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Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

cookmellow.com

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Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#51

Post by zemvpferreira »

jadence wrote: post #47

What temperature-safe bags are out there? I did some digging into this a few months ago and couldn't find anything conclusive. All I found were blogs, quotes, etc by wannabe scientists. Of note: • http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3222987/ Nearly all plastics (even the BPA-free ones) leach estrogenic activity chemicals • http://pprc.org/index.php/2013/networking/p2-rapid/do-plasti... Basically said that the…

Hey jadence,

The bottom line: No one knows how safe HDPE sous-vide is in the long run. There's nothing conclusive out there, though what little evidence there is points to it being safe. Nathan seems so think so, too: http://modernistcuisine.com/2013/01/why-cook-sous-vide/

In the end you have to make a personal call. For me, the risk of undiscovered effects is vastly outweighed by the awesome food I serve.

I respect your concern, even if I don't share it, and I'm hoping to solve it soon enough, too. Be on the look out for a new product from us in the coming year.

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#52

Post by tptacek »

jadence wrote: post #47

What temperature-safe bags are out there? I did some digging into this a few months ago and couldn't find anything conclusive. All I found were blogs, quotes, etc by wannabe scientists. Of note: • http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3222987/ Nearly all plastics (even the BPA-free ones) leach estrogenic activity chemicals • http://pprc.org/index.php/2013/networking/p2-rapid/do-plasti... Basically said that the…

Dave Arnold talked to (IIRC) someone from SCJ and below boiling, the Ziplock freezer bags supposedly won't leach plasticizers or anything like that.

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#53

Post by [deleted] »

polemic wrote: post #29
zemvpferreira wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey tptacek, A lot of our copy is directed at people who're not that familiar with sous-vide and might have very basic questions when browsing. Let me clarify further: -$400 is expensive, you're right. And we're not making that much of a margin on these right now. That's because Mellow does so much more than just warming water. Whether those features are valuable is another question. -On the bags, we're probably the…

IANAchef but the video has the user selecting a "medium rare chicken breast". Is that a thing? =D

[deleted]

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#54

Post by zemvpferreira »

polemic wrote: post #39
tptacek wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Longer consistent cook times allow you to pasteurize at lower temperatures, so you can serve chicken at a lower temperature than you would in a conventional oven. (I'm not saying you'd want to do that; I don't like pink chicken.) Chicken is unfortunately one of the less effective things to cook this way. At the times/temps I'm comfortable with, breasts get mushy. Legs, on the other hand, "pink out"; the proteins…

Thanks! I think most people equate "medium rare chicken" with food poisoning, so it was interesting to see that used in the video. Never knew that you could actually cook it safely that way.

Medium rare chicken is like medium rare pork. If you can get over your upbringing enough times to get used to it, you can never go back. It me took 3-4 times for each, and the only reason I stuck with it was that my snobbery overpowered my mother's education.

But really, sous-vide, medium rare chicken breast has a taste and texture you'd never think chicken breast could have. Same with pork, it's a revelation on all the things you miss out in the world due to prejudice and bad information.

EDIT: I've never gotten mushy breasts tptacek, how long are you cooking those things for? I do 1.5 hours@57-60C or so.

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#56

Post by dftf »

Surprised not to see any positive comments here – this is exciting stuff. The IoT should be changing the kitchen faster than any other room in the house (it's the room with the most gadgets to begin with, with the potential for the most time savings / life improvements). There's not a lot of serious projects in the kitchen yet, and there should be so many more!

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#57

Post by anologwintermut »

mattmaroon wrote: post #17
lupin_sansei wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it can go back to refrigerator once it's cooked as it's too hard to recool that volume of warm water.

You also have to do it very quickly due to anaerobic pathogens like Clostridium botulinum and Listeria monocytogenes. I don't think it's possible for something that fits comfortably in a kitchen and runs on a 120v line.

What if you flushed the container with cold water? Seems easy enough to rig it to a cold water line and have a hose going into the sink to dump the hot water.

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#58

Post by zorpner »

tptacek wrote: post #24
jzig wrote: post #19

I am curious since I have never cooked sous-vide. I see pieces of meat being cooked in the video, so does that mean I would have to come home and prepare the side dishes?

For the most part, yes. Vegetable cookery tends to happen at temps north of 175, and protein cookery tends to happen at temps south of 140 or so, so you can't really use the same unattended water bath for both.

I typically do the veg in bulk for the week and ice bath->fridge them, then reheat in the water bath while I'm finishing the meat, but yeah, it wouldn't work to do simultaneously (unless you e.g. wanted traditional-texture braised meat, which works quite well in a veg-temp water bath).

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#59

Post by pcl »

zemvpferreira wrote: post #34
GregorStocks wrote: post #9

What's this cost? The pre-order button doesn't actually bring up a pre-order screen for me.

Crap, that's happened for some people and we can't find out why. Could I ask you to try out the direct link? Sorry about that: https://www.trycelery.com/shop/mellow

Happened to me too, on Chrome 35.0.1916.47 beta. I've seen the same issue with other sites using Celery as well.

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#60

Post by timtadh »

zemvpferreira wrote: post #51
jadence wrote: post #47

What temperature-safe bags are out there? I did some digging into this a few months ago and couldn't find anything conclusive. All I found were blogs, quotes, etc by wannabe scientists. Of note: • http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3222987/ Nearly all plastics (even the BPA-free ones) leach estrogenic activity chemicals • http://pprc.org/index.php/2013/networking/p2-rapid/do-plasti... Basically said that the…

Hey jadence, The bottom line: No one knows how safe HDPE sous-vide is in the long run. There's nothing conclusive out there, though what little evidence there is points to it being safe. Nathan seems so think so, too: http://modernistcuisine.com/2013/01/why-cook-sous-vide/ In the end you have to make a personal call. For me, the risk of undiscovered effects is vastly outweighed by the awesome food I serve. I respect…

I don't know a lot about sous-vide, I am more of a wood fire and smoking kinda person, but what would prevent you from using a stainless steel canister? That would eliminate the risks from plastic. Perhaps, a ceramic would also work?
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