use or recommend? The one I currently own isn't large and stable enough to accommodate a stock pot. What size stock pot? Thanks! ~Martin

I'm at a loss as to what to use for a bath. As Pedro noted, the above coffee urn is rather small, the largest slow cookers are no bigger. Today, I looked at larger 100 cup coffee urns, the best option was a stainless 1650 watt model. All circuits in this very old house are 15 amp and of unknown integrity (they may have been installed by who knows who before codes came along) so I don't think it's wise to max out the circuit. The hot plate and stock pot option also makes me nervous since we have a couple cats and while I think it's unlikely anything bad would happen, you just never know, they do go wild, running and playing, from time to time. What would you do? Thanks! ~Martin

Thank you! Lots of great information!!! I saw that on the website and looked into it....it gets mixed reviews which makes me very nervous!!! I've had to toss fiery small appliances out the window on a couple occasions, so I try to be extra careful about what I buy!!! LOL They were not considered the bottom of the barrel models either!!! I have no clue on that, I kind of doubt that it's super efficient. I started studying the manual and other related material just yesterday. I have a PID controlled smoker as well as a charcuterie fermentation chamber and a curing chamber, both controlled with Ranco temperature controllers, but none of those are as sophisticated as the SVM. Thanks again! ~Martin

Yes it is, but about the same as the 7-quart slow cookers that many are using. I looked for a bigger insulated coffee urn, but they are, of course, much more expensive. ~Martin

Thanks! I just put it on my 'wish list'. ~Martin

I'm not going to pretend that I like beef base when I don't.....that would be dishonest. Certainly not just because some food scientist at McDonald's is simply doing his job. Any beef base that I've ever had the displeasure of trying has been horrible stuff. In the above case, it's use has led to a product that's sadly inferior compared to the good-old-days when beef tallow was used....so I hardly consider it an innovation. But, as always, I'll try to keep an open mind!!! Maybe you can suggest a good beef base!? ~Martin

Like all garbage beef base, it contains cheap flavor boosters...."Natural beef flavor contains hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk." ~Martin

That was the basis of the lawsuits.... misrepresentation. http://www.compassionatespirit.com/images/Appeals-court.PDF ~Martin

As Jason posted......In 1990, they switched from the 93% beef tallow and 7% cottonseed oil that had been used for many years to 100% vegetable oil, but added beef flavoring extract.....bad move!!!!! In recent years there have been some lawsuits initiated by vegans and vegetarians over the use of beef flavoring extract. Some have reached settlement. Beef flavoring is still used. From the McDonald's website: "French Fries:Potatoes, vegetable oil (canola oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavor [wheat and milk derivatives]*, citric acid [preservative]), dextrose, sodium acidpyrophosphate (maintain color), salt. Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added topreserve freshness). Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent.CONTAINS: WHEAT AND MILK.*(Natural beef flavor contains hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk as starting ingredients)." ~Martin

I thought that I had the world's tiniest and most limiting kitchen!!!! LOL This tiny house is just 400 square feet. Bummer you can't find a spot for a small fridge. ~Martin

McBaffling!!!! I agree, the coffee isn't bad, considering. The fries are horrible compared to those of yesteryear....I miss the beef fat. Same with my beloved Filet-O-Fish.....lately, they're flavorless!!! It is was it is. Growing up in the very rural area, it was a rare treat (a couple times a year) to go to such a place when I was a kid. I still hit McDonald's a couple times a year out of nostalgia. ~Martin

Do you have room for a small apartment size fridge? ~Martin