pastrygirl

I'm with you. It seems like every chef these days thinks they invented the sweet and savory combination, then takes it too far. Maybe it started with candied nuts on salads 10 years ago and has grown. I'm down with salt or spice in my dessert but I don't want my entree sweet. It's something I constantly have to remind myself to watch out for to avoid disappointment. Bacon jam might sound good because it's bacon, but I'm not going to be happy when it is on my scallops and is more sweet than salty. I don't want all of my food to taste like candy!!!

Edward, is corn starch more likely to weep than flour? I use flour and sometimes freeze and thaw for cream puff filling, haven't had trouble. That is why I prefer flour, it seems more stable over time. Piracer, corn starch/flour should be gluten free but may have been processed on shared equipment. Corn starch has twice the thickening power by volume as AP flour, so if you were using 2 TB of AP flour you should need only 1 of corn flour. Not sure how it compares by weight.

A little constructive criticism - I found it impossible to read the text, as it flashed on the screen so very very briefly between scenes. Next time consider a longer pause to allow viewers to read the text, or perhaps treat it as subtitles.

Do you mean a chewy caramel candy? Consider that peanut butter is approximately half peanut solids, so it won't be a 1:1 substitution for butter in terms of fat content, and also that the peanut oil is not solid at room temperature like butter is, so that may affect the texture.

If you have whole wheat flour, you can make a good approximation of graham crackers. I may have a recipe somewhere, I'll try to remember to look for it after work.

For those of you who have one, how loud are these things? I guess anything is quieter than banging molds against the edge of the stainless steel prep table But is it quiet enough to use in an open kitchen during dinner service without being obnoxious?

I do the same.

To clarify, it would be used uncooked in a ganache center, and it has to be bourbon (not scotch) because this is to humor my GM who has been bugging me for months to make bourbon bonbons so we can call them bour-bons and feel clever. The Woodford is about $37 for a 750, which is fine, I only need a few tablespoons per batch. The chocolate did dominate in the test batches, but I still want to use the best spirit I can afford, even if it is only for name recognition. We have a good variety at the bar at work, so I'll have to look into these suggestions. Thanks!

I'm decidedly NOT a fan of bourbons and whiskey, yet want to create a dark chocolate and bourbon truffle that will satisfy bourbon lovers. Woodford Reserve was recommended to me, but it was out of stock at both liquor stores I visited today, so I need another idea. What bourbon would you recommend to pair with 70% dark chocolate and a hint of caramel? Thanks!

If it has solidified in the ISI, try dipping the canister in warm water and shaking to melt the mass. I've found it to be very temperature sensitive.

I'm having a hard time seeing a big need for this. I think most restaurateurs know who their competitors are, and the successful ones don't necessarily care about the details of what the others are doing. I think good managers do find time to check their yelp reviews and address the negative ones. I guess if a business was really struggling and couldn't figure out why, your service might come in handy.

Except for the mango tree. Canadian mangoes?

I wouldn't say those beliefs are all that popular in this particular forum, at least not that I've noticed. Some of us may aspire to eat less meat overall or more sustainable/responsible/organic meat overall, but egulleters are hardly a band of militant vegans. Who and where are these poor lost souls you feel the need to enlighten? Forget veganism? No need, I never considered it Life is too short to eat soy "cheese".

Precisely. Pure chocolate is a system of solids suspended in fat. A little liquid doesn't fit into the equation, so the chocolate seizes. Add enough liquid, and you then have a system of fat and solids suspended in liquid. There is nothing magic about coconut cream to make ganache out of seized chocolate, it's just a matter of enough liquid, any liquid. I think of chocolate chantilly cream as essentially replicating dairy heavy cream. Whipping cream is around 36-40% fat, as is couverture chocolate. If you mix 100g Cacao Barry Fleur de Cao at 41.8% fat with 100 g water, voila, you have the equivalent fat of heavy cream plus some cocoa solids and sugar. It does work in an ISI whip. I have not tried white chocolate, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

The chinese truffles are a different variety. The canned truffles from China labeled 'Product of France' in the video were Tuber indicum, not the Perigord variety Tuber melanosporum. The sorters were able to pick them out, so there must be some obvious difference, at least to the pros.

Exactly what I was thinking. Pinot goes with everything.

One sugar and a splash of milk. Half and half if milk is too hard to come by (i.e if I'm making espresso at work and there is no milk in the bar fridge and I don't feel like going downstairs to the walk-in), but not too much or it will be too rich. Heavy cream? Ugh, way too rich, I don't know how people can drink that!

Poppy is hardly Indian. I've heard there are some good Indian places on the Eastside, but I have no personal experience.

That makes no sense at all. Maybe he meant to say salt is faster because its a smaller molecule? NaCl has gotta be smaller than C12H22O11.

Sometimes. The main difference is that corn syrup has a lot more water. In something like caramels that are cooked to a particular temperature, the water will cook off. In a ganache filling for molded chocolates, the additional water could shorten shelf life and affect texture. I imagine you could reduce corn syrup to commercial glucose syrup consistency, then you would be good to go.

This was being sampled at my local grocery store recently: http://www.dcicheeseco.com/great-midwest/mango-fire-cheddar So very wrong. I scoured the store for a sample of something else to get the taste out of my mouth. <shudder>

It is available on amazon in the US (via other sellers). There is one customer review that gave it one star for being exactly what you are looking for: "All hail the pastry God, but this book will remain unused and the recipes largely unworkable by us mere mortals." http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1742665713/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_opt

I never saw galangal or smoked tea in 2 years of living in Bhutan, but then only so much makes it up the hill. Both sound delicious, though! Bhutanese would always put a bay leaf in the chai. Well, some sort of leaf that was elongated and that IIRC we used as bay leaves, but was not an english bay laurel.

I think it could be viable, one of the projects my boss talks about trying to put together is heat & serve meals featuring SV meats. There probably needs to be a bit more education of the general public regarding the safety of sous vide and that it is perfectly OK to crisp the skin on the SV chicken breast before serving (seems like a common misperception is that sous vide meats have no texture and are always served straight from the bag). I think the flavorful marinades and spices would be the greater selling point rather than the cooking method. I doubt many people find themselves craving some variety of SV meat regardless of flavor, so you need to have something that makes it more delicious than they would cook at home, PLUS the tender juiciness of sous vide and convenience of boil in the bag reheating. Local health departments may make it more difficult to start this sort of business, requiring a HACCP plan at least.

I'm of the mind that there is a time and a place for silicone, but not every kitchen tool benefits from being made out of it. I would pass on the baking sheets.