My early experiences with sous vide, the cooking of vacuum-sealed food in a tightly temperature-controlled water bath, has been decidedly mixed. My first experience ended with unacceptably mushy steak, which I later discovered was due to excessively prolonged cooking of the tender cuts of beef I chose.

Eggs, often touted as one of the particular strengths of the method, were my next target. According to Douglas Baldwin’s widely-used sous vide cookbook, the “perfect egg” can be achieved by cooking an egg in its shell at 148° F for 45-60 minutes. The results were – interesting. Maybe some people consider the egg “perfect”. It was quite runny and had a somewhat custard-like texture. I’m not a huge fan of boiled eggs in any form, so I may not be the right person to judge this. I tried another version at 167 degrees, but it tasted just like a hard boiled egg to me. One of the issues here is the nature of sous vide. It cooks the entire egg evenly, but I suspect many people prefer a slightly more cooked white and a slightly runnier yolk.

Baldwin’s recipe for pulled pork was my next target. Chunks of pork shoulder (affectionately known as “Boston Butt” – which I sent my poor wife to request at the supermarket) are brined in a mixture of kosher and smoked salt for one day, then the meat is cooked at 160° F for another 24 hours. The resulting pork had a great texture, easily chopped or mashed with a fork to produce the classic pulled-pork texture. The main flavoring then becomes whatever barbecue sauce you prefer. I used an old favorite I had tried in Minneapolis from Famous Dave’s. The result was pretty good. It could use a bit more smokey flavor, and may also benefit from a finishing broil or torch. Some other recipes use a spice rub, which I think could really make the pork more interesting.

Having failed with my first set of steaks, I tried again with a tenderloin at 130°F, but this time limiting my cooking time to 2 hours and finishing with a quick sear on the grill. The steak came out great both times I’ve tried it and I can truly say I felt it was better than other methods I’ve tried. The beef flavor seemed stronger. I seasoned before sealing once and after remove from the bag another time. There wasn’t a big difference, but the second method seemed to result in less fluid loss from the steak during cooking. My wife wasn’t as impressed with her New York strip steak. I thought the tenderloin tasted better, but I prefer this stake via any cooking method. A flank steak cooked for 6 hours came out great as well, though it was used for burritos, not as a plain steak.

I also tried salmon, which is usually a particular challenge to cook because of its uneven thickness (which also makes it a great candidate for sous vide). While Baldwin recommends 140° F for 40 minutes, this seemed too high to me, so after reading online I first did a quick brine for 20 minutes (6 tablespoons for 1 quart – probably too little) in a Ziploc bag sitting in an ice water bath. I then cooked at 130 for 20 minutes with a brief broil to finish after seasoning with pepper, garlic and oil. The salmon was surprisingly not mushy at all, even firmer than with the traditional approach, though this probably reflects the brining. The fish was perfectly cooked throughout. I’m not sure it was any better than the traditionally cooked salmon, but it required much less monitoring. It’s also hard to differentiate the effects of the brine from the sous vide approach.

“It’s the best way to cook steak (or chicken, or fish). It tastes better than you can possibly imagine.”

“You can’t overcook the food. It always comes out perfect.”

“Once you try it, you can never go back.”

These promises of culinary nirvana drove me to invest in a make-shift laboratory setup to try to reproduce the cooking technique of “sous vide” (French for “under vacuum”). The concept is simple. The biggest challenge with cooking many types of foods, particularly meats, is to ensure that the food is cooked evenly and to the proper temperature. With a good meat thermometer and plenty of practice, you can do pretty well, but the idea of sous vide is to eliminate any potential barriers to perfect. The concept is simple: vacuum seal the piece of meat in food-grade, heat-tolerate plastic, then place it in a water bath at the target temperature. As long as you leave it there for long enough, the meat will equilibrate to the temperature of the water bath. You can have a medium-rare steak that’s perfectly cooked throughout. Chicken won’t dry out because it’s cooked in a sealed package.

This vision drove me to purchase the SousVide Magic, a PID controller: basically a box that can be connected to a thermometer and power a heater. Using some fancy calculations, it figures out how to turn the heater on and off at the appropriate frequency based on the measured temperature of your water bath and the desired temperature. I paired this with the FreshMeals Magic immersion heater and a tub with 10L of water. Yesterday morning, before heading to work, I vacuum sealed a tenderloin (filet mignon) and a top loin steak and dropped them in the water bath, set to 130 degrees.

About 12 hours later, I was ready to enjoy culinary perfection. Since sous vide can’t provide the nicely browned exterior on its own, the steaks need to be seared prior to eating. No problem. They looked great. I sat down and dug in to a extremely tender tenderloin that…had a mushy consistency reminiscent of tuna fish. I forced myself to eat the entire thing, but it unquestionably a step down from the traditional grill experience. It was only later I discovered that, while prolonged cooking is great for tenderizing normally tough cuts of beef, it can ruin the tender cuts I was trying to eat.

I’m still hoping that there’s something to this technique.

Counting Calories? Your Weight-Loss Plan May Be Outdated – NYTimes.com

The foods that contributed to the greatest weight gain were not surprising. French fries led the list: Increased consumption of this food alone was linked to an average weight gain of 3.4 pounds in each four-year period. Other important contributors were potato chips (1.7 pounds), sugar-sweetened drinks (1 pound), red meats and processed meats (0.95 and 0.93 pound, respectively), other forms of potatoes (0.57 pound), sweets and desserts (0.41 pound), refined grains (0.39 pound), other fried foods (0.32 pound), 100-percent fruit juice (0.31 pound) and butter (0.3 pound).

What’s left to eat?

A relative of mine goes through the trouble of making home-made pumpkin pies every Thanksgiving, crust and all, only to top the off with store bought whipped cream in a can.

Please!

Whipped cream is amazingly simple to make. All you need is a metal bowl and a hand mixer. It works best if you stick the bowl and mixer attachments in the freezer for a bit first, but it’s not essential.

1. Add 1 cup of heavy cream (or whipping cream). Don’t substitute.
2. Add 1 teaspoon of sugar
3. Add a few drops of vanilla extract (optional, but adds a bit of flavor).
4. Whip using for a couple minutes with an electric hand mixer. I like to start at low speed and steadily ramp up as the mixture thickens.

It’s done when it’s the texture of…whipped cream. It will hold peaks when you remove the mixer wands from the cream.

So easy, and so much better than the canned stuff. You can store leftovers in the fridge.

You know the experience – a nice plate of chocolate chip cookies catches your eye. You grab one and take a bite…only to discover you’ve been fooled by an impostor – it’s an oatmeal raisin cookie! They look so similar at a casual glance, but the taste difference is undeniable.

I’ve begun to wonder if anyone really likes the oatmeal raisin variety. Sure, they’re still cookies, but don’t you really want a chocolate chip cookie? Perhaps oatmeal raisin would never have earned its prominent place in the cookie hall of fame if it hadn’t ridden the coattails of the chocolate chip.

…but this is ridiculous.

I wasn’t aware that soft drinks needed to be gender-specific.

Or so they say. For some reason, the unwritten rules for breakfast seem to more more flexible than for those of later meals. No one would consider doughnuts or pancakes acceptable dinner foods, yet somehow these transgressions are overlooked for the first meal of the day.

In these hard economic times, sometimes small expenditures can allow you to convince yourself your avoiding wasting money while still stimulating the economy. Or at least that’s the complex logic I’ve used to justify the Saturday morning excursions that have become a routine.

A good bakery can be hard to find, but is truly valuable if you are fond of baked goods (and who isn’t). Flour Bakery and Café is my latest favorite. They have all the usual breakfast delicacies, including delicious sticky buns, impressive doughnuts (available early on Sundays only), a wide assortment of muffins and scones, and a variety of other treats. If you’re looking for something a bit more savory than sweet, I highly recommend the egg sandwich.

There’s a bit of a wait (5-10 minutes) as the cooks freshly prepare your eggs with tomatoes, red peppers, greens, cheese, and either thick-cut bacon or fresh ham. Since it’s a bakery, the bread itself is also fresh. At about $6, it’s not cheap, but well worth it when you are ready to treat yourself to a filling breakfast.

It’s been 80 days since Barack Obama was inaugurated as President. He arrived with untold challenges awaiting him. An economy in a downward spiral. Two wars in disarray. A discouraged population. A failing auto industry. A crumbling housing market. Financial dysfunction so complicated, no one really understands it. Despite this landscape, he promised to bring real change to the country. I, as many, was cautiously optimistic that something could be done, but I was doubtful that I would personally feel the impact.

I was wrong. The change is very real, and I have felt its direct impact. The other day I ate an apple for a snack instead of my usual cookie. No big deal, right? Well, it wasn’t just any apple…it was organic! Today was burgers and fries night in my household, but the fries were organic sweet potato fries. The burgers were dry aged, grass fed, naturally raised, 90% beef. How many more buzzwords could you want? Well how about adding local, fresh-baked, all-natural hamburger buns.

Imagine what the next 4 years can bring.

Each day I tell myself, “I’ve had too much dark chocolate peanut butter. Never again.” Yet, each day I find myself eating more. And earlier in the day. And more frequently.

I tell myself that it’s healthy: peanut butter is loaded with cholesterol-lowering unsaturated fats, and dark chocolate has been shown to lower blood pressure…but it just seems…wrong. Yet so right.

One thing that I’ve come to appreciate over the past several years is the value of a good bakery. Unfortunately, it’s not always so easy to find one. Recently, I stumbled across the Blue Frog Bakery in Jamaica Plain, MA.

Verdict? Really nice muffins. If you like buttery croissants, you’ll love this place. The baguettes were also quite good. Worth a look.