Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

cookmellow.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 166 posts

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#121

Post by unfunco »

arg01 wrote: post #106
polemic wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Living in Japan it's much more acceptable to eat pink or even raw chicken here. I will vouch for it being much easier to cook a nice juicy (and tastier) piece of chicken when you don't need to worry about under cooking it.

I think the laws are different in Japan, in the United Kingdom at least, it's entirely legal to sell chicken which contains Escherichia coli, which causes food poisoning, where as meat such as Beef is not allowed to be sold with the bacterium.

That certainly has an effect on my thinking, it's not that I don't like a more rare presented chicken, it's that we're conditioned to think of it causing illness because of the laws around it's distribution.

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#122

Post by budgi3 »

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…

Would vacuum sealed glass jars work?

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#123

Post by thenomad »

tptacek wrote: post #73
timtadh wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see. So a hard sided container won't trasfer heat properly? Sounds like I need to talk to a friend in polymers to really get a grasp on the right approach because I can't really think of a non-polymer material that would meet the flexibility requirement. In general it seems like sous-vide would result in food similiar to a braise but without the browny bits and the pan sauce? (saying it that way makes it sound unap…

Noooooooo. Food is not similar to a braise. The point of low-temp cooking (sous vide is low temp under a hard vacuum) is that the cook locks in a perfect temperature for the food and the water bath never exceeds that temperature. In practice, you aim never to exceed the temperature at which the protein expels all the water from the food; think: absolutely perfectly cooked steak --- or, more magically, think a short r…

I've been cooking sous-vide for years and somehow missed the risotto trick - thanks for that!

It's worth noting that sous-vide can also cook meats that are somewhere between "a right pain" and "almost impossible" to cook another way. In particular, sous-vide and a bit of time transforms mutton into one of the tastiest, cheapest meals imaginable. I had real trouble going back to lamb after a few months of sous-vide mutton.

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#124

Post by thenomad »

tptacek wrote: post #7

$400 is relatively expensive. You can get a 1100 watt Polyscience circulator for that much. No circulator or water bath I know of requires vacuum sealers; all of them work fine with zips. Also, not to nitpick, but duck confit only takes 8 hours or so; it's one of the easiest things to do with a water bath. It looks neat, though. It'll be interesting to see if the cooling feature is useful, or more of a gimmick. That…

Wow, $400 is expensive for a water bath these days?

My Clifton dual bath cost nearly $1500 when I got it 5-6 years ago. I love that this stuff is becoming more mainstream.

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#125

Post by thenomad »

zemvpferreira wrote: post #61
tptacek wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still not following. It's definitely still prep. You're just doing the prep a day or two earlier. But you can do that with any water bath by prepping, stashing in zips, and sticking them in the fridge. I think I see the value of being able to start a cook at 2PM as opposed to sticking to things that can run all day. Most of the things that work really well in a water bath also hold really well for a day at temper…

I wouldn't let a fillet steak (or a hanger, for that matter) in a water bath for 12 hours, either. Or consider chicken thighs: We cook the best thighs in the world by taking them through a temperature curve. When we have the time, we cook them at 57C for 12-18 hours, and finish them at 63C for 1-2 hours. The end result is silky, sublime, but still firm. On prep: It's not prep if you don't to put yourself up to it. It…

Thanks - I've been looking for a good prep method for chicken thighs. I'll give that one a go.

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#126

Post by Theodores »

zemvpferreira wrote: post #18

Founder/designer/actor here, glad to see HN pick Mellow up! I tried to post it myself to little success earlier. Let me know if I can clarify anything.

A small detail: Centigrade!!!

Only old people and Americans use whatever that other temperature unit is, for the rest of us '195 F' means absolutely nothing. Is it what a warm day feels like in 1957? Or boiling water? Or just below the boil, a simmer?

In your web page just put what the temperature is in normal Centigrade units underneath. We will then be able to relate to what it does properly - temperature is a huge thing in cooking as I am sure you know.

I know you aren't selling to The Rest Of The World yet, but a lot of people from The Rest Of The World go to the United States and it is only a small amount of text that is asked for.

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#127

Post by roeme »

The first thing that sprung into my mind:

That thing will be a bloody mess to clean.

There's a reason why most kitchen appliances aren't rectangular and don't sport a lot of grilles, if any. And it will have to be cleaned at some point, like anything in a kitchen (or closed rooms, for that matter). Rectangular fluid containers are the worst.

(Other than that, seems to be a fine idea).

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#128

Post by daffee »

zemvpferreira wrote: post #63
pcl wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Sorry about that, I'm on Celery's case about it. hopefully they'll fix it soon enough.

This bug is not really one. At least not in my situation. I'm using Disconnect chrome extension (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/disconnect/jeoacaf...) to block all sorts of tracking. When the website is whitelisted the pre-order screen works. Not tested, but I assume this could also happen with other ad-blockers.

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#129

Post by zemvpferreira »

budgi3 wrote: post #122
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…

Would vacuum sealed glass jars work?

For some foods, yes, perfectly.

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#130

Post by zemvpferreira »

thenomad wrote: post #124
tptacek wrote: post #7

$400 is relatively expensive. You can get a 1100 watt Polyscience circulator for that much. No circulator or water bath I know of requires vacuum sealers; all of them work fine with zips. Also, not to nitpick, but duck confit only takes 8 hours or so; it's one of the easiest things to do with a water bath. It looks neat, though. It'll be interesting to see if the cooling feature is useful, or more of a gimmick. That…

Wow, $400 is expensive for a water bath these days? My Clifton dual bath cost nearly $1500 when I got it 5-6 years ago. I love that this stuff is becoming more mainstream.

Tell me about it! The warm glow of being an early adopter...
Post reply on HN