mkayahara

I'd say hang on to the order: there are bound to be some cancellations from people who ordered from multiple sources, to see which one would be shipped first.

I've never had Marmite or Vegemite (heck, I've never ever heard of Promite!), though they've always intrigued me, since I'm always curious about "love it or hate it" foods. If I understand it correctly, they're basically autolyzed yeast products, right? So they're going to be packed with free glutamates, which would likely work synergistically with the glutamates in the beef and tomatoes in your bolognese, much like anchovy paste or fish sauce would. Sounds like a great use for the product, and I imagine it would be a good umami-enhancer in vegetarian dishes, too.

I imagine it would depend on the acidity of your wine, wouldn't it?

I found a link to it, but it looks like it's been marked private. Presumably the content will be included in the vacuum section of their sous vide primer, once it's completed.

Do you have "Beyond Nose to Tail"? If you can find one more ear, you could make the "Pressed Pig's Ear." There's a sequel? Good to know. I'm not sure if Mike the Butcher lost an ear along the way or if I got a baker's dozen. Does the Pressed Pig's Ear involve a terrine? Yes, but it says you could use a loaf pan, instead.

Do you have "Beyond Nose to Tail"? If you can find one more ear, you could make the "Pressed Pig's Ear."

Sounds like you need a Scanning Code of Practice. At the grocery stores I shop at, if the price that shows up is higher than the price on the signage, you get the item for free, up to a maximum of $10.

Shepherd's pie!

A lot of the Noma recipes call for chicken glace, so that might be an option.

The cookbook provides remarkably little information on the product, especially given how much it's called for. I was under the impression they made it themselves, but I could be wrong. Edit: Indeed, it seems like Claus Meyer makes them himself: http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/manifesto-for-a-new-nordic-cuisine

Dude, you need ideas for chicken stock? I can't keep enough chicken stock on hand! Soups, fricassees, sauces... chicken stock is my go-to, and the only stock I have on hand at all times. I think a freezer cleanout would end up being a catch-22 for me: I have a bunch of duck carcasses in my chest freezer that I need to make into stock... which would end up back in the freezer. Still, it might be worth a shot.

What sources do you have for it? I know there are one or two Canadian producers who make this sort of thing (though I've been unable to track down a bottle so far), but I think mostly just aged in one barrel for a short time. If made in a true balsamic vinegar style, I imagine it could be aged in progressively smaller barrels for many years...

I'll go out on a limb and say water chestnuts. They have no flavour to begin with, and the canned kind have no texture, either.

See? And people say this book is prescriptive to the point of soullessness!

Oh, yes, marmalades are wonderful too. One of these days I'm going to get around to trying Meyer lemon marmalade, now that Meyer lemons are commonly available here. And count me third on seedless raspberry jam. Same is true of blackcurrant: the first time I made it, I left the seeds in, and it was awful. Now I run the fruit puree through my food mill, with the finest disk, and that seems to do the trick. I wonder if I could do raspberry the same way?

My favourite is easily jam. Most of the jams/jellies/etc. I eat are homemade, and making jelly always seems so wasteful, because you end up throwing out so much of the fruit if you just let it free-drain. The only real reason I can think of to care about the clarity of your jelly is if you're going to put it in a sauce, and want it to look pristine. (I'm thinking of redcurrant jelly in some of the classic European sauces.) As far as preserves go, I don't like having big pieces of fruit on my toast, but I do love cherry preserves on ice cream or yogurt. And flavour? Currently black currant with Gamay wine, from Christine Ferber's book Mes Confitures.

Depends on what I'm using them for: if I'm just cooking them to eat, I eat the chalazae. If I'm making ice cream, I strain them out after the custard is made. If I'm baking with them, I usually just leave them in.

This is me, too - down to the details. The thing that I've noticed since switching to free-run eggs, though, is how resilient the membranes under the shells seem to be. I'm convinced that I could shatter the shells to dust, and still not be able to get the egg out of its membrane. And then, of course, you have those eggs where you gradually increase the pressure to break the membrane, and it just won't give... and then suddenly it does, and you have egg all over your hands.

I think that's an important question: A lot of people don't warm to the gadgetry, measuring, and chemistry of MC While I realize you're not espousing this point of view yourself, Mjx, I truly don't understand anyone who does: I mean, chocolate chip cookies involve measuring and chemistry (sodium bicarbonate), and good grief! What in the world has more soul than chocolate chip cookies?

Speaking as a Canadian who greatly appreciates his public health care system but greatly despises many of his liquor control board's decisions, I feel like this kind of blanket statement is unlikely to win over as many supporters as you might get otherwise.

I would argue that any number of high-end sushi restaurants don't subscribe to this philosophy, inasmuch as they serve unsustainable fish, often brought in from Japan or other remote locations. In particular, Toronto's Hashimoto reportedly extends this philosophy so far as to import all its ingredients from Japan. Of course, having never eaten there, I can't say whether or not it constitutes a "great" restaurant. But at that price point, I assume so.

Because it makes for good alarmism when you can make it sound like people are putting sawdust into your food.

I read that word to mean two things: First, it relates to a connection with the past, and I think Nathan has thoroughly addressed that, by explaining how modernist techniques are simply extensions of the way we do things now. Second, I think there's an element of "the thrill of success is greater when the risk of failure is real." In other words, which is more artful: a perfectly-cooked crème anglaise where the cook had to watch over it every minute to make sure it didn't curdle, or one that was vacuum bagged and thrown in the immersion circulator at 82 degrees for an hour? Or is there any difference between them at all?

Of course, one could argue that the future is already here.

A friend of mine who is a researcher at the University of Guelph is currently embarking on a research project regarding Robusta coffee. As part of it, he's hoping to collect photos of packaging to see how it is marketed and sold, anywhere in the world. If any of you find it, could you please take some pics and DM me for contact info? Thanks very much!