Food Lab

So for a style of cooking I wanted to try, I needed to build a box that can hold the temperature of a water bath extremely accurately. So first, I needed to scrounge up a few things from my tickle trunk. Note that there is a Hayes 1200 baud SmartModem (circa 1985 or so) in there somewhere. Back then, they were a buck a baud. Of course, I didn't actually pay that. My cheating-ass girlfriend at the time got it for me as a gift. Only good thing I got out of that relationship, come to think of it. But I digress.

This is the box with the components in place but not wired up yet. There is something called a PID controller top right, and another thing called an SSR bottom middle. The tin box is something I built back around Grade 8 in Industrial Arts. Mr Drescher gave me a B. He always gave me (and everybody else) a B, even for the two story, 16 compartment birdhouse I built. But I digress once again.

This is the box assembled and wired up. The temperature probe is coiled up on the left. For anybody who cares (as if), that is a Pt100 RTD probe that is accurate to about +/-0.15 deg C. I think the whole turned out pretty good. Would have been worth a B (yet another digression).

This shows the cover on the fully assembled gizmo. It is plugged into the wall and the rice cooker is plugged into the box. The temperature probe is inserted in the hole of the rice cooker lid. This is where the lethal part comes in: mixing water and high voltage doesn't usually go very well.  Usually.

And these are the best ribs I've ever had. Rather than the rice cooker shown above, these were cooked in a slow cooker with a small pump used to circulate the water around and keep the heat even.

I'll get together a parts list and schematic for this bad boy up soon.