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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.

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?

Love the new book, but somewhat overwhelming. Looking to hear from others what they have cooked up so far that they really love. Especially those that do not require out of the ordinary equipment. Thanks in advance. Gary

Does anyone have experience using a laser cutter to cut or modify food? I will be participating in a "food hacking saturday" at the Madison, WI makerspace this weekend. I will be working with sous vides, centrifuges, LN2, dry ice, modified charcoal grilling, ultrasonic baths, etc...all per MC. My question is: Does anyone have ideas for foods that we could cut with our laser cutter. I have heard that cutting rice krispy treats produced less than ideal results, as the edges were burned and blackened. I would think that thinner and colder would be better for the food to cut. Maybe laser etched creme brulee? Also lower energy dense food would likely burn less. What do you think?

Okay, so yesterday my husband and I spent a fruitful afternoon canning tomatoes and learning the ropes (so to speak)of pressure canning. Now we're wondering, what did we do wrong, and did we just waste 20 lb. of plum tomatoes? Here's what we did: We packed raw tomatoes into one-litre jars, added the recommended amount of lemon juice, filled the jars with boiling water, sealed them, then processed them for 1.5 hr. I think that's an extraordinarily long processing time, but according to Modernist Cuisine, it's a fail-safe to ensure that everything reaches optimal temperature for killing any possible toxins. The instruction book that came with our pressure canner recommends 10 minutes at 10 lb. pressure. Here's what we got: Bottles are only about 3/4 full, and there's evidence of leakage into the canner. After they came out of the pressure canner, the tomatoes were floating near the top of the jars, but have since settled to the bottom. The liquid and tomatoes fill only about 3/4 of the jars. They've also discoloured, indicating, to me at least, that they're seriously overcooked. Okay, so I know that we didn't pack the tomatoes tightly enough. I have another case of tomatoes to can today, so will address that problem. What I need to know is, are the ones we've already canned safe to eat? Or is the air space likely to harbour any nasties, and should we just discard them?

On the gels chapter there is a brief discussion on ricotta, and in the parametric table for cheeses it says that if you want to make dry ricotta you can add 0.7% salt, press it for 2-3 days in fridge, then hang for 2-3 weeks. 0.7% of what weight? The milk? or the ricotta you get? Is it added to the milk? I assume you press it in a cheese basket, with only a little weight? What are the environmental conditions supposed to be during the hanging?

Alright so I am thinking about bottling and selling my own hot sauce. The base is butter and whenever it cools it solidifies. It's not that big of a deal, you can just throw it on whatever you're cooking and it melts right over top everything. But, I would really like it to keep in a liquid form. I know if I used clarified butter, that will increase the shelf life and I wouldn't have to refrigerate it. But, is there anything I can add to it to keep it in a liquid form?? Happy Valley Chow