Digijam

Makes sense - given that cooking at 70c doesn't render all the fat by any stretch, and that breed, diet, variations in water content, and position of cut all make a difference. Love to see some more practical figures. I'm with you on short ribs and brisket. And most other beef cuts, come to think of it (unless I'm cooking a stew or pie filling). Maybe because so much of the flavour with beef is in the flesh. Whereas I find pork a little bland unless there's a good amount of fat going on, so tend to go for higher temps - with something like belly going squarely between low-n-slow and confit duck-type levels - to get just a little rendering. There is always the option of removing the fat on a cut, partially rendering it, then putting it all back in the bag with the rest of the meat to cook at a lower temp and so get the best of both worlds. But then there's also sometimes something to be said for making a rolled joint and doing a good old-fashioned roast...

I've done it at that temperature without brining for 24 hours. They were fork tender but the fat, while cooked, still had not turned fully buttery. 30 hours may give an even better product. Let us know how it goes. ← I don't think that increasing the time will be much help where fat rendering is concerned -- when I do briskets for 48 hours at 64C there isn't much difference where the fat is concerned from how it is after 24 hrs (however the meat itself is more tender). ← Exactly. While longer times at 55c or above will melt the collagen to varying degrees, dealing with the fat is more about temperature. It's the Palmitic and Stearic acids that make all the difference here. Palmitic (about 26-32% of total fat content with pork) melts at 63-64c, while Stearic (12-16% of total) melts around 69-70c. So varying between 62 and 70+ will make a huge difference on the amount of belly pork fat wobble versus firmness, and the amount of fat that renders and bastes the lean meat (but shrinks the overrall size of portion).

I've all but stopped using it with the finer beef cuts - it's so damn effective that I find it makes even sirloin and some well-aged rump steaks simply too tender. With lean, rare meat a little resistance is part of the appeal for me. Definitely a bargain item for using with the tougher cuts, though, and for its effect on juice retention. Every home should have one.

Keylink in the UK sell it (as Invertin), and should be able to ship to Isreal for you. They only supply it in 1 litre bottles (just over 30 euros), though. They have a pretty useful page on doses, usage etc, here. Greweling's Chocolates & Confections book also has some useful info and recipes.

Low and slow is definitely the way to go, although I've also had good success with salt beef brisket for 48 hours at around 152F. This was with particularly well marbled and capped brisket, though, so I wanted a good compromise between protein preservation and fat rendering. And several days of brining probably helped with the juicyness.

Because amino acids are grreeaaat. E, except those nasty glutamine amino acids in Alisha's venison. Which are obviously completely different to the glutamines in Chris's beetroot. And fish. To be fair it can't be easy inventing the future of british cuisine, especially when it's one that will eridicate disease, save the cheerleader and save the world. (Just so long as we all eat the £60 dinner at the Bath Priory every night.) Look closely at those wrists and you'll probably see where he's been biting his nails.

It's now on pre-order at Amazon.co.uk, if that helps (and probably cheaper, once the postage costs are added), though that obviously means no pre-launch website access.

Interesting - I guess bagging means there's no extra water for the starch to soak up and adversely affect either texture or the gelatinisation temperature in the final cook. But depending on the flour used won't you still get some degree of gelatinisation at 55c, just from the water content of the ravioli itself? (IRC some flours will begin to gelatinise as low as 52c. I believe durum wheat is one to avoid, as it gelatinises at a lower temp than regular wheat flour.) If it doesn't work, maybe pasteurise the eggs before mixing the ravioli? Not sure how much the yolk and white textures change at that temp, but would have thought they'd remain fluid enough to work with.

Crisp Film is one of National Starch's modified cornstarch products. You can order a sample here.. Not sure where you can buy it in the US, in the UK it's sold by MSK and Infusions4Chefs. It can be used for crispy tuiles and also to reduce oil pickup on fried foods. In El Bulli's Texturas range there's also a new product called Trisol. This also improves crispiness when frying - I'd assume it would be useful for tuiles, too, but haven't tried it yet. If, on the other hand, you want soft fruit films (ie edible wrappers etc), then try Methocel.

And me. Never even got a sniff of a cookery class. Although a couple of lads did make a good bbq out of the main school building.

Fats are pretty horribly complex. Animal fats melt across a temperature range, and fat composition and therefore melting characteristics will even vary between different parts of the same animal (subcutaneous fat melts at a different point to pereneal fat, for example). The fat between male and females in the same breed can vary, and diet as well as breeding can make a huge difference - as with Wagyu beef and iberico ham. The family of saturated fats is the one with the higher melting points - ranging from Undecylic acid with a 30C melt point through to acids like Montanic and Melissic with 90-93C melting points. But for sous vide cooking the only three to worry about are stearic, palmitic and myristic - which melt at 70C, 63C, and 54C, respectively. Beef and sheep fats are obviously harder than pork and poultry fats - and in fact beef has around 19-22% stearic acid as part of its total fat content, wheareas pork typically has about 13%. So there's no easy graph to work with. But to fully render any fatty cut, setting the dial around 70C should do the trick, or set it a little lower to retain more wobble. The proteins denature pretty heavily at this sort of temperature, but all that lovely grease should keep the meat tasting tender and moist.

Sour cream is going to be a tough one, as it's more water than fat. Try sticking to oils, or mixes of oil and solids (peanut butter etc) and strongly flavoured ones at at. Sounds like you were almost there with the bacon fat. Just try pushing it through a fine mesh. If you're still not getting a fine powder, then stir in a bit more N-Zorbit and try again. And try starting with small quantities of oil - a little goes a long way.

I guess they can call it a glue in the sense that it will bind things together, such as patties, as Pounce says. Michel Richard uses gelatin in a lot of his recipes in the same sort of way. But TG is very different, in that it acts directly on the surfaces of the ingredients, causing crosslinking between the proteins of the meat, fish etc. I doubt anyone could fuse their fingers together with Gelburgeur. If you've already got some Texturas Algin and some Calcic or Gluco I'd imagine you could mix up an equivalent yourself.

Pub-wise, you could do worse than the new-ish Kingham Plough. The place is run by an ex-Fat Duck chef, but aside from a bit of sous vide steak and some triple cooked chips, the food is properly pubby. Great, cheap, and freshly cooked bar snack menu, too - pork pies, rarebit, scotch eggs, potted rabbit, etc.

Indeed - should have clarified that I was referring to the forces placed on the food after removing it from the chamber. This is clearly going to be one hell of an in-depth book. Just out of curiosity, can we expect much about how much sous vide really affects penetration of marinades? Hoping to read more about your experiments using sous vide in conjunction with the Jaccard, too, both in the way it alters retention of natural juices when cooking, and whether it makes any difference when infusing.

What he said . Though just to add that if you have access to a vacuum chamber rather than a vacuum sealer type machine, then some things won't even require cooking. The pressure, in combination with some freezing, will crush the cell walls of veg like asparagus - hit 'em with too much compression and they can even taste overcooked. Check out eG regulars like Sean Brock, Alex and Aki at Ideasinfood, and Shola at Studiokitchen for compressed fruit and veg cleverness.

or you might want to try buying direct from Spain, via Spanish Taste. Prices look reasonable (from 220 euros for leg, 100 euros for a shoulder, plus lots of boneless cut options) and the shipping isn't too bad. In Gloucestershire you can buy it at Daylesford farm shop, but you'll need a second mortgage and they're generally clueless about slicing. Suspect the soon-to-open Chef's Table at Tetbury (the new deli/bistro from the ex-Trouble House people) will stock it.

A belated update - finally got a chance to take the mini smoker for a spin, although using just a small portion of belly pork rather than ribs. Left the meat in a sealed, smoke-filled container for 24 hours prior to vac-packing with a little sauce and sous vide-ing, and then left in smoke for another 2 hours before adding a little sauce and a final browning. The smoked taste was there - I'd say it would be enough for chicken or duck meat - but it was too subtle for a real bbq pork flavour. Jaccarding the meat first might have helped the flavour to penetrate, but even so I suspect pork needs the full hot smoker treatment. BTW: The bowl is small, but a little goes a long way. You'd be surprised how easy it is to fill an entire kitchen with smoke using just a few wood chips.

I've only this week got a model from All For Chefs that works properly (after 3 months and 3 replacements), so haven't had a chance to find out just how much smoke flavour it can add to sous vide meat yet. I bought it primarily for fish, but hopefully a long 'marinade' in the cold smoke (maybe a few hours rather than minutes), plus the flavour intensifying vac packing and sous vide tends to give will yield some decent results.

Have you considered a hand-held smoke pipe for adding a little extra flavour prior to vac packing? You can buy them in Europe from places like All For Chefs for £20-30, although the build quality is a bit ropey. Or Polyscience do a more sturdy looking model for around $50.

I'm assuming Malt Balls are the same as the UK's Maltesers (honeycomb malt crumb centre with a chocolate coating)? As I understand it the industrial process involves a mix that's just a blend of sugar, skimmed milk, and malt extract, which is rolled and pressure treated to aerate it, and baked in a microwave. There's a recipe for a nut sponge from Ferran Adria in The Cook's Book which uses a microwave and a mix foamed up in an ISI whipper (rather than using raising agents). Maybe something similar would work for a milk/sugar mix, although you'd have to cut the cooked mix into squares, rather than spheres...

And those dishes were cutting edge compared to most of the desserts. The French are going to love that jelly and ice cream. The yolk always starts to set first with this method - the trick is getting the white to firm up enough without overdoing the yolk. For more accuracy than a rice or slow cooker allows your best bet is a large pot, filled with water and placed in the oven. Test with a thermometer for the right water temperature then pop the egg in and leave for around 2 hours - any fluctuations in the oven temp shouldn't impact on the water temperature too much. Unless your oven is really crap.

Hey Erica - was that a 5 month wait when ordering Picard's book direct from the restaurant's website?

I think the biggest problem with enjoying your own dishes relates to sense of smell. By the time the cooking is done you're pretty much numb to the aromas filling the kitchen so appreciation of the finished dish is dulled. Step outside for a minute or two just before serving something really fragrant - a stir fry, a thai curry, or even plain old fried onions - and it's amazing just how much the aromas slap you right in the face as you step back in.

I wonder if the problem might be the amount of sugar syrup. If you can't bag any xanthan it might be worth trying another thickener. I'm sure Ferran used to have the same problem (and sometimes still does) . I have found guests tend to be more willing to try the softer textures - foams, spheres etc - when they're supporting something more solid, even crunchy. Gives then a safe point of reference. Haven't had a chance to test the strength of Gluco spheres yet, but if they stable and heat tolerant I reckon their best role will be when hidden within other textures. Spheres enrobed in chcolate, and caviars rolled into ganaches or even cakes. Kind of a special surprise supporting role, rather than the main event - like pop rocks in reverse.