Chris Amirault

I've always wondered who was measuring the speeds of the bacteria that were running from floor to cookie.

Mitch, for me it's not seasonal. I've been careful about buying onions all year long, and even know which farms to buy from in the winter months (it's in Chelsea MA and has a distinctive tag on the red netting bag). And we're not talking about a small change: it's like going from a few bad onions per year to several entire bags being bad. Having said that, does anyone have any information about this that transcends the anecdotal?

Nope, not just you. Grocery stores, farmers market, even whole foods, they are all suck. I've returned more than half of the bags I've bought in the last 2 months Posted from my handheld using the Tapatalk app. Want to use eG Forums on your iPhone, Android or Blackberry? Get started at http://egullet.org/tapatalk

I was cooking this weekend quite a bit, and my wife overheard me cursing repeatedly. "Every other onion is a soft mess," I whined. "This has been happening all year long!" My wife then responded by saying that she heard a story about onion quality dropping worldwide, especially in India. I haven't been able to find anything about this in my morning rush, so I turn to you. Have your onions been lousy lately? Have others? What's going on? I need my alliums!!

This concludes the Modernist Cuisine Q&A. I hope you'll join me in thanking the MC team for allowing us this fantastic glimpse into the book, and especially editor-in-chief Wayt Gibbs for his thoughtful answers all week long.

This brings up a question, is there any chance on the foreseeable future that we will be able to obtain a decent chamber sealer un the sub 600 range or are they just destined to remain in the $1+ range. My question as well -- and I'm seeing them mostly near $2K...

You can get Talisker for less than Laphroaig? And are you asking just about whisk(e)y?

Well, but you don't "eyeball" baking powder, do you, Shelby? I think that's the way to understand it. Yes, I eyeballed the spices and herbs for the buttermilk chicken dust, but I didn't eyeball the sodium citrate and iota carrageenan for the cheese. Sorta like how you probably measure certain of your baking ingredients and toss in pinches and dashes for flavor. You know?

And you were at, what, 175-180F, Chris?

Finally able to get around to these. I have a pot and mug set-up here, though I can do smaller portions in two porcelain cups. Advise, please, and I will do my best to follow.

I find Puffins to have the consistency of styrofoam peanuts, sadly.

I wouldn't use the phrase "mimic roast chicken," exactly; I think that it's trying to balance the succulence of slowly fried chicken with the benefits of a fast deep fry on skin. Yep, just very good pickles. Unlike the fried chicken and mac & cheese, it's just about tweaking, not transforming, your basic approach.

What a great idea: adding Grape Nuts as texture to an otherwise soggy cereal. Sort of like bread crumbs atop macaroni & cheese.

Sorry -- I missed that in the OP. Still, I think that it'd work with, say, chicken thigh meat.

I've made the shrimp, black pepper, and cilantro dish that Peter references here from the great Riviere Cambodian Cuisine book and it's easy-peasy and very, very good. I've also subbed other herbs in for the cilantro; thai basil works well in particular. Up your alley, I'd think, Erin.

Wow -- broiled first? Did you notice any effects from that step?

Comments on the three recipes from MC. The pickles were very tasty, and I'll be using that brine and method again. I'm not sure what I gain from sealing the cukes and brine in a vacuum bag, however, so I may go back to the jar-with-glass-thing-that-keeps-the-pickles-under-brine. Maybe when I get a chamber vacuum I'll give it a go again. The chicken was pretty amazing. While preparing the brine, I was surprised at the lack of any flavorings save booze and salt, but the method puts a piece of extremely juicy flesh with a portion of very crispy skin in each bite -- and no bone to avoid. The buttermilk powder is a real stroke, adding a tang to the coating that I can't imagine getting otherwise. In addition, cranking the oil up to 425F, though a bit scary for someone who's stuck around 375F most of the time, was absolutely the right thing to do: 4 minutes with one flip in the middle and that skin was perfect. I do think that I would squeeze out the accumulated liquid in the skin-wrapped thigh more carefully before frying; some released over the oil creating a small explosion. Given the importance of the meat quality, I'd also use the best chicken I could find. (These were Whole Foods generic, not free-range, and you could tell.) As for the mac & cheese: it was both the best and the easiest I've ever made. No gloppy sauce, remarkably intense cheese flavor (you get the "flavor release" concept when you eat it), and the pasta absorbs it thoroughly. There was a moment when the mac & cheese was boiling away while I got distracted, and I rushed over to it thinking, "It must have broken." Nope. It's hard to imagine ever making it any differently again, though I think I'd swap out some of the gouda and add more cheddar out of preference. In short, three for three.

Getting ready for an afternoon of cooking -- and the vodka was an ingredient, not a personnel lubricant: After a night tightly wrapped in the fridge, the Activa-ted skin adhered more tightly to the thigh than the original skin did: Into their bags with the vodka, baking soda, and water combination. I assumed that they wanted an 80 proof vodka: Yes, it's a bag-intensive recipe, this one. Those spent three hours in the fridge while I turned to getting ready for the mac & cheese. All in one pot, too: The frozen cheese grated very nicely indeed -- for the first couple of minutes, after which I got the curd effect that Chris Hennes mentioned above. Didn't matter, in the end; I think curds would be fine: For texture atop the mac & cheese, I pulled some challah bread crumbs when I made some little toasts for the paté we served as an appetizer: There was a moment when the fry oil was hitting 425F with two pieces of meat in there and the macaroni was boiling away when things seemed a bit close to the edge: I mean, surely, the idea of putting the macaroni, water, and salt into the pan, turning it on high -- -- then dumping in the cheese when the pasta was al dente -- -- surely this couldn't work. But, yeah, it sure did (ignore the slightly overbroiled breadcrumbs): Meanwhile, the chicken? Here it is, fresh out of the fryer: Dusted with freeze-dried buttermilk, some pepper, bay leaves, and thyme: The modernist feast as the dinner bell rang: Looks pretty 21st century, doesn't it? Report and comments in a sec.

I'd do a big mezze spread: hummous, tabbouleh, baba ganoush, olives, to which you could add some ground lamb patties or kebabs if you're feeling adventurous.

What does MC have in it for pate? I am sure Nathan and crew experimented with other emulsifiers. Good question. I'll check when the book gets back from its Montreal vacation.

You've no doubt noticed two new topics related to the release of Modernist Cuisine, the epic, multivolume work by Society member Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young, and Mixime Bilet. The excerpts from the book itself with a detailed Q&A for Society members with Wayt Gibbs, editor-in-chief; and the "Cooking with" topic started by several members who were lucky enough to get an advanced peek at the book. The two topics are good examples of how we strive to meet the Society's statement of purpose. Indeed, our excitement about Modernist Cuisine stems from the opportunity its publication provides to take great leaps forward in many areas of that statement: While only a handful of folks have been able to get more than a glimpse at the book, those who have believe that its publication marks a watershed moment in culinary history -- and we're not alone, based on wide media reviews and reports. When books start showing up at people's doors later this month, we're sure that the excitement will grow exponentially. We are thrilled to be part of this moment, and we want you to be a part of it too! Simply look for topics that have been tagged as "Modernist" and dive into the discussion. Whether you want to learn how to distinguish different kinds of tapioca maltodextrin, figure out what wet-bulb temperature means, or nail your macaroni & cheese recipe, we trust that you'll find a cutting-edge discussion of the topic here in eG Forums. And if you can't find the perfect topic? Well, start one of your own! I've gotta get back to my fried chicken, so see you on the Forums -- and in the kitchen!

Oh, I had a story and a thought. Story: I was emptying the dishwasher and found that there was a gummy residue on the cheese grater. "Egad!" I thought. "Am I risking poisoning my family with meat glue or some other chemical?" Nope: turns out it was my wife's fault: as she was making her creme anglaise, she didn't scrape the bottom of her slurry dish, so it was coated with deadly.... corn starch. Thought: We have friends coming for dinner, the ones who usually benefit from the latest experiments (and who loved that steak up-topic). And I was just realizing that, to get ready for dinner, I have to (1) drain pickles; (2) cook elbow pasta in water and stir in cheese, and (3) pat dry and fry the chicken. I should get the whole meal to the table with, what, ten minutes of final cooking. Which is to say, many of these MC recipes are fantastic for dinner parties (or, yeah, restaurant service).

Again, I think that the cocktail comparison is apt: at first, sure, you want to outfit your bar with a starter kit of reliable brands. But over time you realize that you really enjoy rums -- and by golly there are a gazillion of them with various applications. Having said that, I already had to find three ingredients (iota carrageenan, Activa, and Ultratex 3) that weren't in the Artistre set. "Had to," of course, is a bit of an overstatement....

Quick update: the chicken is now bathing in brine #2 (vodka, water, baking soda) for 3h before 2h in the Sous Vide Supreme and the final high-temp fry. Pickles look good. The cheese spent the night in the fridge and didn't quite firm up into something quite grate-able, so I stuck it in the freezer for a bit.

This bowl of cinnamon Life is delicious -- for about three minutes, at which point it goes from crunchy to soggy with amazing speed. I love it for those three minutes, but some mornings I want something that lasts a bit longer. It seems to me that there are dozens of these sorts of rapidly soggifying breakfast cereals out there. But what are your go-to brands for long-lasting crunch?