Chris Amirault

On a meat slicer? Or with a knife?

Given the critical, and even at times crabby, demeanor possessed by yours truly and some of the others reviewing this, our inability to find things to complain about besides limited budgets and recipes yet untested is damned good praise itself. And if you're fainting from the damned praise, well, wait until you see the thing.

'm afraid that it doesn't work at all. The worm in a meat grinder depends on the elasticity and flexibility of muscle, which nixtamal doesn't have. In addition, the nixtamal needs to be repeatedly ground down with a crushing, not cutting, action. Break out your metate!

Matt, is this the one you're looking at?

I had to look that up: here's the product description at the Amazon link: If you substitute "contemporary food science and modernist technique" for "Talmud" in the above, the comparison is stunningly appropriate.

Exhaustively, both. Even if you can't do half of the stuff -- and that's just a rough estimate for the purposes of discussion; I could be way off -- you've still got over 1,000 pages.

With the books on the boat crossing the Pacific and a few review copies available online, we've gotten the Cooking with Modernist Cuisine topic up and running.

eG Forums topic on Modernist Cuisine by Nathan Myhrvold & Chris Young. Society-friendly link to their multi-volume book on Amazon. As the above topic indicates, Society members are pretty excited about the arrival of the multi-volume MC package. Thanks to the generosity of the MC team, a few Society members have been granted access for two weeks to an online version of the book. (Here's my initial reaction.) Our exposure to this remarkable project is prompting one major reaction: what should we cook first?!? Thus this topic, a place where we can all discuss what we'll do and how we'll do it, then compare notes about what did (and didn't) happen. Along the way, we can also share kludges, sources, photos, and the like. Indeed, cooking many of the things in MC may require a bit more preparation than other cookbooks, whether it be sourcing some sodium hexametaphosphate or getting your hands on a chamber vacuum sealer. But that's not to say that every dish need be a hydrocolloid-n-liquid-nitrogen showpiece taking the better part of a week. Volume 6, the Kitchen Manual, is filled with recipes for everything from house cocktail bitters to potato purée, from SV stock to hamburger buns. I, for one, plan to start with some basics! There's some content already available online at the Modernist Cuisine website, and those of us with access to the online copy may get started a bit early to whet your appetite. Of course, next month, we'll all have copies to cook from. Because you bought it, right?

A pair of similar cleavers? Oh yeah, that'd be on my list if I had two of a kind.

No taunting intended! Happy to try to answer any questions you've got!

Yesterday, a few Society volunteers and members got access to a "reading room" for two weeks, in which the book is available for reading over the internet. Yes, that's right. The whole book. I've been stuck in the storm that's closed everything around here, and for most of the last day I've been moving through it pretty cursorily, stopping to enlarge this or that. I started with volume one and I'm nearly through volume two, with a detour through the Kitchen Manual (where the recipes all are available in easy-to-follow format and no illustrations). I'm hoping to get through the rest of it today. First reactions: The structure of it is very intuitive, at least for me. The first two volumes walk you through a variety of historical, cultural, and scientific material that flows with ease, particularly given the depth of the material covered. It also doesn't feel high-falutin' or defensive: the section explaining why "modernist" was their adjective of choice, in particular, is smart and appropriate. Finally, just when you need a bit more help with concept X or technology Y, up comes a little box and picture explaining. In the small excerpts we've seen, it's impossible to appreciate the organizational and design scope these six volumes seem to travel so expertly. It's not just about "modernist cuisine." It's about cooking, food, and everything related to both. Want to learn why water is "weird"? How about making your oven function at its most efficient? Need a stock recipe, or want an ideal way to purée any given vegetable? They're all here. The scientific rigor apparent throughout is matched by a plain-talk commitment to clear explanation of the scientific concepts themselves. Not just PID controllers and hydrocolloids, either. Last night, after reading a single sentence, I turned to my wife and said, "Why blow on soup?" She said, "I dunno." I said, "Evaporation cools, like when you sweat; the vapor from the soup inhibits evaporation by creating a humid environment. When you blow..." "...you create a better environment for evaporation!" she said with a smile. It was one of dozens of "Of course! Cool!!" moments. I'll stop there, for now anyway. But one last comment. I didn't use any superlatives above for one reason: everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, about the book is astonishing. Illustrations, information design, writing... the whole nine yards. At first glance, it doesn't appear merely to be the most important event in food publishing in decades (or more). That's obvious. I just keep wondering if there has been a book of this scope, design, and importance of any kind in decades (or more). Mindblowing.

Cutting up meat is absolutely on my list. Scrambling eggs in the center of a pile of flour and watching it slowly incorporate and become pasta dough.

Stirring gougeres dough in the saucepan.

No, not at all. It's a less anise-y, more herbal liqueur than absinthe substitutes like Pernod.

I've had tremendous success with Chartreuse.

It's not rough-hewn moonshine, though: it has some nuance and subtlety. But it's not an aged product, so it tastes like, well, what Andy called "a mix of grappa and creamed corn."

I'm trying to wrap my mind around this white dog craze. It's a bit late in the game, I realize; the NY Times ran a piece about it last May, and in most major markets the stuff has been around for a while. Here in RI, we've got just two that I can find: Buffalo Trace White Dog Mash #1 (good luck finding it on BT's horrible website) and the Ransom Whippersnapper, from the geniuses who make Ransom Old Tom, one of the finest spirits available anywhere. They're interesting, sure enough. But it's hard to know what to make with them. (Sippers they ain't; even someone who likes overproof rum straight (me) would find that BT a bit much.) I haven't tried mixing them besides a few, failed Old Fashioned attempts. Thoughts on that? I'm also not sure what to make of them. Why the sudden interest? Who's buying this stuff? For what? You? Why?

So you get your day's dose of tea leaves at the bottom of the glass, and as you empty it you fill it back up with hot water to reinfuse? That's sorta what I do at work with the tea pot!

Thanks to our three terrific bloggers from the Big Apple!

What's the name of the nut recipe?

As promised, a video of my wicked cool new/old Sunbeam Radiant Control AT-W toaster, a marvel at all things toast. As beautiful as it is just sitting there -- -- check it out in action: That orange-red glow is the color of morning joy.

Thanks, guys. This blood orange Monkey Gland is raised in your honor. Cheers!

That was extremely helpful. Thanks. So, in re the WF position, you'd say that they've chosen to support a corporation that, at best, hasn't been a good steward of research that could help us understand these issues. At worst... well, there are lots of characterizations of Monsanto out there that paint a pretty ugly picture. Sound about right?

Care to summarize the RoundUp issue for those of us who are, um, a bit too slog-averse?

So the definition of a pudding cake is not a cake that's pudding-y, but a two-layer cake & pudding dish. Yes?