I suppose what is most important about cooking is subjective. I've eaten plenty a dish that I've found delicious even if over or undercooked, etc. but I've never walked away from dinner thinking, "Wow, that was a great meal. The flavors were off, but it was cooked to perfection." To me a good cook will successfully develop or alter a recipe to "make it their own," perhaps adjusting for the taste of the ingredients. A teaspoon of curry powder from Penzey's is not going to taste like a teaspoon of McCormick's curry powder. A good cook will adjust other flavors to acheive one that they are happy with. How to best cook cook something from a temperature perspective is a matter of trial and error, and a good cook eventually gets a knack for it. There are different "best methods" for acheiving a desired end result, depending on what that desired result is. Yes, you can take a tough cut of meat, sous vide it for an extended period of time and end end up with a tender, medium rare bite. But maybe that's not what's desired all the time? We all know that our friends Ann and Annie like their steaks still moo-ing, but they will both jump in and tell you how they like to make their long-simmered, fully cooked pot roast or beef stew. Yes, how THEY like it. There's no argument that sous vide eliminates certain variables in cooking, once optimal time and temperature is determined. But to me it's no magic wand, any more than that teaspoon was for measuring the curry powder. "I can cook a piece of beef to medium-rare in a bag and sear it and serve it to you and you’re going to think it’s great. But can I go to a barbecue down the street in the park and barbecue a steak? Can I really cook? Do I know how to cook a piece of meat?" - Timothy Hollingsworth, Chef de Cuisine, The French Laundry Here is a link that might be useful: More of his thoughts on modernist cuisine

Here's a recipe which I have worked up for my dehydrator; it makes terrific jerky. Please note that it is used to dry and flavor the beef, and it is NOT cured; that is, I don't know if it will be safe to store this stuff at room temperature or not. I keep the product in the freezer anyway. I've never used an oven to dry the stuff, although I suppose you could if it came down to a low temp. At any rate, this recipe is a good starting point: Guinness Beef Jerky Marinade (This amount of marinade is sufficient for about 5 to 6 pounds of beef, which I find fill my eight dehydrator trays fairly full.) 6 lbs lean beef, sliced thinly--see Note 1 2 bottles (12-14 oz each) Guinness Stout 2 tablespoons kosher salt 2 tablespoons garlic powder 2-4 tablespoons hot stuff (see Notes 2 and 3) optional: liquid smoke, 1 to 2 tbsp In a large bowl pour stout and add salt, whisking to dissolve salt and decarbonate the stout. Add the garlic powder and hot stuff and mix well. Put the beef strips in the marinade by handfuls, swirling around to make sure all surfaces have come in contact with the marinade. Place the beef in a nonreactive container (a stainless stockpot works fine, pour the remaining marinade over the beef and refrigerate for at least an hour (more is better, mixing the beef strips every so often in the pot) Place the strips flat on the trays and dry until done. Note 1: I like to use round roast because it's very lean; eye of round is very easy to slice across the grain, and that yields a less stringy product. Don't use a fatty cut because it won't dry as thoroughly and won't have the storage properties of a leaner cut. Note 2: I have used chipotle powder with good results; 4 tablespoons in this recipe makes a quite hot product, and 2 tbsp makes a pleasantly zingy one. If you want something quite mild, use sweet paprika which would make a product not at all hot but with pleasant flavor. Note 3: The last batch I made, I used a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce instead of the tablespoons of hot stuff, blended in the blender until smooth, then I added the other ingredients and blended until mixed. Worked great, although next time I will cut back a little on the salt. I prefer to dry it fairly dry and store it in several small (1 qt) ziploc bags in the freezer, transferring one bag at a time to the fridge from which I take a piece or two at a time to snack on. None of it has ever gone bad storing it that way.

OH Sounds Yummy. Tell me more about Garlic pepper. Do you make it up or can a person buy it? Remembering back about 100 years ago there was something in Girl Scouts we used to make like this. What a PERFECT thing to leave for my Joe on days I have to work. This is something good to have handy he could fix to eat. Or make them up for me to cook fast when I get home from work starving. He can drop them in the oven when I am getting close to leaving the office. Thanks Loretta!!! Chris

More Stuff: 1. Clothes lines (Ever run under one while riding your bicycle? Gives a real meaning to the term, "clothes lined.) 2. Monday laundry day with the Maytag Washer powered by a small gasoline engine. (The engine could be cantankerous.) The washer sat outside with very little protection from the weather. 3. Introduction of the safety wringer. The safety wringer became necessary once the wringer became powered by a motor. Too many horror stories happened when the lady of the house got her hair or sleeve caught in the wringer. This safety feature came in two styles: 1) When an object got between the rollers that spread those beyond the normal diatance, the mechanism was tripped and literally came apart to disengage drive power to the roller. 2) A trip bar was placed in front to the wringers. When something got drawn into the trip bar, the mechanism came apart. In an emergency, a person could hit the trip bar to stop the wringer. 4. Fence stretchers. Used to intall barbed wire fencing. 5. Home made kites using weed stems for light weight sticks and newspaper for covering. (We had access to big, woody weeds called horseweed.) The paper was held by home made paste made of flour or corn starch. We raided the 'rag bag' for material to make the tail. 6. Rubber band powered model airplanes. (Not very effective.) 7. Cap pistols and Roy Rogers and LOne Ranger outfits. 8. Hand and foot operated air pumps for inflating tires. 9. Daisy BB guns. 10. Manual shifters and clutches - no automatic transmissions. 11. Hill holders - Kept the car from rolling backward while stopped at a traffic light on a hill. Ever try to go from keeping the car from rolling backard and shifting into gear to go forward on a hill? And do it smoothly? You needed an extra foot. 12. Brake light swithces were pressure switches plumbed to the hydraulic brake lines. Occasionaly, one would leak badly or the diaphram failed and caused loss of brakes. That's when the manual 'parking brake' became an emergency brake. In fact, in Model-A Fords with mechanical brakes, that little lever was called the emergency brake and it as needed. I know from personal experience. 13. Before combines, there were mowing machines, hay rakes, binders, and threshing machines. 14. Autos running without air cleaners could expect to need new rings every 20,000 to 30,000 miles. 15. Road draft tubes. Fumes from the crankcase was vented underneath the engine through an open tube. The end of the tube was cut on an angle. The air flow over the end of the tube induced a weak draft to help purge the crankcase. Where did the stuff go? On the road and the underside of the car. Look at photos of highways from the 1940s and you can obvserve an oil streak in the center of the lane unless the concrete was very new. This oil streak was a peril to motorcyclist when they leaned into a turn and happened to creep into this oil slick especailly if it was bit wet. 16. Steam engines on railroads. I remember the phase out of the last of these on the Balitmore and Ohio railway. 17. Hobos. 18. Huckster Trucks. During WW2 when everything was rationed, county grocery stores ran a panel truck route to their customers homes bringing basic items like bread, canned goods, sugar, spices, salt, etc. The made two runs per week. If an item was not on the truck on Monday, you could place an order and it would be delivered 2 to 3 days later on their next run. The huckester truck was given a gasoline alowance, but most farmers had only enough gasoline for their tractors and very little 'ration stamps' for tires. Autos remained parked for days on end. The national speed limit was 45 mph for private vehicles. 19. Bell bottomed trousers. 20. Pant leg clips - to keep pant legs out of the bicycle chain. - very necessary with bell bottoms. 21. Schwinn was a big name in bicycles. It no longer exists. I beleive that the tradename is still emplyed.