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WSJ Articles on Food, Drink, Cooking, and Culinary Culture

ChocoKitty

By ChocoKitty
in Food Traditions & Culture

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Beusho

Beusho

Posted
Posted

so .... nothing new for this product?

the Anova , " all things being equal " might give this one a real run for the $$$$

I take it this one has not shipped?

No, they've pushed the anticipated ship date to sometime in the Fall. The Anova looks good but I haven't seen any reviews for it yet. There's also another Kickstarter campaign for a new circulator called Sansaire http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/seattlefoodgeek/sansaire-sous-vide-circulator-for-199?ref=live that might be worth a look, if you don't mind the risk of buying a product that doesn't exist yet.

I have a review for the Anova in the Anova thread

“...no one is born a great cook, one learns by doing.”

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Coogles

Coogles

Posted
Posted

so .... nothing new for this product?

the Anova , " all things being equal " might give this one a real run for the $$$$

I take it this one has not shipped?

No, they've pushed the anticipated ship date to sometime in the Fall. The Anova looks good but I haven't seen any reviews for it yet. There's also another Kickstarter campaign for a new circulator called Sansaire http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/seattlefoodgeek/sansaire-sous-vide-circulator-for-199?ref=live that might be worth a look, if you don't mind the risk of buying a product that doesn't exist yet.

I have a review for the Anova in the Anova thread

Thanks, I hadn't read through that thread until now. Sounds like a nice circulator.

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  • 2 weeks later...
rotuts

rotuts

Posted
Posted (edited)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323639704579015392505505048.html?KEYWORDS=schmaltz

interesting to look at.

Ive enjoyed all of Ruhlman's books

Ill get this from the Lib.

cant stand Ck Fat though, but understand its importance historically.

BTW Ruhlman's early book on being a student at the CIA ( the tasty one ) I found facinating.

esp. the part on the Snow Storm.

F.D. I actually had Lunch at the CIA in a previous Century. :rolleyes:

Edited by rotuts (log)
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rotuts

rotuts

Posted
Posted (edited)

i guess as a 'review' Im allowed to post a few quotes?

"For the uninitiated, schmaltz is the German word for lard, the melted fat—usually pork, but occasionally goose, duck or chicken—used in cooking and baking. It was also, among the peasantry of bygone days, used as a cheap alternative to "buttering" one's bread. As one of countless German loan words that found its way into medieval Yiddish, schmaltz came to mean chicken fat since, under Mosaic law, pork fat was taboo. For stetl dwellers in Russia, Poland and Ukraine, the humble chicken was often the only affordable protein source, both in egg and poultry form. When Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe made their way to America, they brought their taste for schmaltz with them."

and

"Mr. Ruhlman declares in his introduction: "Fat doesn't make us fat—eating too much makes us fat. Eating all that processed crap, and cleaning our overfilled plates at chain restaurants, makes us fat. Lack of vigorous exercise makes us fat. The truth is, our bodies need fat."

etc.

Edited by rotuts (log)
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Lisa Shock

Lisa Shock

Posted
Posted

Some of it is misleading. Beans and nuts, especially when combined with grains, are also affordable protein sources, probably THE most affordable sources.

Until factory farming post WW2, chicken was one of the most expensive meats, thus recipes for 'city chicken' made from veal, which was cheaper and far more plentiful. Chickens have to be carefully cared for and fed. They were generally kept by farmers for the eggs, and only killed and eaten when old and beyond laying, many medieval peasants did not have the resources to run their own chicken coops. Meanwhile, the medieval peasant had streams and oceans full of fish, forests full of game, and plenty of assorted rodents readily available. (we have Roman recipes for mice)

But, the medieval diet for rich and poor alike was governed by the principle of balancing 'humors' and most often consisted of grain-based gruel with various flavorings depending upon a person's health. They boiled everything into these gruels, including vegetables like lettuce, eating very little, if anything, raw. They cooked in pots over the home hearth, home ovens were rare signs of wealth. (The home stove and oven are an invention of the 1800s) An average peasant family took their raw loaves to the village baker to be baked for a fee. That baker would cook other dishes as well, but, doing so cost a family dearly. (boulangere potatoes evolved as one of those type dishes, obviously post Columbus)

I am not a fan of Mr. Ruhlman, btw. My 'last straw' with him was his blog post, since deleted, where he quite seriously quoted Eric Ripert stating that it is a well known fact that women are inferior as chefs because it is impossible for a menstruating woman to make mayonnaise without it breaking. He only withdrew the post a week later following video demonstrations by several female bloggers (one wasn't enough to convince him) creating perfect, unbroken mayonnaises while 'Aunt Flo' was visiting.

  • Like 2

Have you read eGullet's Kitchen Scale manifesto?

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Coogles

Coogles

Posted
Posted

Just received an email saying that the first group of Nomikus have cleared Chinese customs and are now en route to San Francisco for processing and shipping to the first set of backers. I was an early backer so hopefully I'll have one of these units in my hands soon!

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annabelle

annabelle

Posted
Posted

Success!

From the article:

"Native to Mexico, this edible member of the orchid family was carted back to Europe by Hernán Cortés along with other riches of the Aztecs. Today, vanilla is produced in more than a dozen countries around the world, mostly on small farms where the pods are hand-pollinated, picked at the peak of ripeness and then put through a monthslong curing process that gives them their trademark brown, leathery appearance. Only Tahitian vanilla represents a distinct species; elsewhere, flavors ranging from butterscotch to saddle leather are the result of differing soil conditions and curing methods, not genetics."

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annabelle

annabelle

Posted
Posted

So much for all that nutritional information on the side of the bag, eh? I always laugh to myself when people pile their baskets with "light" chips and triscuits or wasabi peas.

When did snacks become a food group, anyway?

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Coogles

Coogles

Posted
Posted

My Nomiku was waiting for me when I got home today. After looking it over for a few minutes (seems to be a solidly built piece of equipment) I set up a bath for the inaugural use. I grabbed the large stockpot I use for homebrew (I think its 28 quarts), attached the Nomiku and started filling the pot with cold tap water until I reached the "Max" line on the stem. Total was about 14 liters. To turn on the Nomiku you just press the screen, then use the green collar to set the desired bath temp. I decided to make some sous vide carrots so I set the bath temp to 90C. The starting temp of the bath was 20C, it took about 2 hours 40 minutes to get to 90C and I had to improvise a lid towards the end to help reduce the effects of evaporative cooling. Once bath temp was reached the temperature didn't deviate more than +/- 0.1C, unless I removed the lid. The temperature seems to be spot on according to my probe thermometer. There were no problems with tripping the GFCI in the kitchen like I have with my old Fisher Scientific circulator so I'll actually be able to place the bath in the kitchen where it belongs now!

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Coogles

Coogles

Posted
Posted

I generally do use pre-heater water for the bath, but with any new piece of equipment I like to put it under maximum stress to shake out any bugs. If it's going to fail I want it to fail while covered under a warranty.

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Shalmanese

Shalmanese

Posted
Posted

is 2 hours and 40 minutes a reasonable amount for a sous vide to heat water from 20C to 90C?

According to my calculations, that means it's pumping 425W into the water. Given that it apparently has a 1000W heater, that's less than 45% efficiency which is pretty disappointing. I'd try again with covering the bath and insulating it to see if you can get it done faster.

PS: I am a guy.

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Coogles

Coogles

Posted
Posted (edited)

is 2 hours and 40 minutes a reasonable amount for a sous vide to heat water from 20C to 90C?

According to my calculations, that means it's pumping 425W into the water. Given that it apparently has a 1000W heater, that's less than 45% efficiency which is pretty disappointing. I'd try again with covering the bath and insulating it to see if you can get it done faster.

I'll have to look through my emails, but I'm pretty sure that they increased the size of the heater a little bit. 1150 watts keeps popping in to my head but I'll need to verify. I'm sure evaporative cooling had a lot to do with the long heating time, when I have a moment this weekend I'll try a run with the cover on from the start and see what happens. It would be interesting to see how other circulators perform under the same testing parameters but it would be difficult to control the variables in the real world.

Edited by Coogles (log)
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Shalmanese

Shalmanese

Posted
Posted

is 2 hours and 40 minutes a reasonable amount for a sous vide to heat water from 20C to 90C?

According to my calculations, that means it's pumping 425W into the water. Given that it apparently has a 1000W heater, that's less than 45% efficiency which is pretty disappointing. I'd try again with covering the bath and insulating it to see if you can get it done faster.

I'll have to look through my emails, but I'm pretty sure that they increased the size of the heater a little bit. 1150 watts keeps popping in to my head but I'll need to verify. I'm sure evaporative cooling had a lot to do with the long heating time, when I have a moment this weekend I'll try a run with the cover on from the start and see what happens. It would be interesting to see how other circulators perform under the same testing parameters but it would be difficult to control the variables in the real world.

According to their website, it's 1000W. Regardless, it doesn't really matter since you're still only pumping 425W into the water.

PS: I am a guy.

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