jackal10

Slow food? 8 hour or even better 24 hour slow roast ribs of beef (at 55C/135F) Biffins: slow roast apples whole (12 hours at 90C/180F) http://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/documents/Fru...ewsletter03.pdf http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1078634 Eat cold. They come out custardy!

What no meat thermometer? My guess is the centre as lower, more like 135F; the steak about an inch and a half thick; working backwards assuming ten minutes cooking a side gives a pan surface temperature of about 170F. A pity you did not measure it. "medium heat" covers a wide range. Personally I prefer to cook my steak, especially wing rib, sous vide at 55C for 24 hours to let the colalgen dissolve, searing before and after.

The theory is that its time and water that allows gluten development, not mechanical work. The stretch and fold is more to do with mixing for an even structure, and incorporation of some air in the dough (like flaky pastry) to form nucleation for gas cells. When making bread many different processes are happening in the dough. Besides gluten network formation, the dough is becoming saturated with carbon dioxide from the fermentation. Eventually small bubbles will start to form, and the dough become increasingly fragile. That is the point to shape it and move it to a banneton or couche or other support, handling gently so as not to knock the gas out and destroy the developing structure. Nowadays we like large holes and coarse textured bread. It was not always so. 50 years ago the ideal was a fine, even texture with small holes, like pan de mie, so the bread was knocked down to re-distribute and reform the the gas cells. Baking in a confined space, like a cloche or a casserole simulates the high bottom heat and steam (dough is nearly half water) of a professional bread oven. the bottom heat lets the bread souffle, and the steam gelatanises the starch on the outside to give a crisp crust. I now almost always use stretch and fold. Its by far the easiest technique and most satisfactory. Let me also recommend Dan Lepard's book and web site http://www.danlepard.com However I may be biased as a picture of my bread is in it.

Shepards pie is lamb for obvious reasons. Cottage pie is beef. Traditionally shepards pie has mashed potato with fork patterns to resemble a thatched roof, cottage pie has rounds of potato to resemble tiles

After straining through a chinois, then muslin, then coffee filter I have a jar of cloudy black/brown liquid, very salty, smelling powerfully of old socks and earthy tasting. I am currently pastaurising it. What next? Not sure I want to use this for cooking...I have serious doubts about that earthy taste Clarify using a little gelatin and freezing? Throw away? This year the weather was not that warm, and I am not sure the salt level was right. I think I started with too low salt, and although the brew smelled like soy sauce, I was not sure about other bugs in there, so I upped the salt and maybe overdid it. Next year, if I do it again, I will wait for hot weather (late June), and watch the salt levels more closely..

I wish there was a suppliers section, both for ingredients and for equipment. For example nice picture of a scale weighing a feather, but not which scale it is or who makes it or which ones they actually use.

Durgin Park is not fine dining. You are eating tradition, plain food, plainly cooked maybe at wooden benches with traditionally rude wait staff. Since I come from a similar tradition, I like it, I only eat there prime rib, homemade Boston Baked Beans, Indian Pudding, all which are excellent. I dare say the clam chowder, broiled scrod or lobster are equally acceptable, but I've not ventured. The menu rightly says that the management is not responsible for steaks ordered well done. Locke Ober has had a makeover. and Lydia Shire has lightened the place and the food, not to the advantage of the Indian Pudding. I was taken by a fussy eater, and they coped with the demands ("take this bread away and toast it") well. Not cheap but it was described as their favourite place, and what I had (lobster soup, not chowder, and dover sole with a respectable Alsacian Pinot Gris) was competant rather than exciting.

Brief trip report: First night: Ate at the hotel, the Kendall Square Hotel, converted from a former fire house. Adequate, enlivened by power cut with which the staff coped well. Convenient location for MIT and my meetings. Hotel and food adequate. Legal Sea Foods, Kendal Square. Oysters then lobster. What can one say? Does what it says on the tin. Excellent quality seafood, served without fuss. All visitors to Boston must go legally - its now quite a large chain. MIT faculty club. Institutional banquet catering. Could be better. A lot better. Amused by having to make the menu selections some weeks in advance at the time of booking, which were then printed on the place name cards. I was Mr Tenderloin. Google canteen: Deserves its fame. How office catering should be done. Had an excellent hot and sour soup, then beef carved by the chef. Flatbread Pizza, Burlington (a small chain). Hand knitted wood fired organic pizza. Worthy. Clear Flour Bakery. Said by many to be the best bread in Boston, and I have no reason to doubt them. Small friendly dedicated place and team. Had some delicious Canneles de Bordeaux. Durgin Park. Classic. I'm really fond of this place, and its updated well. The beef maturing as you go in has to be seen. Lock Ober. Perfectly OK lobster soup and Dover Sole. Indian Pudding too light - not as good as Durgin Park Flour Bakery (South end). More of a very busy sandwich shop. Had a bread with baked in sausage, peppers, mozzarella, which hit the spot, but the bread was only average. Galleria Umberto Classic Italian working cafe. Short fixed menu. Long queues for Pizza - only tomato and cheese - used to be $1/slice now $1.35, and Arancini - Sicilian meat, cheese, peas and rice in a deep fried ball. Good. Some say best Pizza in Boston. Mike's Pastries, almost opposite, another must visit shop. Locals debate whether they or Modern make the best cannoli (flavoured riccotta in a crisp shell). Modern was closed, so we could not make the comparison. Great Bay Restaurant. Maybe I had eaten too much already, but I found it pretentious and average. Small overcooked lobster with lots of irrelevant junk, such as a squash flower stuffed with brandade, except the brandade was mostly mashed potato. Top of the Hub. Sunday Brunch. You go for the view. To my taste the omelette was cooked at too low a heat, and was dull, and the muffin in the eggs Benedict was hard and stale.

CHeese including human milk http://membres.lycos.fr/petitsingly/

http://www.stargatelibraries.com/page.php?pgid=100befade1049 http://www.landmilkhoney.com/recipanr.htm http://www.recipezaar.com/53903 http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/r...lids-links.html

I was wondering about beef bourguignon SV. Can anyone suggest appropriate cooking times? I'm using stewing beef - say silverside cut into slices 2 inches x 1/4 inch thick. Normally I'd cook fairly hot (its a stew) but the loss of moisture from the meat will not mix well withthe traditional starch thickened sauce Seems to me there are two approaches: a) Cook hot, say 72C for 12 hours or more and use the emat juices as the (thin) sauce or b) Cook at 58C so the meat retains its moisture but for a really long time, maybe 36 hours, and include a traditional starch based roux. Any experience, suggestions...

I see no reason why a small cooker cannot be used. As you said, the fish was evenly cooked, and the temperature reasonably accurate. There are purists who will say you need temperature control within 0.1C, but for the majority what you have is more than adequate and much better than conventonal cooking. You may want to consider a small grid to keep the food off the bottom of the cooker, where the temperatue may be different.

I received the following reply from the UK Microbiological Safety Division, Food Standards Agency, that may be of interest. "There are no guidelines that are laid down in any UK or EU regulations for Sous Vide foods. The Agency is aware that Sous Vide is a cooking style that is becoming popular and may be looking into it further."

Freeze packed in an ice cube tray wih water to make parsley cubes

No car, but I understand they have taxis and public transport. Based at Kendall Square and the St Botolph club I'd like to try things and local specialities that are better there than elsewhere. High end dining, and artisan baking.

I'm visitng Boston for a workshop at MIT on 14th-19th October. Meets? Eats? Bakeries? Pizza? Looked through the other (rather old) threads, but I guess much has changed since last visited many years ago. I guess revisit Faneuil Hall for Boston Baked Beans and Indian Pudding Legal Seafoods for chowder and lobster. Where else?

Autumn pudding - like summer pudding but with blackberry and stewed apple Sauce for game

See the Sous Vide thread. For home and small scale use use a rice cooker or crock pot, or even a steam table or a kettle and an Auber Industries http://auberins.com/index.php?main_page=pr...&products_id=44 - they send to UK and have a 240v version. Also available from http://freshmealssolutions.com/ (sous vide magic) If you need agitation you can use a small aquarium air pump. I use a Grant Instruments bath http://www.grantsousvide.com/

Suggest you read McGee pp 148-154 for a full and clear explanation. When you cook meat a number of processes happen each at different rates, and the rates are temperature dependent. NO temperatures are absolute, as for most natural processes there is a rate of reaction at any given temperature. 1. The fibers coagulate. This starts around 120C, and is mostly complete by 65C. The hotter the more tightly bound the proteins become.. The muscle cell becomes a coagulates protein core surrounded by fluid, inside a muscle fibre sheaf mostly of collagen. Some of the fluid is lost where the fiber sheaf ruptures in weak spots. 2. The collagen shrinks. Between 60 to 65C the collagen sheaf shrinks and eventually bursts, releasing the fluid. 3. At a rate dependent temperature, but quite fast above 70C the collagen dissolves into gelatin, and the meat falls apart into fibres. 4. Around 60C the myoglobin starts to turn from red to grey brown, although the myoglobin that has escaped with the meat juices may stay cooler and hence pink. Also the inside of the meat does not heat up immediately, as meat is rather a poor conductor of heat, but can take several hours to get to temperature, depending on thickness and temperature difference. Often a steak is well cooked and grey brown on the outside, and less cooked and pink in the center. So to answer your questions: It depends how long you hold at the temperature which will (mostly) govern how much of the collagen coverts to gelatin. The hotter the meat the faster it converts, say say 4 hours at 65C will yield tender meat, 4 hours at 95C will give falling apart meat like overcooked stew. Try it and see The water is stored as fluid in the cells. Meat at 54C will lose some, but nowhere near as much as at 65C. The red fluid is not blood. It is the intracellular fluid plus some myoglobin. Brillat Savarin called this fluid "osmazome", and described it as the soul of the meat.

This is a fine example of the confusion of threat and risk. Because something might happen, it doesn't mean it will. While it is possible that some wild salmon is infested with tapeworm, the incidence is low, and very rare indeed for farmed salmon. Generations have eaten raw fish as sushi, tatare, gravlax, lox and the rest without apparent harm. I think you need to make the case that infections of tape worm have increased, and even then it is likely that the infected fish is from a few specific locations. For fish only from those locations preacutions would need to be taken until the outbreak is contained.

I tried it, and on the basis of one piece of broccoli, I could tell no difference. There may be a mass effect, lots of broccoli together I would expect to stay warmer longer. If a critical temperature for cooking vegetables is 85C, then that is not that different from 95C, and small temperature differences may be more important.

That seems to be a fairly clear cut experiment then. Aspargus is out of season here. Lets use say broccoli stalk, one piece cut into two. So simmer for say 3 mins. Shock one piece, and leave the other on a plate for say 30 min The hypothesis is that they will be of different softness, and that suggest time-at temperature is important. If they are the same softness it might suggest time at temperature is not. Lets hope as many people try as can, and report here.

Sam: Not quite. In meat the denturing of collagen to gelatine, while temperature dependent is a slow process, so the meat kept at temperature for 30mins (or more like 12 hours) will be much more tender than the 3 second piece. In vegetables its the same slow heat transfer to the interior effect. Simmering water is at about 95C, and I suspect its not time at temperature that is causing the softening, but heat transfer to the interior causing more of the inside to soften.

Even so, I'm not so convinced that this is needed for sous-vide cooking, provided the integrity of the bag is OK. For almost all SV cooking the food has been (mostly) sterilised to at lesat the reccomended FDA time/temperaature for cooked foods and at least to the level where it could be safely held for several hours (4.6 hours at 44C to 16 hours at 20C, extrapolating from the FDC data), providing the bag does not leak or is opened or the food otherwise exposed to new pathogens.

I use one alll the time. Often you dont want or need a clear stock, and if you do the freeze (it has enough gelatine) and melt slowly in a cloth lined sieve or coffee filter. Easy.