benjamin163

Such great advice thank you for taking the time, I shall get onto facebook for sure.

Thank you for your thoughts. Here is the recipe I used... Boil up the following for the stock... 250ml white wine 250ml water 250ml white wine vinegar assorted dried spices Simmer seafood (mussels, clams, squid, baby octopus, prawns) in the stock for 15 mins. Transfer the seafood to sterilized jars, well drained. Add oil heated to 60 degrees to the jars, covering the seafood and secure the jars. The recipe comes from a book called Preserving by Oded Schwartz. I must say I find the techniques throughout the book a little random and not fully explained. However this is the recipe published and what I used. I guess the only difference is I doubled the vinegar stock because I used far more seafood. Maybe I didn't use enough stock. Could that be an issue? I have taken a pic of the recipe and attached also. All thoughts gratefully received.

I recently made a mixed seafood in oil dish. I followed the recipe very closely except for one point. The recipe required me to heat oil up to 60 degrees C before pouring it into the kilner jar filled with the seafood. I guessed this temperature because my thermometer wasn't working. Unfortunately when I went to check on the kilner jars after a month, the stench was disgusting. I'm wondering if it was the non precise measuring of the temperature of the oil that did for it and what the science behind this is. I would say the oil I heated was definitely hotter than 60 but I thought hotter was better as my understanding is that the heated oil is there to create a vacuum in the kilner jar once cooled. I also noted that a couple of prawns had protruded the surface of the oil and wondered if this was the problem, although all the shellfish was boiled in vinegar beforehand and I was strict on sterilization. Any thoughts on this are gratefully received. I was gutted to have to throw it all away as I made loads and I spent a big wedge on the ingredients. Also, any tips on making sure none of the ingredients protrude from the surface of the oil would be most welcomed. Thank you.

Great story. Yes I substituted butter for oil for exactly the same reason. Carrot cake is a great example. Same with your banana bread. I dunno, these just didn't rise properly. I wonder if it's because I only creamed half the butter with sugar and that's somehow not worked.

Totally. Me being greedy!

I just made muffins but instead of creaming 110g butter I creamed 70g and then added vegetable oil in a bid to try and give them that moistness I crave. Whilst they came out delicious, they did spread more than they rose. I wonder if that's because of my meddling with oil. The rest of the recipe remained the same. Baking powder and Bicarb were used. The only other thing that was different is that I pushed the blueberries in on top after spooning the batter into each case in order that they didn't sink - which they didn't. I guess another thing was that I mixed the dry ingredients with the wet only a tiny bit, just until it was incorporated and no more. Which of these things contributed to them spreading a bit rather than fully rising? Any help gratefully received .

Well I tried exactly the same recipe for cupcakes but creamed the butter and sugar first. The difference was that the creamed version formed mountainous peaks on my cupcakes which I of course lopped off and ate! So I'm thinking the batch I creamed rose even more than the first batch - which rose nicely nonetheless. In this case I think it's whether you can be bothered to cream. I got a bit more rise but the all in one recipe was also delicious and light. Lot's of good science I've been put onto in the thread and I'm ploughing through it although scientist I am not!

This is a great article thank you for posting it.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I'm wondering why we wouldn't simply cream everything if it guarantees to add air and give a smoother texture. Why do some sponges call for it and others not? As I said, the batter I made for simple cupcakes was delightfully light and I didn't cream. I wonder if it would have been even lighter had I creamed. I wonder if it was felt the recipe didn't require creaming because the sponge turns out light enough anyway. Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

Hello, I love my food savouries but I'm tryi g to get a bit more into my baking sweet things. I just made some good cup cakes but the recipie didn't require me to cream the butter and sugar. I just put it all in and beat. Can someone explain when one is to cream and when it's not necessary? Another newbie question. What's the point of self raising flour? the same recipe above required self raising flour and extra bicarb of soda. I wonder why you wouldn't just go plain flour and bicarb. I have sussed the difference between baking powder and bicarb and so I wonder if using self raising is just a simple way of omitting the baking powder but I would like to be sure. Is it that the extra bicarb in the recipe reacts with the creame of tartare in the baking powder present in the self raising flour? Any help/thoughts gratefully received.

Again, thank you for these great replies. @btbyrd, I'm thinking of things that I don't want to be 'moulded' when they come out of the pack. I'm experimenting with 'ready meal' spaghetti and sauce. All pre-cooked then packed and pasteurised. But when it comes out having been packed at 95%, the pasta is rigid and blocky. That's one application. But in general I was just wondering why these other levels of vacuum even existed and if I'm missing out on something. I think you have explained very well that a lot of it is about texture which makes a lot of sense.

Hello, I love cooking my pulses and beans and have used a pressure cooker, slow cooker and top stove to do so. However, the results often vary due to my carelessness. I enjoy the results of sous vide and wonder whether cooking beans and pulses sous vide would make them deliciously tender without falling apart and going mushy. I have looked up a few recipes but the temperatures vary enormously. I'm wondering if there's a more scientific approach. Like, at what temperature do the walls of a pulse break down without breaking apart? And does the amount of water the pulses are steeped in matter? I'm gathering that pre-soaking is no longer the necessity it once seemed. So I'd love an understanding of the optimum temperature to get fluffy, unctuous beans without the mush. Any help or opinions greatly received.

much appreciation for these answers. I'm not so worried about crushing and the like. I'm mostly cooking tough cuts of meat which will withstand it. I really wondered if having more air in the bag would lead to shorter shelf life issues. Does the shelf life of a pasteurised pouch sealed at 80% differ from one sealed at 95%? I'd love to take out less air on certain pouches because, as you rightly pointed out, many ingredients tend to bubble at 95%. But I don't want to compromise shelf life or pasteurisation.

Hello, My chamber vacuum sealer can expel air from the bag at anything from 20% to 96%. I usually seal everything at 95%. I'm wondering why you would want to seal something at less than that. Is there a good reason? Is it simply so that you don't squash delicate food? Or is there a more scientific reason? Any help gratefully received.

I find these answers very helpful and I'm most grateful, thank you.

This is amazing and really appreciated. Why are my ice creams still a little grainy and textured? A little rough and 'frozen'? I'm following instructions. Is it possible to churn too much? Also, I tend to get varying thicknesses of custard from my water bath. The other day the custard was very thin, whereas the time before it was a little coagulated and I had to blend out the eggyness. Is that simply a weights and measures thing? Size of yolks etc? Can you make a successful ice cream from a thin custard? What will the difference be with a thicker custard? All these questions. I bet you wish you hadn't been so insightful. But any help gratefully received.

thanks Mgaretz, I've started vacuuming to 80% instead of 95% and filling the bags up less. Seems to do the trick.

thanks for this Jo, I'll take a good look.

Hello, I'm really struggling with a couple of issues with my ice cream. First thing is the mixture that makes a custard. I can't vacuum seal it without making a hell of a mess. Milk, sugar, egg yolk, cream, vanilla pod, all blended up. But when I vacuum seal, it gets to 50% and then starts frothing and by 60% it's frothing out of the bag which is less than a third full. So that's my first question. How do I vacuum seal this mixture without making a mess. Second question is around the usage of trimolene. I bought a job lot but can't find recipes which use it. So I have no idea how much to use. Do I simply substitute the sugar for trimolene? Do I use the normal amount of sugar then add a small amount of trimolene? Do I add the trimolene when I blend up the mixture. Any help on these issues gratefully received.

There are some great answers and tips here, thank you so much, and keep em coming!

I do have a costco nearby. What brand was it that you found good?

I recently bought a 10K bag of basmati rice because it was cheap but, for the first time really, I'm coming to appreciate the difference between cheap and quality basmati rice. The one I've bought is fine but it breaks up very quickly when cooked and becomes a bit of a mush. It led me to wonder what to look for in a good basmati. There are so many brands out there. I've done a little research and Tilda seems to be the standard go to quality rice. But I'm also reading about extra matured rice which interests me and a lot of other quality brands out there. Does anyone on here have a go to basmati rice brand and does anyone here use extra mature basmati and feel there is a discernable difference? Any help or suggestions gratefully received.

Hello, I am doing a lot of slow cooking, sometimes sous vide, sometimes in a crock pot, sometimes on a stove top. I find the stuff I cook sous vide most convenient as it has such a good shelf life if the correct procedures are adhered to. My question is this... Can I enjoy the shelf life benefits sous vide pouches offer by simply bagging up leftover food not cooked sous vide and sticking it in a water bath, correct times and temperatures observed, to reheat then chill. eg could I cook a chicken thigh curry in a crock pot then portion up what I don't eat, bag each portion separately, stick in a water bath for an hour at 70 degrees celsius, blast chill then be able to store refrigerated for the extended times the dish cooked sous vide would allow? And would the same principles apply to vegetable dishes? Any help gratefully received.

I thank everyone for their replies. All of them were very helpful, informative and interesting. It's what makes this forum so great. Thank you all.

I know it's probably not best practice but I'd be interested to know if there's any scientific reason why it would be dangerous to eat food from a pasteurised pouch that had been frozen and thawed more than once?