Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

i just made these over the weekend. SO DELICIOUS! i made two changes: (1) no plastic wrap and (2) i used 3 oz ramekins. they turned out great - although i had some trouble recognizing that they were done!

@ carolyn - i think maybe the milk/cream cooks down some while on the stove. that is how i interpreted what was going on with that extra cup of cream - use it only if you need it. i did not.

i would definitely make this again. i paired it with another recipe from this site: "sicilian pistachio bars". those were also awesome. i cut the bars into long strips and placed them across the top of the ramekins.

It would have suited to have identified a date for the closure. I on April 24, 2009 am about to buy Scharffenberger chocolate, actually would have except I read this first, and would be more inclined to do so if the factor were not closed yet. Now I am uncertain. I agree with anti-Hershey comments. Hershey chocolate is not made in Pennsylvania. It is made in Mexico. That Milton Hershey Foundation is a success "story" is b.s. One does not eat success "stories" in my neighborhood or books either. Mr. Levine probably complained because his history professor asked for dates on examinations. Dates do matter. They even help one buy chocolate.

ed, i thought you might like to see what julie powell has to say: http://juliepowell.blogspot.com/

Trichinosis is a pain, literally. the worms live and form cysts in the muscle tissue of the host. And considering that to do that they burrow through your intestines and any other tissues in their way it is not great for your total health. I have worked with people who had gotten infested,and they assured me it is definitely not one of the things you want to put on your bucket list of to do's. If it were harmless, no one would be concerned.

To prevent infestation meat should be cooked to a minimum of 137 degrees farenheit, considereing most people can't or won't calibrate their thermometers, play it safe and go to 145, still rare, if that is what you desire.

Decades ago, when trichinosis was more common USDA gave us two other methods for destroying trichinae in meat.

Method 1 is freezing the meat at -20 degrees farenheit for 40 days, shorter times and higher temperatures may not work, this was known as certified Pork in the meat industry. this is also colder than most home freezers are run at.

The second method refers to dry cured meats. this required the meat to be treated with 3 1/2 percent salt for 40 days to destroy the encysted worms. The actual 40 days started when the product was fully salted, immediately with ground meat, think genoa salami or soppressata, but if it were a dry cured ham, it could take 60 days or longer for the salt to equilibrate to a minimum of 3.5% throughout the ham. That is why dry cured hams age for 4-6 months.

The reality here, is that people really know far less than they should about what they eat and how to prepare it. May people distrust real science for their gut feelings. Others are total cynics, maybe former hippies( oh the hate talk this will generate), who feel the system is out to get them and homogenize them. People, learn the real science, make sane decisions. Just because a Chef or Farmer tells you it won't hurt you to eat rare pork, or you read it on the internet (oh my god that is where I posted this!) doesn't make it 100% true.

Trust me, eating your pork a little dryer (Cooked to 145 to 150 degrees) is far better than trichinosis.

First of all the man is gone. What was his passion, his business, his life was sold to Hershey Foods. Unlike others I see what Hershey foods contributes to the area in which it is. The Milton Hershey Foundation
http://www.mshersheyfoundation.org/ is as much a success story as Robert Steinberg's story. Milton Hershey built a community there, it is not just a place to buy Hershey Bars and go to the amusement park.

Yes Hershey makes waxy american chocolate.
It sells shitloads of it a year. Every now and then I grab a Reese's cup because I am in the mood for that kind of thing. Just because we are chocolate afficinados does not mean that the average american does not look forward to the work that Hershey's puts forth.
Not everyone is as exacting and concerned with it like we are.
If you want to keep the love of chocolate alive buy Robert Steinberg's book which to me is a must have for all Scharffen Berger fans
http://www.amazon.com/Essence-Chocolate-Recipes-Baking-Cooking/dp/1401302386/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233294632&sr=1-1

Robert inspired me to use the good chocolate in my baking and I will not see him trashed. Yes he sold his company. He had cancer. I am sure his foremost thought was that his work go on and for his family. Who can tell what goes through the mind of someone who was ill for over 20 years.
Certainly not me. I am much in awe of all his work and contribution to chocolate and as cybele has said the products are not being made in PA.
Hershey is not going to retool.

To those who are talking about hoarding - Scharffen Berger is still being made and will continue to be made. At their Robinson, IL factory. Which is probably what you've been buying for the past few years anyway.

like some others who already said this... the cautionary tale is don't sell your company if you don't want to lose control of it.

This is a real shame but not altogether surprising. I wonder about the fate of Dagoba.

Hi Simon,

If what you're trying to say is that sous vide should not be done without a thorough understanding of the principles and the risks, I couldn't agree with you more. I would encourage anyone looking to explore this method to do the appropriate research, and to feel comfortable in their own understanding of what makes various aspects of sous vide safe or unsafe. I've done that due diligence, and it's helped me make decisions on when a particular piece of equipment might be inappropriate, and when it should be fine.

That said, you rightly point out that there are still risks associated with this activity. Anyone interested in sous vide needs to come to a personal decision on whether it's worth those risks, just as you need to make that decision on just about any other activity worth doing, whether it's driving a car, eating a rare steak, or indeed, having sex. For the record, I've reached the same decision on all four of those activities.

@PerkyMac, intheyearofthepig, jlbrach, Kerosena, dikaryon: Thanks for the kind words. Cooking with sous vide does bring to mind those halcyon days of chem lab practicals ;).

@ gastronomeg: Indeed! Alinea, The Big Fat Duck Cookbook, and Under Pressure seem to be competing for the same readership. These are all beautiful, expensive, and almost impenetrable books.

@sailordave: We do our more ambitious entertaining at Al's. The kitchen is roughly 100 square feet. We have a length of 6 feet of usable counter space and a folding table set up for appliance-spillover. The immersion circulator sits on top of the folding table; the FoodSaver sits on top of the microwave which sits on top of the folding table. The Vita-Prep is on the floor more often than not. A tight squeeze for sure but it could be worse ... We could be cooking from my kitchen!

The breakdown of big-ticket equipment used in these recipes is roughly:

Immersion circulator ($300 from eBay)
FoodSaver (more recently priced around $100)
Vita-Prep (roughly $500-600)

Groceries ran about $40-60 (the buffer is for the cooking alcohol). Items on the shopping list included octopus, almonds, navel oranges, fennel, fingerling potatoes, basil, bay leaves, rosemary, tarragon, thyme, cilantro, baby watercress, flat leaf parsley, Spanish chorizo, and Pernod. We subbed 2.5 pounds of baby octopus for the Mediterranean/Japanese octopus, and subbed Marcona for green almonds (the latter are only in season in spring).

@dikaryon: The PID type of device you mention is what we use when the larger immersion circulator is in use. For this write-up, we used it to poach fennel. It doesn't actually circulate water in the bath and you can only sous vide items as large as the capacity of your cooking vessel (e.g., rice cooker, crock pot, etc.). It is a reasonable alternative though, especially for people looking to try it all out. We've managed to produce pretty good seafood dishes with it.

@Veron, simon: Noted food scientist Harold McGee discusses the safety of cooking with various plastics on Ruhlman's own post of 'Under Pressure': tests show standard cling film, Saran wrap, and commercial wraps in general aren't likely to release chemicals into foods.

@NCthenNY: You've brought up an interesting point. Very little seasoning is required in sous vide cooking and a little spicing goes a long way. With groceries from the local Wegmans, we've surprised ourselves by cooking dishes rivalling what we've had at some well-regarded restaurants. Though I'm not sure ingredients need to be quite so pristine, flavors are improved with the use of fresh and seasonal ingredients.

@dbcurrie: I like your sense of adventure.

@alwang: Hallo, Handsome.

@passionateeater: Hello, fellow Meat Whore!

@GoodEaterKenji: As Al mentioned, we've learned to be more attentive to thickness, time, and temperature when cooking delicately textured items like seafood. I can't tell you how many dinners through which we've suffered, gnawing on cottony, over-poached fish ...

@GoodEaterKenji:
The issue is that in a lot of cases (almost all the fish recipes, and some of the red meat), the recipes in Under Pressure give cooking temperatures higher than what I would assume is the desired core temp, and so the thickness makes a big difference.

@dbcurrie:
This is the PID solution that dikaryon is referring to.

Veron, it depends what kind of plastic you're using. There are thousands of different kinds of plastic, and most of them are not designed for food use. Of the ones that are, most are designed to handle specific conditions. Ziploc bags, for instance, are perfectly safe for storing foods, but are not designed to be heated. Many people do ghetto sous vide at home in ziploc bags or in plastic wrap and it's a very very bad idea. The more heat the worse it is, and especially if you are applying heat for long periods of time. Also, if you're simply throwing the bag into a pot of water, the bottom of which is sitting over a burner, the bag where it contacts the metal is at a much higher temp than the rest of the water. You should be using a double boiler or a trivet inside the pan to keep the plastic off the heat source. Cooking in plastic bags should be done specifically in ones that were designed for that purpose. This is not a cooking technique that should be done with cheap and inappropriate materials. It's kind of one of those "don't try this at home unless you are a trained professional" kind of things. There is also a risk of bacterial contamination if the bags are not sealed properly and for certain recipes the cooking temperatures are not high enough to kill them. So in short, sous vide is awesome, but it's very advanced and expensive and not to be taken lightly.

tocino is never made with lechon sauce, cookie, there's no liver in it at all. pork tocino or beef tapa with garlic fried rice and eggs are the best breakfasts ever. about longanisa, i love the ones that come from alaminos.