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Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

cookmellow.com

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Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#131

Post by zemvpferreira »

thenomad wrote: post #125
zemvpferreira wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Let me know how you like the results - ze@fnvlabs.com . I'd be happy to dig out my notebooks and check the times/temperatures for you, too.

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#132

Post by tptacek »

mattmaroon wrote: post #107
tptacek wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Low-temp water baths are like duck confit dispensing machines. In particular, you can get by with much, much less fat. I'm not sure I understand the utility of being able to throw all the ingredients for my dishes into a water bath days ahead of time, since I need to bag the ingredients anyways; why not just keep them in the fridge and dunk them the morning of the cook? Also: it's a little misleading? to suggest that…

I will say that poaching eggs sous vide in the morning is a pain in the ass if you wake up hungry. I end up heating the water on my stove and dumping it in just so it doesn't take an hour, and then it's slower (albeit better and more fool proof) than traditional poaching. I found out the hard way that trying to cook a girl breakfast to impress her doesn't work, no matter how awesome your marinara and poached eggs wit…

You still use duck fat, but you only need a 1/5th as much.

I don't SV eggs all that often; it's easier to poach or sunny-side-up them conventionally for me. In particular, I can't fucking stand peeling eggs.

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#133

Post by zemvpferreira »

mattmaroon wrote: post #104
zemvpferreira wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey matt, I knew other smart people out there had the same idea, great to meet you. Mellow comes out of the frustrations of having the knowledge and equipment to cook great food, and never using it because of lack of energy. We started with the problem and ended up with this technology. Feel free to reach out to ze@fnvlabs.com, or even preorder a unit and join the gang. (shameless)

I will reach out! I really can't wait to see what sort of uses you come up with. Every now and then I get annoyed by a 36 hour cook, because I'm rarely awake 12 hours before dinner time. But I'm sure you guys will come up with better uses for the cooling than that even.

I'm excited to ship units and what more creative cooks come up with, I'm boring, I only think about products these days.

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#134

Post by zemvpferreira »

roeme wrote: post #127

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).

We're expecting cleanup to be very easy; mostly a wipe-down every once in a while. But you're right of course, kitchens are messy places and we certainly took that into consideration. The grille is entirely necessary for Mellow to function.

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#135

Post by zemvpferreira »

prawn wrote: post #120

As an owner of a $2k+ Thermomix (which can do sous-vide in a very confined and limited fashion) this interests me and $400 doesn't seem outrageous if it can become a regular tool in the kitchen. I do wonder how much is covered by a slow-cooker though. Going on the TM, my concerns would be cleaning (doesn't seem like a big issue) and how much of a meal it can actually do. With the Thermomix, we found it went from gimm…

We've learned a lot from using TM ourselves. I'd encourage to try cooking proper sous-vide somehow; the TM version doesn't do it much justice. The temperature control just isn't there.

You're right that a lot of the value in Mellow is going to come from the community, but it's already massively nice to have a device cook your ingredients to their peak before you step in and finish the process. You're going to have to cook, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#136

Post by zemvpferreira »

tptacek wrote: post #132
mattmaroon wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will say that poaching eggs sous vide in the morning is a pain in the ass if you wake up hungry. I end up heating the water on my stove and dumping it in just so it doesn't take an hour, and then it's slower (albeit better and more fool proof) than traditional poaching. I found out the hard way that trying to cook a girl breakfast to impress her doesn't work, no matter how awesome your marinara and poached eggs wit…

You still use duck fat, but you only need a 1/5th as much. I don't SV eggs all that often; it's easier to poach or sunny-side-up them conventionally for me. In particular, I can't fucking stand peeling eggs.

I do mine without any fat; I findthe duck legs render enough by themselves.

With SV eggs, I usually saw off the top of the shell carefully with a knife, and squeeze them out into the plate. It's a fun process!

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#137

Post by zemvpferreira »

satiani wrote: post #118

Your payment form is not secure, even though it makes a submission over SSL, the fact that it is hosted on a non-SSL page exposes it to Man in the Middle attacks. An attacker may, for example, change the iframe URL to something controlled by the attacker but looks like the payment form on your site, and trick users into giving them their credit card details. The fix is simple, make your whole site https and redirect…

Forwarding this to our web guy right now, thank you.

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#138

Post by zemvpferreira »

shalmanese wrote: post #119

Any plans to open the device up to API access? I know a lot of cheese makers who need a specific series of heating steps and it's currently a major pain in the ass with available SV setups as it all has to be done manually. A way to program it in would be awesome.

It's a definite possibility, but we're 100% focused on delivering the feature-set we promised before.

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#139

Post by zemvpferreira »

eric_the_read wrote: post #114

I have to say, this product sounds pretty cool, but for myself, I got really excited about sous vide, even made my own immersion circulator from Scott Heimendinger's plans a few months ago, but when I fried two aquarium pumps due to long times at high temps, I knew I had to get a commercial model. I ended up ordering an Anova, and at $200, it's just at the high end of what I feel I can afford. A $400 machine could ea…

We're designing Mellow to be used every single day, and optimising for that means a constant presence on your countertop.

Our idea is that instead of making sous-vide as cheap and simple as possible, we want to make it as useful and effortless as possible. I hope there's room for both types of product.

Re: Mellow, the robotic sous-chef

#140

Post by zemvpferreira »

ebiester wrote: post #111

So, I notice that it's quite possible to set on autopilot, but is there an option to have more control, in the case of recipes we find separately? Is there some sort of way to know if the power went off? If so, does it check the temperature to see if it was just a surge or if it went into the danger zone? I'm trying to reduce the amount of meat in my diet, personally, and most applications seem to be for meats. Are t…

Yes, yes, and yes. It's worth it for what it does to fish and seafood alone.

You're right though, meats have traditionally been the main focus in sous-vide, but it's by no means limited to them. Pears are amazing, eggs too. Risotto, potatoes, and carrots are insane.

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