Blues_Cookin

Duncan, I was also thinking the temperature rise could simply be the pot coming up to ambient temp. Should I return it directly to you guys? Would be happy to replace with 2.0 :-) Thanks Tom

Bad news to report today. Had a pork shoulder in a insulated 16 qt cooler with an improvised lid starting at 5:30 last night. Held temperature fine all night, but this morning started slowly losing temperature. I figured the drop was equivalent to how fast the cooler would lose temp if there was no heater at all (10 degrees F per hour). Tried resetting it (pressed "Stop", unplugged for a few minutes and then plugged it back in and pressed "Start"). No change in behavior, continued to lose temp. I checked the water level which was fine, and also made sure nothing was impeding the water flow, and that was ok as well. I took the circulator out, let it sit for half an hour, and now have it in a small 2 qt sauce pan with the water at 62 degrees F. In 30 minutes with the heater indicator at full orange, it has only gained 2 degrees. Any ideas?

Very good, I suppose that the key issue is the length of time the collagen is at the proper temp to break down into gelatin. Assuming that process also scales per your rule of thumb, I think your right that the 161 will work. Now to see how well I do holding my Green Egg at 149 when its 20 degrees out... Thanks for the help!

I am firing up the smoker to make, more or less, the recipe for Pork Shoulder in Modern Cuisine. However, once I am done with the 7 hour smoke, I will only have about 48 hours to cook in the Sous Vide bath at 150 F, and Nathan's instruction calls for 72 hours. Anyone have experience with the timing on the Pork Shoulder? If I slice the shoulder lengthwise and leave it in the water bath for only 48 hours will i be ok? As always, thanks for the help! Tom

Chris - yes, I did use a insulated cooler for the 2 lbs. of potatoes. Not an entirely fair container to measure the SideKIC's ability to heat the water temp as it is 16 Qts. However, it did a fine job of maintaining temperature once it got to 85 C. And agreed, spousal approval is key to happiness!

Ok, so far I have made four meals with the SideKIC, along with a couple food-less tests to get a feel for how it can handle pushing up the heat etc. Here are my notes so far: What I like Price point rocks Water circulation is aggressive - it means you have to occasionally monitor your food bags or secure them to prevent them from blocking the intake, but my temp measurements with my Thermapen in four different positions in the bath all read within 1/10th of a degree C for an hour straight. Impressive! Software is intuitive and easy to run. Once at temperature, has no problem holding temp within 1/2 degree C, even with 4 lbs of (dry aged :-) ) steaks in only 9 L of water. This was in a simple rubber maid tub with no insulation and no lid. In a 15 L cooler, also held temp no problem with 2 lbs of sliced potatoes. What I'd like to see considered Top Temp of 85 degree C - many starchy veggies need at least 89 C, so if the current 85 C limit is arbitrary, It would be great to see that pushed to maybe 95 C or so. (Can this be done with a software update??) The corrugated sleeve between the immersion unit and the controller is not very flexible - and is brittle enough to push the controller around. Would be nice if this was a bit more flexible and allowed you to place the controller where I wanted without the corrugated tube trumping my designs. The heater is not powerful enough to meaningfully HEAT water, though it is very capable of MAINTAINING temp. My tests at 10 qts show that it requires 10 min to gain 6 degrees C at 40 degrees C, but only increases the temp 2.2 degrees C in 10 min at 55 degrees C. You will definitely need to use an alternative source to heat the water bath to close to target temp - I quickly resigned to heating my water on the stove. However, this is not a major issue, I would rather heat the water separately than require a unit that cost twice as much simply because it included a more powerful heater. On a less important note, the length of the immersion limits the pots you can use. If there was a bit more depth, it would increase the options on the pot. Beeper when the bath hits the desired temp would be nice. Overall, my initial impression is extremely favorable, especially for the hobby cook. I will certainly be getting a lot of use of my SideKIC, and have already recommended it to a few friends.

Great start on the evaluations - I just got back from out of the country today, and will do some work with the SideKIC this weekend. Will let ya'll know if I see anything interesting beyond what Chris has reported on to date.

Just to report back - was there a couple days and the answer my own question is (at this point) nowhere in particular. Great little town, but they must do a lot of cooking at home, which of course is wonderful

Will be in Groningen next week - anyone have a suggestion for dinner?

Ordered one today, will report back

I had the wonderful opportunity to move to the Provo area for a great job opportunity two years ago, but I didn't realize it was such a challenging food opportunity. However, I have a few suggestions for those who find themselves as they say here "south of the point of the mountain", which basically means 45 min south of Salt Lake City. I have put together a google map of foodie spots HERE Highlights in Utah County are: Communal - Modernist American cuisine, plenty of sous vide and other great techniques, aggressive menu and 50% communal dining, 50% not. One of the really interesting things here is that the kitchen is out in the middle of the dining area, so you can see the chef's practice their art. They are humble foodies and great to talk to. Piizzaria 712 Same ownership as the Communal, really creative pizza and Calzone dishes, and again, foodies in a land of the great american franchise, these guys love to talk food. Smoking Apple Pretty decent BBQ (high praise coming from a BBQ snob), and the sides are excellent, especially the beans. There have been other posts about Bombay House, pretty decent Indian. Check out the Google Map link above for other places - the green ones are 'approved" yellow are ones I am planning on investigating soon. Enjoy!

While brewing beer I somehow allowed the brew to be contaminated and while the bottles were fermenting in the basement late one night they began to burst. I thought we had been broken into and spent the next 10 minutes with a baseball bat hunting through the house for the intruders while Sweetie guarded the children. Then I smelt the unmistakable odor of the yeast...

sweetie went all out and gave me The Modernist Cuisine - she has no idea what she's in for now with next years xmas wish list....lets see, combi oven, Dewar flask, etc etc

I don't have any recommendations on dishes, but holy Hannah, those are some amazing presentation you shot there - bravo!