daveb

Meanwhile at the assisted living facility I talked the powers that be into letting me SV 4 beef tenderloins for Mother's Day. 140F for four hours (concession to aforementioned most of which had never heard of SV). Seared in rondo and made basic hunter' s sauce. Residents and guests loved it.

Quackers on crackers.... 100+ crostini with duck breast for fancy pants event. Love SV for this type thing.

Didn't realize the tangent this would start. Ha! FWIW my "day" job is lead cook at an assisted living facility. Our residents for the most part enjoy food that's well prepared and can be quite vocal when it isn't. (They don't always remember what they ordered but that's another story) The fun job is high end catering, a couple of events a week. Had to get out of restaurants as that's a young (er) persons game. My idea of "cross fit", put this tray together 2day for our residents Mother's Day Tea. The guests and residents all made nice and the event gave them something to talk about.

I get it (finally). Surely you didn't make that interpretation based on personal experience?

Looks like we crossed posted. Forgot to add you'll want to consider what foods will hold well and at what temps. Easiest of course is room temp. Holding cold is relatively easy - alum food pans full of ice and covered work well in a box, food in a food pan on top of food pan with some ice will hold well on line. Holding hot is a little more problematic. Not only do you need to hold it hot, at the same time you don't want to overcook it in the process. In my experience pork holds the best of any proteins It can hold in a hot box for a couple hours then go to chagers without losing any flavor or consistency. Ground beef holds well. Chicken turns to rubber when held at temp, thighs less so than breasts. To hold hot I'll frequently put a pan of boiling water on a towel at the bottom of a cooler or hot box for 10 - 15 min before starting to fill it. This way I'm not using the food to heat the box. A circulator does very well holding hot at serving temp. If you can bag pork, mac and cheese, hamburger patties, etc then it's simple to transfer to chafing dish. The only way I would do burgers cooked to order would be on separate station, pre-par-cooked patties (SV?) and build your own condiments. And I would try and avoid it. Lot of potential for things going south. As you've no doubt learned already, prep is the key to pulling this off. Have fun!

As said, Lisa makes several good points (and no bad ones) Me thinks she's done this before. Couple thots I've not seen yet. You should consider an outside caterer for a least one of the events. Most will offer a "drop off" menu based on your requirements. There will be a cost premium but it's an easy button for what you have planned. You would be expected to provide tables, chafers, hot box, cold box, serving utensils. You've arranged your facility and now I would give some thought to equipment requirements. Rental: I would want several buffet tables, some full size sheet trays,a few half size trays, chafers for hot foods, at least 1 120qt cooler, At least 2 cambro boxes for hotel pans or half sheet trays. (one for hot, one for cold), serving dishes and utensils. A full or half size speed rack - if you're not familiar with catering a speed rack is worth it's weight in gold - all of your room temp and most hot/cold will spend some time on this. This stuff is a generic list and can be found at most any equipment rental shop in town. Some of this may be available from facility, put your eyes on it before you check it off your list. Purchase: Full size aluminum pans and lids. 18 to 24 in cling film. Sterno for chafers. Water (if not readily available). Dish cleaning supplies including sanitizer, including 2x the number of dish towels you'll think you'll need. Cheap clamshell "to go" boxes. Disposable dinner ware can be had that is as nice (almost) as china. Real dishes / silverware can be rented Peoples: I would want at least two peeps dedicated to serving event (not a good idea to press a guest into service) Advertise in local Craig's List or culinary school for servers, two minimum four hour shifts, 15ish bucks an hour. These folks will resupply your line, bus tables, take out the trash, perform any other clean-up duties. Do quick interview about banquet experience. Depending on where you live english may not be a primary language and that's ok. Make sure you have some food for the servers. Some things I'll touch on but have seen above. Definitely divide your buffet line into main meal, salad, desert, beverage stations. Would not be uncommon for these to be in different corners of room. Definitely do buffet service. Definitely do not consider plated service unless you're willing to staff it with at least 1 server / 20 people and 2 - 3 BOH for building plates. Your event is definitely doable for a home cook. Lots of good advice already given and I'm sure any questions will be addressed the same way.

Well there went two bucks. Wondering if in a few years my Kindle collection of cookbooks will look like my hardcopy collection.....

I don't do any canning (perhaps should) but do use 4 and 6 oz jars for SV and presentation. I reuse lids and rings and keep a box of new lids lest one of the old ones looks wonky.

M&P or a knife. People were making spice blends and pastes long before lectriciy came along.

Alton Brown was in Tampa last week and did a quick video on Cuban sandwiches. Not a bad piece (but don't have link). For a sandwich that is revered here as much as the Cuban is, I find it ironic that it's always the "new guy" in a Cuban Restaurant getting his (her) feet wet making Cubans or Deviled Crab, (the other local mainstay).

I find the wheel clunky to use, it's not very discreet, the rate of change in value varies. It represents an all to common engineering fallacy. It looks cool. It works poorly. Lets use it. They left the excellent touch pad interface from the V1 on the table in favor of the wheel. Hate may be too strong but I like brevity. The timer function for me ensures I get the minimum time in the bath that I want. There are times when I "set it and forget it" I do in fact forget it. And I'll sometimes use multiple circulators. Getting old is hell but it beats the alternatives.

I have the original and the Bluetooth and prefer the simple interface of the original. You want to set the temp? Push the temp button. You want to set the time? Push the time button. You want to start it? Push the start button. I hate the wheel on the bluetooth for setting temp. Still can't use it to set time. Control is ok via app. When I loan one to someone who wants to try SV, I always provide the orig because of the simplicity.

If I'm reheating or warming something done SV, I'll leave it in the bag during chill and refridge then back into the SV as described above by Anna and Elsie. My original foray into SV was not to use as a cooking process but to reheat leftovers from the smoker. My smoker seems to like working when it's full. Product is good off the smoker but conventional reheating would dry out the leftovers and give them an off taste; SV changed that.

No off taste to me. There seem to be two schools of thought on seasoning in the bag. Most writers will tell you to bag it and bath it then season before searing. I'm in the minority in that I almost always add a small amount of seasoning /.herbs going into the bag. Does it make a difference? I like to think so but would not argue it. I also use bag juices in sauces for product and can smell / taste the seasoning there. Simply put it works for me..

New PT gig at high end caterer. On day 2 I became the SV "expert" Ha! Client wanted gyros made from leg of lamb. Procured four boneless legs, seared them, bagged them w rosemary and garlic / garlic oil. In the bath for 8ish hours at 133F. Sliced them very thin on slicer like deli roast beef. I don't use the word "awesome" often but these were it. I'm sure most here know lamb has a very small window of opportunity for when it's ideal. Below 131F and it's a bloody mess. Above 135 and it tastes like, uh, overcooked lamb. I can get it in that window, most of the time, on the grill. But SV is pretty much bulletproof.

"Settled for Calvados"? Tough day huh? Big Smiley.

I don't disagree with a bit of that. But. I see the future of meals being like the Star Trek "kitchen". Push a button and a magic tray comes out. Hopefully we"ll get there via SV, CSO, even automated PCs and still want food that's enjoyable to eat. Don't expect it in my lifetime but it would fit my daughter's (and my misguided sister's) lifestyle.

Martha stole from me. And she stole from you. In a frightening example of wealth privilege, she was convicted of lying about the theft but not of the theft itself. But I'm so not going on a rant. My sister literally does not cook and buys every type meal in a box there is. I'm amazed at how little usable product the box contains and how unpalatable the food is when prepared following directions. Poorly prepped chicken comes in at about $20/lb. It seems like a ripe opportunity when someone figures how to do it right..

I think the numbers are higher than that. Need some decimal points.

OUCH! Not happening.

The class has come and gone. I used 2 Anova V1 and 4 Anova V2 (bluetooth) units and 1 Polyscience unit. Timers on the V1 units were an easy day. You want to set time? Push the "Set Timer" button. You want to set temp? Push the "Set Temperature" button. You want to start it? Push the "Start" button. It's almost as if someone wanted to make it easy to use. The V2 units were (are) a PIA. I hate the effing wheel for the temp, and even having read instructions multiple times cannot get to the timer function on a repeatable basis. Controlling via bluetooth is ok but as we know you can't control multiples. Instead we used different timers and blue tape with start and stop times and it still became a circus. Fortunately sous vide provides some leeway and all foods hit minimums and none were overdone. I don't want to sound too harsh, do like and use my V2 a lot. Off topic but interesting: The owner of the culinary store had just returned from the housewares show in Chicago. Anova/Electrolux showed no interest in discussing distribution with specialty retailers instead they'll continue with Amazon, BBB, and even Wallymart. A lot of the specialty retailers in his buying group are liking Sansaire and his store will soon carry them. Polyscience is strongly suggesting they are close to a deal with Breville for distribution and customer support (this has been floated for a couple years but this time they mean it.....) No word on any price reduction and the specialty retailers are realizing that the 3x price premium is not working with their customers.

OK, watched the vid with knife vs tomato. I think this would work fine for most households and their knives. Gotta admit I've not considered coring a tomato as shown - I've always quartered them and then angle cut the core out - cause that's the way I first learned. I'll probably try that later today. I'll use a straight blade as mine are sharp and I need clean cuts so that juice does not run out of them. Most households would be better served with serrated as their chef knives will be duller than an Al Gore speach.

Just say no. Utube vids can be useful in showing what can be done and how. To learn the skills you just have to practice. To this day my compost vegs go out diced, julienned, half rounds, etc. When asked "what the h are you doing?" my answer is that it will compost faster if it's cut up.

I like it!

The bags at Vacuum Sealers Unlimited are so cheap that reuse doesn't make sense. And in my memory/experience a strip sealer will seal a chamber sealer bag, but a chamber sealer will not seal a strip sealer bag. (Long time since I've used my strip sealer) I hope for some Eco redemption by putting the used bags in the recycle can.