Martin Fisher

I've had one on my wishlist for some time......guess I'll have to spring for one soon. My local rinky-dink restaurant suppy doesn't stock 18 or 22 quart polycarbonate containers. Grrrrrrr!!!!!!! ~Martin

I think that's a much better idea. I would also pipe in the smoke with an A-Maze-N smoke generator (piped in only because I think that high humidity may interfere) The A-Maze-N smokers are great. I highly recommend them. http://www.amazenproducts.com/ ~Martin

Yippee!!!! The FMM and the Geratherm basal thermometer both arrived today! ~Martin

re: Italian tomato preservation without canning. In the case of Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio, they're bred to hang on the vine for many months. As I understand it, they're often lightly smoked before hanging. They're not dried like a sun-dried tomato, their acid level is what preserves them for later sauce making. I have seed to plant, I'm anxious to see exactly what they're like. re: sauce making I'm not sure if it's original, but I came up with a technique to create conserva and consomme without the harshness of lengthy cooking and canning. re: tomato varieties. If we're talking tomatoes available at a farmer's market and the like, it's possible that there could be any number of dozens and dozens of Italian tomato cultivars. More likely, generic San Marzano and Roma, which are the most well known, but, unfortunately and IMHO, they're not great flavorwise. re: green-shouldered tomatoes Same deal with the green-shouldered tomatoes in Spain, I was surprised at how tasty they are. A couple suggestions if you want to included cultivars that folks can grow themselves. Red Pear Piraform, for a green-shouldered slicing tomato of Italian origin. Martino's Roma, for a good, highly productive and flavorful tomato for sauce or drying. There are, of course, others that I highly recommend, but, some are not so easy to obtain. HTH ~Martin

Looks real good, Syzygies. Fatalis are great! ~Martin

No doubt, but I I'd like to keep the set-up as neat looking as possible. I don't want to hear any complaints from "the one who must be obeyed"! ~Martin

Thanks! I'm getting there! I ordered the Geratherm basal thermometer today. ~Martin

Thanks! I'll look into it further. Drilling several holes would certainly help, but I'm afraid that may encourage cracking. I've noticed on some coolers owned by family & friends that the lids have a tendency to crack, but that may be due to excessive UV exposure when folks leave them out in the sun for an extended period of time. Unfortunately, I didn't pay close enough attention to determine if a certain brand is more prone to cracking. ~Martin

Urethane spray foam is a powerful insulator. How would one ensure that it expands to all areas in a long oddly shaped lid? ~Martin

It's good to know that ping pong balls can take the heat. I looked at 25mm polypropylene balls, but they're expensive, no matter the source. Surprisingly, solid polypropylene balls are typically less expensive, but of little use. ~Martin

No doubt, but the old Coleman coolers were insulated all the way around. ~Martin

It appears that most, is not all, Igloo, Coleman and Rubbermaid cooler lids are not insulated, other than the dead air space. Does anyone know for sure? I'm thinking that it may be good idea to drill a hole and fill the cavity with expanded perlite and then close-up the hole with a stainless steel toggle bolt and washer. Thoughts? Sorry! I have OCD! Thanks! ~Martin

A combination square could also be used, there are many makes and models available in a wide price range. ~Martin

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