Bernie

@rotuts I suspect the answer is even simpler. Most websites these days make money out of advertising. So how do people (that's us😃) find information? We use search. Sadly, the mighty search engines of today use algorithms to maximize results for their advertising income, not truth or accuracy. So the end result is that websites pay attention to search analytics and copy or add articles based on search topics. They are not interested in truth or reality, its all about the bottom line. The same author or organization may have many, many different websites all with the same information, subtly different. That results in the spread of myths and misinformation, anything and everything is repeated adnauseam without regard to truth or authenticity.

They freeze fine... but when thawed they will be a little more soft and runny. I think the water crystalizes and when thawed needs to be stirred in. I just heat and mix them for a little longer and they are fine. It does tend to break up any lumps though so that's a bonus (I am a bit lazy mashing them)

All around the world the male octopuses ( or octopi ) are breathing a big sigh of relief..

I do pork roast in the SV, BUT I then finish for 10~15 min in a hot oven to improve the look and feel of the outside. I do Beef basically the same way. Lamb roast I find DOES not work well in the SV (not sure why) so do that in the oven in an oven bag with Rosemary, ripping open the bag to release all that lovely liquid for the last 15 mins to flavor the roasted vegetables in the same pan. This also scents the kitchen with lamb & rosemary.

Here is an interesting phenomena that may apply to corn beef We quite like pork steak (usually sirloin) but they can be a little dry after cooking, so I brine them for 24 hrs (6%). I then SV at 65C for ~3-5 hrs, then do a sear to serve. I normally vacuum pack into meal size (2 pieces) when i buy in bulk, then freeze. So I usually thaw, brine cook. Well I thought to cut down the process time a little. So Brine then freeze then they can go straight to SV with or without thawing. Whether they are thawed or put straight in the SV the end result is the same. The amount of liquid in the bag is perhaps 3 times what I get compared to the original method. Perhaps as the water freezes, it expands and when it thaws it has lots more room to exit the tissue. The meat itself is drier but probably not as dry as without the brining. I wonder if Corn Beef does the same, though it would be hard to tell because it has a lot more salt (and therefore more liquid).

Sometimes there is absorbent materials added to retail packaging, to mop up any loose liquid that may weep from the meat over time and makes the packet unsightly. I would be wary of SV this material along with the meat. Since you are going to repackage for freezing, do the repackaging before SV. If the original packaging "cryovac", which is much thicker than normal packaging it may well survive in the SV, but if it is it will usually have an absorbent pad or packet as well. (an indication of whether it is "cryovac"is that the used by (or best by) date is several weeks rather than days.)

High heat 200C + Moderate 160C > 180C Low <140C Source: My opinion (and I am a know all so I am pretty sure it may be right -my better half says so) 😀 When electric & gas (not petrol!) ovens first hit the market, temperate control was VERY imprecise so manufacturers used low (yellow) moderate (orange) hot (red) on temperature dials and even these had wide tolerances and spread , depending on manufacturer. Most older cooks when using wood or fuel fired stoves and ovens could learn (by trial and error) and estimate temperature for their particular appliance.

Many years ago I did a few trips on a tuna pole boat (as an observer only). There was a crew of about 13 and one of the meals was oven roasted corn beef. It turned out to be reasonable taste wise but pretty salty, which wasn't actually a bad thing because the work poling tuna was very physical with little relief and nights spent catching bait, so everyone was generally permanently exhausted. But because of the nature of the work you would sweat buckets and just drinking water wasn't enough. The salt of the corn beef replenished the salt and allowed you to drink more water and actually quenched your thirst..

Yellow for cooking, white has more "tangy sharpness" for salads and red are usually much sweeter and not as tangy. I will use red onions for salads, just so I only have to keep 2 types. (also white can be a bit overpowering in some salads) I will cook red onions with fresh tomatoes for pasta or use red onions if I run out of yellow😀

went out to breakfast on Sunday on the menu was a couple of vegetarian dishes. One item in the list of ingredients caught my eye. "Vegetarian Butter" huh? Well its butter made from plant oils like coconut oil, olive oil, bran oil...........doesn't that make it margarine? (or as its commonly referred to processed industrial waste)

I now always add bread crumbs, which gives a smoother texture to the finally cooked product. I also make it in a loaf pan with grease proof paper and then vacuum package it and put it in the SV for a couple of hours. It will also break down some of the connective tissue which I think also "smooth out" the texture. This "cooks & sets" and a lot of the fat/liquid ends up around the loaf (like the loaf is floating in liquid). Then it is removed from the bag and goes in a hot oven to develop the crust. Depending how it is to be used (cold, sandwich filling, hot etc) I either remove the liquid and replace with gravy or sauce or I can remove it from the loaf pan and place on a tray in the oven to develop a crust round most of the loaf. If it is to be used as the main protein at meal times I will remove it from the pan (using the paper to hold it together, carefully unwrap and cut into serving size slices, re wrap and return to the pan, then the oven. That way the sauce/gravy can penetrate more. EDIT: SV needs to be hot enough to set the egg so arounfd 75C

here is an off center tip Keep sweet potatoes in your RED wine fridge. (if you don't have one, here the best excuse to get one..... then you have to buy better red wine to take full advantage of the wine fridge....win,win,win😁) In the normal fridge they will deteriorate, in the open air they deteriorate quicker (I guess depending on the ambient temperature). In my wine fridge they tend to keep for weeks without any noticeable change. (probably the combination of temp & humidity control)

Pretty obvious to me in this technological age we need an internet connected panini press. That way the press can use AI (Chatgpt👺)to tell us what we should and should not do. Just think, eGullet could make a fortune by selling all the data necessary to train our IPAIWP (Internet Panini Artifical Intelligence Wonder Press) (Actually i liberated mine the other night from the back of the hard cupboard to do a revisit. Now I am contacting the Kitchen installers to ask them to explain why I don't have a really really hard cupboard)

physics knowledge needed here 😀 You probably need to make sure you keep it somewhat agitated if it is getting close to freezing The advantage of using brine as a freezing medium is that it will freeze at a lower temperature or more importantly at below the freezing point of water, so it can be circulated to cool down product to water freezing point much quicker. (normally you use brine external to the product for short enough time - if it is in direct contact so you may get salt transfer) But I seem to remember (and that facility is indeed fading😒) if it is kept still some water may freeze releasing its salt. (that's where the physic knowledge is needed).

A simple white sauce (with cheese) crab mornay with lots of crab meat, baked in the oven. (not quite Italian but add some cherry tomatoes and Italian parsley 😀) Scalable from 2 to many.