Medellitin

SideKIC Sous Vide Review: Initial Thoughts

2012-02-12T20:01:00.002-05:00

SideKIC Immersion Circulator Earlier this week, I received a SideKIC sous vide controller. This 170$ entry into the sous vide consumer market looks like it is going to offer a lot of value. The SideKIC is an immersion circulator. This means that there is a heating element that can be put into a bowl or pot and it will simultaneously heat and then circulate (pump) the water. Many people consider water circulation critical to maintaining temperature stability....

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Kyocera Knife FAQ Funny

2011-11-19T17:44:00.001-05:00

Kyocera makes ceramic knives. The advantages of ceramic knives are that they remain sharp for a lot longer than their metallic counterparts. They are also significantly lighter (which some people prefer, but I prefer heavier knives), and they are a little more delicate (meaning, you don't want to use them on product that could potentially damage the knife (meaning frozen foods, or anything with bones). I say all of this, only because I was recently reminded of this knife, and...

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Bataligate: Twempest In A Tweet Cup

2011-11-13T11:12:00.000-05:00

A quick disclaimer: I don't much care about the morality of sound judgement of comparing bankers/customers/anyone to Hitler or Stalin. A bunch of online outlets are linkbaiting the crap out of this Bataligate bullshit. It's lazy, layup blog-o-journalism, taking advantage of the current political climate along with riling up the primary readership of financial trades. Let's dissect Eater's coverage: Despite having apologized for comments comparing bankers to Stalin and...

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French Reuben Soup

2011-10-24T10:54:00.000-04:00

I don't really share recipes on this blog. It just isn't what I do. But, today is different. Just like the last time I posted a recipe. But this time, I blame a providence of Michaels. I read Michael Ruhlman's post on french onion soup, and Michael Nagrant tweeted about reuben soup. The trick with doing a dish like this is honoring the souls of these iconic dishes without being constricted by them. So... What is french onion soup? How...

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More Fish Confusion: Great Globe Article

2011-10-23T15:05:00.000-04:00

First of all, great article in the Boston Globe on the pervasive mislabeling of fish. My one criticism with the piece is the following sentence: The Globe found escolar being sold as white tuna, super-white tuna, or albacore at merchants such as FuGaKyu in Brookline, Kowloon in Saugus, H Mart supermarket in Burlington, and Oishii Sushi Bar in Chestnut Hill. While it is true that the FDA's Seafood List says that you can't sell escolar as white tuna, it is unfair to single out out...

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My 7 Links

2011-10-01T09:30:00.000-04:00

The noble frodnesor tagged me in to the link-baity "My Seven Links" internet cage meme. And while the speed of the internet is light-speed, the speed of a Pablo post is still all USPS baby. So while I am pretty sure this meme is dead, I am a sucker for the lay-up blog post. Of course, this took two hours to write. Why? Because I just reread a lot of my posts. Which I think is why this meme worked. It was really nice to stumble down memory lane, I...

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On The Value Of The $200 Fennel Braiser

2011-09-11T22:31:00.001-04:00

This is probably indicative of my state of mind, but I got super furious when I saw the following ad on epicurious: A $200 fennel braiser. Questions like: Who the fuck would spend 200$ just for the task of a fennel braiser? What unique qualities of fennel could be coaxed with a special braising device? Why would anyone think they could get away with this scam? Where did epicurious get the gall to sell such a ridiculous item? I had to research this further....

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Coffee tawk.

2011-09-05T13:36:00.000-04:00

Coffee has been top of mind lately. With the rising price of coffee in NYC (I think I pay $4 for a thimbleful of iced americano), being able to make an excellent cup of coffee at home is becoming a priority. I haven't made coffee at home without the guidance of Mr. Coffee himself, so this is going to be a learning process. To further complicate things, I really only like iced coffee. Oh sure, I'll tolerate the hot stuff when it is freezing out, but give me iced...

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NYPL: What's On The Menu?

2011-07-08T17:38:00.000-04:00

I think it is safe to say that my niche is turning out to be foodnerdery. Which is why I am ashamed that I missed the New York Public Library's initial announcement about the friggin' awesome What's On The Menu? project. What's on the Menu? is a crowdsourcing project chartered to take their incredible menu collection and transcribe it. Before you think that no one would contribute to this, allow me to say that you are a cynical jerkward, aaaaannnnd... as of July 8th, 2011,...

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The Sous Vide Vacuum Conundrum

2011-07-07T09:22:00.000-04:00

SVS Zip Pouch My posts on SousVide Supreme Chamber Vacuum and on the Combi Oven nicely lead up to the subject of the value of the vacuum, and its role in low temperature cooking. For most home cooks exploring low temperature cooking, there are two primary reasons why you use vacuum sealed bags: heat transfer and eliminating buoyancy. Even though sous vide literally means under vacuum, you don't need to vacuum seal to achieve most of the desired affects of low temperature cooking....

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"Loaded" "Risotto"

2011-07-04T18:02:00.001-04:00

When your dish has a word or phrase in quotes, you are probably being a heretic. This act can be forgivable when performed artfully. When the name of your dish has more quotes that words, you are being sacrilegious. Fortunately for me, I don't work in a kitchen, and like ten people read my blog. For those ten that do, I bring you a special treat. An actual recipe. Not just a recipe but a photo of some food I actually made. I usually veer away from...

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The Modernist Beat Volume 3

2011-04-19T19:11:00.000-04:00

I have been sitting on this one for a little while. Mostly trying to cover science-y/food convergence type things. If you have links to suggest for the next one, just pop a comment up in this bitch. Without further adieu: From the 'how do you get to be a test subject for this study' dept. Scientists have improved on the perfect hangover cure: The Bloody Mary. Where Math And Sausage Infinitely Converge. I give you... the Mandelbratwurst. Locannivorism In the...

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Espuma Matata (Culinary Foam Worries)

2011-04-13T23:27:00.000-04:00

I have been working on a list of modern cooking technique debates I hate witnessing and the "Do Foams Suck?" debate is filled with jackassery from both sides. I am a proponent of all culinary techniques regardless of trendiness. They just have to be well executed and service the dish. That being said, I think us pro-foamers do need to check ourselves when we attempt to engage the enemy. Say you are minding your own business when some foam hating douche walks up to you and...

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The Shark Fin Controversy (One Hot Mess)

2011-03-13T20:38:00.000-04:00

The blogs are all a-twitter about California's (and other states) recent push to ban the possession and sale of shark fin. This is legislation designed to protect sharks against a practice called shark finning. Shark finning is the process of harvesting the fin of the shark and discarding the still live shark back into the ocean, where it will either drown, starve or be consumed by other predators. You might think that killing all sharks is a good thing. Much like one...

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SousVide Supreme Chamber Vacuum Thoughts

2011-03-05T17:11:00.001-05:00

Earlier this week, SousVide Supreme announced their entrance into the chamber vacuum space. An OEM'd VacMaster VP112, this tabletop chamber vacuum sold out within hours of the announcement. Assuming that this isn't the result of EAT, LLC doing an incredibly small first run of chamber vac's, I am surprised that their customers would rush to buy an $800 chamber vacuum to assist with a $400 water bath. You'd think that people that had the budget for the chamber vac would have...

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The SousVide Supreme Chamber Vacuum (Vacmaster VP112)

2011-03-02T14:30:00.000-05:00

The folks at SousVide Supreme just introduced a chamber vacuum to their product lineup. Given the name of the chamber vac is the SousVide Supreme VacMaster® VP112 chamber vacuum sealer , it appears to be a SousVide Supreme branded version of the VacMaster VP112 (possibly the dumbest sentence I have written this month). The price point is $799 (Which is list price for the VP112), but a quick Google Search reveals prices as low as $650, for the non branded VP112. ps: Will...

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Are Combi Ovens The Future Of Sous Vide?

2011-02-21T19:30:00.001-05:00

Is This The Future? I was reading about Shola's post about the possible impending obsolescence of immersion circulators, when I read: One thing I will confidently say is that the domestic immersion circulator market will be NON-EXISTENT in 48 months or less and IF sous vide cooking makes it into mainstream domestic cooking, it will be in the form of steam/vapor ovens similar to combi technology. Products like sous-vide supreme or sous vide magic are silly novelties at best and the only...

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New Game: WTFIT.

2011-02-20T16:35:00.000-05:00

Stands for, What The Fuck Is This: Tell me what this is. First right answer gets 100 points and one dollar bill if I ever see you in person.

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The Modernist Beat: Volume 2

2011-02-03T19:16:00.001-05:00

Here is the roundup of all the stuff I read that I wish I could write more about but can't cause my life is too busy. The Future Will Not Be Turkey Paste Extruded By A Printer Cooking Issue's tackles 3D food printing. What isn't mentioned in the article is that they are continually asked whether or not 3D food printing is how all food will be made in the future. The answer can be found in last week's Cooking Issues podcast, which if you don't listen to:...

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Ask Pablo: Octopus Sous Vide and Doneness.

2011-01-29T16:00:00.000-05:00

On an earlier post about Sous Vide Octopus, erich wrote: Ok, I need some help here. Bought a whole octopus, thawed it, cleaned it, vacuum bagged it, and cooked it for 2 hours at 180F in my sous vide bath. The thing came out very rubbery. Basically the same consistency one would achieve pan frying it. Anything, I'm missing here? BTW, this is not first sous vide dish, but definitely the one that didn't come out at all.I responded with: My guess is that you needed to leave it in the water...

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The Taste Map, Umami and Kokumi (Complexities In Taste)

2011-01-29T15:33:00.001-05:00

I remember learning about taste in elementary school. We were taught that there were four tastes: Sweet, Salty, Sour, and Bitter. Each of these tastes were sensed on a particular region of the tongue. The teacher handed out mimeographs that had a tongue drawn on them as a pop quiz. We were expected to write the name of each taste on the proper region of the tongue. I am sure I had to have gotten at least one wrong. Which means I got two wrong. Which...

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L2 Oh No.

2011-01-20T00:21:00.001-05:00

Looks like Laurent Gras' old blog (the one associated with L2O) is serving up some SEO badness. I'm no genius, but the site that was pretty much wiped clean of content after Laurent left L2o. Today it started serving up content like: The financial manager for the Rock Island District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requested an advance decision on the availability of appropriated funds for the purchase of cold weather gear for union employees who work outside in cold...

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The Modernist's Beat: 1st Edition

2011-01-17T23:17:00.000-05:00

Here is the roundup of all the stuff I read that I wish I could write more about but can't cause my life is too busy. Cantu-ing Homaro Cantu (of Moto and Future Food fame) announced his latest project iNG Restaurant. iNG (Imagining New Gastronomy) will be helmed by Thomas Bowman, who was already cooking for Cantu over at Moto. iNG will be taking over the existing Otom space, featuring creative, confortable, delicious food and featuring a kitchen table for a Miracle Berry...

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Cleaning House On Good Housekeeping

2011-01-03T17:41:00.000-05:00

I really try hard to produce thoughtful reviews of any product I obtain for such purpose. I have been lucky enough to receive a couple from companies interested in having me look at them. And in reviewing some of my reviews, I have found a lot to be desired. I am somewhat inconsistent, and I don't have a great methodology... yet. That being said, I need to call out (another) bad review of sous vide equipment. This isn't the the first time that I have called out a sous vide...

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SousVide Supreme Demi: Initial Thoughts On Stability

2010-11-22T20:15:00.000-05:00

When I first started cooking sous-vide, the holy grail was temperature accuracy and stability. I think this is very important for certain applications such as eggs, and for professionals and sous vide geeks. However, if you are a general home user, I don't think accuracy and stability to within 1º is of the utmost importance. That being said, I know this is important for most of the regular readers of this blog. Unfortunately, I have a job and I don't own a high...

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