Hackszine.com: Food Archives

Archive: Food

December 3, 2007

Ardiuno-controlled Gaggia Espresso machine

Here's the latest espressotronic creation in the long human tradition of modifying machines to produce the perfect cup of coffee.

The goal of this project is to create a computer interface for my Gaggia Espresso machine replacing the factory thermal switches with a PID controller and the "steam" and "pump" toggle switches with a LCD/button menu system.
...

The machine works great! I get better stability and control than I was expecting, and it came together pretty quickly with no major problems. Additionally, I still need to finish fine-tuning the PID parameters to maximize stability.

The creator, Nash Lincoln, got a few of his ideas from a similar project which used a PIC and an NES controller to manage a Rancilio Sylvia machine. Between the two of these projects, you should have enough inspiration and technical knowhow to start hacking your way toward your own espresso nirvana.

Gaggia Espresso PID Arduino Mod - Link
Rancilio Silvia "PID PIC NES" mod - Link
PID Without a PhD - Link

November 29, 2007

Hacking the Tassimo single-serve coffee machine

If you like coffee and a little cryptanalysis in the morning, here's a really interesting hack-in-progress: figuring out the coding used to program beverages in the Tassimo coffee machine.

Chris R. Chapman writes:

I've been working on reverse-engineering the Braun Tassimo T1200/T1400 hot beverage system from its barcoded T-DISC brewing pods.
The barcodes are used to "program" the machine to make a particular beverage using a specific amount of water at a particular temperature and for a certain duration of time. My efforts have been directed at discovering a "map" between the barcodes and how the machine controls its brewing processes.

I haven't been entirely successful yet - I've managed to decode the barcodes, and have run some experiments to try and surface some patterns - no dice!

Chris receives bonus points for using the infamous :CueCat to read in the barcodes placed on the top of each brewing pod. While he hasn't yet been able to determine exactly what the program controls, it does look like each program is composed of a 6 digit decimal number.

What does it mean? The future of DIY programmable coffee pods needs your help.

Hacking the Tassimo single-serve coffee machine - [via] Link

April 8, 2007

HOWTO Fillet a Whole Salmon

bbum acquired a bunch of excellent salmon, and shows us how to fillet it without making an awful mess:

...if you are willing to exercise a bit of knife work, it isn't hard to breakdown a whole fish into fillets. What cost $15/pound fully processed, can be had -- typically much fresher -- for well under $10/pound.
In my case, I get my fish from Patrick O'Shea of Mission Fresh Fish. His crew shows up at the Mountain View farmer's market, but I go to the market on Saturday mornings in Saratoga; no craft vendors, all food.

Patrick was kind enough to show me exactly how to clean a salmon. Whereas I had shredded the meat previously, I can now take a fish apart into perfect fillets in a matter of minutes!

I know I'll be returning to this page. I can't even skin salmon without making a mess - Link

Related:

3 whole salmon - Link
Smoking "Pot" (With an IP address) - DIY "Big Green Egg" - Link

February 2, 2007

Microwave Hacks

Did you know that your microwave is more than just a simple leftover reheater?

A couple weeks ago I heard about a study which showed that nuking a grungy sponge for 2 minutes was effective at sterilizing it. This was quickly followed by reports of a number of small fires involving dry sponges. Lesson learned: wet your grubby sponges before superheating them.

There are a number of interesting things to do with the household microwave. Of course, there are a number of materials which will spark or ignite, but my personal favorite is David Reid's method for casting small amounts of soft metals like bronse, silver, and gold. On the less dangerous side, there's also the strange and unexpected growth phenomena of marshmallows or bars of soap, though I'm not sure what this is good for besides entertaining the kids with Peep battles.

Finally, you can do a lot of conventional things with a microwave as well. The guardian recently released a top 10 list on the subject. There are hacks for softening citrus fruits for juicing, heating up plates for serving, and sterilizing potting soil before planting seedlings.

What's your favorite microwave hack? Let us know in the comments!

January 23, 2007

Build a Fire with a Coke Can and Chocolate Bar

Coke Can Fire.jpg

As featured later on Mythbusters (and mentioned on the Make blog awhile back), Wildwood Survival shows how to make a fire without tools, using just a can of coke, a chocolate bar, and some tinder. A follow-up post provides some alternative methods for "people who would like to make a solar reflector from the bottom of a can, but don't want to put in too much muscle."

For more food hacking ideas, check out Slashfood's roundup of top 25 food hacks or the Food Hacks Instructables group. For more on survival and hacking the great outdoors, outdoorhacks.com is worth a look.