Jack - weird, I never stopped to consider that chex mix could be a a regional food. Anyhow, for sure at least midwest and east coast it's a thing.

bugles look great in that. thinking small pretzel rods would be just fine. combos are probably a high variance play but could be great.

What flavorings do you guys use?

Butter, seasoned salt, garlic powder, worcestershire sauce

This. Plus I recently bought one of the large containers (1.1lb) of the ranch dressing powder. Thinking I'm going to throw some of that in there today and see how that goes. Maybe some of that fish sauce you guys convinced me to buy that I've never used, lol.

amoeba - looking forward to your interpretation. do you think furikake could work in the mix?

Thanks foobar


Redeyes, I think so but I have no idea as its going to be first the the first time I buy worstechire.

Was thinking of making one batch exactly as you guys described and another batch with additional chili flakes, toasted sesame, and Sichuan pepper corns.

buy the smallest bottle of woosty you can find and taste it for the flavor profile. it's basically a fish sauce (anchovies) that also has malt vinegar, molasses, onion, garlic, tamarind, and some other stuff. we always have it around but i'm curious about what you'd pick to substitute for it. we put it on almost every burger we make, and spouse likes it on boiled eggs.

I probably won't sub it out. I hear its a real good addition to steak tartare so I would probably keep it around just for that.

Yeah you use it for burgers and Caesars and that's pretty much it

Looks great but I thought the debate had been settled that canned pumpkin >>>>> anything on your own.
One of the rare off the shelf winners.

I dunno, when I'm feeling inspired, I will roast sugar pie pumpkins and I feel like the flavor and texture is better than canned. Could be just how the mass-produced one is processed? The texture looked kind of mealy, like, maybe I could have improved it by running it through the food processor or something.

What’s the sous vide machine you guys use/recommend? How much do you love it? How much do you use it? And what is it best for making?

Joules and Anova are both excellent standouts.

I use it at least once a month. When I am not busy, once a week. Love it lots but as I got better at cooking and controlling temperature in the pan, I have found myself using the sous vide machine less.

I still do quite a lot with my ANOVA. Sometimes it's just to pasteurize vacuum-sealed chicken so I don't have to risk over/undercooking any part of the chicken. It's also surprisingly good at cooking stuff like flan, any kind of custard, and ice cream.

I use an Anova, I love it roughly 12 out of 10. Use it 2/3 times per week. Twice for lunch meal prep (batch cooking chicken breasts or something like that) and then maybe once for something special like steak/pork belly/duck etc.

Yes, because canned pumpkin is usually some other kind of squash that is more flavorful than pie pumpkin. "Pumpkin" in a label is only required by the USDA to be the same genus of squash as pumpkin. Using squash with flavor, whether canned or fresh, is going to give better results than using pumpkin.

Big Pumpkin really pulled one over the wool of the American public's eyes. Pumpkin sucks compared to its relatives.

I have an anova and a joule. My anova is really old and huge so I find myself reaching for the joule more often now.

That being said I bought the joule when it was cheaper and Anovas were more expensive. My 7 yo OG anova has thousands of hours on it and it’s never stopper purring. If I were to buy today I would go Anova. (I’ve gifted 3 of them and all got rave reviews)

As far as use goes I’m a bit like Grizy in that I use it less now that I’m better at pan cooking. My main uses are longer cooks (brisket, short rib, chuck etc) and finicky proteins like pork chops, chicken breast, and fish.

The amount of people I’ve made into pork chop believers is greater than 10.

Full disclosure: I’m annoyed at chefsteps for selling out to their corporate overlords. Breville immediately raised the joule price $50 and created a new “premium” tier. Some of us had purchased the previous premium tier “for life” and they no longer put content out under said tier.

in the anova camp. if you like salmon, cooking wild caught at 115 for about 35 minutes and finishing in a pan to get the skin crisp is probably worth the price of admission.

Another vote for anova. I have an OG huge unit, but it's never let me down.

Not authentic but still delicious poke-style bowls for dinner. 10 mins of prep and the stove doesn’t even get turned on. Used some TJ smoked tuna marinated in soy+mirin+scallions+ ginger. Calrose rice with a bit of mirin and furikake. Add whatever side stuff sounds good. In this case quick pickled cucumbers and carrots, edamame, nori, pickled ginger, more scallions. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top. Added a tiny bit of Srirachi mayo after the pic.

I've had the box mix plenty of times, but never made Japanese kare raisu from scratch. Gave it a try. Not worth the effort IMO. Better, but not that much better. As opposed to Thai curry, which is definitely worth making from scratch.

Tonkatsu, on the other had, is definitely worth the effort.

Interesting. I am fine with tins of Thai curry.

Yeah, I think "fine" is good word for canned/jarred Thai curry paste. Have you made it from scratch? It's far better IMO. There are a lot of fresh ingredients, especially in green curry, whose ethereal qualities can't be replicated. Specifically Thai basil- basil is super fragile and doesn't keep well in any form. Plus your garlic, shallot, lime leaf, ginger, all of that, although nothing else loses as much as basil.

Canned is fine. But Thai curries from scratch are much, much better.

Have a recipe you like? I lived in Thailand for 1.5 years and was surprised how few people made it from scratch at home even there.

I did try to make Kao Soi from scratch once, that was my favorite dish living in Chiang Mai; it was a huge fail. I reached out to my Thai friend who does cooking classes and she just laughed that we even tried. "No one cooks that but restaurant owners" she said.