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New Toy: Breville/Polyscience Control Freak!

CanadianHomeChef

By CanadianHomeChef
in Kitchen Consumer

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ElsieD

ElsieD

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, boilsover said:

 

It's been reported on another site that, if "Slow" is selected, there is no overshoot: 

 

 

Can you tell us which site this is?  There isn't a lot of info that came with the unit and every bit helps.

CanadianHomeChef

CanadianHomeChef

Posted
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Posted (edited)

Just got home. Tested the new unit on probe control - 180. Confirmed with thermapen. Brought it up to 186 using pan control. Water eventually reached 186 and stabilized. Looks like it's a good one.

 

This weekend planning on making eggs benedict a hollandaise sauce in one. Hold a hollandaise. Use the other for initially poaching eggs (which will then be brought to a cold bath, and then reheated in the warm bath when needed. Bacon and toasted bread the traditional way still.

 

Still thinking of other good uses of two... 

 

 

Edited by CanadianHomeChef (log)

Sizzle and Sear

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ElsieD

ElsieD

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, CanadianHomeChef said:

Just got home. Tested the new unit on probe control - 180. Confirmed with thermapen. Brought it up to 186 using pan control. Water eventually reached 186 and stabilized. Looks like it's a good one.

 

This weekend planning on making eggs benedict a hollandaise sauce in one. Hold a hollandaise. Use the other for initially poaching eggs (which will then be brought to a cold bath, and then reheated in the warm bath when needed. Bacon and toasted bread the traditional way still.

 

Still thinking of other good uses of two... 

 

 

 

 

I'm trying out a recipe for butter poached fish.  Think I'll cook it to 135F.  

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ElsieD

ElsieD

Posted
Posted

Tonight I used the CF to make butter poached cod.  I set the probe temperature to 135 then changed my mind and reduced it to 131.  I turned the fish over at the half way mark, temperature wise.  It seemed to stall at 116 and seemed to take forever to get past that.  However, it did, and after about 40 or 45 minutes the machine pronounced it done.  I have no idea if I needed to turn it over but the fish was not swimming in liquid and I wasn't sure how the top of it was doing.  Anyway, it couldn't have hurt.   When you did your salmon, was it covered?  How long did it take?

 

I am going to take a video of cooking tomorrow's poached egg and send it to Dave at Testek.  He sent me a very nice message.  He wants to make sure the machine is not at fault.  It'll probably behave perfectly.

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CanadianHomeChef

CanadianHomeChef

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted
1 hour ago, ElsieD said:

Tonight I used the CF to make butter poached cod.  I set the probe temperature to 135 then changed my mind and reduced it to 131.  I turned the fish over at the half way mark, temperature wise.  It seemed to stall at 116 and seemed to take forever to get past that.  However, it did, and after about 40 or 45 minutes the machine pronounced it done.  I have no idea if I needed to turn it over but the fish was not swimming in liquid and I wasn't sure how the top of it was doing.  Anyway, it couldn't have hurt.   When you did your salmon, was it covered?  How long did it take?

 

I am going to take a video of cooking tomorrow's poached egg and send it to Dave at Testek.  He sent me a very nice message.  He wants to make sure the machine is not at fault.  It'll probably behave perfectly.

20180928_202321.jpg

 

I did mine for about 25 minutes. Covered in oil, so no flipping. 

Sizzle and Sear

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CanadianHomeChef

CanadianHomeChef

Posted
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Posted (edited)

Made Heston Blumenthal’s chocolate melting cake yesterday, making the ganache on the Control Freak. Took a couple out of the freezer after lunch today and they baked almost perfectly. Still a bit cold in the center—nothing a couple extra minutes in the oven won’t fix next time. 

 

Also did Eggs Benedict again this morning. One control freak for the hollandaise another to keep the bacon and smoked meat warm. And I used the Tasty One Top for poached eggs. Probably easier to just get away with using the two control freaks and the normal stove top. Not convinced the preciseness of the One Top/Control Freak improves poached eggs that much (gotta compromise somewhere— and I really don’t like using the One Top even though the probe works adequately — hate having to use an app - I need my buttons and knobs 😛 Pan Control on the One Top is also crap. I need excuses to get rid of it, not keep it. )

 

I halved the hollandaise sauce recipe again, but this time put it in a 2 quart pan. Still found the sauce to be too shallow for an accurate probe reading (it was getting the temp from the bottom of the pan. Wasn’t confident the sauce was being kept at a temp to ward off salmonella, but it was used quickly enough. Either I need to use the original quantities or find a pan with a smaller diameter (I’ve always had my eye on the 0.5 quart All Clad butter warmer — wonder if it’s large enough for the Control Freak to detect?)

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Edited by CanadianHomeChef (log)
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Sizzle and Sear

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Anna N

Anna N

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

Very nice.  I read somewhere that the diameter of the pan can be no smaller than 4.5 inches.

 I don’t have the Control Freak but I do have an induction range and a pan with a  base just under 4.5 inches will work on my range but I have to make sure it is centered. 

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

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ElsieD

ElsieD

Posted
Posted
42 minutes ago, CanadianHomeChef said:

The butter warmer I have my eyes on is 4.5 inches wide. Hopefully it works. 

 

My butter melted is also 4.5" wide and I just tested it.  It worked fine, but as @Anna N said, it must be pretty well centered.  Not exactly, but close.

ElsieD

ElsieD

Posted
Posted

Yesterday I made salted caramel ice cream.  The pictures are melting the sugar, caramalizing the melted sugar, tempered custard back on the stove, cooling, and the finished product.  You do have to stir the custard or you get lumps.  I thought bringing the custard up to temperature was slow compared to my stove because if I have to stir it anyway, it would take less time on my cooktop.  It seemed to "stall" at a certain temperature almost like it was having a nap before it resumed heating.  Making that caramel sure was a snap, though.  

 

Sorry, the pictures are out of order.

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CanadianHomeChef

CanadianHomeChef

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Lemon Tart from Heston Blumenthal at home cookbook. I’ve made this twice before without Control Freak. CF made it a bit easier for the custard. 

 

Best pastry I’ve had for this recipe despite a bit of it bubbling up on one side. Used one of those pie crust bags to get a good circle. Heston calls for freezing the dough but I have trouble shaping it around the edges when it’s so cold and stiff. 

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Sizzle and Sear

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https://www.sizzleandsear.com/

CanadianHomeChef

CanadianHomeChef

Posted
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Posted

I purchased the All Clad butter warmer from Bed Bath and Beyond. On my newer Control Freak it doesn’t register. On my older CF it registers, but warms up way too slow. Similar to what happens when I try to heat up my super small stainless bowl on my regular induction range. 

 

But the butter warmer works fine on the smaller burner of my regular induction range. 

 

Love the idea of having a small pan but if it doesn’t work properly on the CF, I don’t think I’ll be using it much. Think I will return it. Such a shame. 

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Sizzle and Sear

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ElsieD

ElsieD

Posted
Posted

@CanadianHomeChef  Going to try Heston's fries tomorrow.  I watched his video on making them and yours.  How long was your second fry?  Heston says 7 minutes but on your video you say an hour and I'm guessing you misspoke, the hour referring to the chill time.

ElsieD

ElsieD

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, CanadianHomeChef said:

Yes. I misspoke! Follow the recipe. 

 

Actually  I don't have the recipe.  I'm just going to follow the method you posted and the notes I took from watching his video.

ElsieD

ElsieD

Posted
Posted

I made Heston Blumenthal's french fries tonight using russet potatoes.   I didn't find them all that much work and the CF makes cooking them a snap.  The frying times were spot on, the first step, simmering the potatoes took 23 minutes.  I'm going to do a "normal" double fry next time and see if the total lapsed time is worth it.  

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