Anonymous Modernist 7751

Thanks Shawn, that's what I was wondering!

Some of the recipes call for putting the ingredients and pressure cooking in a canning jar, such as the buffalo sauce. Is this OK to do in a 5qt pressure cooker or would I need a pressure canner?

I've heard the aquarium pumps won't last long and their casings soften and eventually break with long cooking times or higher temps

I've built my own temp controller with an outlet in a toolbox more than a year ago and let me say...it seems like the the temp controllers on the market (Auber, Dorkfood etc) are cheaper. The thing to check out is the thermocouple to make sure you get good temp reading. You can hook up a bucket heater to this and it will do the job just as well as any of the immersion circulators and is much easier and much much cheaper for those without the tools or time. The only downside is that it doesn't have a circulator, which can now be bought. I'd like to hear what people think about this, last time I checked the commercial temp controllers were around 100$ which is about the same price you pay for making your own and more likely cheaper

So all, I've built my own temp regulator with a PID controller and outlet to control a heating element (I'm currently using my slow cooker). My question: what do you use to circulate your water? I saw the lightobject pump and the reviews say it's not submersible (what does this mean? should I get hoses to connect to the pump parts?). Is there a better/easier to use pump.

Hey thanks for the replies. It seems like the KR is a better deal and worth the price. One last question: Is it possible to can in a 7.4qt or 5.4qt pressure cooker, reading some of the threads on egullet made me it sound like I would need a 10qt to can in, and there are some recipes that use canning in MCAH.

Hi all, I just purchased MCAH and have some questions about pressure cookers. 1) What size do you recommend. I was looking at a set of a 6qt and 4qt, will these be enough to do a big pork shoulder in or make soup for 8-10 people? 2) Does having 2 pressure settings matter? The Fagor brand I saw only has 1bar, the other Kuhn Rikon seems to have two but neither brand makes a big deal about this. 3) In MCAH Kuhn Rikon and Fagor are recommended, there is a significant price difference between the two, is there a difference in performance and durability? Thanks for your help!

What are good ones? I'm looking to buy one and want to know what people think are quality for the price.

What is the purpose of vacuum sealing the beans just so they can soak...does this make any difference? I left mine to soak overnight and they looked nowhere as big as the beans pictured in the book but I did not vacuum sealing and I'm wondering if this is the reason or maybe I just bought smaller beans.

Thanks guys! I appreciate the answers, they help me understand this stuff a bit more

Some recipes call for a long slow cook in an oven for a whole chicken, followed by high heat for around 15-20 minutes to crisp the skin with the danger of overcooking, I was thinking about trying the torch to crisp the skin as I think this would be much less likely to overcook the meat and would be faster and more controlled. Anyone done this?

What I don't understand is #1. My temperature controller works fine with a heating element plugged into the GFCI, but I definitely don't have the GFCI grounded. I wish I knew what was going on!

Hi all, I've made my home DIY sous vide bath with a sestos PID controller, an SSR and a GFCI outlet that I can plug a heating element into. I was a bit nervous when I was building it because I don't have much practical electrical knowledge but I followed directions I found online. I have a few questions: 1. My GFCI is not connected to a ground source (I think most people use switches for a ground source?), is this OK? 2. I use a 25A SSR, if I use a higher rated SSR like a 60A will this be safer/it won't get as hot? I already use a heat sink and it has never even gotten to a noticeable temp when I touch the heat sink but the most I've ran it is about 8 hours. 3. On/Off or proportional, this is where I'm really out of my league: I've read a lot about how these PID controllers are either On/Off or allow a varying levels of electricity through and that the On/Off is not as good. Is this true? Should I be fiddling around with my PID to change it? I've been using the box for months with no problem other than it always maintains a temp 1/2 degrees above the set value which I just factor in. Thanks for any help from those with more experience!