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  #121   ^
Old Wed, Mar-23-11, 13:41
faduckeggs faduckeggs is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,709
 
Plan: HF Atkins paleo
Stats: 230/144/150 Female 63 inches
BF:less/than/before
Progress: 108%
Location: Dallas
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Picton,

I sense part of your problem is the physical effort that it takes to prepare LC meals. So, I would look for meals that take littl effort.

Do you have a slow cooker or crock pot? You can do the prep work of filling the crock, etc., and then it cooks for 6-8 hours, completely unattended, while you do whatever you want. Then, voila, the meal is hot and ready to eat.

Maybe meals would be more appealing if you don't feel like they are a great labor. If you can put the food in the crock and then take a long, long break before time to eat, would that help?

Also, there are foods that can be cooked and then kept on hand and eaten cold -- boiled eggs, devilled eggs, tuna and chicken salads, etc. Have you tried preapring these on a day when you have energy and strength and then eating them the next day or two, at times when you just aren't up to cooking?

I understand the energy/pain issue, as I have MS and have definite good days versus bad days. On the bad days when I don't have emals made ahead, I will eat a hot dog, or lunch meat, or celery with peanut butter. On the good days, I cook ahead and freeze things.

I also never really feel full and I have never stopped craving carb-y foods. But as I have gotten my weight down, it becomes psychologically easier to persevere day after day.
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  #122   ^
Old Wed, Mar-23-11, 13:58
Art Girl Art Girl is offline
New Member
Posts: 6
 
Plan: Veggie Atkins a la Jenn
Stats: 250/250/190 Female 5'7"
BF:No idea...
Progress: 0%
Location: NY state... the boonies.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by honeypie
Hi there picton,

I'm sorry you're feeling so low. I definitely know what it's like to eat LC and NOT lose. I hate that you're feeling uninspired by the food you CAN eat, and that you feel like you want other things right now.

Are you familiar with the recipe section of this site? There are some GREAT ideas there. Deep dish pizza quiche is a firm, long time popular favourite around here.

Also, just wondering... do you have a freezer? I am in the UK too, and I KNOW what you mean, about stuff rotting!! I mean, if I don't portion out my meat and put it in the freezer AT THE LATEST, the day after I buy it... it is TOO late already. So I feel your pain on that!!

Also.... do you like veggies at all? I think LC is pretty hard to do successfully, if you feel really limited, to just meat and cheese. They are super heavy on cals, and I know for me, without veggies,.... I just end up "not gaining", like you.

If you're disabled, to save yourself some effort, time, and discomfort, is it possible for you to use a supermarket delivery service?

If you want cereal in the morning, you can make your own. A few chopped mixed nuts, some unsweetened shredded coconut, cinnamon, and a splash of single cream thinned with water, maybe?

Personally, I looooooooove eggs. But I know people crave variety sometimes. I think there are DEFINITELY ways to make your food more appetising to you once again. But I think you need to put some thought into it, look at some recipes, and switch things up a little bit.

I know it is HARD, when we feel the way that you have just described!

Please keep posting. This forum is a fantastic place of support, and resource for information.


Hahaha I just read this and thought if I eat any more eggs, my cholesterol is going to go into hyper mode. I'm actually cutting them down cause I have the old creepy feeling that they might hurt me. Except... everything doctors say will hurt you one day the next day they say is good for you! But I have found that there is beauty in the fratatta.... o lovely thing.


As far as the overprep goes: I have felt very similarly to how picton is feeling, especially last week (my first week as low carb). I just work through it - I know I'm doing the right things for my body now, and even though it can be more work I'm glad to be expending the calories in preparation.

In moving to this WOE I have begun really thinking about what I'm putting into my body, for the very first time. I'm actually feeling like I'm a better cook - or does the food taste better? I'm not sure, but I definitely feel like even though I have to go through quite a bit of extra effort there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, and that light is made of improved health and fun times hiking with my husband. I keep that goal in perspective quite a lot.

I have begun freezing foods - can we say home-made tv dinners for a week? - which is a great suggestion honeypie. Keeps me out of the kitchen a ton less. I've managed to live without a microwave too, and I feel like it makes me more invested in what I'm trying to accomplish without all the already-made foods at my fingertips. I've got to stay in focus with the portion control, so I stick to recipes and divisions therein because I know of my tendency to say "I can just have five more and no harm no foul cause it's healthy...." I'm not only carb-counting, but I'm calorie counting, so I'm holding myself accountable at all angles. I have this cool app that counts calories and all nutrients, and there's something on this website that does that for you as well. Please be sure to check the links on the homepage.

As for the cost... that is something that just seems unavoidable. I don't buy anything I know I can't use, and I've been trying to plan out meals BEFORE shopping so that I know what I will and will not need for the next few days. But if you go to the CheapoMart or whatever grocery is best priced, I feel it's still the same food just different prices for the most part.

Good luck. We're fighting the good fight with you girl.
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  #123   ^
Old Thu, Mar-24-11, 08:58
Nancy LC's Avatar
Nancy LC Nancy LC is offline
Experimenter
Posts: 25,843
 
Plan: DDF
Stats: 202/185.4/179 Female 67
BF:
Progress: 72%
Location: San Diego, CA
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I have to sing the praises of sous vide cooking again. It's basically cooking your protein (or veg) in packets in a temperature controlled water bath.

First it's incredibly convenient. I prepackage my meat into Foodsaver bags and seal them. Either put them in the fridge or the freezer for later use. I put my aromatics in the bag before freezing. I often buy a big tray of steaks at Costco, or chicken breasts, or maybe a roast.

Then I plop it into the water bath however many hours ahead of time. Most proteins aren't too picky if you leave them in too long... eggs and seafood excepted.

At meal time I pluck out the package and then give it a quick seer in my skillet... which sits out on top of the stove ready to use... not always washed between uses, sometimes just wiped out. If I'm using the meat in a salad then I don't bother searing... or if I'm really hungry.

Anyway, there's a bit of work prepackaging and seasoning the meat but after that it is hands-off time.

Plus, you can buy cheaper cuts of meat and they cook up very nicely over a long, low cooking temperature.

Chicken breasts are great. They go from being dry and tough cooked in conventional methods to being delicate and tender cooked this way. It is because as white meat cooks, the protein strands pull together tightly and squeeze out all the water. Cooking SV means they never get that hot to squeeze out the water.

I put together my own system for under $250 but you can buy them, like the sous vide supreme.

Oh yes, lemon egg custard is super, super easy made this way. I eat it constantly.
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  #124   ^
Old Thu, Mar-24-11, 09:57
picton picton is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 34
 
Plan: Thompson Low Gly. Load
Stats: 344/318/200 Male 71.5
BF:
Progress: 18%
Location: West Midlands/England/UK
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Quote:
Originally Posted by honeypie
Hi there picton,

I'm sorry you're feeling so low. I definitely know what it's like to eat LC and NOT lose. I hate that you're feeling uninspired by the food you CAN eat, and that you feel like you want other things right now.

Are you familiar with the recipe section of this site? There are some GREAT ideas there. Deep dish pizza quiche is a firm, long time popular favourite around here.

Also, just wondering... do you have a freezer? I am in the UK too, and I KNOW what you mean, about stuff rotting!! I mean, if I don't portion out my meat and put it in the freezer AT THE LATEST, the day after I buy it... it is TOO late already. So I feel your pain on that!!

Also.... do you like veggies at all? I think LC is pretty hard to do successfully, if you feel really limited, to just meat and cheese. They are super heavy on cals, and I know for me, without veggies,.... I just end up "not gaining", like you.

If you're disabled, to save yourself some effort, time, and discomfort, is it possible for you to use a supermarket delivery service?

If you want cereal in the morning, you can make your own. A few chopped mixed nuts, some unsweetened shredded coconut, cinnamon, and a splash of single cream thinned with water, maybe?

Personally, I looooooooove eggs. But I know people crave variety sometimes. I think there are DEFINITELY ways to make your food more appetising to you once again. But I think you need to put some thought into it, look at some recipes, and switch things up a little bit.

I know it is HARD, when we feel the way that you have just described!

Please keep posting. This forum is a fantastic place of support, and resource for information.


Thanks for the input... one problem is, I am well past the "novelty" stage - at first I found it horrendously hard, and did everything the way everyone describes, it had one effect, I had barely time to sit down - a full time job in it's own right.... freezing pre-cooked food, chopping peeling grating and cooking was taking me HOURS and totally wrecking me, especially as it takes a lot longer than it used to - but at least then I did lose a reasonable amount of weight, and most urgently, I went from being a gibbering idiot - hyperactive then hypoglycaemic all day, back to normal! SO, even with the viewpoint of it all being a MAJOR success, I was fed up with it all in NO time!

Within a very short time though, the weight loss ground to a total halt, and the effort became the big problem, within weeks, the only weight loss being possible by TOTAL starvation, just as before, with my very low potential for exercise, I can lose weight... but only by eating NOTHING or very close to it... the good news was, I could stay within about 1kg of where I was simply by eating ALL day, whatever I wanted as long as it wasn't carbs, so I must say, I tend to do a fair bit of just that, it's a hard thing to miss out on when it has so little negative effect!

That was a Novel situation, being "almost" satisfied by food without gaining weight... that hasn't happened before! Thing is; eat crap, or well, it made almost no difference, and in fact the easy junk makes me happier, and I usually feel much more full too, something I am a bit of a stranger to, being full is something that only ever happens by me grossly over eating, and even then it never lasts long! (Leptin resistance? My Endocrinologist hasn't tested, but even he is certain it is a significant factor!)

I am no stranger to major weight loss - I had successfully dieted using low calorie, high fibre, low fat eating back in 1996, when I lost 9.5stones (133 lbs) and stayed pretty "sensible" until about 2003, sticking with a high carb diet which was high fibre, low fat and fairly balanced; largely with the aid of masses of exercise and a lot of opiate painkillers... (yet still tolerating highly unrealistic MAJOR pain too) - unfortunately the drugs chemically castrated me, and when I had a worsening of my condition, and some minor back surgery, I "fell apart" and gained weight spectacularly quickly... no surprise as my hormones and metabolism were a complete catastrophe.

Now of course even with the hormones substantially improved, weight doesn't come off like it did then! (something we all know!?) Some years of being a "basket case" meant I lost any fitness I had, so even when I got much of my health improved, the exercise just isn't happening, as I am much worse than I was back in the 90's and I can barely keep my life together to do what I do now, let alone think of going back to the gym routine I needed to do before!

I have found I don't even NEED to look at recipes, always being a pretty accomplished cook, food ideas have never been a particular problem, even now, I can think of lots of thigns to eat that taste good, just now DOING it is the bind and ultra-chore! Remove the carbs from food, and for me it just does not "touch the sides" So when I do go to the effort, and I do in fact actually enjoy a home cooked meal, it's digested and gone in an hour and a half, barely before the pile of dirty dishes is washed, however I hurt like I had been beaten thoroughly with a stick (and lose sleep because of it if I go too far!)
Compare that with eating "crap," I feel just as full, if not more so, but have none of the excess pain and discomfort that preparing food brings, nor was it a chore, so I am happier, but just a bit bored, and so as you can see the temptation to eat JUST crap is a big drive that after nearly a year and a half is hard to bypass!

I like almost everything that grows... so no, I am not a finicky eater, vegetables are a big deal to me, and in fact are also those I miss most... POTATOES! ;-)

Yes, I eat eggs too.. fine, but in the same category as eating blocks of cheese... ie. ultra high calorie, exceptionally unsatisfying, and exquisitely BORING! One thing I find I have in all the time, (as a potential ingredient) and often end up chucking out as they epitomise the boredom! Probably the reason there are no "Egg Takeaways or Restaurants" around towns and cities! :-) (no, I tell a lie; I know of ONE... "Mr Egg" in Birmingham, the original one, not Al.!) IN fact, ALL comfort food is carb based, so that's why it's so hard to get ANYTHING ready prepared that's genuinely low carb, anywhere.

Nuts, yes something I eat in fairly high proportions... and one of those items that are spectacularly expensive (and recently rising a LOT!), about twice the cost of meat!
After 16 years of nothing but benefits and pension, I could no more afford to have food delivered than I could fly, for one thing, the only way I can keep control of having food fresh enough to eat is shop at LEAST 3 times a week, fruit and vegetables (salad items for example) just do not survive longer. the only supermarkets that deliver are the expensive ones.... (eg.Tesco, Waitrose, Sainbury's) so add delivery to that higher cost food, at a fiver a shot... and that was about the weekly amount of cash on food I could live on, pre-low Carb times! I have had to become a MOST fickle shopper, of the type supermarkets HATE!

Blood chemistry (high Haemoglobin/Haematocrit) problems have me keeping off liver and offal (like them though!), (then again, pate without toast or say, crackers is an odd thing to eat, believe me, it totally changes the texture into a mouthful of emulsified fat!!) and I only eat red meat very occasionally for that reason, so I get fed up with chicken, and turkey is something I actively dislike. Fish is 4 times the price of meat, and offers less satiety than ANY food known to man other than plain water! So It's a rare thing, it just doesn't fit into my income bracket often!

Coconut... must admit that's not a bad idea, it's something I haven't eaten for a good while... at 10% carbs, not ultra low, but it's got some degree of "filling" quality to it! Might work well with yoghurt too. probably a bit of a job to find it unsweetened here, but must do some looking for that.... a quick 'Net search seems to make that harder than I thought!

Oh the other thing... I don't drink at all now, nothing I CAN drink that fails to set off the insulin/low blood glucose roller coaster is anything I WANT to drink either... had 3 single drinks in 18 months, none for about a year! It's a real laugh-a-minute this Low Carb Hell!
The fact I can't just blow the diet for a day and eat and drink all I want is the big factor... in the past having a day off the diet was always an option, and if nothing else you come back to it again, refreshed and keen to start off again, but if I do that I am ILL! Even with carb-blocking tablets, I can't go THAT mad!
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  #125   ^
Old Thu, Mar-24-11, 10:30
picton picton is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 34
 
Plan: Thompson Low Gly. Load
Stats: 344/318/200 Male 71.5
BF:
Progress: 18%
Location: West Midlands/England/UK
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nancy LC
I have to sing the praises of sous vide cooking again. It's basically cooking your protein (or veg) in packets in a temperature controlled water bath.

First it's incredibly convenient. I prepackage my meat into Foodsaver bags and seal them. Either put them in the fridge or the freezer for later use. I put my aromatics in the bag before freezing. I often buy a big tray of steaks at Costco, or chicken breasts, or maybe a roast.

Then I plop it into the water bath however many hours ahead of time. Most proteins aren't too picky if you leave them in too long... eggs and seafood excepted.

At meal time I pluck out the package and then give it a quick seer in my skillet... which sits out on top of the stove ready to use... not always washed between uses, sometimes just wiped out. If I'm using the meat in a salad then I don't bother searing... or if I'm really hungry.

Anyway, there's a bit of work prepackaging and seasoning the meat but after that it is hands-off time.

Plus, you can buy cheaper cuts of meat and they cook up very nicely over a long, low cooking temperature.

Chicken breasts are great. They go from being dry and tough cooked in conventional methods to being delicate and tender cooked this way. It is because as white meat cooks, the protein strands pull together tightly and squeeze out all the water. Cooking SV means they never get that hot to squeeze out the water.

I put together my own system for under $250 but you can buy them, like the sous vide supreme.

Oh yes, lemon egg custard is super, super easy made this way. I eat it constantly.


Completely aside from the whole Low Carb issue, I disagree, having come across it in commercial catering some years back, it produces exactly the sort of food I dislike for most foods... it is "hard cooking" (for want of a better description!) that produces flavour, ie. the Maillard reaction, and sous vide is all about keeping temperature LOW, often bacteriologically TOO low too for my liking! :-(

It's actually not that new as such, even before the French chefs started playing with it, it was in use here, but then just for cooking one particular food... a LONG time back UK meat producers discovered it as a way of selling water instead of ham, and hams have been getting cooked this way for 45 or 50 years... both small scale and factory scale - it allows added water to stay added to the ham, and the British insipid "wet" "boiled" ham was born, and is still with us! Boiled it isn't, hardly getting above about 68 deg Celsius!

So I think there will be those that like this style of eating, ie. pale and insipid, and those that don't... I can't see the Southern US BBQ chefs going a bundle on it! A few years ago, a Xmas test on cooking Turkey this way "bombed" when compared with traditional methods ;-)

Besides those issues, which are ones of choice mainly, from my personal situation, it adds more time and complexity to cooking, and increases preparation time dramatically, and that's the main problem I have, so no cure to the problem! The biggest drawback is it means having to prepare food when I am least able to.. eg. first thing in the morning... not that different to the problem with slow cookers - by the time I am physically flexible enough from getting out of bed, it is too late to slow cook anything!
Does anyone here want a slow cooker?... I have one taking room up, it was bought for me as a gift, and is as much use as a chocolate tea-pot!!

I do find some foods work well with sous vide though, where that texture IS desirable, and it has become popular with "trendy" Chefs such as Heston Blumenthal for precisely when you DO want that texture and moisture, but most people would not go that route for those comparatively are occasions, which is why here it is firmly stuck in very specialist restaurant kitchens in the UK, not domestic.

In the UK too, domestic kitchens are simply too small to add in large equipment, in my case a dishwasher would have far higher priority, yet I have to do without that too for sole reasons of space!
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  #126   ^
Old Thu, Mar-24-11, 11:20
faduckeggs faduckeggs is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,709
 
Plan: HF Atkins paleo
Stats: 230/144/150 Female 63 inches
BF:less/than/before
Progress: 108%
Location: Dallas
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Here's a thought on the slow cooker issue: prepare the foods at night for the slow cooker and allow it to slow cook all night, on low. In the morning, you can change the setting to warm, which keeps the food safely warm but stops the continuous cooking. Then, it is ready for whenever you are ready to eat, and no morning prep work is required.

Also, have you tried just fasting for a bit? Maybe listen to your body and just try not eating. (Not forever, obviously, but maybe a fast for a day or two would allow you a mental break for the eating issue and give your body a chnace to become truly hungry.) I don't know if you can fast with hypoglecmic issues, and I certainly wouldn't advise you do anything dangerous that would harm your health in that regard. Just a thought.
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  #127   ^
Old Thu, Mar-24-11, 11:28
honeypie's Avatar
honeypie honeypie is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 8,047
 
Plan: M-F vlc, looser LC wkends
Stats: 353.6/260.8/165 Female 5'11
BF:
Progress: 49%
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What about simpler meals? So that there is LESS work, less standing, peeling, chopping, etc.

I tend to go for a lot of 2 ingredient meals. Ie, baked chicken and buttered broccoli. Steak and green beans. And so on. Just a suggestion.

Also.... I hear you on the missing potatoes thing! But there are A LOT of people, who can include occasional (normal) portions of potatoes in their LC plans. It's usually grains, that make the cravings reappear, the water retention start, and the scales bounce up inconceivable amounts the next day.

Also, just fyi; you can find shredded, unsweetened, desiccated coconut in the baking aisle.
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  #128   ^
Old Thu, Mar-24-11, 12:14
picton picton is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 34
 
Plan: Thompson Low Gly. Load
Stats: 344/318/200 Male 71.5
BF:
Progress: 18%
Location: West Midlands/England/UK
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Quote:
Originally Posted by faduckeggs
Here's a thought on the slow cooker issue: prepare the foods at night for the slow cooker and allow it to slow cook all night, on low. In the morning, you can change the setting to warm, which keeps the food safely warm but stops the continuous cooking. Then, it is ready for whenever you are ready to eat, and no morning prep work is required.

Also, have you tried just fasting for a bit? Maybe listen to your body and just try not eating. (Not forever, obviously, but maybe a fast for a day or two would allow you a mental break for the eating issue and give your body a chnace to become truly hungry.) I don't know if you can fast with hypoglecmic issues, and I certainly wouldn't advise you do anything dangerous that would harm your health in that regard. Just a thought.


To be honest, never thought about it! Good point!
When actively Hypoglycaemic, I couldn't plan one day to the next, but I wonder how I would get on now?!?!?

That's one for a bit of thought, good thinking!
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  #129   ^
Old Thu, Mar-24-11, 12:39
picton picton is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 34
 
Plan: Thompson Low Gly. Load
Stats: 344/318/200 Male 71.5
BF:
Progress: 18%
Location: West Midlands/England/UK
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by honeypie
What about simpler meals? So that there is LESS work, less standing, peeling, chopping, etc.

I tend to go for a lot of 2 ingredient meals. Ie, baked chicken and buttered broccoli. Steak and green beans. And so on. Just a suggestion.

Also.... I hear you on the missing potatoes thing! But there are A LOT of people, who can include occasional (normal) portions of potatoes in their LC plans.

Also, just fyi; you can find shredded, unsweetened, desiccated coconut in the baking aisle.


I don't like bland food, (nor keen on ANY meat to be honest, if I "fancy" meat it is only ever CURED meat I like, sucha s bacon!) it bores me more than anything, that's exactly what switches me off first, in fact it's that sort of thing that I see as THE problem! Thank God that half the world agrees, and has worked hard to invent methods of making chicken taste of SOMETHING! ;-)
If I thought all there was to look forward to in life was a chicken breast it would have me jumping off a bridge, or on the next plane to Switzerland - I would sooner eat the pack it comes in! However that apart, even if someone else was cooking it, it simply does not fill, at all. Vegetables however nicely flavoured or not, are just plain water, and they have nothing to prevent them just disappearing, unlike starch, which I conclude simply hangs around for far longer. I spend one hour after any meal feeling OK, and within the following half an hour, I am SUDDENLY empty, and waiting for the next meal, that is EVERY single meal, however large (too much is worse, it makes my stomach feel over-full, then it empties out leaving even bigger hunger!)

The most satisfying food I do eat is lentils and beans... generally I tolerate them well, and they disappear slower, but require a lot of effort and imagination to turn into something edible at all, I think most people would find a plate of boiled lentils incredibly boring!

What I end up doing increasingly is eating junk like processed cooked meat or cheese, just as boring, but the attraction is, zero effort!

Can't allow potatoes AT ALL, wish I could... Wheat in processed form is the WORST, but even with potatoes and rice I am simply too Insulin resistant, I tend to have to be a bit more severe on myself to keep the insulin production down, the Thompson diet is too "generous" for me, so I cut even more severely, although certain types of carbs seems to be less "active" eg. apples... I can be TOO free with them, and do probably overdo them; yet say for example plums, and I get insulin pumping out by the bucket! Odd really!:-(

I feel it is some sick quirk of nature, the only foods I want to eat are "toxic" to me :-(

Will be out shopping shortly, so will see if any unsweetened coconut does exist! ;-)
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  #130   ^
Old Thu, Apr-14-11, 14:43
Nancy LC's Avatar
Nancy LC Nancy LC is offline
Experimenter
Posts: 25,843
 
Plan: DDF
Stats: 202/185.4/179 Female 67
BF:
Progress: 72%
Location: San Diego, CA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by picton
Completely aside from the whole Low Carb issue, I disagree, having come across it in commercial catering some years back, it produces exactly the sort of food I dislike for most foods... it is "hard cooking" (for want of a better description!) that produces flavour, ie. the Maillard reaction, and sous vide is all about keeping temperature LOW, often bacteriologically TOO low too for my liking! :-(

That's odd, it's being used by the best restaurants in the US. The French Laundry, listed in the top 50 restaurants of the world (top restaurant for 2 years), chef wrote an extensive book on it.

As far as bacteria is concerned. There are some extensive, well-researched and published cooking times and temperatures for pasteurizing food. I'd much rather eat a hamburger cooked to 135' for a couple of hours then seared before serving, than eating a medium rare hamburger cooked on a grill. Killing bacteria is a function of time, temperature and the properties of meat. You don't have to boil everything to make it safe to eat.

Last edited by Nancy LC : Thu, Apr-14-11 at 14:59.
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  #131   ^
Old Sat, Apr-30-11, 05:53
Margerie Margerie is offline
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Posts: 191
 
Plan: Gary Taubes
Stats: 428/363/160 Female 5'7"
BF:
Progress: 24%
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Sous vide gives you best of both worlds: the low temperature cooking which keeps meat succulent, and the high, hot sear which gives you that crusty, delicious Maillard reaction crust. It's really hard to get a perfectly cooked interior when you only do a hot sear.

You can mimic the sous vide effect to a lesser extent with, say, a thick cut steak by putting it in the oven at a low temp for a far shorter time than you would with sous vide, and then searing it over high heat.
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  #132   ^
Old Sat, May-07-11, 19:39
Nancy LC's Avatar
Nancy LC Nancy LC is offline
Experimenter
Posts: 25,843
 
Plan: DDF
Stats: 202/185.4/179 Female 67
BF:
Progress: 72%
Location: San Diego, CA
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I disagree with the oven thing. My oven doesn't go low enough to make a good medium rare steak. You'd have to yank it out before the entire thing could cook to medium rare temperature, because the outside will be hotter than the inside.

Also, the cooking time length of sous vide is an advantage. It gives collagen and tough connective tissue time to break down and become delicious gelatin, making the meat much more tender. One of the advantages to sous vide is that it you can make delicious results out of meat that would otherwise be too tough... without overcooking it.
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  #133   ^
Old Sun, May-08-11, 05:57
Margerie Margerie is offline
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Posts: 191
 
Plan: Gary Taubes
Stats: 428/363/160 Female 5'7"
BF:
Progress: 24%
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I agree that sous vide is preferable and has clear advantages, but I personally don't have the equipment or time to devote to it. My method produces medium rare steaks for me if I time it right and check the temperatures of the steaks in the oven. I follow a recipe from Cook's Illustrated and it has never let me down. YMMV.

Last edited by Margerie : Sun, May-08-11 at 06:04.
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  #134   ^
Old Sun, May-08-11, 08:56
Nancy LC's Avatar
Nancy LC Nancy LC is offline
Experimenter
Posts: 25,843
 
Plan: DDF
Stats: 202/185.4/179 Female 67
BF:
Progress: 72%
Location: San Diego, CA
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It might be cheaper than you think:
I wrote this about my set-up: http://mostlypaleo.blogspot.com/200...-resources.html
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Old Wed, Jun-08-11, 17:01
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Lindapnw Lindapnw is offline
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Plan: Atkins
Stats: 184/151/135 Female 5'3"
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Lisa, Where did you get your Lemon Cheesecake Mousse recipe? Your menu sounds delicious.
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