Robenco15
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Posts posted by Robenco15
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I have multiple sizes of these - http://www.amazon.com/CIA-Masters-Collection-4-Inch-Strainer/dp/B000HVBES4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379351878&sr=8-1&keywords=cia+strainers
I absolutely love them. They are fine enough for everything and work great with stocks (I also use a strainer cloth when straining stocks for added refinement).
If I could go back in time, I may only buy reall good chinois' in different sizes. Now I am eventually going to buy chinois' but also have my bowl strainers. That is a lot of strainers. Might want to look into chinois and be aware of the size. Some look small online but then in person are massive and impractical.
Thanks for your input. I saw those and was somewhat put off by the price. Why do you "love" them? The long handle rises above the bowl of the strainer, and I can imagine that trying to lay the strainer across a pot and have it sit flat may be difficult. One use of a strainer for me is to pour liquids through them into a waiting pot. Any thoughts on this design element?
I don't think I want a chinois at this point - maybe later on. Space is at a premium right now.
They are sturdy (I've actually pressed purees through them before I had a tamis and while I wouldn't recommend doing it often as eventually it would probably break, it worked great the few times I have done it.
I love the size of the mesh. It is very fine. I haven't seen a strainer with that fine of a mesh besides some chinois and my 60 mesh lab sieve. I always look when I'm at any store that carry strainers and I have yet to find one that fine. Even the all clad were not very fine. I am not sure of the size but it is probably 1mm tops (I'm at work right now so I can't measure, but I'd guess that it's even less than 1mm). Quinoa cannot get through. I find that the mesh is the most important thing I care about when choosing strainers and sieves (plus durability I guess). Putting soup through and ice cream bases always results in a great, strained, product.
The handle is comfortable and while it doesn't have hooks at the end to rest over the lip of a bowl or pot, it has an indented lip that works well. I guess that could be a negative aspect of it but it hasn't really created any problems for me. I haven't really noticed the handle keeping the strainer from laying flat on the bowl, but maybe it does. It hasn't made a difference at all though.
Yes they are expensive. I've slowly bought the smallest one for cocktails and lemon juices, etc. The middle size is useful for a lot of things and then I bought two big ones for stock and larger items/volumes. They also work great for big pot blanching as long you get the water level high enough. I don't have them in front of me but the mesh does not vary at all from large to small.
Hope this is helpful!
edit: throwing it in the dishwasher is always convenient too!
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I have multiple sizes of these - http://www.amazon.com/CIA-Masters-Collection-4-Inch-Strainer/dp/B000HVBES4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379351878&sr=8-1&keywords=cia+strainers
I absolutely love them. They are fine enough for everything and work great with stocks (I also use a strainer cloth when straining stocks for added refinement).
If I could go back in time, I may only buy reall good chinois' in different sizes. Now I am eventually going to buy chinois' but also have my bowl strainers. That is a lot of strainers. Might want to look into chinois and be aware of the size. Some look small online but then in person are massive and impractical.
Good luck!
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so it's ok that it is resting on the bottom of the pot?
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I'm doing a couple of eggs at the moment and the KA whisk attachment is a perfect solutionOne thing I've noticed is the clamp is pretty high on the unit. Too high for an 8 qt stock pot. Although the unit appears heavy enough to stand on it own I didn't want to take a chance and a rubber band worked to secure the unit to the pot handleJust attempted eggs and all was well for the first half hour or so until I heard strange banging noises. The eggs had been grabbed by the Gulf Stream of the impeller and were being quite violently thrown against the wall of the cambro. Both eggs suffered broken shells. Will need to figure out a way to prevent this.Stick them inside a kitchen aid whisk attachment or just cut a part of the paper egg crate and place the whole thing in. The crate stays down and sturdy because it becomes soaked, and it holds on to the eggs.
I'll have to try that! Does it matter if it is resting on the bottom?
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No idea wangjt. I emailed them and was told they'd get back to me. They are probably pretty busy and who knows. I also don't know if they are wiling to tell me yet. They were quick to tell me to hold off but maybe didn't want to give me all of the details yet?
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Can someone send me the manual (dropbox link or something)? I received my device this week. However it tells me that the PDF on my USB key is corrupt. I can see the filename but it won't let me open it.
"Anova_SousVide-series Manual 2013.8.pdf"
TIL
Me too, please. Mine is older version "Anova Manual 2013.7.pdf" (and it's only 8 days old).
Yeah I've been waiting a week and a half to order mine as they are currently making "comprehensive program updates" and Jeff was kind enough to tell me when it would be safe to order. Chances are when I do get mine it will be the new model for a few weeks until they do it again, haha. Gotta love technology. I'll be sure to post the manual if it differs wildly from the manual on scribd for anyone who would like to know the changes.
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Yeah I thought the same when I read it. I couldn't see what in the recipe would create terrible results so I figured some people just can't cook.
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Yeah. I was surprised at how many errors were in Bourdain's Les Halles cookbook. All metric weight errors for the most part.
I would be interested to know which ones. I use this book quite a lot but can't think of any errors off the top of my head.
This is from an amazon.com review, where I discovered this error list (I didn't find these, someone else did. I checked a few of them and they checked out so I assumed all of them check out):
"p. 042 says
1 cup / 225 gr white beans
1 cup of beans would have weighed 225 gr only if dry beans had had the same density with water, which they most certainly do not.
p. 042 says
2 ounces/ 28 ml of olive oil
2 ounces equals 56 ml, not 28
p. 049 says
2 tbsp butter / 28 g
2 tbsp flour / 28 g
According to many sources, Larousse Gastronomique and common sense included, the weight of two tablespoons of butter is double the weight of two tablespoons of flour (different density of the two materials). In other words, if you have kitchen scales and follow the weight measurement the recipe tells you to, the recipe won't work. It will only work if you follow the spoons (volume) measurement.
This mistake, namely saying that a ½ cup of anything (dry or wet ingredient) is 110 g, regardless of that anything being parsley, breadcrumbs, flour, butter, or what-have-you, occurs DOZENS of times throughout the book. Pity... pity.
p. 070 says
½ pound / 115 g
½ pound is 225 gr
p. 109 says
2½ lb / 225 g haricots verts
2½ pound is 1,135 g. 225 g is ½ pound.
pages 135 and 161 say
turn the steak / lamb chop 180 degrees (on the grill)
If my memories from high-school geometry are right, turning the steak 180 degrees will flip it and the left side will indeed become the right side. However, the lines (grill marks, in our case) will coincide. That is, the steak will be marked along exactly the same lines (or maybe parallel to the previous ones, if one's not careful with the flipping), and not in a crosshatch or crisscross pattern. If you desire the latter, you should turn the steak 90 degrees (for a square crosshatch), or something like 70 or 110 degrees (for a longish, lozenge-like pattern).
p. 142 says
½ cup / 225 ml heavy cream
½ cup is 110 ml
p. 143 says
1 cup / 450 ml of the hot broth
1 cup is 225 ml. 450 ml is 2 cups
p. 143 says
add ¼ cup / 112 ml
¼ cup is 56 ml
p. 148 says
1 cup / 225 g fresh bread crumbs
Fresh crumbs are quite fluffy. How come they are 225 g to a cup? Maybe 225 ml (volume) not 225 g (weight) would have been better.
p. 178 says
1½ ounces / 32 g (for a bunch of parsley)
1½ ounces is 42 g
p. 209 says
three plum tomatoes or 500 g canned tomatoes
Is this possible? If three plum tomatoes (plum, mind you, not beefsteak) equal one 500-g can, this would make them unusually large ones. Also, a 500-g can of plum tomatoes contains 6 to 9 of them, which makes them hardly equal to the three fresh ones that the book claims. It seems that size should indeed matter, after all.
p. 199 2nd line, says
1 cup / 110 ml
1 cup is 225 ml. 110 ml is ½ cup
p. 207 says
3.5 pounds / 1,350 g
3.5 pounds are 1,600 g
p 257 says
yields 1¼ cup / 28 g
C'mon! 28 g makes for quite a measly cup. 280 g is correct, not 28.
p 259 says
½ a tbsp of honey / 7 gr
Honey is quite thick (dense), as we all know. It is impossible for ½ tbsp of honey to have the same weight with ½ tbsp of water. Why not use ml instead of g and get out of this confusion?
And now, for a couple of factual mistakes.
p. 148 says (with reference to veau viennoise)
This is not exactly French style, it's more of an Italian thing
Isn't this more of an Austrian thing, if we notice the title which screams Vienna? What would viennoise mean?
p. 158 says
au moutarde
Shouldn't this be à la moutarde ?
p. 160 says
place a sliver of garlic
OK, we did that. That takes care of the 4 thinly sliced cloves of garlic that the recipe requires. Reading on, one sees that the 20 whole cloves of garlic (yup, 20 of them) that are listed in the ingredients are not included in the directions. Hey! Where did them 20 cloves of garlic go, uh? What are we supposed to do with 'em?
p. 184 says
piment d' esplète
Nice French accent marks and all, but the word esplète is non-existent.
In my humble opinion, it should be piment d' Espelette. Espelette is the name of the pepper-producing city in the Basque territory in France, non?"
I still like Les Halles and find it worth having. I enjoy the writing and it is very classical french bistro fair. I also own Bouchon and that is extremely classical as well, just to another level in refinement so owning both is nice.
By the way, have you done the Coq au Vin. I haven't, but have read that the recipe does not work, but I'm not always so quick to trust random people online. Not everyone can cook. Has it worked for you if you'd done it? I am going to do it this winter.
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Yeah. I was surprised at how many errors were in Bourdain's Les Halles cookbook. All metric weight errors for the most part.
Anyway, I was just curious about TFL. Still no idea whether to use Basil oil or Chive oil for that tomato dish so I'll make it twice and try both.
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What were the missing ingredients? I've skimmed through her entire blog ( well not the Alinea at home one yet) and I've only noticed a mix up of basil for chive oil in one recipe...TFL weblog of a normal person making all the dishes in TFL. She found a few outright errors in the book (e.g. missing ingredients). Very well done weblog with great pictures and interesting writing.
In the Vanilla bean roasted figs with honey-vanilla ice cream, her book apparently didn't have the vanilla beans for the ice cream. My book does as it was there when I cooked that dish a few weeks ago.
I guess I have a different edition?
Anyway, I wanted to bring this back to life to see if an errata has either been published somewhere or if someone is aware of all of the mistakes? I've cooked a good amount of dishes from TFL and have had no problems yet but I am curious. I contacted Ruhlman but he said he didn't believe an errata list was compiled and said he would get back to me, and never did.
Anyone have anything?
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I got this book a few weeks ago and read through it immediately. It really is fantstic and I couldn't agree more.
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When I started cooking sous vide egullet's legendary sous vide thread was absolutely invaluable and was the reason I joined egullet in the first place! Douglas Baldwin's website and materials were also incredibly helpful. You should be able find just about everything you need for sous vide cooking from just those two sources.
That said, if you get the chance, borrow someone's copy of Modernist Cuisined to read the chapter on sous vide cooking. It's increadibly thorough but the information is presented in a concise and well-organized format. Opinions vary of course, but I now consider the sous vide cooking time charts in MC as the definitive reference source for that information.
Could you direct me to a volume number and page number? Or volume? Where exactly are the charts? Thank you!
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Just so I'm clear though, an oven timer does not shut the oven off, right? Isn't there more of a hazard letting food slowly cool in a waterbath when the circulator turns off ten it not turning off and the food staying at that safe temperature.
Either way, it doesn't matter. Curious why my idea of the timer seems to be a minority though, haha. Look foreard to hearin about your Demi!
Meant to answer this earlier. When time is up on the Demi it beeps once and then the timer light blinks until you attend to it. The unit does not switch off.
Ah. Now that makes more sense. Thanks for letting me know!
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I got some grass fed skirt steak at the store. They didn't have many cheap steaks to choose from, so I got this one. The steak is actually ~2 lbs of meat in not a very flat piece, so that is also why I am letting it go a long time. It's a chunk of meat. We'll see how it turns out really soon. Fingers crossed! The Anova is doing great though!most of the skirt steak ive done is actually fairly thin, unless you roll them up to make pinwheels.
Im hoping you might share a pic of your finished steak.
drool.
That's awesome. It sounds like the Anova is doing its job so I'd be really interested to hear if somehow it doesn't turn out how it should and why that would be, as related to the Anova.
Are you using the timer on the Anova unit?
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Thanks guys. The egg came out almost exactly like how pictures of a 63.3C egg describe.
So what did you set the bath at, 63.3C?
Keep us updated and thank you!
I set it to 63.3C and put the eggs in for an hour. The yolk was just beginning to set but still runny.
Word of warning, if your bath is small and your anova touches the bottom, it will suck in the eggs and they will bump around next to the circulator. The shells did not crack, but I can see it being possible that they could.
Side note, other people have mentioned either being concerned or not concerned with the noise. I find the sound noisy but tolerable, but my kitchen and my roommate's work space are connected with no doors or walls between them, so I would worry about it being too noisy if I leave it on for a 24+ hour cook. It's no noisier than a range hood fan, so if your kitchen has a door/wall between it and a room you will be in I can't see it being a problem.
So a 63.3C egg doesn't quite give the yolk a creamy/honey texture. Or, I guess you said you don't have a way to measure the temperature so it may be off a little bit since eggs are so tempermental?
Thanks for the info. I will be using a tall small cooler so I will be putting the eggs in a salad spinner insert.
My apartment is small and the kitchen and bedroom have a door between it, but that's it. But, I could put the cooler and sous vide anywhere in my apartment as long as there is an outlet. I could put the cooler and unit in the shower if I really wanted to.
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Thanks guys. The egg came out almost exactly like how pictures of a 63.3C egg describe. Might have been a little cooler but I consider it an acceptable variance. After the egg I made 132F breaded pork chops with the anova along with 180F corn in my sous vide supreme demi for dinner. My only complaint is that there's no beep that I noticed when the anova is up to temperature. Other than that, it seems like a quality piece of kit. Will be making 24 hour pork spare ribs in the next few days to see how the anova holds up to long cooking times.
So what did you set the bath at, 63.3C?
Keep us updated and thank you!
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Well, since I got mine 2 days ago, I've been solely using a small cooler with wheels. It's maybe big enough for 3-4 steaks. Since it's only me, that's more than enough room. I don't think I am using the heating element much at all once it gets to tempeture because when I'm done cooking, that water stays hot for hours and hours and hours.It depends almost entirely on insulative properties of the container. Getting water up to temp can take a whole lot of energy but once it's there, a well insulated container can keep it there for tiny amounts of energy.
The day I got the machine I cooked an egg at 65C and then wanted to make shrimp about 4-5 hours later and the water (with the lid open the whole time) was almost at the temp I was going to cook the shrimp at. That's the way to save on energy! Now if I wanted to cook vegetables and have the water cool enough to then cook steak, I would have to use another vessel or figure out a way to drop the temperature some other way.
I was definitely surprised at how much the cooler retained the heat. I purposely kept the lid open for the heat to escape, but not much did.
So far so good though? Happy with it? I am so close to buying it I can practically taste my first 63C egg! By the way, would I set the waterbath at 64C for that?
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I just ordered one of these and yesterday I sent Jeff an e-mail asking if there were any new updates coming that I should wait for. no reply as of yet.
Question for everyone: Can someone supply a link to amazon for whatever Cambro container they are using with this?
I emailed him yesterday. He told me program updates are happening at the end of the week and i should wait until the 16th to order to be safe.
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Thanks for all the help and info guys.
I'll be cooking for myself and one other using the water displacement method. Can I put two steaks or two chicken breasts or two of whatever else in one bag or do they need to be sealed in their own bag (both for safety reasons and even cooking, etc.)? Using the water displacement method may make it harder to do two meats in one bag too, right? Thank you!
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So the sound of the impeller is that annoying? Anyone else who owns this feel the same way?
Is a polyscience circulator very quiet?
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Taking the bottom cap off the anova significantly reduces both the noise and circulating efficiency. I was initially worried that bags might get caught on the impeller but preliminary tests seem to indicate that this is not a problem. Temperature variance across the bath (tested with thermapen) never seemed to vary by more than 0.1C at 85C. With the reduced noise, it's now much easier to cook in an adjacent room without bothering me. Cooking in the same room still produces a microwave level hum which can get annoying very quickly.
Does that bottom part serve a function? I thought it assisted in adjusting the direction the fan "pushes" the water flow.
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Please keep the impressions and reviews of the Anova circulator coming in as I may be purchasing this later next week!
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If I had a chef then I couldn't cook!
And I have looked them over. I guess I was asking you to test what I've learned over the past few days. I was looking for an easy answer.
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interesting idea.
an easer one is to SV, perhaps on the week end a Big Batch Of Great stuff.
chill. keep in the coldest part of your Kelvinator
and then re heat.
you might use hot water from your tap. then re-heat those items.
you might use that time to
1) enjoy a Glass of Wine
2) make a Nice Salad
etc.
better yet:
employ a Maid, and a Chef
then tell them what you want for dinner and When.
Can you also freeze the items? And everything would have to be cooked to pasteurization before chilling and then refrigerating or freezing, right? That is something I could see myself doing as teaching all day during the week makes it hard to find the energy to always cook.
Anova Sous Vide Circulator (Part 1)
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted
Just ordered mine! Got the go ahead from Jeff that the updates were done and I could place an order.
They told me they are backlogged so I shouldn't expect it to be shipped until next week. I'm ok with that. Looking forward to finally owning it!