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I've got some lamb riblets from a friend's pasture-raised lamb, which I received frozen; I brined the ribs overnight in the fridge and then put them in my sous vide setup at 145f for 36 hours. Unfortunately, I neglected to put plastic wrap over the water pot and due to evaporation my immersion circulator shut off at some point during the night last night. I don't know how long it was off for, but the water had reached room temperature by the time I found it. I wouldn't serve these ribs to anyone else at this point, but I really don't want to throw them away and am wondering how much of a risk I'd be taking by eating them. They've got another 12 hours at 145f left, and then I was going to grill them before serving, so they should get re-pasteurized. The risk I see is if there were enough botulism spores to produce toxin that won't be destroyed by pasteurization. So I my questions are: -- Does meat like lamb riblet generally contain botulism spores in the first place? It sounds like they're much more common in fruits and vegetables, or food that has touched dirt. -- The vacuum bags didn't puff up at all. Does this mean that no significant amount of botulism grew? -- Is botulism toxin just on the surface of the meat? If so, if I dipped the ribs into boiling water briefly to denature any botulism toxin on the surface, would I be making them safe to eat? I know it's easy to say "when in doubt, chuck it", but I was pretty excited about these ribs and that'd be painful. So, how much of a risk is this? Thanks, - Rick

The folks from Nomiku have launched a kickstarter campaign for a new version of their circulator... https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nomiku/new-nomiku-sous-vide-wifi-connected-and-made-in-th

I've had luck with sous viding steaks only to bring them up to temperature. But any steaks that require holding for more than a couple hours always dry out and lose a ton of their pinkness. I use Douglas Baldwins tables and have tried sirloin, ribeye, eye of round, etc at 130/131F. I've tried them at 6 hours, 8 hours, and sometimes the much longer 24 hours or more cooks. Ribeyes - of course I only tried at 6 hours once as I was looking for a way to render the fat down a bit more besides applying a lot of high heat. I was trying to get the best of both worlds with this one. The delicious rendered fat of Ribeyes with the perfect medium rare temperature with less chance of human error. The other meats, I was experimenting to see if I can turn leaner, cheaper cuts of meat into something much greater, like many sous vide advocates talk about. I've tried many times, and have never been successful. Like I said, the longer cooks make them lose a ton of their juices, and the meat comes out pale and hardly pink at all, despite being cooked at medium rare. I recently did a side by side comparison of a 8 hour vs 1.5 hour sirloin and the 8 hour was not enjoyable at all. Dried out. The 1.5 was good, but about the tenderness I expect form a traditional cooked sirloin of course. I figured it might be an issue with the microcontroller (Dorkfood DSV) not being calibrated. So I bought a thermapen and pretty much the 3 thermometers including the thermapen I use pretty much agree that the microcontroller is doing a great job (and yes, the bath is circulated). My heating element is one of those Marshalltown immersion bucket heaters. Have any of you had this problem? My only suspicion is that it might be a factor of thickness at this point, but even then, I've tried top sirloin over 1 inch thick and it still comes out dry and pale after 6 hours at 131. I'm not getting this legendary turning cheap cuts into filets with more flavor that I keep hearing about. The only thing I haven't tried is doing a roll/roast. Any advice would be appreciated!

Has anyone tried to Sous vide live shellfish in a broth etc? I know that you would have to pull a lesser vacuum on this to allow the shells to open, I was thinking probably in the range of 50% to 60% and you would have to sous vide immediately to avoid suffucation of the shellfish, but you could possibly hold a couple hours for pick up at lower temp. I am thinking about possibly clams or mussels. Would love to know if anyone has tried this. Thank you

When I am home curing pork, say to make guanciale, pancetta, or coppa, I typically put the meat, cure #1 or #2 depending, spices/herbs together then vacuum seal and keep at about 38F it until I'm ready to do whatever I plan next for it, such as air curing. Rarely is it left in the bag for very long...the longest stretch has been 2 weeks. It has always been successful for me. This time I have a situation where I have several cures which have had to sit vacuum sealed for a very extended period--nearly 4 months. I am confident the temperature was controlled under 40F the entire time. Given the length of time in an anaerobic environment, my first instinct was to toss them out due to fears about botulism. But the more I think about it, I'm questioning whether they might be ok--they are well coated what is effectively a wet cure of salt and sodium nitrate. Importantly, these only have #1. My major concern is the potential for botulism. Secondary concerns would be texture or salt content issues. I have not yet opened the packages, but all visual indications are good--great color, good firmness, no visual mold, discoloration or other visual cues. Obviously putrid odors would require that I trash them, but a lack of putrid odors doesn't rule out botulism toxin. Thanks for any advice!

I've been making chicken liver mousse by frying some chicken livers. I cook some shallots, deglaze the pan with port, reduce it, and then combine all of the above with butter in the food processor and strain it. It seems like the results are kind of variable. I believe this has to do with the step of cooking the livers. Sometimes I get them more cooked, sometimes less. The product often has a kind of gritty texture that some of my family don't like. In the recent posts on modernistcuisine they mentioned making chicken liver mouse by cooking the livers sous vide. In fact, the chef who did this specifically noted the problem of improper cooking of the livers. However, no information was given as to the temperature he used. So I cooked the livers at 131 F for 2 hours and then followed the procedure above. The resulting product was extremely smooth. But it had an astringent aftertaste that ruined the mousse. In fact, I ended up throwing it away. This brought to mind a different chicken liver preparation I had tried in the past where raw chicken livers were pureed with eggs and butter and the mixture was cooked sous vide. That product also had an astrigent taste. So I'm wondering where this astringent taste is coming from and what is necessary to eliminate it. If I sous vide cook the livers at some higher temperature will I be able to get a result which is smooth, and has a flavor similar to the flavor I got when I pan fried the livers?

I'm thinking of experimenting with some Liquid Smoke with my sous vide hamburgers, and I'm wondering if anyone has any opinions as to when makes the most sense... 1) brush before bagging 2) brush when coming out of the bag after cooking, but before searing 3) brush after searing, when otherwise all 'done' any thoughts anyone? my inclination leans toward (2), although I'll probably try all three

In a never-ending battle to bring sous-vide cooking to people who have no idea they want to cook sous-vide, there's a product in the works that will do all the work for them. It's called Mellow. From the Mellow web site: Have at it.

Hey all, I'm looking for some guidance. I am interested in smoking meats but unfortunately have no outdoor space to build/install a smoker. I am trying to figure out how to smoke things in my apartment. I live in an old factory with a bunch of windows and am not the least bit concerned about ventilation. Should I be...? I recently acquired some equipment for cooking sous vide and am wondering if I can use low and slow sous vide cooking beside stovetop smoking to obtain an acceptable alternative to traditional smoking outdoors..? Here are some questions I would love to have answered... When building a stovetop smoker, what are some aspects of the design that are of utmost importance? Precise temp control? Humidity control? Should the smoker be air tight or is oxygen necessary to keep the chips smouldering? Let's say I wanted to smoke a pork shoulder, could I cook that sous vide in a water bath to the desired doneness and then move it to my stovetop smoker to impart a smoke flavor? Would the outcome be better if I cooked them from start to finish in the stovetop smoker? I appreciate the cumulative wisdom of this forum and thank you in advance for your comments. -Chris

So, in Under Pressure, Keller specifies no cook times over 4 hours if the temp is below 140F yet, I'm pretty sure I've seen (and I know I have done) 24-72 hr cooks at 135 opinions? facts (even better!)? doesn't the time eventually reach pasteurisation even at the lower temp?

I have two questions. Anyone know the best exact temperature of water to get the best flavor out of veggies such as carrots, onion, garlic, leeks for SOUP? Second question: If the stock recipe calls for 2 ounces of thinly sliced veggies( carrots, onions etc) simmered in 2 cups water for 45 min., could I cut the simmering time in half if I added 4 ounces of veggies instead of 2 ounces? I assume more veggies will extract more flavor to the water faster. Is that correct? For ex. lots of books recommend simmering the water with veggies for 45 min. If I add twice the amount of veggies, could I cut the cooking time in half to 25 min to get the same flavor extraction as cooking for 45 min in the original recipe? I'm asking this because I have made lots of Chicken broth for Ramen that has no other ingredients then water and chicken. I now want add veggies to the chicken broth to get the veggie flavor and want to know what temperature I should cook it at. Also I'm wondering if I triple the amount of veggies in my recipe, if I can cut the cooking time to 10 min. instead of 45. Thanks!

Dave Arnold and co. say yes, Nathan Myrhvold and co. say no. Dave makes a good case for it and says that 90% of sous-vide cooking can be done without a vacuum, and that his food saver has been relegated to re-sealing potato chips. Nathan doesn't give a reason. I don't understand why ziplocks couldn't be used for cook-chill applications. Don't we use them to store conventionally cooked food in the fridge? Thoughts?

Hey all, I just scored a VWR 1122S circulator off eBay and need to find a replacement power cord before I start using it. I believe this circulator is manufactured by Polyscience and modeled after their CLASSIC series. Does anyone know what I should be looking for in a replacement power cord? I have one here that is marked 10A 125V that fits the circulator perfectly. Would this work? Thoughts? -Chris

Hi Guys! I'm looking for some real pacojet recipes and I was wondering if anybody care about sharing their recipes here. The ones I use in my work place are pretty limited and do not work 100% if you change some ingredients. I'm specially looking for sorbet recipes. If someone have any good tips about pacojet, I would love to hear it. Cheers

I got my sous vide last week. One of the first applications was the Crème brûlée I'd heard so much about -- it came out perfect. I searched online for a lower calorie custard, but every recipe uses cream and/or yolks, no whites. I decided to make a custard 1 part whole egg to two parts liquid (no starch), 83 degrees Celsius, 30 minutes. It set in the bag. I poured it in moulds and when cooled it tasted fine, but wasn't what I was looking for. Without going through dozens of eggs and liters of milk, does anyone have either a recipe for whole egg custard Sous Vide style, or some suggestions for my next batch? Thanks,

Bradley seems to be the king, as they are very automated and pretty much hands free. Do you need and external electrical outlet? They seem a tad expensive for the full machine and disks, if I wanted to smoke for 12 hours or more what are my alternatives? Does anyone have a Bradley and what is good or bad, my understanding is that the original is the best and the digital is dodgy? Has anyone used the Bradley smoke engine to build their own smoker out of a plastic garden shed or something? Drew

Hi! I have a question, I cooked sous vide a pice of eye of round, first time I did it, I packed it with a home Food Saver, which does not kmakes much pressure, and I cooked it for about 18 hours at 130 F, was very tender and juicy and pink, just how I like it, the second time I cooked packed it with a professional chamber vacuum machine, for 60 seconds, and I guess was packed under a lot more pressure, cooked it also for about 18 hours, but this time at 135, it came out very tender too, but this time released probably 4 times more liquid, meet was pink, but texture was dry. Can 5 degrees make such difference? Of you think it could be the much higher pressure of the chamber vacuum machine? Thanks!

I´m quite curious when it´s writen low heat in cookbooks. What does that mean. I have never understood this. And when i was reading in the modernist cuisine about clarified butter. In the text about Ghee it says "To make ghee, contiune to warm the melted butter over low heat for 45 min." Can someone please tell me wich temperature low heat are? I think it quite suprising that the authers write in this way in this of scienice based book.

Hi, For those in Australia I have been sourcing ingredients for modernist cuisine and have put together a few kits, which are currently up on Ebay. You can view the kits at the Australian Ebay site. This is not a business, it was just more economic for me to buy in larger quantities than to buy 20g of stuff at a time mail-order. Once these kits go, there will be no more… -Chris

Has anyone made ice cream base in a souse vide? Or creme anglaise? I have a recipe for ice cream that calls for cooking at 82 C. But i want to cook ribs at 80 C. Would 80 C work for the base? Or is that too low?

Me and my wife are flying to Seattle the weekend of September 17th to attend Ryan Matthew Smith's photography workshop. Is MC Cooking Lab open for any kind of visits during that period of time? Thanks

I made the Mughal Curry sauce last night. It was not one of the more successful recipes I have made from Modernist Cuisine. Perhaps I needed to soak the nuts for longer than the recipe called for, but I had the hardest time trying to get my blendtec to grind them into a paste. I added a fairly significant amount of water (didn't measure but at least 1/2 C) but even then it was difficult going. Then when I added the nut pastes to the sauteed ingredients, there wasn't enough liquid to even come close to a simmer. I neglected to check the errata and I see that I should have added 200 g of water at the point. Well, I added well more than that trying to get this to a consistency looser than wet cement. Has anybody else had trouble with this recipe? All that being said, it tasted decent.

The complete recipe for Sous Vide Rare Beef Jus--along with backstory on its creation, tips on selecting the meat, and a step-by-step video that illustrates how to use a centrifuge to clarify the jus--is now available in the Recipe Library. We're looking forward to hearing what you think of the recipe, and what dishes you find go well with the jus.

After cooking several recipes from MC&H (and a few from the big MC) I noticed that the results are a bit more vinegar-y than everyone expects ”” including me. White wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, sherry vinegar ”” it's just too much of vinegar in all the recipes we tried. The only possible explanation that readily jumps to mind is that it is because I live in Russia and use European vinegars which might be more pungent than their American counterparts. For my red and white wine vinegars I use the Kƒ¼hne brand from Germany, my sherry vinegar bottle is Carbonell from Spain. Do my European colleagues feel the same about vinegar? Have anybody tried to figure out proper scaling for European vinegars? Anton.

As we get close to Hanukkah, I can't help but think that there must be a better binder for them than the traditional matzoh meal and egg... something from my modernist pantry that would make the pancakes themselves crispier on the outside AND more well done on the inside. Maybe tapioca starch? I'm still new enough to using the MG techniques that I'm not confident that I can build my own recipe. Does anyone else have one, or have any suggestions?