Kent Wang

I recently made a root beer foam with egg white powder. Whipping the foam with the added powder allows the foam to be more stable. I didn't notice any clumping in the foam or any nasty taste, though I haven't checked the actual liquid below the foam.

I was just there and thought it was awfully overpriced. I haven't sorted through my photos yet, but here's a short summary: The food is extremely simple, home-made style. Dishes include scrambled eggs, straight up steamed vegetables, etc. This is the stuff that my mom makes on a regular basis. I didn't find the superior ingredients to taste any better than what she uses, except for maybe a duck soup that was possibly richer than usual -- or maybe it was just the power of suggestion. The price is around USD 240 for three or four people. For that much money you can feed 10 people at a fancy restaurant with much tastier food.

Art of Drink: For cocktails where you want the fizz and foam of egg white but without the dilution, why not use egg white powder? Though I can't think of any such situations at the moment.

As of Thanksgiving, Spec's in Houston had at least five bottles of Carpano AF on the shelves. I brought one home but am awaiting the right moment to crack it open.

I think the Scofflaw is the best showcase of grenadine. I just tried Sam's recipe and it's great. Certainly an improvement on using pomegranate molasses, as he claims. Look's like Katie's recipe is pretty similar. Next, I'm going to try the icewine method.

I couldn't find much on this subject on Google other than: Jacob Grier does a tasting with Aviation gin infused with juniper berries at 140F. He concludes that the heated infusion is stronger tasting but that just heat (a bag with no juniper) also alters the flavor. Justin Guthrie of Central in DC does an infusion with curry powder at 130F for just a few minutes. What benefits from a sous vide infusion? Spice and teas make sense because they develop their flavor with heat. But how about fruit infusions like strawberry or pineapple? What do you think the ideal temperature is?

I just made Thanksgiving dinner last night for my friends. Because I only had one waterbath and a few things to put into it I had to decide on a compromise temperature. Turkey wings and legs were brined in a 5% solution overnight, then bagged with some duck fat for 135-141F (can't remember) for 8 hours, chilled in the frige for 3 hours, then roasted around 450F for 30 minutes until the skin browned. This turned out great, but did not have the confit texture as Sam explains. Nevertheless, it was far more tender and juicy than any turkey I've ever had and pulled apart easily. The chilling before roasting helped to prevent it from overcooking while in the oven. I made a ballotine with the breasts and a mousse made out of the white meat I picked out of the carcass and some celeriac. Instead of twine, I used cellophane to keep it rolled up and then bagged. It was about 70 mm thick and I was in a bit of rush so I had to push the temperature up to 150F for 3:30. Unfortunately the breast came out a bit dry and the mousse just didn't taste that great, a bit like turkey baloney. Next year I'll try 140F and a different kind of filling. The carcass I roasted and picked off as much of the meat as possible to put into the mousse, then I made a stock out of the remainder. I ended up making a butternut squash soup but forgot to put the stock in -- oops. But because butternut is so flavorful I think the stock would have been overwhelmed. Some of the stock did go into the gravy. I think I'll make a chicken noodle soup with the rest of it. I also did a pulled pork using pork shoulder for 135F for 48 hours. That was great.

Baldwin recommends for confit to do "176°F (80°C) water bath for 8 to 12 hours". Why such a high temperature for confit? Couldn't it be done at the minimum temperature?

Anyone know the science behind the change in flavor in aging?

Yes, I scale down the recipes. I like to have multiple different drinks at a party, for variety. I suppose if I only had one punch, a party of mine could plow through 20 quarts without too much difficulty.

This New York Times article on Nathan Myhrvold (discussion topic on his upcoming book) states: What do you think of that? I've confited duck legs several times, and I can't attest to whether the fat enters the meat and actually makes it more flavorful, but it seems that some flavor is lost from the meat and leeched into the fat as there is always a good amount of precipitated "duck jelly". Would steaming prevent this loss of juice? Nowadays, I confit with sous vide and a very small amount of fat, so it would be similar to rubbing on the fat afterwards. How about aging? A duck leg aged for a month or so certainly turns more brown, and is perhaps a bit drier. Is it really better?

The giant sous vide thread has some discussion of turkey, where most people say they do a ballotine. I thought it'd be good to break this out into a separate topic. PolyScience put out a video on the subject. They separate the dark meat and from the white meat. Then sous vide white meat at 160F for 4 hours and the dark meat at the same temperature for 18 hours. Then put in it a 350F oven for 30 minutes to finish. This seems like a pretty good procedure to me. Except, what happens to the rest on the meat on the carcass? The video seems to indicate that only the breasts are used. I suppose you could roast the carcass in the oven or maybe make a soup out of it.

This is awesome. Thanks! Best use of absinthe, and of orange juice that I've had.

I got mine from Goodwill. Craigslist is also a good place. I think you should be able to get a nice one (4 quart size) for around $20. Size depends on your preference. I personally wouldn't have any use for anything bigger than that. Do you think of cider and eggnog as punches? Functionally there's some similarity in that you make up a big batch. That's what I'm going to be making up for the holidays, and saving "real" punches for another time.

Lots of techniques here that are new to me. What is a water vapor oven, as mentioned in this diagram? Google didn't turn up anything except for a patent application.

Would this affect the fresh pumpkin supply too?

That sounds about right. Don't forget about the Southern US chicken and dumplings which are just balls of dough. Is a matzoh ball a dumpling?

Does the St. Elizabeth have any other spices in it other than allspice? I made a pumpkin pie with .75 oz of it and it's great. Just has a bit of a tingle. But could I have achieved the same effect by putting in a whole bunch of allspice?

So any ziploc bag is safe at that temperature? In my experience, the Ziploc brand bags with zippers leak a little water through the zipper. I have some no-name brand heavy duty freezer bags that seal better. Would that be safe? I'm worried not just about melting, which would be pretty easy to spot, but about the plastic giving off toxins or off-flavors that would be difficult to visually detect.

I usually sous vide large portions, like a 4 lb brisket. What would be a convenient way to reheat smaller portions? Certainly I could slice the pieces I want to eat, put them in a vacuum bag and reheat it to temperature, but getting out the FoodSaver is inconvenient and the bags aren't cheap. Would it be possible to just put the pieces in a tupperware or other waterproof container and drop that into the vessel (I'm using a rice cooker controlled by a Sous Vide Magic)? It seems like having some air in the container would be fine as I'm just reheating it. But would the tupperware melt at 135F? I have Tellfresh brand tupperware but couldn't find anything online about what temperature it can handle.

I got a bottle of the Real de Magueyes Añejo and think it's pretty awful. The biggest problem is that it's dominated by this heavy wood taste which has elements of pine needles in it. The smell reflects this and is also unpleasant. Underneath this, I can taste some of the vegetal characteristics, which seem fine. The dominant woodiness is nothing like I've ever tasted in anejo tequila or any wood-aged spirit. Could I have gotten a bad bottle?

You could try any recipe for gizzard, which is very similar to the heart, like Salt-pressed duck gizzard. You could also put them on skewers and roast them. I had a duck gizzard dish at Damon in New York where they braised a duck gizzard for several hours until it got soft and then breaded and fried it.

Big fan of the Darb as well. Not a fan of the name, though. Andy, what was the recipe you settled on for the Jimmy?

I can't speak for other cities, but in New York that is untrue. For instance, in the NY Zagat Guide, Di Fara Pizza has a 27 food rating (the highest is 28). Momofuku Ssäm Bar, an extremely casual restaurant, has three New York Times stars. If anything, Zagat tends to give casual and ethnic restaurants higher ratings than they truly warrant, not the reverse. I don't have the current Zagat guide, but by looking at the top 25 on their website, Di Fara is the only one. 25-50 has Sripraphai. Out of 50 top restaurants in the city, only 2 are less than $20 a head. If your friend was visiting from out of town for a month and could visit only 25 restaurants, would you recommend 24 expensive places and Di Fara. No Chinese, no other ethnic? There's about 10 sushi restaurants like Nobu in the top 50 that I would rather go to Sripraphai before going to them. Momofuku is casual, but it ain't cheap. The food is definitely high-end. Maybe I should have clarified this.

I just got the SV Magic and tried out a ribeye steak at 131F for 5 hours. It was the best steak I've ever had. So tender. That steak barely fit into my 5 cup rice cooker. I think my next stop is to get a 10 cup rice cooker off of Craigslist for about $30. After that, a hot plate (probably around $30 as well) hooked up to my stock pot.