McAuliflower

Thanks everyone. Will go look for N2O cartridges. Now I see the value in color coding gas canisters... I think I need to go pick up some soda now and top it off with my carbonated cream. Amazing how you can taste carbonation. It gets me to appreciating pubs that have nitro more and more.

Your professional and personal adventures have been a wonderful read Tim. At the risk of echoing, leaving a small notebook for the kids on how to make some of their favorite comfort foods could prove to be a most cherished item. You could also send this to them at a later date when you've had some distance and closure. I find it surprising how many searching memories are filled around the subject of lost recipes from cooks, etc. I have a friend who would give her right arm for a particular coconut pudding recipe from Antigua! I'd love to hear your version of grilled cheese sandwiches, you know, the one no one else can replicate

I quickly snagged a box of chargers for my new ISI yesterday. I just sweetened some whipped cream for warm chocolate mousse just out of the oven, and charged up the cantister. Tasting the cream tho- it's zinggy... tastes like an ice cream float. Looking at my box of charger I now realize its labeled as soda chargers! I think the chargers that came with my canister were N2O. Did I just make a bonehead move? If I look closer, N2O cartridges should be available in the USA right? Or are they now outlawed right up their with cold medicine... ps- the whipped cream is good, the carbonation is just a bit distracting...

darn- does that edit mean it isn't worth sharing? I've been meaning to make beet marshmallows since christmas (when I got my stand mixer). Our downtown grocery store carries powdered beets, which would mingle with sugar well, I think!

just a blip in the discussion: Pollan's writings are available to non-subscribers on his site. from Pollan: The guest columns I've been writing for the New York Times Select website have been behind the "firewall" on the site-- you have to be a subscriber to read them. Not any more: I've posted all of them on my website, at http://www.michaelpollan.com/article.php?id=79. Unfortunately, to read the responses from readers, you still have to go to Times Select, at http://pollan.blogs.nytimes.com.

hazelnut's are at record highs at the moment - most of what's in the US comes from turkey (just south of the sea), from two main growing areas. they've had issues the last year. While prices are very high now, you can expect to see fairly decent declines in the near future. ← one could also take a break from globalization and go with Oregon grown hazelnuts. not sure how expensive they are out-of-state tho.

Not to mention how Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking is organized by main ingredient alphabetically. I still haven't gotten to my rainy day (perhaps it would take a rainy month to get it done!) project of making all of my cookbook's index's digital. That way I can easily search all of them for keywords (like making my own epicurious site). I have a cookbook titled taste, by Sybill Kapoor that arranged the recipes based on taste principles: salty, sour, spicy, sweet, etc. It's an interesting arrangement. My favorite though is Madison's Local Flavors that arranges recipes by the seasonality of the main ingredient.

You'll need a mixture that sets up as soon as it carbonates. I think it'd be best left to the professionals. ← Couldn't it be similar to making honey comb candy? Carbonate a hot sugar solution with bicarb and vinegar. The sugar solution cools which solidifes it. The only difference would be adding malted milk powder to the mix. I think it's definitely do-able.

The microwave is fabululous at heating plates, except for those with a metal rings. I was given a Salton Hot tray as a wediing gift (are they still made ?) and they warmed up my newlywed plates. If you are warming plates for plenty of folks, run them through the quickest dishwasher cycle . Or: Just throw them in the oven at 250. ← If your microwave is heating up your plates- your ceramicware is cracked. This microwave treatment is used by pottermakers to test their ware for defects (glaze fit /microscopic cracks). If it heats up in the microwave it is defective

Science News had an article about this 6 years or so back. Tests with hamburger patties found that adding ground cherries to the meat reduced the levels of carcinogens significantly. Science News Article. Now there's a PR opportunity! edited to add link.

The recipe for Thomas Keller's Molten Chocolate cakes is available here through google book search. I've used it with great success, though you need to practice it to know the proper cooking time to match your oven.

Been out of the eGullet loop lately... so forgive me for bringing this back to topic [puttiing on my ceramicist hat] TiO2 is also more readily found for purchase at any pottery/ceramic supply house. For Oregon that would be Georgies. Just as in paint, TiO2 is an opacifier- it also helps with the production of crystal growth in ceramic glazes.[hat off]

thanks for all the input- off to the kitchen...

making marshmallows gelatin free thought... I have a packet of universal pectin staring at me. Has anyone tried pectiin in making marshmallows?

When makng this with just juice- no fruit puree (have blood orange juice on hand), do the amounts of sugar/pectin change significantly? looking to make up a small batch at home...

I had a fabulous weekend making ricotta for the first time. My favorite uses for it were ricotta fritters- sweet orange flavores, and savory bacon spinach ones. I got the orange ricotta fritter recipe from epicurious, the savory one was made by adding flour to leftover lasagna filling.

Mmm mainlined... I think the crux was we had no clue what the name was, hence the generic default.

really? Sauce meaning liquid substance to be drizzled onto food item.

thanks eGullet is a gem. - here, tamarind chutney is always served at the side of the cilantro chutney. I didn't mean that there was tamarind in the cilantro one...

I too am a desperate green sauce addict who isn't willing to just get this sauce from her local Indian restaurant. i want it at home too. I've finally gotten my hands on a good block of tamarind and now I want the other part of the sauce flavor equation. If there are more recipe ideas in addition to the RecipeGullet one, I would welcome seeing them posted!

Isi's website lists some savory recipes in with the sweet ones too. Things to push out of your isi (recipes on their website): - Chocolate Mousse - Tiramisu - Citrus Foam - Fois Gras Foam - Saffron Foam - Chive Foam - Sweet Garlic Foam - Warm Porcini Soup - Red Beet Foam - Bone Marrow Foam

I was recently sleuthing around sciencenews.com and found this lovely little article: So, we can't exactly avoid the pesticides after all?

The cornstarch mold idea is genius! Duh- do it how the industry does it. new flavor variant made last week: red hot cinnamon marshmallows. The more I eat them, the more they make me think of Easter candy! I ground up those tiny red hot cinnamon candies and added them to the sugar component of the recipe. Yes- they really are that pink! For a half batch of marshmallows, grind up 6 Tbs of candies to a superfine powder. Add granulated sugar to come up with the total amount of sugar needed. Also used ground up candies for the sugar component of the dusting sugar.

Liquid N2 can also supposedly be obtained from welding suppliers. I have burned myself when using liquid nitrogen in the lab. It sputters when you add wet items to it. However- the saving grace to not frequently hurting yourself with it is that it evaporates very quickly. Also, proper liquid N2 gloves do not absorb the stuff. The gloves are neccesaary as the liquid N2 vapor is extremely cold as well. In fact, it is the vapor we use to keep our samples in the lab frozen, rather than submerging them in the liquid. The liquid is too prone to contamination issues. An additonal safety mention- liquid N2 is explosive if contained in a traditional home /food thermos or any sealed container. All containers holding liquid N2 must have a vent release.

additionally, if you know any potters, ask them to fire them on a slow ramp up to 800F or so. Heck they could also toss them in a bisque fire.