Dcarch I hadn't thought about the relatively slight difference in temp for artichokes steamed and cooked SV. I was hoping that avoiding the loss of flavor into the water would be a significant difference. Water even under steamed artichokes is fragrant and green. Maybe I'll try SV again with small and very fresh 'chokes. And I'll be MUCH more sparing with the lemon. I routinely SV fish, lamb, beef, and venison, and the meats are always interesting and usually just flat great. I just discovered the SV Kitchen site as I searched for SV artichoke recipes and quite like it. I think this Saturday I will try their recipe for Chickpea Soup with Shrimp and Chorizo. Never considered soup in the SV. You have been my inspiration and resource more often than you can imagine. Because of your information, I am seriously considering putting together an inexpensive and easily stored SV system I can use in smallish saucepans or small coolers. Cranking up the Supreme for four eggs is a bit much. I would love to know which other forums you might recommend. Sandra (edited to add link to the soup) Here is a link that might be useful: Chickpea soup with chorizo and shrimp This post was edited by Bellsmom on Fri, Mar 7, 14 at 11:16

Yeh, I was wishing it was deeper but went ahead and bought it because it looked like it would be easy to set up and the price was right. After I got it home, I remembered that I have one of those kettle type warmers down in the basement...much smaller, of course & I haven't dug it out to see if it's much deeper. I was thinking that I would insulate the top some way....at first I was concerned that the rim would be too hot. Now I realize that shouldn't be a concern because the element is on the bottom and the rim won't be any hotter than the water. (Unlike if you're using a Nesco.) Now, can you point me to some directions on how to wire the relay? (And what to buy.) This spring I wired up a PID to control my seedling mats and noted on some of the blogs that they recommended using a relay. (I think those were prolly on the home brewing applications.) Others didn't mention it so I went without. Obviously, I'm pretty much electronics ignorant so I need to have a 'For Dummies' tutorial! Oh, and muchas gracias, DC!

haha. I understand the concern. I have researched and their is no definitive answer to all 'food safe' plastics. Food safe plastics are made at a very high temp. Sous vide is low temp not anywhere near boiling. I'm more concerned with processed microwavable food itself with all the ingested chemicals, over the bag it is sold in. The container itself with all that very hot heat. The cereals are a concern over the bag they are sold in. The lining in a microwavable popcorn sack and the chemical tasting powdered cheese. But i don't buy any of that. Water bottles, soda cans, any canned food. None of that in my diet. No processed foods. No fast food. (exception is ShakeShack) : ) The other exception is sous vide once twice a month. We still prefer my steak method in a cast iron that was perfect long ago. But other proteins like skirt steak for a new-this-year Korean noodle bowl. Or Pho. Killer pork chops. Sous vide has opened up some better and easier meals. A nice tool that assists complicated many ingredient meals. That new car smell...talk about off-gassing. Plan on testing some ball jar methods. I have some wide but low 2inch high ones. Just need bit more cooking time.

Yes, crispy brown comes from dry heat. There are a few ways of doing it, but as you surmise, it happens outside of the actual sous vide cook. The advantage is that it's cooked 100% through and through to the temperature of your choice while sous vide. There's no perfect sear with blue raw meat happening. For a steak, it's often sous vide cooked, all the way through, then removed from the pouch, juices dried off, then seared in a screaming hot pan. You don't have to hold back the searing temperature, because the meat is thoroughly cooked. This is how the famous "edge to edge" is achieved. There's the dark caramelized sear edge, but no ring of brown, dryer interior and pink center. Just the desired doneness, color and texture all the way. You can make red meat "well done" this way, as in killing pathogens, while still having the soft texture of medium rare. You can also cook it at a higher temperature if you want a firmer texture. It's the temperature setting you're cooking to, not the time, though, of course, higher temperatures still take a bit longer. For other uses you can also do "reverse", where you sear first and then seal sous vide and cook with the circulator. I forget when that is done. That wouldn't be for crisp, of course. You can use sous vide ("under vacuum") to hurry marinades. That's just sealing it in the bag with the vacuum machine, not cooking it. One of the catering joys of sous vide is that on Wednesday, when you receive your poultry order, you can prep Friday's skinless chicken breasts, including the flavorings and herbs, vacuum seal and refrigerate them, then put them in the circulator to cook a few hours before service. When you're approaching time to plate, you can remove them to a sheet pan and put them in the oven for five minutes to brown, or just plate them with a sauce. You're never going to get crisp skin sous vide. All the moisture is held inside, which is great for the flesh, but doesn't dry the skin, which is what makes it crisp. You're not going to get fond, either. There's no Maillard reaction. But you can also just roast off some trimmings and make a pan full of fond. This is where cooking sous vide at home parts with catering. There isn't enough fond in catering to do the job so you're making it anyway. At home, it's a side benefit. Other than to try recipes before serving to company, I don't bother with sous vide for just us. There's no point when I have so many other tools. If you go to the Anova website, you can find all kinds of recipes using their circulators that seem a bit ridiculous, like making cakes in mason jars. As experiments in what you can do, however, they're interesting, and could inform a decision later. The great thing about an immersion circulator that you use with your own vessel, like I have, is that you have an instant spare oven. But what if one kid has football practice, another has show choir, and the third has cub scouts. Besides screaming, you need to chauffeur them and feed them after the boys get home and before the girl leaves. There's drive thru. Ugh. Or crockpot. Or, if like me you have two circulators, you can set your chicken and potatoes to cook sous vide before the scout meeting and have your salad ready, and by the time coats are off and backpacks stowed, everybody's eating a wholesome, perfect temperature, dinner together, whenever you got home, and all your time going to eating it and talking to the kids, rather than fixing the meal up (even microwaving or other reheating takes time) and being late to choir. It's just a tool. There are other ways to achieve what you need to achieve, and people have been cooking for thousands of years without it. I think it was invented a bit over 200 years ago.