mkayahara

I was always under the impression that Maillard reactions required temperatures above the boiling point of water, but my handy-dandy copy of McGee's On Food and Cooking says that this is not always the case. Interesting! I learned something today. In any case, the Joan Roca and Salvador Brugués book appears to be available in English translation under the title Sous Vide Cuisine.

I realize this is starting to veer off topic, but what do you mean by more reliable? I just found a source of sheet gelatin near home, but it's many times more expensive than powder. Consequently, the only time I use it is when I don't want to dilute the liquid I'm gelling with the water I use to bloom the powder. Are there other reasons to go with sheets? And do you know of a Canadian mail-order source that might offer them at a lower price? To bring this back on topic, though, has anyone had any luck heating chocolate consomme? Someone mentioned in the gelatin clarification thread that they can't be heated. I'd love to hear that that's not the case.

I always wonder with recipes like this whether the "bitters" in question are aromatic bitters or aperitif bitters. Maybe it's worth trying this one out with one of the Italian amari? Edited to add quote, and then to say: Oh, wait. I just realized I was mixing units. The tablespoonful of bitters is for the 6-people portion, not the scaled down version. Oops!

Just a quick note that Alex and Aki at Ideas in Food mention, in this post, that they put buttermilk in their white chocolate consomme, to balance it. I don't have a lot of experience with the gelatin filtration process, so I'm watching this thread eagerly! I'd love to hear more about the dark chocolate consomme, too. Can Sam Mason's recipe be found online somewhere?

Have you considered doing a university degree or certificate program in food science? If it's really the science you're interested in - and not the culinary applications, or "scene" - that might be the most efficient (though not necessarily the most cost-effective) approach.

I'm surprised that no one with more experience than me has responded to this question yet! (For that matter, I'm surprised the venue wouldn't be able to give you more assistance in this regard.) I don't have any advice to give you about consumption rates, but I will say this: If you're holding the wedding in Ontario, you can always return the unopened bottles to the LCBO. So you're not on the hook for the cash if you end up buying way more than you need.

You know, I've never been able to figure this one out. Everyone whose opinion on cooking I respect says to braise at a lower temp, even as low as 200F. I understand that, if you leave the lid off, you'll get some evaporative cooling, but why do so many braising recipes tell you to braise, covered, at 300F?

Nope.

I don't have one, but I hope to one day. Have you checked out this page? It's got lots of links to various sites about wood-fired ovens.

Maybe take a neutral stock like veal or chicken and fortify with some lamb trim?

Are you thinking of doing this with sodium alginate/calcium chloride, or gelatin and cold oil? In either case, I think this would be extremely tricky, especially with the high proof of Chartreuse. AFAIK, alcohol interferes with both gelatin and alginate, so the only real option would be a reverse spherfication using a sodium alginate bath and calcium chloride in the Chartreuse (see this post, for example).

Before I get to your specific questions, I should note that there are lots of other threads on the site that address the question of espumas/foams and the tools used to make them. For example, here and here, and that's just for starters. It depends on the specific model you have, but you can make lots of different types of foams. If you speak any Spanish, you'll find a great PDF file explaining lots of different types of foams here: http://www.cookingconcepts.com/PDF/Espumas_elBulli.pdf (though, as I write this, I can't get the link to work). You may also be able to use the canister to make carbonated fruit by using the CO2 capsules instead of the N2O ones, though this usage may not be condoned by the manufacturer. Yes and yes. Gelatin seems to be the easiest and most common stabilizer. If you want to make any hot foams, you'll need a heat-resistant stabilizer; agar and egg white seem to be the most common for that application. It depends on the starting consistency of the puree and the desired consistency of the end product. Experimentation here is the key. I'm sure I'm not giving away any trade secrets to say that the PDF I mentioned above contains a recipe using 300g sweetened raspberry puree + 100g water and 2 sheets (at 2g each) of gelatin. That might give you a good starting point. Exactly! Consult your product manual, though. I don't know what make or model you're using, but I have a pint-sized iSi Thermo Whip and the manual clearly states never to use more than 2 chargers. Every foam recipe I've ever read has you pass the foam base through a chinois at least once, and sometimes more. Again, this should be indicated in the manual. The Thermo Whip has a maximum fill line indicated on the inside of the bottle. In general, though, the iSi products appear to come in one-pint and one-quart versions. The way I understand it, the gas dissolves into the liquid, and when you release it from the pressurized canister, it comes out of solution, thereby foaming as it's being dispensed. But don't quote me on that.

But surely anything you can buy can also be made at home? I mean, I have a couple of Seville oranges sitting down in the kitchen right now; there's no reason I couldn't dry their peels and use those, right?

Funny you should ask. Robert Hess just did a post on this subject on The Spirit World. He suggests checking local antique stores.

FWIW I saw bubble tea straws for next to nothing in our local Asian market the other day. Let me know how it turns out!

I was watching the molecular mixology episodes of The Cocktail Spirit the other day, specifically the one for 90 Years of Aviation, and became intrigued by the idea of using gelatin instead of sodium alginate to make "caviar." Has anyone tried this? Boudreau says you're looking for a "thick, sauce-like" texture in the gelatinized base; is that just a function of not chilling it completely, so that it doesn't set all the way, or is there some concentration at which gelatin thickens the base but doesn't cause it to gel firmly? I hope that question makes sense. Fundamentally, what I'm wondering is whether you can store the base in the fridge indefinitely and form the caviar to order, or whether you have to make up the base right before you want to serve it. (Or, I guess, form the caviar all at once, keep them chilled, and spoon them into the glass to order.) I'm hoping to be able to use this technique for a Kir Royal where the cassis caviar will rise and fall on the bubbles of the champagne. Also, someone way upthread mentioned El Bulli's hot and cold gin fizz; it's worth noting that the recipe can be found here.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one! "No, really, honey! I need this liqueur! Well, I only know how to make one drink with it, but I can't make that drink without it..."

A friend of mine with a severe legume allergy pointed out that no one understood what he was talking about during his stay in Bangladesh... because any local who had a similar allergy would be dead due to lack of accessible, prompt medical care. So it's not necessarily that there are no peanut allergies in third-world countries, it's just that there are no survivors with peanut allergies.

Well, my bottle looks different from the one in the CocktailDB image, but the contents look to be about the same shade of yellow. As for what goes into it, the label on the back of the bottle says "...distilled from selected aged spirits and wild sloe kernels." I'm not sure what goes into the "aged spirits" in question, but it does seem that it's only the sloe kernels, and not the fruit, that are involved.

To backtrack a bit to the Elk cocktail above, I cracked open my bottle of Vedrenne Prunelle this evening and pitted it against my homemade Damson gin. I'm sad to report that they taste nothing alike. At first, I couldn't understand it, because the Prunelle tasted closer to apricot brandy than anything else I could think of, with maybe some cherry in the mix as well... So I made myself an Elk, which is an perfectly lovely drink. Then, as I was putting the bottle away, I re-read the label on the back. Lo and behold! It clearly indicates that the liqueur is made from "noyaux de prunelle," or plum kernels. (Incidentally, at least two of my French resources translate "prunelle" directly as "sloe". Don't know how accurate that is botanically.) Anyway, I'm guessing that the closest approximation, absent genuine Prunelle, would be apricot brandy. Though surely there's already another cocktail in the same proportions as the Elk that calls for apricot brandy?

Because it dissolves instantly, without clumping. It's used to thicken sauces without the hassle of making a roux or a beurre manié.

FWIW, Ontario's liquor system doesn't carry maraschino either, nor any applejack or straight rye. Chartreuse (green only; no yellow) costs $30 for a half-bottle, and Bourbon starts at $45 a bottle, unless you're drinking Jim Beam White. Uh... not to take this thread too far off track. Rant over.

Something new to you, or something new to your guests? Regan's notes for his bottled cocktails suggest that you can do this with pretty much *any* cocktail (except, as you rightly note, those with effervescent ingredients). I don't see any reason you couldn't make up a batch of bottled Aviations or Algonquins or Bronxes, for example. I did just that with the Jasmine at New Year's, although I didn't chill it quite long enough. The key is to include extra water in the formulation to make up for the lack of dilution from ice in "a la minute" cocktails. Punch might be another option, but I don't really know anything about those.

In Gary Regan's Joy of Mixology, there are recipes for bottled versions of the Cosmo, Jack Rose Royale, Manhattan, Margarita, Martini (ca. 1900) and Sidecar DeLuxe. Basically, the principle seems to be that you mix all the ingredients together, add water equal to one-third the total volume of other ingredients, and chill for at least 6 hours. Alternatively, you could just serve Jello shots!

I think there are a couple of other key points about broth-like sauces here: Right, so the broth wasn't saucing the steak alone; it was saucing the dish as a whole. Broth-like sauces, IMHO, can't be used to sauce only one item on a plate, while thicker sauces can. Also, you've got the steak sitting on a pile of lentils here (if I'm reading you right), elevating it so it's not swimming in broth. Which is what makes it a sauce, rather than a soup. I've eaten thin sauces that were so copious that there wasn't enough food on the plate to sop them all up - often when I cooked them myself. I've also sauced appropriately and wept as I dumped the leftover liter of "sauce" down the drain.