rustwood

There are many others here with far more experience, but I just did a 72 hour brisket cook with circulator and I was amazed by how little evaporation there was. It was a full packer brisket in a cooler and although I covered it with plastic wrap, it definitely wasn't air tight. If evaporation is any concern at all, I think it is far outweighed by the portability and flexibility of an immersion circulator. As for vacuum machines, I just have a food saver and it works well enough for me. I do occasionally wish I had one that can deal with liquid, but not enough to give up the space and money for a chamber style unit.

A while back I watched a different star bread video and was delighted with how my first try came out. It wasn't up to par with Patrick's beautiful work, but it was pretty darn good for a first try. Everyone was so impressed by it - even though it was actually far easier to make than it looked (to me at least). The second time I made it I got cocky and rushed through it. It definitely wasn't as nice looking to my eye, but it seemed to wow my guests just as much as the first one had. Of course it doesn't hurt that it is a very tasty recipe (cheese and herb star bread from Food52). I wish I had a whole menu of recipes like that one - tasty dishes that look impressive but aren't actually all that difficult to make.

I had this at a party recently and it was delicious. I am not a whiskey drinker but I will be keeping an eye out for this one and will happily shell out for it if I get the chance.

After I made them I found this quote in another thread and laughed out loud: "..the amount of butter Robuchon uses is up to half the weight of the potatoes. No, I'm not kidding. Obviously you'll use less (everyone does)." I don't think anyone can fully appreciate that unless they have made the recipe and struggled with the prospect of using so much butter.

As for the oven problem, if you have a place for a gas grill then a Blackstone oven does a pretty amazing job. Learning how to manipulate the pie and the gas burner for the best results is a bit of an art though. I have made a lot of pizza on my kamado grill (aka big green egg) but I never made another one on it after getting a Blackstone. I still get a thrill every time I use it because it works so surprisingly well. Here is a link to a previous thread that mentions it here and one of the links within it to a good post on another forum: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=28721.0

FWIW, my remaining items have finally shipped. I am somewhat surprised, but pleased. Hopefully everyone else will also receive their items soon.

Same here. I ordered 6 items, one came up as unavailable or out of stock before I even finished my order (not sure how that happens with a proper cart system), one small item shipped and arrived ~10 days later, then another small item shipped and arrived a week after that. The remaining 3 are showing as reserved. I wouldn't mind except that one of those 3 items is the main reason I ordered anything at all and I kind of need it. I've been thinking about cancelling so I can get it elsewhere but it sounds like that may not be an option.

As usual, I bought the print version of this book but I now find myself wishing I had purchased it as an e-book (although not enough to pay for it again). I haven't made much progress with it because I keep grabbing other titles that are easier to carry and/or physically handle while reading. I just thought I'd mention it in case anyone is debating which format to buy.

Good call! As you said, this looks like a fantastic solution for bulk processing and it is fairly inexpensive. You don't need much of it and the currently available incarnation of it is available for ~$9 from modernistpantry.com. I might get some just to play around with it.

I know nothing about making marmalade but I would be inclined to focus on removing the zest without any of the pith - even if that meant leaving some of the zest behind. Of course you would do that before you juice them. Would that be too costly or is there some other reason not to do that? Martha Stewart has a pretty good demo of tools/methods for removing zests. It sounds like a channel knife would produce what you need in one step - not counting some cutting to length.

Agreed, it is a tangential to the current topic. I guess I made the mental leap that less likely to be contaminated with salmonella = better, happier chickens. Apparently that isn't necessarily the case, but that also doesn't mean that free range isn't a better approach overall - especially if it is done properly. Although the infested chickens may be safe to eat, I can't help but wonder how infestations impact the quality and taste of the meat. Sometimes the chickens I get taste great, sometimes not so much. I get them from multiple sources but I have never taken note of where the duds came from. I think I will now.

You may be right about samonella but I was recently surprised to read the following: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/backyard-chickens-not-as-clean-living-as-youd-like-to-think-011116.html

The free range chickens I buy are typically frozen solid. When I want to use them I have to remember to put them in the fridge for at least 2 days and often I won't get around to actually using them for another day or two. I realize the risks are not zero, but based on my experience I would say that they must be quite low. Am I delusional? Foodborne illness long overdue?

The only problem with that is that some people are quite squeamish about pork that has more than the slightest hint of pink in it. That may be irrational, but it is a consideration when cooking for a group (as was the case here).

Congratulations on a successful cook. It is hard to say for sure, but the beef looks quite lean. Unless it was a very tender cut, you may have needed a much longer cook to tenderize it. I am new to sous vide myself though so hopefully someone with more experience will comment. Pork seems to be very forgiving, but I might have been tempted to do a trial run with an extra beef roast - particularly if I wasn't sure about the tenderness of the cut. Then again, I tend to go overboard. The first time I did our thanksgiving turkey on a big green egg I think I did a trial breast, then another trial with a whole turkey, then the actual bird. It worked out though because everyone loved it and I ended up digging out vacuum-sealed turkey from the freezer so everyone could take leftovers home.

I pulled out a 9+ month old bottle of Lagunitas Olde GnarlyWine last night. So good. I never seem to be in the mood for a big barley wine, but Gnarlywine's relatively low ABV of 10.6% makes it quite drinkable (even in a 22 ounce bomber bottle). It seemed like a session ale compared to the Dogfish Higher Math I had last week (17% ABV). Look for Grarlywine this February/March and stock up - it is tasty and reasonably priced.

Or read this far more recent summary of the research: http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/11/high-fructose-corn-syrup-goes-to-court-scientific-verdict-partly-in/ Sounds to me like people eating too much sugar is the problem - no matter what the source. HFCS is 65% fructose and table sugar is 50% fructose. It is hard to believe there are significantly better or worse health effects from one vs the other at moderate intake levels.

Hopefully it is OK to post without an awesome picture of the results, but yesterday I made this: http://flourandfancy.com/2015/09/04/chocolate-cake-for-leeda/ It was easy, good, and interesting. Much lighter and not as spicy as I expected. It wasn't overly sweet either, but I did make it with both the dark cocoa and dark chocolate for the frosting. That might have been a little too much so I think next time I'll probably use semi-sweet for the glaze. Alternatively, I would be tempted to try a layer of apricot or orange preserves in it - like a lighter version of a sachertorte.

Anna N - I hope that tastes as good as it looks because I am definitely making that - probably tomorrow!

That is a good thought, but it seems unlikely that they wouldn't be aware of that. Perhaps they are intentionally aiming for higher margins and lower volumes towards the upper end of the home user market. I will be interested to see if they are able to maintain that $100 price jump after the introductory period. There is a smoker called a Pit Barrel Cooker that seems to have succeeded with the same strategy and price points. They offered $100 off their $300 cooker, sold a bunch of them, got a lot of buzz and then maintained the $300 price point. It may have taken some time for people to get used to the idea of paying $100 more, but they seem to be doing very well now. There are cheaper options, but a lot of people seem to think it is worth a premium. Perhaps Chef Steps is hoping that will also be true for the Joule.

I didn't expet miracles, but I was hoping for something along the lines of them being only vaguely like the real thing, but still better than none at all. Apparently not. Thanks for your thoughts.

I was at my local Costco and saw a $20 package that I believe constisted of these two items: http://www.amazon.com/Sabatino-Whole-Black-Summer-Truffles/dp/B00ARMIHJC/ http://www.amazon.com/Sabatino-North-America-Truffle-3-40-Ounce/dp/B002OI9U9I/ I don't think I have ever had a dish with even a hint of truffles in it so I know virtually nothing about them. I have seen the $1000/lb black truffles at a local store so I can imagine that these are not at all the same thing. I am hoping someone can tell me if these might be worth trying or if they are more of a gimmick than an inexpensive entry into the world of truffles. Thanks in advance.

That is a good point; however, nearly all of these programs will export to a variety of useful formats. Of course you do need to remember to export it once in a while. The html output from Paprika is pretty good and it includes the same hrecipe metadata found within the pages of recipe sites (the metadata that is used by programs to "automatically" import recipes).

I just realized I had an unfortunate typo but I can't seem to edit it now - it looks like the depth range is NOT going to be very good.

I have been using Paprika (http://paprikaapp.com) on Android for about 18 months now and I like it. IOS and Android versions are currently on sale for $2.99, Windows and Mac version are $9.99. It has a spot for one photo and a web link, but no movies or additional photos as far as I know. It automatically imports recipes from many sites and it has a good tool for manually importing when necessary. I've even figured out how to save recipes from my kindle books (although they need to be manually reformatted). The cloud sync feature keeps my devices in sync and allows me to look at recipes and my shopping list when I am at the grocery store. I've been using the Android version on my phone and tablet and it works great on both of them. There is a bookmarklet which you can use in any browser to automatically import recipes from supported sites, but you need one of the apps to manually copy or edit a recipe. Most of the time I am using my notebook when I happen across a recipe so I bought the Windows version. I also think it is easier to do the manual recipe entries on my notebook. With that said, I believe the Windows version has only been out for about a year and it shows. It is slow to start and a little clunky in general. That could be related to the fact that it mimics the same UI as the Android version and thus it probably isn't a native Windows application from the ground up. My notebook is very fast but I still have to wait a good long time after I click the icon for the application to start up. Usually I remember that after I have clicked it 2 or 3 more times with no apparent result.