Here's what Modernist Cuisine author Nathan Myhrvold says: "Pragmatically speaking I routinely cook at 122F to 125F for red meat for many hours. That is both technically legit up to 4 hours. Beyond 4 hours there is scientific data that would say that 125F is more than enough, and certainly 127F - which is why the…

THPPBBT!!!!!

Some libraries have it (don't forget to check academic libraries). It's over 2000 pages, and much of that is textbook-like, so if you're just looking to pull a couple ideas or recipes out of it, you can blaze through it in a couple hours. I took my time flipping through it and was pretty satisfied with about 4-5…

I think it's because the sear on the bottom side will dissolve as the steak cooks in the oven. You could sear both sides, but you probably won't notice much of an improvement.

Yeah, that's pretty low for a 10-hour cook time. For cook times longer than about 2 hours, it's best to shoot for a temperature that will pasteurize the meat, which I think is right about 130-131F. However, if you assume the interior of the steak is sterile (reasonable) and sear the outside of the steak before…

If you do this sous vide, you'll want to sear it after cooking because the juices from the meat will dissolve the sear during the SV cooking. Just make sure you cool the meat between the SV and the sear, or else you'll overshoot your target core temp.

Ally gives 1.74% APR on a 5yr CD. The early withdrawal penalty is 60 days of interest. Their high-yield savings account is 0.84% APR. This makes the break-even point at about 180 days, i.e., if you keep the money in the account for at least 180 days, you're better off doing the 5yr CD even after accounting for the…

Depends on your time horizon (when you plan on using the money). Decades? Maybe a 60/40 mix of stocks (total US market + some ex-US) and tax-free and/or inflation-protected bonds, which you can do by buying about three funds at Vanguard. Within the decade? More bonds, less stocks. It all depends on how much…

I give this method my seal of approval. ;-)

You guys covered this previously: [lifehacker.com]

Why not use charcoal as the fuel in this thing (explicitly verboten according to the manual)? It burns hotter. Too hot?

Canada.

Just don't use on around a DST switch or new years...

"a single double A battery"

Fwiw, the recipe in the post has a number of improvements over roux-based cheese sauce:

Error in their article: sodium citrate and sour salt (citric acid) are not the same thing. Citric acid is the conjugate acid of citrate, whereas sodium citrate is the sodium salt of citrate. They're not substitutes.

Among common materials, aluminum is second only to copper in terms of thermal diffusivity, which is the material property most closely related to even heating ([en.wikipedia.org]). Cast iron, stainless steel, and carbon steel pans would have to be much thicker than any commercially available option to deliver…

Yeah, my no-knead breads (I use the Bittman recipe with extra salt and bake it in a 5qt dutch oven) definitely have a very open crumb.

What kind of bread are you looking for? If you've got the gear (namely, an appropriate vessel), no-knead bread is an easy place to start (lots of recipes out there—usually a very wet dough, long fermentation time, baked in a pot at high heat). Beyond that, I'd go to your library and look at books like The…

lol—I'd better disclose my source then: [www.cookingissues.com] . They say Harold McGee uses a piece of paper weighed down with beans to look at heat distribution on the stovetop, which has the advantage of giving you a permanent "heat map." Won't work in the oven though, at least not if you cover the thing with…