Syzygies

Fujitake Brand VG-10 Meat Chef Knife Hands down these are my favorite knives, for anything except cutting through bone, which would wreck their thinner blade: Fujitake Brand VG-10 Meat Chef Knife I bring the largest to my Thai cooking classes, and use it for everything from trimming garlic on up. People try it, and a third of my last class showed up with their own Fujitake knives. I have also three sizes in two kitchens, but what does Anthony Bourdain say about his restaurant experience? They can't steal the knife in your hand. The largest is my favorite. The smallest is Laurie's favorite. Get the middle one. To sharpen on a waterstone, you've got the angle right when it sounds right, like playing a musical instrument. I'm reminded of Japanese woodworkers making rice glue: The glue works best if you've made delicious rice.

The "danger zone" is below 140 F for culturing various bugs, and Sous Vide technique comes perilously close to this limit. In the case of restaurants this draws unwanted public health attention; Sous Vide was nearly made illegal in New York City. I've never heard of Sous Vide going below 140 F. Cold-smoking does, but the food is already preserved (cheese) or preservative is added (meat). I started the fermentation of another batch of hot sauce (same method as kimchi) and coincidentally we made fermented Issan sausage in my Thai classes, by methods that set off all sorts of alarms for me, e.g Botulism in Alaska. But when one reads up on this, the factors for anything going "off" are very complex; guidelines are necessarily conservative and fix only one factor at a time. Did the rice somehow protect our sausage, or guarantee a head start for the "good" bugs? Does smoke itself move the danger zone, for barbecue? Nevertheless, I've got to ask why? I'm reminded of mushroom hunting with friends. Aside from chanterelles which even I can identify, and even with friends that take spore prints before consumption, they didn't taste good enough to warrant the risk.

Laurie pointed out that I didn't really answer the OP question. I thought my answer was implicit: All barbecue reheats great, with care. For those wondering about this toy envy-fest, the sous-vide controller has many uses, but for reheating frozen barbecue it simply saves a step: Standardize on a burner, pot, and water volume. For this combination, figure out by experiment what burner setting stabilizes on a given target temperature, e.g. 175 F. Now, to reheat a freezer vacuum packet of barbecue, bring the pot to a boil without the packet. Add the packet (straight from the freezer is ok) and reset the burner to the setting that stabilizes at the target temperature. Now you can walk away, get distracted for hours, and the barbecue won't overcook. It can't come to a boil again, if you've done your homework. The logic here is not unlike using a router table. Insufficient cuts can be corrected, but if it is even theoretically possible to make an unintended cut (the finished woodworking, or your fingers) then something is fundamentally wrong with your jig design. I only have the sous vide controller in one of two kitchens. We just had awesome pulled pork sandwiches in the other kitchen, by the above protocol. It works.

I just have their most basic controller. A relay that responds to temp, exact same algorithm as a Guru. I use it with a hot plate I already owned, but I'm eyeing a large rice cooker. Recirc puts you in Thomas Keller territory. I don't plan to do duck breasts at 142.7 F for 6.43 hours, so I'm not sold on recirc being worth the expense.

I have a Sous Vide Magic, which is a circuit very similar to that used in e.g. the BBQ Guru, but intended instead for controlling water baths. They recommend rice cookers, but I've been using a good hot plate on hand. With this rig, I can throw frozen ribs (or anything else, e.g. bangers) into cold but regulated water, and the mix will stop on a dime at 175 F, or whatever target temperature I set. If I instead throw a frozen packet into a pot set on a flame to reach a boil, invariably I get lost in my work, and return to the kitchen to find a scene not unlike the first Soviet space walk. (Google it. The guy's space suit blimped up on him, and he very nearly couldn't fit back inside the door. And he was really, really hoping to return to earth with the space ship.) It boggles the mind that this circuit isn't built into every rice cooker, stove, and hot plate made. The only explanation I can offer is that 99% of the population has no clue how sous vide works, so they don't know they want this. Chicken-and-egg problem. Yes, carefully reheat any frozen, vacuum-packed bbq you have. If you don't want to buy the above unit, then show the discipline to bring a large pot of water to a boil, drop it to a simmer, and only then add the vacuum packet.

Re: High Temperature Proceedure +1. I screen my charcoal, to get rid of the smallest pieces. Make a frame, with your preference of wire screen (2", 1") stapled in. Like gasoline engines, there's an optimum mixture of air and fuel. More fuel just decreases the desired effect. Wide open fires burn fastest and hottest.

The lighter fluid was a bit scary.

Pick up a 16" terra cotta (not glazed unless you run the glaze through a lab for testing) plant saucer. Line with foil, for a heat deflector / drip pan combo that lasts years. When it cracks, buy a new one.

Apple in a Smoke Pot I prefer apple for pretty much everything. Have you experimented with a smoke pot? Take a one or two quart cast iron dutch oven, drill three 1/8" holes in the bottom (so a misplaced chunk can't block the only hole), fill with chunks or chips, and seal on the lid with a flour, water paste. Nestle in with the charcoal, and start the fire under the smoke pot first, to get the smoke going. I mix the flour paste in a small ziplock then nick a corner to squeeze out a bead. This is roughly what they do in Morocco to seal leaks in loose pots when steaming couscous, and much easier than it sounds. This is modeled after how one makes charcoal, which is how I got the idea. Gases escape, but the wood isn't able to burn. One can partially simulate this with a smoke box meant for a gas grill, or aluminum foil, or by not bothering to seal the lid, but the key word here is partially. A smoke pot works best if there is absolutely no possibility of convection; I've never been tempted to cut corners, setting one up. What one is doing here is selecting part of the smoke flavor. The absolutely easiest way that anyone can become a better cook is to create opportunities to exercise selection. Cutting the germ out of mature garlic, etc. Skyscraper food restaurants practice this to an extreme, which is how they create unimaginable flavors. The difference between moonshine and Armagnac or Brandy is selection in the distillation process, only keeping part of what goes through the still. Same with a smoke pot. Taste both ways and decide for yourself. I'm not getting less smoke flavor, just different smoke flavor. Who else gets away with using two quarts of chips at a time?

I'm also Bay Area. I buy eight 40# bags of Lazzari hardwood lump at a time from the warehouse near SFO, to complement my hoard of extruded coconut lump. Hardwood for high temps, coconut for low & slow. My main complaint about the Lazzari hardwood lump is lots of small crumbs I can't use; I have to screen the ends of bags for usable charcoal. But at the price, hard to complain. They claim I can bring back crumbs for credit; I never have. We think the mesquite has a much harsher flavor. However, my Thai cooking teacher, also in the Bay Area, insists that mesquite is closer to the correct flavor for Thai barbecue. Her protocol is quite precise. Start a measured quantity of lump in a chimney, and leave in the chimney for a specified interval (50 minutes, 75 minutes) till just before use. Then spread embers and grill. Her embers are fully developed, with not the faintest trace of black charcoal left unburned. Having moved from a K7 to a KK, the KK is better insulated, making this more of an issue even with hardwood lump. One does not want fresh, raw, black charcoal starting to burn in the presence of food. The taste will be off. This is the Achilles' heel of all ceramic cookers, for low & slow barbecue. Correct, classic technique involves two fires; one moves fully developed embers to the food cooker, only when they are ready. In a different thread, I described a Chinese L-shaped grill, whose purpose for street vending was to insure a steady pipeline of fully developed embers. It takes charcoal of extraordinary quality to burn black charcoal in the presence of food without creating off flavors. Extruded coconut lump is such a charcoal; so are the finer Japanese charcoals. "Fully" carbonized is a crux issue. As for others not liking the taste of Lazzari hardwood lump, I'd have to watch the technique. I detest the taste of mesquite lump, but the barbecue was remarkable in my Thai classes, if I meticulously followed my teacher's technique.

Re: Week of Thai Classes Good catch. For a light fire centered on a 17" charcoal grate, resting on top of the firebox, would we be ok? Cooking over the lower grate would then best approximate the low, close grilling of Thai street food. Or I could sometimes use my Weber. In Flushing, Queens, NYC one sees a brilliant charcoal cooker design that I'm told originates in China: The cooker looks like a metal "L" on its back. The short column acts as a chimney to start fresh charcoal. When the embers are ready, they are raked out the bottom along the back of the "L" which looks like two parallel retaining walls. Skewers fit nicely crosswise all along the back of the "L".

Re: Week of Thai Classes So there was grilling the last three days. A strong class, I probably had the least recent practice cooking Thai, but lots of recent practice on grills. By the third day people put together the pattern that it was good having me on grill duty. Friday's boneless chicken thighs marinaded in a lemongrass paste, with chili dipping sauce, was particularly good. I was struck by how my Weber technique varied from my KK technique. Each dish was approximating Thai street food, cooked in close proximity to a small charcoal fire. My little Weber more closely fits this style than my KK. I'm reminded of cooking chicken "for the children" at a large party, on a long flat rental charcoal grill, and having it be the people's favorite. Again, very close proximity to a thin fire, lots of constant turning. I know one can grill on the lower KK grate, but has anyone experimented instead with bringing up the charcoal, onto a wider grate at the level of the lower KK cooking grate? I'd be interested in a charcoal grate intended to fit that level, if one can't simply fit a Weber grate into place there somehow.

Yes. Very common, please forgive the usage. I'm not a big fan of acronyms. Serious academic papers don't have acronyms, but thinner fields with a greater emphasis on branding tend to be populated with acronyms. They serve as a warning that I'm walking in the wrong neighborhood. Then there's the "treehouse" effect where one feels on the outside if one doesn't get the acronym. I don't need to belong to more little worlds.

More tech support from Weston. I suggested many people only bought FoodSaver units to deal with liquids, why did they cede this market to FoodSaver rather than making some accommodation?

Re: Cabela CG-15

Cabela CG-15 Looks like my guess was right. Here's the answer to my support request asking for a comparison: So given that the prices are comparable, it looks like an open-shut case in favor of the CG-15.

Interesting, I was considering Cabela's CG-15 Vacuum Sealer Their manual refers service questions to http://www.pragotrade.com, which resolves to http://www.westonsupply.com. Identical specs. Small world. Weston's Amazon reviews cite a worse time with bags from other manufacturers. I have many boxes of FoodSaver small bags I'd like to be able to use. The Cabela CG-15 manual describes a seal adjust setting one can play with to accommodate different bags. The display does look different for the Weston. Either their site is too brain-dead to post an online manual, or I'm too brain-dead to find it, but the Weston display looks like it is lacking this crucial adjustment. So I lean toward the Cabela unit. Glancing at the Cabela unit, how does it compare to the Weston? Can you adjust the seal for different bags? Have you had luck with FoodSaver bags? Another review comment says that fouling the pump with liquid is not covered by warranty. It appears to be crucial to prefreeze wet loads. Thanks!

Nice! I'd buy one.

Japanese Vacuum Bag "Clothespin" ?? I think I have it: Two dowels, a pair of tight 0-rings, make up clamps like they sell for squeezing toothpaste tubes, one per freezer packet. Flatten to desired shape, freeze, later come back and vacuum seal with a decent (read: not FoodSaver) hunter's vacuum packer.

I'm really afraid that if I keep using Foodsaver products I'll spend the rest of my life in a room they don't let you back out of. This thread makes it clear that the way to go if you have the money and the space is a vacuum chamber unit. With such a unit there is no problem with liquids. Short of such a unit, it appears from many frustrating phone calls and email exchanges that every "higher end" replacement for a Foodfouler can't handle liquids without fouling the pump. They're thinking the only market that will spend more than a Foodsaver is hunters, and they don't have liquid, or they're willing to freeze then pump. If you freeze before pumping tomatoes, or stew, they don't fit nicely in the chest freezer without rethawing, which is bad for the food. And our large chest freezer is filled with ingredients like this, we absolutely must have the packets fit nicely or we'll run out of room. We partially dehydrated 60 lbs of tomatoes over the weekend. Sort of like Thomas Keller's "precious tomatoes" (I realize everything in Keller's books are precious, so this won't help anyone find the recipe) or Tom Colicchio's roast tomatoes, only better suited for mass production so we never open a can during the year. Skin by scalding 90 seconds, slice into a dehydrator with 1/2 tsp++ sea salt per tray, dry 8-12 hours at 135 F till gooshy (we have two American Harvester FD-61's and 16 trays) and vacuum pack. Who'd expect the vacuum pack stage to get finicky? As in, even their top-of-the-line products are junk. So does anyone have first-hand with a non-chamber, higher-end Foodfouler alternative, that can handle liquids without fouling the pump? I doubt I'll be able to post here from a room they don't let you back out of, so perhaps I should just buy the chamber unit?

Week of Thai Classes That's funny, in the morning I'm about to start a new week of intensive Thai cooking classes with Kasma Loha-unchit in Oakland, CA. I've taken everything she offered in the past, this is the first offering of a class with new recipes. She normally gets distracted when there's cooking over charcoal outside (she can't be inside and outside at once), but relaxes if I'm there to handle the fire. Ditto for live fish, I often listen to the opening lecture from the sink, butchering live catfish.

i just swallowed my gum....

I've never been happy with low & slow for brisket that lean. If the hybrid technique works for this, that's very good news. (Nice smoke ring.) At the same time, I feel justified spending 3x for some brisket with decent marbling, which can benefit from low & slow.