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Ahh, Thanks for the correct spelling. I always use butter and flour, cooked very slowly over very low heat for ~1/2 hour.

George H.

That might be what distinguishes it from "sauce" - in my Betty Crocker cookbook, it's got "white sauce" in the inside cover. 1 TBSP butter,

1 TBSP flour, heat until butter and flour are melted, then add 1 C milk while stirring, then "cook quickly, stirring constantly, until mixture bubbles and thickens." Gravy in an envelope has instructions like that also. But this is the first time I've heard called out cooking very slowly.

My favorite TV show, right after "The Big Bang Theory," is "Cook's Country from America's Test Kitchen."

Cheers! Rich

OK forget the milk. You melt the butter* and add flour until it's a thick paste. Something like spakling compound if that helps.

You want to let the butter cook the flour slowly, as low a heat as possible. If you see any bubbling reduce heat and remove. Once the ruex (sp) is cooked it can be set aside (or stored in the frig.) You should try tasting it as it cooks. The idea is that cooking the flour removes the floury taste.

You then get whatever liquids are going into the gravy, separated from the rest and into a sauce pan. Heat the liquid and add beef base and seasoning to taste. (ya gotta taste the sauce!) When it tastes great, turn up the heat and get it just near boiling. Now add the some ruex and whisk the sauce, a little bit of ruex thickens alot, but it's hard to describe exactly and ya just gotta do it. You need to keep it right near boiling, but don't let it boil. Once the ruex is into the sauce, boiling it will cause it to separate.

You can always practice with milk, making a white sauce. Once the ruex is made heat the milk and add some slowly.

George H.

*(in a restaurant you'll have access to clarified butter, which is just the pure fat with milk solids removed.)

"amdx" wrote in news:ca263$4dc92827$18ec6dd7$ snipped-for-privacy@KNOLOGY.NET:

Thanks, freshmeals, for the tip.

I was aware of this option. The reason I didn't pursue it was that this controller & heater/bubbler system was almost $300. I thought the probability that sous vide would produce food that would be remotely interesting was so low that I believed I'd be better off assembling a test rig - which I did for less than $60 - to satisfy myself that the whole thing was just a waste of time.

I was amazed to discover that THIS TIME the reality actually lived up to the hype.

So, having built my present configuration, I was trying to tweak it to get the temperature just a little more stable. Thanks to the good folks in this group, generous with their insights, I should be able to keep the temperature to within .3°C - more than adequate, I think, for my purposes.

"amdx" wrote in news:ca263$4dc92827$18ec6dd7$ snipped-for-privacy@KNOLOGY.NET:

Thanks for the link, Mikek.

Now that I know what I know, if I had it to do all over again I would be tempted use this controller. Others have found that it keeps the temperature almost rock solid. I've only just discovered that it has an auto tweaking mode to set the various PID parameters.

Still, having already bought the (far simpler) STC1000 controller, I don't want to obsess over tiny temperature fluctuations (right Peter?) so I'm content to simply add a rotary dimmer to lower the heat and thus reduce overshoot.

Another tweak pertains to water circulation. Bubbling air thru warm water is not only cooling it, it's evaporating it at about a quart per 24 hours. Acceptable most of the year, it might be annoying in the summer.

So I'll not only cut the heat by half with the dimmer, but set the bubbler on the controller as well. So as a first try, both will be on for about two minutes out of ten and hopefully the currents already in motion will adequately distribute the residual warmth in the heater. Adjust things as I may, maybe it'll work, maybe it won't.

If not, perhaps I'll take my chances on a little fountain pump. Others have found that some tolerate the 55°C water quite well.

Perhaps some who have followed this thread will have already done some reading on the subject via the links I supplied in an earlier response.

I think sous vide cookery shows real promise. After only a few attempts, I've gone from skeptic to convert. I don't see that it will be of much help to vegetarians, but it works real magic in making cheap and tough but flavorful meat cuts tender. Another area of interest is in pasteurization. Eggs can be made safe IN THE SHELL, for those concerned about their use in Caesar dressings or meringues. Hamburgers, now urged to be cooked well done, can be similarly pasteurized and still served medium rare.

I've open a new thread on alt.binaries.multimedia.cooking on sous vide, using my usual nick in that group. Anyone who'd care to participate is warmly invited to do so.

Thanks again for all the feedback.

You guys are great.

Jesse

Rich Grise wrote in news:iqcgfk$5m8$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

In case you're not aware, these are regularly posted to... alt.binaries.multimedia.cooking along with America's Test Kitchen and lots of other cooking shows.

I've opened a thread in that group on sous vide. Please see my response, in this thread, to amdx / Mikek.

Jesse