Martin Fisher

OMG! I, unlike many others, have had a serious, PITA, issue with V1. There's play in the stainless steel skirt which can lead to the impeller making contact with the skirt causing a horrific rattle!!!! The hole in the bottom of the skirt isn't perfectly centered so the skirt needs to be started on the 'threads' one way only to reduce the potential for rattle. Straight sided containers only! Containers that taper may lead to the impeller making contact with the skirt. UGH!!!! My next circulator will likely be a Joule.

"ALDI has just announced an extensive plan to remodel and expand more than 1,300 US stores by 2020. This $1.6 billion investment is intended to make ALDI stores more welcoming for new and longtime ALDI customers." "Fresh New Look" "Environmentally Friendly Upgrades" "More and More Fresh Items" "Easy to Shop Store Layout" "Started accepting credit cards – Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express – at all ALDI stores nationwide." They're currently remodeling one of the stores here. Grand Reopening, May 2nd. Today I received a bulk mailed Aldi coupon—$10 off with a $50 minimum purchase. May 2-20, 2017 Sources: https://corporate.aldi.us/fileadmin/fm-dam/news_and_awards/Press_Release_2017/ALDI_Store_Remodel_Investment_Press_Release_FINAL.pdf http://www.wral.com/aldi-remodeling-and-expanding-1300-stores/16526405/ Aldi Bulk Mailed Coupon

Hmmmm.... The Lodge 10" Seasoned Carbon Steel Skillet currently sells for just $21.41 at both Walmart and Amazon. I'd take a chance on it if I didn't have the other pans—their carbon steel pans seem to get mostly good reviews.

FWIW, here's a very short spot welding video:

What you're seeing is where the electrode made contact.

Spot welders use 2 electrodes — the two pieces of metal fuse where they meet. So, in the case of a pan such as above, one electrode clamps to the pan, the other to the handle.

Rivets are a bit of a pain sometimes, but I prefer the strength of the rivets over spot welds (I have four DeBuyer Mineral B pans that are riveted)—or the idea of one piece pans like the Dartos.

The Matfer black steel pans that I've seen were spot welded.

Lodge 10 INCH CARBON STEEL SKILLET Features: Heavy gauge carbon steel. Preseasoned for a natural, easy-release finish that improves with use. Steel riveted handle. Made in the USA.

FWIW, see Chris Young's comment in this thread: https://www.chefsteps.com/forum/posts/garlic-confit-8 For shorter sous vide cooks at 85°C/185°F it may be a good idea to try removing the germ—which can become bitter as garlic ages.

They're profuse in my garden, especially when well fed.

Yeah, it definitely doesn't. And why waste extra ingredients when it's not necessary? Equilibrium brine (and pump if you like) for consistency.

Exterior contamination. I've butchered thousands of animals (mostly poultry) but also cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, deer. etc.—never in a factory setting. It's impossible (or nearly impossible) to not contaminate the carcass in some way especially when removing the digestive tract and hide. Ecoli and salmonella get the most attention but there are other pathogens of concern (brief list, see reference below for much more extensive information)—some of them could be lurking in the digestive tract or nearly anywhere on the outside of the animal. Good reference: The USDA's Bad Bug Book, Foodborne Pathogenic Microorganisms and Natural Toxins Handbook, 2nd edition, 292 pages.

Pffft!!! Boning hooks and such are used extensively in butchery—have been for many decades. I don't think it should be assumed that any piece of meat hasn't been hooked, punctured or jabbed in some way, although some cuts are less prone to 'abuse' than others.

Cool! I plan to try the 'Turbo Broccoli" with umami butter soon.

Love it!

Yeah, not agricultural pigs—but pet pigs are often spayed to prevent the spread of congenital defects to offspring or to, supposedly, reduce the risk of some cancers.

It's wheat dextrin, a fiber—it's not noticeably sweet. Well, that's subjective. I wouldn't call it sweet—and I'm one who's definitely not a sweets freak.

A bit—but that's okay. Don't do anything you're not comfortable doing. Meats with a much greater surface area are frequently cooked sous vide — meatloaf, pate, terrine, sausages, etc. What's most important is that the food be cooked in a safe way, which he mentions earlier in the book—core pasteurization, etc. See Douglas Baldwin's work, Modernist Cuisine, etc. for more detail.

Yeah, I've ordered a heck of a lot from webstaurantstore.com. Shipping for one small item will often seem unreasonable but the shipping (usually) changes little and is much more reasonable, on average, as you add more products (unless it's something huge, etc.) As an example..... for the same pan you want to order....they'd charge me $13.16 to ship one pan...but the shipping for 5 of the same pan is only $15.04....10 of the same pan $16.29.

A brand spankin' new copy of Chris McDonald's book arrived today from London, England in perfect condition!

OliveNation hasn't been mentioned yet.....I was very happy with the products I ordered from them. I've found the best deal on Red Boat fish sauce and a few other things at Vitacost when they run specials. Jump on both mailing lists for the best deals.

Yes, it's how I prepared my pickled green beans this past season — they turned out very crunchy!

This I do but usually only in my electric smokers—it's not as easy, but doable in a charcoal smoker too. What veg do you plan to braise with the rabbit? I'd mildly smoke both rabbit and veg for a bit—suspended above a drip pan, at a relatively low temperature—then proceed with the braising. Source: On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen By Harold McGee, p. 163

Yeah! "The figure I came up with for that same ordinary yolk was on the order of 100 cups. Something more than 6 gallons of oil! Of course I didn't just add the oil straight, gallon by gallon; that would have been a waste of oil and work. After adding a certain amount of inexpensive soy bean oil, I took a small portion -- around a teaspoon -- of the mixture and then added more oil to just that portion. I repeated this subdivision several more times, periodically adding water to prevent the emulsion from breaking solely on account of crowding. When all the additions and multiplications were done (if a portion containing one-tenth of the yolk absorbs 1 tablespoon of oil, then the whole yolk would have absorbed 10) that astonishing figure emerged: 1 yolk, 100 cups of oil. It seemed impossible, so I did the whole experiment again from scratch. There were some differences, but the result was of the same order of magnitude. There can be no doubt that the egg yolk is a prodigious emulsifier." -- The Curious Cook, Harold McGee, pg 118.