btbyrd

It would be a great help if, when asking for help understanding a recipe, people posted the full recipe. Otherwise, we have no freaking idea what you're talking about. Luckily, my Google-fu is strong. The recipe appears to be from this text. The hazelnut buttercream frosting recipe calls for 6 egg yolks, not 6 whole eggs. The "egg yolk mixture" consists of the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, cream, and vanilla extract. "Butter-Cream Frosting: A Base Recipe In top of a double boiler, beat until thick and lemon-colored: 6 egg yolks Add gradually, beating constantly, a mixture of : 3/4 cup sugar l teaspoon cornstarch Add gradually and stir until well blended 3/4 cup cream Set over simmering water and cook, stirring constantly, until thickened (about 17 min). Remove from heat and stir in 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. Cover; cool slightly. Set in refrigerator to chill. When mixture is chilled, put into a large bowl: 1.5 cups firm, unsalted butter Beginning with medium speed of an electric mixer, and as soon as possible increasing to high, beat until butter is fluffy. Gradually add the chilled mixture to the creamed butter, beating after each addition just until blended. If necessary, set frosting over ice and water until firm enough to spread. If frosting should curdle, beat again until just smooth. This frosting will keep several days, tightly covered, in the refrigerator. Beat just until smooth before using. Enough to frost sides and tops of three 9-in. round torte layers — Hazelnut Butter-Cream Frosting Crate 1/2 cup (about 2.5 oz hazelnuts (about 1.5 cups, grated). Follow the Buttercream master Recipe; blend the grated nuts into the frosting after blending in the egg-yolk mixture."

That is true. However, many mixers are not electrically grounded, double insulated may be, I like to used that with a GFP electric outlet near the sink, or near a stainless steel work counter. All of the 5-20qt mixers for sale at Websturant have grounded electrical connections.

You don't need special wiring. Mixers don't draw very much current. My blender and immersion circulator each draw twice as much power (or more) as the mixers you listed. Even the big, 30qt floor-standing mixers seldom draw more than 1200W (which would still leave you with plenty of extra power left in that circuit). If you order anything from Webstaurant for your household, they always show you a disclaimer that the items they sell are meant for commercial use and may be louder or more powerful or have special power/ventilation requirements relative to typical household products. They do that for EVERYTHING, even if you're just ordering a bunch of Cambro containers. Don't let it freak you out. Find a mixer you like and go with it.

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but having a chamber vacuum machine and an immersion circulator makes camping awesome. You can buy everything beforehand, cook it off and pasteurize it, and then throw it in the cooler until you're ready to warm things up or sear them off. Combine a cooler full of vacuum bagged food with a camp site grill, a Coleman stove, and a Searzall and you're ready to go. Seal up soups, sauces, stews, steaks, braises, pork belly, short ribs, pre-cooked veg... whatever. It's awesome.

The amount of celery seed used for flavoring that roast beef isn't high enough to provide the nitrite levels required for curing. It's just a flavor enhancer. But celery extract is widely used in the cured meats industry for that purpose. All of the "uncured" or "nitrite/nitrate-free" bacon on the market is actually cured and actually contains nitrites. When you read the fine print, they specify that it contains no nitrites "except for those naturally occurring in celery." They basically make a concentrated celery extract and use that in place of Instacure. But it's the exact same thing, just made a different way. Deli roast beef has that texture because it's brined. At high enough concentrations, salt begins to alter the texture of meat (in addition to increasing its water-holding capacity). Modernist Cuisine notes that: "... flesh begins to cure when the salinity rises above 2%. Above this threshold, charged ions from the salt destabilize and unravel various proteins within muscle fibers. Over time (and faster at higher concentrations), these unfolded proteins become entangled and form a gel that gives cured meats and seafood their characteristic firm and chewy texture. This is not altogether different from what cooking with heat does to proteins. Brined foods that are cooked have a telltale texture because the combination of salt and heat creates a firmer, more elastic gel than heating does alone. Indeed, part of the secret to getting a good result that isn't too firm and chewy is to avoid overdosing the salt when brining." (p.3:154) The characteristic "stretchy" texture that deli roast beef has can be attributed to the elastic protein gel that forms during the brining and cooking process.

Totally. MSG has 1/3 the sodium as table salt, so you'd be adding a huge amount to your brine and it would taste awful. Modernist Cuisine suggests that MSG be added to brines at a concentration equal to 10% of the amount of salt being added. (p. 3:160) Neither of the D&W listed (the Angus Roast beef or the London Broil) have MSG added. And certainly not in the massive quantities you're contemplating. Celery seed is a natural source of sodium nitrite and is not especially rich in glutamate. Even so, the amount of celery seed used on roast beef isn't going to supply a large dose of nitrites unless they're using a celery extract (and they don't appear to be doing that because it's not a cured product). Celery seed ≠ MSG.

I think the biggest issue for the OP is leaving an empty pan on the burner for 10 minutes.

As far as the 1800W, 120V models go, the Vollrath Mirage Pro seems to be at the top of the game. It has a large induction surface (much bigger than the cheapo-portable ones) and 100 power settings, which is crucial for control. Most inexpensive burners only have 10 or so settings, and it's sometimes impossible to dial in a simmer. The difference between hot water, a simmer, and a boil is relatively small and I was never able to get the right result from my inexpensive Max Burton unit. It also can maintain very precise low temperatures (around 85F) so it seems great for chocolate work. I wish it wasn't $450, but it appears to be worth the premium if you have the money for it.

I'd cut the cooking time down significantly. Round isn't a tough cut (it doesn't have much connective tissue that needs to be converted to gelatin) so I don't think it benefits much from extended cooking times. Extended cooking times mostly benefit fattier cuts with lots of collagen, as these will melt and help compensate for lost juices... fat and gelatin help create a juicy mouthfeel in meat that has lost a lot of its moisture. But there's nothing there in a round steak to balance out that moisture loss; it just dries out. Since you have a bunch of these roasts, I'd try slicing one into uniform 1" steaks, bag them separately, and then cook them at your preferred temperature but pull one after an hour; another after 2 hours, and so on for 3, 6, 9, 12, and 18 hours (or something like this). Then do a taste test after retherming them in a 130F bath for 30-40 minutes. Invite some friends. Make it a party. Or just do it yourself and use the meat you don't eat to make stew or something. I'd wager that you'll prefer the shorter cook times to the long ones.

I subscribed to Cook's Illustrated for five or six years, but after the fifth or sixth "best way to make a pot roast" or "the very best roast chicken," it started to lose its appeal. I still enthusiastically recommend it to less advanced cooks. And I'd bet that the bound volumes and the recipe anthologies are great resources to have on hand (though I don't have them). And I liked the earlier editions of Lucky Peach, but they seem to have mostly abandoned the long-form articles in favor of interviews and 2-page fluff pieces. There's a lot of content, but not much I care to read. It has become less literary and more a chronicle of random bits and bobs. I still like it more than any other food magazine that I've read, but I'm not in love with it like I was when I first picked it up. Aside from these, I haven't found a food magazine that I really like. I'm really interested in hearing other eGullets' opinions on this topic. I'd love to find some more food related periodicals that I could look forward to each month.

MC@H lists their "best bets" for cooking vegetables in the microwave on p.347. All of their recipes use an 1100W microwave oven at full power. What's interesting is that their main microwaved vegetable dish, Sichuan Bok Choy, uses the same times as the recipe in the full version of Modernist Cuisine (p.3-313) but that recipe called for "full power" of 800W. There are also a number of variations in how the bok choy is packaged; there are 2 pictures of this in MC@H -- one in the recipe (which uses Ziploc bags) -- and one in the section explaining how microwaves work (which features vacuum-sealed bok choy). And in "Strategies for Using a Microwave Oven" in the full version (p.2-185) they have a picture of the bok choy on a plate under plastic wrap. So from what I can gather, it really doesn't much matter how you package food that's cooked in the microwave.

Something that hasn't come up in this discussion is using different wattages and power settings on the microwave. It may be that Anna's carrots came out raw compared to the ones prepared by the Voltagios because her microwave was using different power settings. With the exception of broccoli, I seldom cook vegetables in the microwave but I've found that I get better results using lower power settings. My theory is that because these settings cook the vegetable more slowly, it allows the vegetable to become softer by the time it starts to give off a significant amount of steam. I occasionally use the microwave on full power to finish off SV carrots if they haven't really finished cooking in the water bath. This is a great way to compensate for timing errors if you're trying to serve SV veg a la minute.

When water converts to steam, its volume increases by more than 700 times. I don't think using a bigger bag will do much to solve the problem.

I never buy fish that's been marked down, and only buy chicken if I'm planning on making stock immediately (like as soon as I come home from the grocery). Since I use it immediately, I haven't run into the dreaded funk of doom... yet. Beef and lamb however, I have no compunction about and will buy in large quantities without hesitation. I'll add that the best New York strip I've had in years was marked down at my local non-upscale grocer. Though they only sell choice, this had the marbling of prime... I think it was misgraded, since it had more fat than any prime strip I've purchased. They were marked down twice --- once on the sticker price and once again with a "manager's special $2-off coupon" attached to the packaging. I got two of them for under $7.50 total. I felt like I was robbing them.

I don't have any specific pointers to the Dave Arnold comments, because I think most of his discussion of the issue was on the Cooking Issues podcast rather than their blog. Their blog does have a really nice discussion of the effects of vacuum level on meat texture. With respect to plant matter and softening, plants are largely composed of cellulose, starch, and pectin. Starches start to swell and gelatinize around 70C, and pectin starts to hydrolyze around 85C, which is why this is the magic number for SV vegetables. Cellulose is indigestible and doesn't begin to break down until it reaches much, much higher temperatures than you'd ever reach in cooking.

From what I've gleaned from Modernist Cuisine and Dave Arnold's discussions of the topic, there's no appreciable loss of texture when sealing root vegetables sous vide. Softer-fleshed veg can experience some damage if you hold them at vacuum for extended periods, and that's what makes compression and vacuum infusion possible. The softening that vegetables undergo through cooking is primarily a result of pectin breakdown rather than physical violence done to the cellulose.

Hrm... that's an interesting technique. I doubt it'll change the flavor much, but the texture should be plumper and firmer than if you didn't do the injection brine. But like I said, I'm not sure how much drying the surface will benefit the end product since you're cooking in a moist environment. On a semi-related note, I'm currently pressure cooking a chuck roast because I was inspired by your remarks in another thread about how good it is. They were also on sale, so that helps too!

Wet brines draw moisture into the meat while a dry brine doesn't. I don't think you'll derive much benefit from a crust or pellicle if you're going to cook sous vide, since that part of the meat will be bathing in its own juices for 24+ hours anyway.

Whole cuts: buy it -> vacuum seal it -> pasteurize sous vide -> store in the fridge for a few weeks until I want to eat it. Ground meat or off cuts: buy it -> freeze it (optional) -> pressure cook it and make stock. Whenever I see bones, spare ribs, or oxtail marked down, I buy them all for this purpose.

I've almost purchased service industry wrap, but my main problem is where to store it. It's too deep for my drawers and it's too big to leave out on the counter. If I had a better kitchen, maybe there'd be a place for it.

It depends on your definition of "waste." If you pressure cook or simmer for long enough, all of the flavor in the meat will have been transferred to the broth. If you don't do that, you may be able to save some meat, but it won't be full-flavored and neither will your broth. That's sort of a compromise. Some flavor in the chicken was "wasted" in the broth; some flavor of the broth was "wasted" because it remains in the chicken. The sad truth is that most of the flavor in stock comes from meat, not bones. Bones contribute collagen but not a lot of flavor. If you're only using bones (and they've been thoroughly picked) then your stock isn't going to have nearly as much flavor as it would if you used wings or meaty carcasses. If you're going to use bones only, I'd try adding a couple pounds of ground chicken (browned up in the base of your pan) to the bones to up the meaty flavor.

I advise against a rapid release when making stock, as this can cause intense, spontaneous boiling that can cloud your stock. I'd cook for 1.5 hours in the PC with a slow release. I don't understand the rationale for the hybrid technique as you describe it. If you were going to do a hybrid technique, I'd cook with chicken only for 90 minutes, slow release, and then add aromatics and simmer for 30-45 minutes. That's how I do it.

Glad they turned out well, but I doubt that you'll never cook SV short ribs again (since you said that you like them with a medium-rare, steaky texture). Really, that's the glory of SV short ribs. If you're going for traditional braised results, SV is unnecessary and takes way longer than it needs to. A pressure cooker or an oven braise is a much better choice.

The problem is that whatever moisture evaporates from the surface of your product remains inside the canister. Unless you have something in place to capture the surplus moisture, the meat is going to be curing in a humid environment and won't lose enough moisture to properly dry out.

If you care about texture, you're going to be upset at the damage done to the cell walls of the flesh when the water inside them boils violently and converts to gas.