Random Food Questions Thread

Damn, this is going to be an expensive hobby

Originally Posted by Piobaire

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Do not get the demi. You will regret it as IMO the Supreme could use a little bigger bay. If you get creative with the Supreme, you can get five, maybe six duck legs in it. I think three would be hard to fit into the demi and you might only get two in it. Btw, still

with the Supreme.
Only reason I haven't purchased yet is that I'm going back and forth on this. I live alone and I'm not sure how much i'd use the extra capacity...

Originally Posted by Renton

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I've been looking at that for a while. Looks like I need to finally buy a chamber vac.
I like the hose too. It seems like it would do one better than a vacuvin without quite going to extremes of nitrogen.

Originally Posted by iammatt

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That looks like a really good solution. I think the chambers are much better than the other kind. Night and day.

Originally Posted by Manton

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Damn, this is going to be an expensive hobby

Sorry. Btw, anyone on the fence about chamber vs. foodsaver. Just look at reviews on amazon or whatever. It seems like every second post is about the teflon sealing bad breaking which basically means replacement, and you see tons of people saying **** like "this is my 3rd foodsaver but I really love them and they're great" brushing aside the fact that they keep breaking. I'm gonna order the vp112.

Originally Posted by GQgeek

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Only reason I haven't purchased yet is that I'm going back and forth on this. I live alone and I'm not sure how much i'd use the extra capacity... I like the hose too. It seems like it would do one better than a vacuvin without quite going to extremes of nitrogen.

Sorry.

Btw, anyone on the fence about chamber vs. foodsaver. Just look at reviews on amazon or whatever. It seems like every second post is about the teflon sealing bad breaking which basically means replacement, and you see tons of people saying **** like "this is my 3rd foodsaver but I really love them and they're great" brushing aside the fact that they keep breaking. I'm gonna order the vp112.
The ability to deal with liquids is really the big thing. You can actually do a lot of things with the vacuum once you get the hang of it. Great for french toast, too.

Yeah, liquids are problematic. Wondering if I need to get a chamber now.

Originally Posted by iammatt

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The ability to deal with liquids is really the big thing. You can actually do a lot of things with the vacuum once you get the hang of it. Great for french toast, too.

no disagreement from me. Just doing my part to help people rationalize an unnecessary purchase.

someone please explain what i am supposed to do with one of these things. do you sous vide french toast?

Originally Posted by Douglas

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someone please explain what i am supposed to do with one of these things. do you sous vide french toast?

haha. no. It'll force the egg mixture into the bread and probably compress the bread a bit. I think it's probably increased density from the compression that would make it preferable rather than the infusion of the mixture because it's not like bread would normally have trouble soaking up the egg mixture. By the same principle you can use them to infuse liquids into things. You can marinate things more quickly as well (i think i've read in minutes vs. hours). Plus all the obvious stuff like freezing stock, confit, etc.

Originally Posted by GQgeek

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Plus all the obvious stuff like freezing stock, confit, etc.

not obvious to me

why do you need to vac stock before freezing it? does it last longer that way? taste less "off" when thawing? avoid freezerburn?

Originally Posted by Douglas

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not obvious to me

why do you need to vac stock before freezing it? does it last longer that way? taste less "off" when thawing? avoid freezerburn?
I wouldn't say you HAVE to, but it's another thing you can do. Plus forget freezer burn... I don't know how many times i've returned from butcher and left meat in fridge thinking i'd eat it following night and for whatever reason, I don't get to it for like a week. If it were sealed it wouldn't matter.

Hmm, if the vp112 solves that problem, which sous vide setup? Go with the all in one sous vide supreme or something like this?
http://www.cuisinetechnology.com/sousvide.php

Originally Posted by Renton

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Hmm, if the vp112 solves that problem, which sous vide setup? Go with the all in one sous vide supreme or something like this?
http://www.cuisinetechnology.com/sousvide.php

Either will work well. The SVS will probably always be out so you need some counter space imo. Biggest advantage of a circulator is you can put it away more easily but you still need a big container to attach it to and you'll have to store the gay little balls somewhere too!

Originally Posted by GQgeek

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Either will work well. The SVS will probably always be out so you need some counter space imo. Biggest advantage of a circulator is you can put it away more easily but you still need a big container to attach it to and you'll have to store the gay little balls somewhere too!

I forgot about those gay little balls.

Originally Posted by Renton

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I forgot about those gay little balls.

I only nkow the theory. In practice, I haven't used them and I'm not sure if you get a really good vacuum you can maybe do without? Maybe matt can answer since he's got a chamber vac that would give him the %. Is 90% vacuum good enough to make a piece of meat sink or still too much air? 95%?

The SVS has a rack and it holds things down pretty well. I've only had the occasional problem with floating but I just took the bag out and resealed. Now I freeze liquids before hand and have no problem.

Originally Posted by Douglas

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not obvious to me

why do you need to vac stock before freezing it? does it last longer that way? taste less "off" when thawing? avoid freezerburn?
Efficient use of space. Little pint containers are a pain ********** in the fridge.

Originally Posted by GQFreak

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I only nkow the theory. In practice, I haven't used them and I'm not sure if you get a really good vacuum you can maybe do without? Maybe matt can answer since he's got a chamber vac that would give him the %. Is 90% vacuum good enough to make a piece of meat sink or still too much air? 95%?

I don't use the balls to hold things down. Some things do float, but if that happens, you have to be more creative than the balls, which have no mass. The balls are to sit on top of an open bath. They make the heating more efficient and slow evaporation way down. If you cook short ribs for 48 hours at 57 degrees, you are going to have to add water a number of times. With the balls, that number is much, much lower.

Modernist Cuisine goes through vacuum percentages and the amount of air pressure in the bag due to heat. Basically, though, you want to use something like 97%. Lower and you risk floating. Higher and you will boil the water inside the cells during packing because water boils at a low temp in a vacuum. You can do 98, but much higher than that entails some risk.