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porpoise_oil

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Posts posted by porpoise_oil

    Weber Smokey Mountain - External temperature?

    in Cooking

    Posted

    I'm looking at getting a Weber Smokey Mountain smoker. I live in an apartment with a couple of balconies, and it would live out there. It looks awesome but I want to confirm whether the smoker itself gets hot on the outside when it's in use - especially for long smoking sessions? I'll need to be careful since it will be near glass.

     

    Does anyone have one? If so, can you feel much heat coming off it while it's in use?

    Anova Sous Vide Circulator (Part 2)

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    I had exactly the same issue (and I'm also in Australia). They got back to me pretty quickly - within a week they had a new unit on its way (it would have been sooner except it was Thanksgiving apparently). The replacement doesn't have the same problem but it does seem to be a bit off in the touchscreen - sometimes (often) it misrecognises where I tapped. I told them about this but never heard back.

    Anova Sous Vide Circulator (Part 2)

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    Well I called Anova a little while ago - they agreed it was faulty and are sending me a replacement unit. So although it's a bit annoying to have it happen, I'm happy with how they're handling it. Hopefully it's not a widespread problem though - I certainly haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else.

    Anova Sous Vide Circulator (Part 2)

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    Has anyone had an issue with their Anova's screen? I just got my 220V model the other day, and it worked fine for a couple of days, but today I was using it to cook some eggs; I walked away and it turned blank (which I expected), but when I tapped the screen I saw this:

    SadAnova.jpg

    I turned the unit off, and now when I turn the Anova on, I just see a blank screen :( It seems to still respond to touches, but I can't see what I'm doing.

    I've emailed them to ask about this - hopefully they can send me a replacement as I'd rather not wait for it to go to the US and back for repair :(

    Andrew James Vacuum Sealers

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    Has anyone had any experience with the Andrew James range of vacuum sealers (available in the UK)? They have a professional model here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Andrew-James-Professional-Quality-Machine/dp/B001HBE5Y8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1375477205&sr=8-2&keywords=Vacuum+sealer

    I'm looking to use it for sous vide, but I'm curious if anyone has used it before - and also if you're stuck buying their bags or if you could use other bags from other companies? I'll be taking it t.o Australia, so getting their brand bags will be a little challenging!

    Thanks,

    John

    Diastatic Malt Powder in Australia

    in Australia & New Zealand: Cooking & Baking

    Posted

    Hi all,

    Thanks very much for your help! I got in touch with Basic Ingredients, and even though they don't list it on their website they were able to sell me 200g for $5.50 + postage to Melbourne of $3.00. So that was pretty easy - it took a few days for them to get back to me but once they did, they sent it almost immediately and I received it yesterday.

    Keith_W - thanks for your offer about splitting the bag, that was going to be my next choice if I couldn't get a small quantity!

    John

    Diastatic Malt Powder in Australia

    in Australia & New Zealand: Cooking & Baking

    Posted

    Hi everyone,

    I've just been watching the latest Modernist Cuisine video for potato puree (I think this recipe is in MC@H as well). They suggest using diastatic malt powder since it acts as an enzyme that can break down the potato starch into a smooth puree.

    Does anyone know of anywhere one can purchase diastatic malt powder in Australia (preferably Melbourne)?

    From the recipe (linked above) it suggests that it can be purchased at baking and brewing supply stores, but I've tried a few and none of them seem to sell it - they only sell varieties of non-diastatic malt powder. The closest I've found is this company, but they sell it pre-mixed with flour for baking purposes so I don't think this would work very well! I've tried my usual places (MFCD, The Red Spoon Company, Chef's Armoury) but they don't have it listed - at least not as 'diastatic malt powder'.

    Thanks in advance,

    John

    Perfectly Poaching Eggs

    in Cooking

    Posted

    Thanks so much for all the advice! I've set aside some time in the next few days to try out a variety of techniques and see if I can master this. Given how many different techniques people have kindly presented here, I think the law of large numbers suggests at least one of them will work well!

    I'll let you know how I go. Thanks again.

    Perfectly Poaching Eggs

    in Cooking

    Posted

    One of my culinary missions for the next few months is to learn how to perfectly poach eggs - like in a cafe or restaurant, where you get egg white in a neat and tidy bundle surrounding an oozey, custard-like yolk.

    I've tried a number of techniques from a variety of sources, and although I can make passable poached eggs for home purposes, I can never come close to replicating the presentation of a professional's poached egg.

    One thing I've heard over and over is that it is critical the eggs are fresh - so I've been making sure I use very fresh eggs. This does help but it doesn't solve the whole problem.

    Other techniques I've tried to varying degrees of success are:

    - Adding vinegar to the water (there seems to be mixed advice on this, even within the Modernist community)

    - Stirring the water vigorously, and dropping the egg into the middle (perhaps putting it into a ramekin or other vessel first)

    - Lining a ramekin with plastic wrap, dropping the egg into the wrap and tying it up tightly (this semi-worked - the egg seemed to cook well and had a nice shape, but removing the egg from the pouch was a nightmare and I lost much of the white in the process)

    - Using a very deep pot (stockpot)

    - Using a very shallow pot (deep frying pan)

    I fully admit I may have just not done a good job with some or all of these techniques, but I was hoping there might be some advice I could get about which techniques are worth persevering with and which are based in fiction. The vinegar addition and the vortex techniques, in particular, seem to be contentious - half the places I read advocate for one while saying the other is a waste of time!

    Thanks,

    John

    Smart Kettles (electric jugs)

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    Hi everybody,

    Has anyone had any experience using 'smart kettles' - electric water jugs that have temperature controls on them? For example, the Breville Smart Kettle, which lets you specify a temperature and time. This seems like an interesting idea, particularly for making coffee and tea, but also for preparing water for a water bath.

    I'm curious if the temperature controls are actually accurate though - if they're correct to within 1 or 2 degrees C then it seems like an interesting idea.

    Thanks,

    John

    Heat-stable zip bags in Australia

    in Australia & New Zealand: Cooking & Baking

    Posted

    haresfur - good tip, thanks! I'll have to see if I can befriend someone with a Costco card :) I live in a small apartment so I hadn't thought about buying in bulk!

    Keith - I'm in Melbourne. That's good to know you've had success with them in the past. I guess I'd be more comfortable with the manufacturer saying they're not going to leech plastic or disintegrate, but for short cooking times (say

    Heat-stable zip bags in Australia

    in Australia & New Zealand: Cooking & Baking

    Posted

    Hi everyone,

    I've been doing some sous vide-ing on and off for a few months (using a PID controller and rice cooker/slow cooker depending on the amount of stuff I'm making). One of my friends went to the US a while ago and brought back some Ziploc bags for me to use as I know these are heat-stable for use in sous vide. However I'm running out of them, and would really like to find an alternative here in Australia.

    Does anyone know any brands of Australian zip-lock plastic bags that are safe to use for sous vide? I generally only do shorter recipes (a few hours at the most) and not the 72h ones, although it would be nice to have the option if that was easy!

    Thanks,

    John

    Calcium Lactate vs. Calcium Lactate Gluconate

    in Cooking

    Posted

    Thanks very much for all the information!

    ChrisZ - I came across the exact same information about CLG being more soluble than CL. I saw it in this post on the eGullet forums: http://egullet.org/p1520456. It lists this PDF as one of its sources: http://www.jungbunzl...onate_Aug02.pdf.

    That PDF states:

    CLG has the highest solubility of all commonly used calcium salts

    This seems (from my understanding anyway) to contradict the Cooking Issues Hydrocolloid Primer that Chris Hennes linked to above. However I haven't read either in full yet - tonight's job!

    Also, for what it's worth, the cost difference between the two was negligible when I bought it - it worked out to be AUD$0.01/g more expensive for CLG than CL.

    So I'd be curious to know which is correct too - I now have both CL and CLG so I might just try running a little experiment myself to see which seems to be more soluble.

    Calcium Lactate vs. Calcium Lactate Gluconate

    in Cooking

    Posted

    I've recently started experimenting with spherification, and particularly reverse spherification.

    I bought calcium lactate and was initially just using this when I was doing reverse spherification, but when I went to my local supplies store recently they suggested I get calcium lactate gluconate as well - although they were a bit vague on why I'd use this in preference to calcium lactate, saying only that it was "better".

    Would anyone mind telling me what the 'gluconate' bit adds or changes to calcium lactate? Is there a rule about when I would use one over the other?

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