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Chris Amirault

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Everything posted by Chris Amirault

  1. Chris Amirault
    Agreed -- and I'll bet that the MC authors would agree as well.
  2. Chris Amirault
    I can't go through the book to find it right now, but its discussion of wet-bulb and dry-bulb (that is to say, your oven's) temperatures makes you realize the importance of the former to cooking and, correspondingly, the lower importance of oven temperature. So my guess is that opening the oven briefly affects the item being cooked in a pretty negligible way, if at all.
  3. Chris Amirault
    Yep: it's a spiral bound listing of parametric charts, recipes, and more so that everything's on a single page (or part of a page), on waterproof paper. I'll take a snap of it tonight to give you a sense of it (I left it at home).
  4. Chris Amirault
    Just dispelled the notion that basting is nonsense over here. Good thing I carry the thing with me everywhere I go. For example, to this morning's meeting at Panera: Damn thing needs a stroller, though....
  5. Chris Amirault
    You'll get a burn, but Matt's right about evaporation. Here's the relevant paragraph from Modernist Cuisine (2:103):
  6. Chris Amirault
    So I'll bring this little contest to a close. I hope you can see that, while not literally exhaustive, the book comes pretty close to covering most cooking issues you can imagine. It is interesting to note the omissions -- I was surprised that there's nothing on the particulars of rice, for example. But the fact that the book had detailed information on most topics proposed is a testament to its depth and breadth. As for the book's overall organization, we're working with the folks at The Cooking Lab to bring you some exclusive content that helps to bring its structure and design into clearer focus than you can see with single-page excerpts or descriptions like those I've written. So: watch this space.
  7. Chris Amirault
    Sorry for the delay -- diving in: There are several interrelated sections of the book that deal with this question: dry-bulb, wet-bulb, and core temperatures; various forms of heat transfer; delta-T (the difference between the temperature at which your meat cooks and the desired core temperature); the cooking medium (dry air, wet air, water bath); and so on. They complicate this simple question a lot. For example, if you're going to put a chicken into a high-heat oven to be roasted, bringing it to room temperature is more important than if you're putting a steak into a water bath where you'll bring it to a core temperature that's very close, if not identical, to the water's temp. So the short answer is: bringing meat ('s core temperature) to room temperature is useful in some situations and less so in others. But the book devotes pages to a longer answer. Elie, as I mentioned above, there's a small section on risotto (3:304-6) that discusses various risotto and risotto-style preparations. However, there's no discussion of rice cooking per se -- and references to "rice, cooked" in the ingredient list (2: 176, e.g.) suggest that you know how to do it already. As I mentioned, there are several pages devoted to tartares and raw meat (3:62-69). It covers the gamut: a "best bets for tartares" chart with beef, lamb, tuna, venison, and more: recipes; textures; seasonings; and notes. There are also more detailed recipes, including a variation of Keller's salmon cornets. And for those of you with liquid nitrogen handy, a page on "cryoshatter for tartare." In short, a treasure trove on tartare.
  8. Chris Amirault
    Goodness: all so rule-bound, even in death. Yes, you can have carmine Campari in your Sidecar. Yes, you can have Nadal, Borg, or Tilden at bedside.
  9. Chris Amirault
    Yes, me too.
  10. Chris Amirault
    Your call, Andy. I mean, it's your last drink, so who am I to say....
  11. Chris Amirault
    I'm pretty close to saying that the Martinez is my "last drink." I've settled into a 2:1:1/4:2 dashes ratio for a while now, but I'll fiddle now and then. Take, for instance, this, which is a tweak based on the early Death's Door bottling and the odd Paolo Lazzaroni Lazzaroni & Figli maraschino -- odd because not funky like Luxardo -- which needs a punch in the face from the Leopold Bros.: 2 oz Death's Door gin 1 oz M&R sweet vermouth 1/4 oz Paolo Lazzaroni & Figli maraschino 2 dashes Bitter Truth Jerry Thomas Decanter bitters 1 dash Leopold Bros. absinthe verte Stir; strain; up, no garnish. It doesn't need one. Not sure why, but this combination is extremely aromatic. I think that Leopold Bros. absinthe has some wicked good stuff going on.
  12. Chris Amirault
    So: it's dead man (or woman) walking time. You've got your meal all planned out, but the prison warden, a cocktail fiend, says, "You'll want a drink with that, won'tcha?" So what'll it be? Your last drink. I'm still thinking, but leaning Martinez. You?
  13. Chris Amirault
    Adam have you (or has anyone) been way up north to Old Pulteney and Balbair? I recently went to a tasting that included a vertical flight of each -- pretty wild stuff. More soon on that.
  14. Chris Amirault
    +1 on the Macallan cask strength, which is also a good sipper if you like 'em potent. Which, by gum, I sure do.
  15. Chris Amirault
    In nearly every situation, there is a discussion of the standard recipe, a consideration of why it was done that way, an overview of the benefits and flaws, and, nearly always, an attempt to take it one step further in quality. (There's often historical, biographical, and cultural contexts drawn as well.) For example, there's a discussion of parcooking risotto that references Thomas Keller's use of the technique and then parametric recipe tables for a wide range of ingredients to treat like risotto. Ditto BBQ: indeed, the depth and breadth of the 'cue discussions of both traditional and modern methods is dizzying. I mean, really, the whole thing gives you the culinary equivalent of Stendhal syndrome.
  16. Chris Amirault
    There is a ton. I'll give an overview tonight. Are y'all getting the picture here? It covers nearly everything...!
  17. Chris Amirault
    Anna N and FoodMan, I'm at work for the rest of the day and won't be able to break away to check out those things. I'm very sure Anna's question is answered in great depth across a few volumes. Elie, I'm less confident that your question is asked; given the section on rice cookers, I think that Nathan's got the process covered technologically. Anyone with online access able to answer the questions?
  18. Chris Amirault
    Another stumper! There are two "modernist gnocchi" recipes on 4:119 and 123 using Activa & gelatin, on the one hand, and Kudzu root starch, on the other. The pasta section that closes volume 3 focuses nearly entirely on wheat (and egg) pastas. So no insights on the leaden gnocchi question, sadly.
  19. Chris Amirault
    Well, it's not a science paper; it's a book about cooking. As a result, there aren't "methods" sections for each of the explanations. Thankfully, I suppose: given the depth of explanation on a wide array of subjects, mandatory methods discussions would multiply the size of the book by an order of magnitude! There is some discussion of the general experimental approach in the first volume, and there are a few discussions of specific experiments here and there, especially when they were surprised. ("Jaccarded meat is juicier" got a lot of experimental attention.) But in general, like most cooking books, you're expected to take the sum total of the explanations, citations, and reputation of the authors to place your faith in the knowledge presented. It's pretty clear to me that the quality of those three things surpasses any cooking book I've ever seen -- by a few miles.
  20. Chris Amirault
    Over 100 pages on gels in volume 4 (70-195), with the first two pages devoted to collagen-based gelatins. And then, of course, we enter the world of the hydrocolloids....
  21. Chris Amirault
    I think you've stumped the book there, Renn -- but I'm also pretty sure that the answer is a flat "no," because the pigments in mottled beans like cranberry beans are water-soluble. ETA: Just checked McGee (485): yep, they are.
  22. Chris Amirault
    A quibble: the index, while titanic, lacks some items that I'd expect. I couldn't find "jerky" under "jerky" or "beef jerky," for example....
  23. Chris Amirault
    The book explains repeatedly that microwave ovens exploit the moisture content of food by heating it (2:153). As such, it can be used to quickly and thoroughly dry food -- as long as you attend to the variables of power level and time with care. So: beef jerky (3:184). The flank steak is cut with the grain into thin strips and marinated in soy, fish sauce, sugar and salt for 48h. It's then dried and microwaved for a total of 5 minutes in small batches. (There's an additional step to crisp it up by pounding then frying it.) As for why, well, this cuts the drying time by about 10 hours, so that's my guess. Yep: recipe on 3:312 (also one for frying herbs in the microwave with a bit of oil), again, with a note that this is a speedier method of dehydration than a conventional dehydrator.
  24. Chris Amirault
    Boy, there's a lot of information circling this question! Most specifically, from "What Happens When Meat Rests," V3 p 84: There are charts about core temps for beef related to doneness categories in V 3 p 96, including flank steak. The flank recipe on V 3 p 199 cooks the steak to 54C/129F for at least 1 and up to 24 hours. (I do this all the time with flank steak and go the full 24.) But it's cooked SV, not grilled. In the extensive discussion on grilling (V 2 p 7-17), it becomes pretty clear why they wouldn't include a chart with resting (or grilling) times: a grill is an alarmingly variable heat source with large changes in temperature along all three dimensions (height of the grate and position of the meat on the plane of the grate itself). Then there's heat consistency, the ways that the grill's sides reflect the heat rays, and of course thickness of the steak... too many variables, I think, to build a precise chart on how long you should rest that nicely charred flank steak. That having been said: in the section quoted above, the book refers to resting the meat for "a few minutes." So there you are -- and given the speed at which most grilling takes place, "a few minutes" sounds a lot like Robuchon's recommendation to let meat rest for half the time it took to cook it.
  25. Chris Amirault
    Fast answer, no shortcuts. But read on. Barbecue requires two processes covered in detail in the book: smoking and cooking. (Barbecue is covered in detail as well.) Both require low temps and long times, especially the cooking, to reach desired effects with tough muscles like pork rib meat. Speedy high heat just doesn't break down the collagen in the ribs to make them tender and juicy. However, the (intense and detailed) information in the book stresses that there are ways to break the process into component parts that allow for greater cooking ease: smoke then cook sous vide until tender, then finish under the broiler, on the grill, or with a blowtorch. But "hot smoking" barbecue is 52-80C/125-175F -- nowhere near 400F and not quick. To read more, check out volume 5, pp 66-79 is the whole hog American BBQ recipe, and there are sections on different muscle types (V3, pp 6-12) and smoking (V3, 208-213 and V2, pp 132-143 and more). That is to say, there are physiological, thermal, chemical, and technical discussions of this question -- and a bunch of related others -- in several volumes. Indeed, it appears that the definitive positions on controversies like "the stall" are covered, well, definitively.
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