glennbech

Hi, In modernist cuisine, the authors have made an awesome table linking egg content (whole or yolk) to temperatures - and what texture is the result. Right now I have a chocolate flan in my sous vide setup, with 30% whole egg content - reaching 88 degrees. I hope it turns out well. What I am curious about is the time needed. Would the mixture set immediately if I warmed it up to 88 degrees in a pan? Or does it need some time at the given temperature to set? /g

Hi, We are throwing a baptism party for our newborn, and I am toying around with catering for the whole bunch. We want to keep it very simple since we don't have that much time up-front of the event and want to enjoy the party ourselves as well. We also want to keep the cost down. I was thinking serving home made bread width different kinds of proteins. A kind of sandwich buffet; I would really like Ideas on things that could work, with focus on cost and the ability to prep in advance. I also need help on scaling. I am thinking around 200g proteins per person, but I have no idea how to scale the rest... I was thinking in the lines of this. - Bread (Home baked of course) Condiments - Butter (flavor added, regular) - Mayo / Aioli - ... ideas? Green Salad/Lettuce Proteins - Sliced Country ham (sous vide cooked maybe) - Pulled pork (sous vide cooked) - Home cured/smoked bacon - ... ideas?

Hi, It seems that hot/cold smoking is a preference. With hot smoking - I guess temperature control becomes an issue. If you don't have fancy equipment there is a limit to how much time the bacon can stay in the smoker. I personally hot smoke for 1-2 hours, to around 135, which is good for my taste. I use hickory, cherry or apple spoon in a weber coal bbq. The smoke output is massive Vacuum curing works great. You can rub your pork belly well with cure, shake of the excess and seal it. If I were you, I'd measure the thickness of the bacon and take notes so you can improve your recipe according to your taste over time. With the pork I usually get (skinny industrial) - 4 days seems to be the sweet spot according to my family's taste. Remember to hang/dry the cured bacon at least 24 hours before smoking (you probably know this) - to develop a sticky pellicle that smoke can adhere to. I have also hanged/dried my bacon after smoking for 24 hours before vacuum sealing for storage - with great results. For food safety; don't skip nitrate salt in the cure. Here is my last batch

I am starting to nail this bacon thing now; and I have found the key to be practice. Go wonder. For me, the results have become far better after I realized that curing time depends on thickness of the belly. A lot of recipes do not mention this and recommend a given number of days. That does not work! Skinny pigs; less curing time. I have also worked in hanging/drying into my process. I hang my bacon after curing, before smoking for at least 24 hours to develop a surface that the smoke will stick to. This is usually recommended in recipes. I also hang the bacon after smoking for at 24-48 hours before consumption or packaging. I feel that this firms up the belly a bit. Here is my process; - Dredge salting; rub dry cure into the meat, shake of excess - Mild vacum packaging ( I stop the vacum sealer mid-process) - I have found this to work very vell, And I feel that it is very hygienic and clean. - I keep the bellies in the fridge and try to weight them down a bit. I rotate and flip the bags every day. - After I am happy with firmness - I use meat hooks to hang the bellies for at least 24 hours - I hot smoke to 60 degrees C in my Weber BBQ. - I hang the bacon for another 24-48 hours. Right now I have perfect conditions for curing and salting. Outside temperatures between 4-12 degrees C. So, more projects coming up Here is from my last batch after smoking, and hanging for 48 hours - my best bacon so far!

Doh. The blogger fails to mention how much Calcium Chloride to add as a factor of the milk. Do you know?

Definitly homognised milk yes. The curd was not very lumpy, but I strained it through a cheesecloth and the soft cheese firmed up good when I chilled it. Is it a problem making Mozerella from curd when the milk is homogenized?

Hi, I made a nice soft cheese today from about 2 liters of whole milk. My plan was to use the curd further - to produce a mozzarella. I saw a basic recipe on youtube where the curd is added to 60c water. I tried this, and my curd dissolved into the water! Fail! What went wrong?

What is the approximate butter yield of say 1 liter of heavy cream?

Where I live (Norway) it makes absolutely no economic sense to make butter from cream. 1 liter of cream costs about $6-$7. Good quality butter is a lot cheaper to purchase. Is it the same where you live, or is cream cheaper? Awsome looking butter by the way. I have made butter from sour cream - for fun, with great results.

Hi group, I made some pressure cooked chicken stock inspired by MC at home the other night. I say "inspired", because I did not use the exact measurements - and used only wing meat. (The recipe uses both ground leg meat - and wing meat). Today I infused the stock with some roasted peppercorns, star anise, ground ginger, ground garlic, red chillies and parsley. I put the boiling stock over some finely cut vegetables and put in some shrimp. Awsome stcok, the shrimp did not do it justice, but this is everyday cooking and the chicken I wanted to use was frozen. The only thing missing for me was cilantro.

I made a variation on the pressure cooked clear chicken stock today.... OMG. I used 1,4 kg of upper part wings instead of 700g wings + 700g ground leg meat because I did not have the leg meat. - A fantastic aroma fills the house right now. Almost like corn. I know it sounds crazy, but Its the best description I can give. - The stock is vibrant yellow with a thin layer of fat, I have never seen chicken stock that color - The yield is abut 1 liter, I don't think I will reduce the stock before using it. The taste was very very fresh and appealing The raw ingredient is silly cheap where I live; around $2 per kilo. This alone will pay for my newly acquired WMF pressure cooker I cant wait to use this in some kind of soup. I am almost reluctant to use it in a dish where it does not shine by itself :-) The book + the pressure cooker is a very good investment! Only "wows" and "amazings" right now. I'll post some pics of the dishes .-)

Thanks for pointing that out. The sugar thermometer is about 10c off in the 200c range, and about 5 when I measure at 60c.... Useless. I probably need to re-do my hard candy recipes to see if this had any effect on the result.

Nice pictures, and a lot of good food! I made a four course dinner for 6 people new years eve. This is the first time I took the time to make a menu, shopping list and schedule in advance. I spent 4-5 hours in the kitchen the night before, prepping, according to my pre-thought out schedule. The goal was - of course, to do as much as possible in advance. I think the main advantage comes from separating the task of thinking from the task of doing. This is of course, a very obvious principle. I sat down and made a plan of what to be done, in what order, and when. This made a huge difference for me this year. As you, I was able to sit down, mingle and actually talk with the guests. For once

For xmas, i bought one on of those kits for hard candy making; and got a thermometer that goes from 0 to about 200c. (32-400f) Today I did some deep frying and kept an eye on the oil with both my Thermapen (accurate to +/- .4c) and the thermometer from the candy kit. The candy kit was off by almost 10c below actual. (50f) !!! This is pretty bad isn't it? We probably did the candy all wrong, stopping the sugar at 10c below target temp.....

I made this for six grown ups and 3 kids today Apetizer (kids and adults) Carbonated grapes (w/champagne for adults) Deep fried salsify stick w/cheese (in spring roll flakes) Bacon wraped dates. Starter for grown ups Jerusalem choke soup. chimmichurry / garlic confit oil & fried shi-take mushrooms Starter for kids Miniburgers/sliders. Of course from home ground rib-meat (also user for beef stock) w/firecrackers Mains for grown ups Beef tenderloin sous vide, deep fried @ 200c for crust. Oven baked vegetables. MCAH potato puree, MCAH grilled apple sauce condiment, green salad, Gravy made from MCAH brown beef stock (pressure cooked). I infused the gravy with Shiitake mushrooms & rosemary for about 2 minutes using my iSi gourmet whip. This added a subtle layer of flavor to my sauce that I really like. There are some compounds in shiitake that tastes like black truffles. Dessert for grown ups MCAH raspberry panna cotta. Improvised with coffee granules, mint and vanilla custard. The coffee had an amazing effect while the panna cotta was not set. Afterwards; when served it had no big effect. Mistakes - In the MCAH potato puree, you hold the potatoes for 35 minutes at 70c to bind the starch. Potatoes should be cooked and pressed through a sieve immediately after this step. I kept them cold for 12 hours. They got an off- color. Taste wise no different; visually less appealing. All in all my best planned dinner service so far. A lot of components in total. I spent about 4 hours prepping last night, and maybe 2 hours this morning. A couple of hours before the guests arrived everything was clean & calm. Good feeling

Home made pizza is also a low cost/left-over favorite in this house. Sometimes i do a slow raising dough before work, or some times I do it quick/cheating straight dough with some sugar in the dough. (for crust color). This pizza, has, of course, nothing to do with "artisan"/gourmet pizza. Its just everyday quick food - and I throw on ingredients about to end its shelf life. Tomato sauce + pizza dough are very affordable. Yesterday I made one with the MCAH, pressure cooked, tomato sauce, and some home cured bacon. When the fridge has goodies prepared in advence. Everything becomes much easier

Hi, I made Marinara, the pressure cooked tomato sauce today; It came out very wet. I guess that canned tomatoes I used contained a lot of juice. Next time, I will throw out some of it out. This, my first try, will be consumed as a tomato soup with some grilled cheese sandwiches /g

In season 11 of hells kitchen, the losing team must chew through a pile of balut eggs.... Man, that would be a huge problem for me...

I actually made a sauce with it, but discarded it, and posted the question here. Thanks for the advice guys & girls. Even if the nitrate levels are within "safe" limits, I take no chances.

More info - 2 Kilograms of ham - Skin on top - Bone out - Cure mix from Charcutterie; 450g salt, 225 grams sugar, 50 grams of pink salt + 125 grams brown sugar for a sweeter bacon. I threw in 4-5 tablespoons of the cure, vacuumed the bag and threw it in the sous vide at 61c for about 12 hours. There was a lot of juice in the bag, It would have made a very good stock; but I was worried about the nitrate level of the juice. I should probably google some health guidelines related to nitrite salt?

I ended up making my own twist on a Rilette, from Charcuterie. I was half way there with the braised pork belly. Rilettes are discussed in another thread on this forum Instead of the traditional fat on top, I lined a ramekin with some of my home made bacon, put the shredded meat into it with some grilled leeks and rasins. Im going to give the whole thing a good sear with my large blowtorch and try this as a starter, - maybe on toast with some pickles... Ill post pics of the result later

@Gfweb; I was more thinking of health issues related to eating the nitrate itself. It is not good in large quantities is it?

Fresh ham yes. Uncooked, unsalted ham straight of the pig

Hi, We have some kind of vegetable soup & grilled cheese sandwiches about once a week. Suggestions; - Jerusalem Artichoke - Broccoli - Cauliflower - Onion I use any bacon, salami or other things in the fridge that fits on the the sandwiches. I have invested in a good box of, organic, MSG free vegetable stock powder. We find this very convenient as any left over soup can be frozen and heated later. It is also very, very affordable.

Hi, I threw a few tablespoons of my dry cure into a sous vide bag with a christmas ham yesterday. The dry cure contains salt, pink salt, brown sugar and some crushed peppercorns. I was hoping for a fresh pink color and a good salt penetration without brining. This is not a very good idea is it? I was thinking that the juice that comes out of the meat, and that is mixed with the dry cure contains too much nitrite salt to be edible?