btbyrd

The only times I've ever had problems bagging liquids in a chamber vac, I wasn't paying attention AND I was using a bag too small for the amount of stuff I was bagging. The only instance that falls into only the "I wasn't paying attention" category was a time I was sucking the air out of a liquid thickened with hydrocolloids, when I turned my back and things bubbled over. If I had been paying attention, there would not have been an issue. Of course, in that case I wasn't even trying to bag anything, just suck the air out (something you couldn't possibly do with an impulse sealer). Okra contains natural polysaccharides (that function similar to hydrocolloids) that both thicken liquids and trap air inside them. Mucilage, mucilage, mucilage. This can lead to bubbling over and creating a mess in your machine. If you're just sealing broth or soup or wine, nothing like that will happen. Next time, use less product in the bag and keep your eye on it. Or just stick with your impulse sealer.

I got my VP112 for $549 from WEBstaurant.com. They're a bit more these days, but the prices move up and down over time. The 115 is consistently more though, and has a higher profile. Given that they have the same pump, I didn't see that the 115 was worth the price premium (and it wouldn't fit on my shelf since it's taller).

Season at the end. Salting before hand can dry out proteins and/or lead to a cured texture and flavor. Brining is fine if youre going for corned beef or pastrami type results, but for straight up smoked brisket, save the salt until the end. My preferred order of operations is: long cold(ish) smoke -> SV -> season -> short hot smoke to freshen the smoke flavor and help the bark.

True! While I'm a pretty advanced home cook, I'm a novice baker so I'm not familiar with the equipment/techniques/processes involved in proofing and baking bread. My question was about bannetons betrayed my ignorance, as I really wasn't sure why one would use a bowl over a proofing basket. Thanks for clearing things up!

Dave Arnold used to suggest that you put the circulator in a really icy water bath (more ice than water) and set the temperature below 0C (so the heater doesn't kick on) and let it circulate for a while until the temperature readout stabilizes.

I find that if you make your stock in a traditional fashion by simmering for hours on end, the fat you end up with is often oxidized and doesn't have the good flavor one associates with fresh animal fats. A bonus of cooking in a pressure cooker is that this doesn't happen and you can save the fat from the stock for other purposes. When making chicken soup, I like to take the fat from the chicken stock and use it to cook the vegetables and brown the chicken that ends up in the soup. I do something similar when making pho to sear off the beef that ends up on top of the soup.

It will taste like peppers and it will taste like jack, but will it taste like pepper jack? Probably not. When they make pepper jack, the flavor of the peppers is infused into the cheese itself and you won't get that sort of result using the method you describe. That said, it may be an acceptable substitute depending on the recipe you're using it in. You could construct your own pepper jack by adding peppers and emulsifying salts to melted regular jack, but you probably don't want to bother with all that. I guess the real question is why you'd bother with any of this given that you're already satisfied with the shredded cheese you have.

My turkey plan is to basically follow the ChefSteps playbook and cook the white meat in a low oven while doing an Activa bonded roulade in the water bath. It'll be easier to control the temperatures at which the dark and light meat cook if I cook them independently. I agree that the advantages of sous vide are more apparent on white meat, but they can deliver on dark meat too depending on the temp/time (think confit). I haven't had problems getting crispy skin from SV poultry when deep frying (wings can be especially good) though there are challenges when doing something like a breast. Even then, if you sear it off in cast iron, keep it lubricated, and press down while searing you can get good results.

We usually have 30 or 40 people at my family's Thanksgiving, which can feel more like a potluck than a holiday meal. This year we're only having 6. Which means I get to cook everything. Keeping it mostly traditional but with some modern twists. To start: Butternut squash soup with hard cider gelee and candied pumpkin seeds Crostini with carotene butter The main event: Turkey two ways (traditional oven roast on the white meat; deep fried sous vide roulade of the dark meat) Pommes puree from MC@H Brioche stuffing SV Carrots in carotene butter Deep fried brussel sprouts with bacon Cranberry/apple relish Gravy made from turkey demi glace + MSG and herbs Well that's what I'm making, anyway. My parents have a couple casseroles that they can't live without and insist on making. I think my wife's going to do a pumpkin pie with a ginger snap crust. Turkey wings went on sale last month so I made a boatload of super-rich pressure cooked turkey stock and froze it, so everything's going to be swimming in bird juice. Also duck fat. And I'm going to be swimming in hard cider, bourbon, and wine.

Wings are one of the best parts of the chicken for making stock as they have a good ratio of meat to bone and connective tissue. It's hard to make a really flavorful stock from bones alone, so adding wings helps punch up flavor (and the gelatin level). I don't know about you fine folks, but when I roast a chicken the wings seldom end up being eaten. I like to take the wings off before hand and save them up. I also like to keep a bunch of chicken feet in my freezer for stock making. These are really cheap at the farmer's market and can be used to enrich the body of pretty much any stock you're making. Break down the caracass/bones into chunks to maximize surface area and then roast them in the oven at 425 until they're golden brown. Transfer them to a pressure cooker with some onion and garlic, and then cover with just enough water to cover the top of the bones. You can also add browned carrot, celery, or mushrooms depending on how much of that sort of flavor you like in your stock. Cook at full pressure for 1.5 to 2 hours.

It's a vessel designed for infusions, mostly cocktails. It was created for Alinea, or their bar The Aviary, to create liquids whose flavor profiles would change over time. It's mostly a beautiful service piece to pour small amounts from over the course of a meal (or a single course). I had a cocktail served in one when I visited the Aviary, which was as tasty as it was delicious. Modernist Cuisine recently posted a couple of dashi broths designed to be infused in the porthole. I'd mostly use it to serve cocktails at dinner parties.

Oh yeah... I also want a porthole... Something very cool that I'd never buy for myself.

The gift of a Searzall will make anyone jump up and down like a child on Christmas morning. The A-Maze-N Tube smoker is fantastic and inexpensive. iSi Gourmet Whips are spendier but can be used for lots of things. iSi also makes the best set of tongs I've ever used. The 16" ones are perfect for the grill. Speaking of grills, Grill Grates are a fantastic way to upgrade a grill. So is a Kettle Pizza, but that's getting expensive. A baking steel is a cheaper gift alternative for the pizza fanatic. A bunch of hydrocolloids (or maybe some meat glue) from Modernist Pantry would make a perfect gift for someone into modernist cuisine. So would a copy of Modernist Cuisine at Home (if they're just getting started). Kitchenaid attachments like the meat grinder and pasta roller are good ideas. I got the meat grinder for my birthday and I love it. Whetstones are a great gift too (just make sure the person who gets them learns how to use them). Failing that, it'd be a great gift to have someone's knifes professionally sharpened. I know I'd love that. This year, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a Waring Xtreme commercial blender.

Why not use a proofing basket/banneton?

Why's that exactly? I bag stock in my chamber vac all the time.

For those who love to eat extruded paste...

For contradictions. The claim that "potato starch that hasn't been cooked is not an adhesitive" contradicts your experience that there's a "white, starchy sticky substance on the knife blade that only spuds leave behind." It's not true that uncooked potato starch isn't sticky... it's just not as sticky as gelatinized starch.

Check your premises.

Starch is certainly part of the story. Potatoes stick much more than other watery veg. Around 8 minutes into this video, you can see Heston using water and potato starch to put up wallpaper. Granted, he's using a lot of starch. On an off topic note, anyone know how to embed YouTube videos on the forum? (EDIT: Thanks Martin!)

The basic explanation is depth of flavor. But the specifics depend on the technique you're using to make the stock in the first place. These days I do all my stocks (except vegetable stock) in a pressure cooker. Pressure cooking aromatics (especially onion, leeks, and garlic) tends to mute their fresher flavors but bring out a deeper, sweeter taste that is often desirable. I double up on these whenever I cook using a pressure cooked stock so that you get the depth from the pressure cooked onions but also the more "in your face" flavor that you associate with freshly cut alliums. I don't usually add much in the way of carrots and celery in the initial cook because I'm not always looking to add the flavor (and color) that can come with them. But the alliums are always in there. Always.

If you dispense it immediately, there shouldn't be a problem. If you need to hold the chocolate for any length of time, you can just put the ISI in a water bath to keep the chocolate liquid. You can also pre-heat the ISI canister in a water bath so the chocolate isn't hitting cold metal when you first pour it in.

Pok Pok's Andy Ricker has been making and selling drinking vinegars for a while now. They come in a ton of flavors and you can order online. I haven't tried them myself, but I'm very curious.

Often people will aerate chocolate in an ISI, dispense it into a vacuum container or mason jar, and then pull a vacuum using their chamber. I'm not sure how well chocolate aerates in a vacuum without being charged in a whipper first.

Pretty much all "American" style cheese (be it white or yellow) is processed cheese. This is true of both Kraft and Land O Lakes American cheese.