9/1/08 - reduced the salt and basil a bit....

That question comes up frequently. Actually, it is safe if you maintain the temperature long enough. Nathan (who is currently writing a book on sous vide) answered it best on eGullet:

"The food safety issue is particularly interesting. Most people think this means cooking to 140F / 60C – that is not correct, it is about both time and temperature. 140F/60C is NOT ENOUGH if you do it for a short period of time – typically you need to be at that temperature for at least 12 minutes. Conversely, red meats can be cooked at 130F / 54.4C and be just as sterilized if they are held for 112 min. Poultry is frequently incinerated in a well meaning attempt to meet food safety guidelines, but in fact the US FDA says it is perfectly acceptable to sterilize lean turkey or chicken at 136F/ 57.8C for 64 minutes. These times come from the following FDA document http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OP...

Many people who have the phobia that below 140F/60C is unsafe do not realize this and will say things like “it is unsafe to do long time duration cooking at 130F”. In actual fact it is SAFER than bringing food to 140F, unless you keep it there for 12 minutes."

You can find his posts at http://forums.egullet.org/i... as well as some charts he's prepared for sous vide cooking...

As to how much to serve, it seems like the target is about 2.5% of the dogs desired weight. That said, with desired weight of about 55# for Alf, 65# for Neige, and 75# for Psycho, we came up with:

Alf - 1.45 #/day
Neige - 1.65 #/day
Tonto - 1.90 #/day

or, of a batch,
Alf gets 29%
Neige gets 33%
Tonto gets 38%

The recipe above makes about 15# which is perfect for 3 5# batches. We need 5# per day for all three dogs.

Used Maytag Blue...

I recommend using the Jewish Rye Bread recipe instead.