paulraphael

Yes, I've been advocating for this for a while for long cooking. I've scalded for 1 minute, not based on any rigorous testing.

Duvel is right about using dextrose (or any reducing sugar) and baking soda (or any base). I use a 1:5 ratio by weight of dextrose powder and baking soda. The mixture is deliquescent and will eventually turn to syrup in whatever container you use (and then start maillardizing itself). When this happens I apply it with a silicone brush. Before it happens, I dust it on. A little goes a long way. After browning, correcting the seasoning with some acid is helpful. No idea if adding amino acids will help the process. The sugar+base works so well it doesn't need help. I believe pre-searing plus post-searing helps. I do this often with sous-vide cooking. Some people have disputed this. Dave Arnold and crew at cookingissues.com actually did a blind test, with chefs and culinary students as subjects. There was a significant preference for the flavor of meat that had been pre- and post-seared. Pre-searing can also help kill spoilage bacteria on the surface of meat before long low-temp cooking.

How did the PX fluid gel turn out? What did you gel it with? I don't think the coffee speckles look like a flaw. They probably enhance the coffee flavor in people's minds (just as people swear vanilla ice cream tastes better when it has specks of vanilla pod showing).

That's great to hear. The surprising part is that they support home installations at all. Most commercial equipment companies won't even talk to you. They specifically say non-commercial use voids any warranties, and the installers don't want to have anything to do with it. Is Rational unusual in this respect, or are things different in the US and Canada? I'm having a hell of a time finding a range hood that works ... there are no domestic hoods that work even a fraction as well as commercial ones. But the commercial hood installers won't return my calls.

Those look just like the ones we used use while backpacking. Some camp cookware doesn't have handles, to save weight. I haven't seen these in ages, and I've never seen them in a kitchen. There have been a couple of times I've gone to the toolbox for regular pliers to grab something hot.

It's also good with anything dark chocolate, especially if you need to stay up late.

This looks good. I'm wondering how you're getting the locust bean gum to hydrate? Typically it needs to be cooked at a temperature that I'd be afraid would kill the fresh blueberry flavor.

Link??

This is definitely a thing. If you buy a culture from Sourdoughs International it comes dried. I also dried some of mine later to keep as emergency backup. I think I spread it thin on a Silpat, and then broke it off and sealed in a plastic bag. There are probably better instructions online.

I find it takes close to no effort to keep a sourdough culture alive. It might vary from one culture to another, I don't know. I bought the Ischia Island starter from Sourdoughs International (popular with Neapolitan pizza people), and it's basically indestructible. I've neglected it for 6 months and it's bounced right back. What I've discovered is that if you keep it in the fridge it goes dormant. To wake it up, bring it to room temp, feed it, and it's lively again in half a day. If you keep it dormant without feeding for more than a week or two, it goes extra dormant. More like comatose. It will still bounce back, but takes a couple of feedings over 24 hours. Another approach people use for mock sourdough is to use the culture as a seasoning ingredient. It doesn't even have to be active. This is a good use for portions that you're planning to toss during the usual feeding cycle. For this purpose, if you use 100% hydration like I do, you just treat the culture as a substitute for equal parts flour and liquid in your recipe. Maybe keep it to 20% of the recipe weight at first and see how it goes. When you do this, you'll need to some other form of leavening. Commercial yeast for bread.

That is too kind. At the end of the day I'm a food nerd, not a James Beard award winner.

I wouldn't use it on a roast. But it's a revelation for slaying a watermelon.

I've had really good ones. Just don't know how to make them (but I don't know much about deep frying).

I get it. I happen to like the intense seriousness, especially when the subject is "bon bons." I'm similarly a fan of Werner Hertzog, when he talks about ... anything. But seriously, Chef Laiskonis has taught me a lot over the years, and has been unreasonably generous with his knowledge and time. The way he applies encyclopedic technical knowledge to creative thinking is a model that I aspire to.

Michael's got more of an intense, post-punk demeanor. "It's important that it's really clean. Which is why I use a blow torch."

To my dismay, my girlfriend bought one. Took up almost as much space as a chamber vac or commercial ice cream machines (things I deny myself, because there's no room to spare). Her dream was to make crispy sweet potato fries. That project failed, so she sent it back, thank Bezos.

Looks like it's for slaying and butchering some kind of mythical creature! Never seen anything like it. No surprise that it's good with bread. That kind of reverse scallop is the best for bread knives. Looks just the edge on the fantastic Mac version. They are very difficult to sharpen. I've been able to awkwardly maintain mine a bit by touching up the the tips of the scallops on regular stones, and the indentations on a smooth steel. But it's not great. There are professional sharpeners who specialize in Japanese knives that can handle a scalloped edge. I've never sent mine out. Fortunately, even though my Mac is 15 years old, it still cuts well. I only use it on bread and watermelons, and it doesn't get worked hard against a cutting board, so there isn't that much to dull it. It's just not quite as impressive as its virgin self. Those finer serrations might not be sharpenable. Do you use them?

You must be from Albany.

Dipping dirty cookware in sanitizer is strange behavior. You can't sanitize dirty stuff, for one thing. Organic matter competes with the sanitizing chemicals (whether it's bleach, quaternary ammonium, or whatever). And you'd be stirring sanitizer, drop by drop, into your sauce. For a spoon rest I use a pot lid, a quarter-sheet pan, or just the countertop. No need for a special doodad. There's no risk of cross contamination, because whatever I'm using I'll wash and sanitize or replace over the course of cooking. Sometimes more than once. People should talk about this more. Just tonight I sautéed some chicken thighs. For the first half of cooking I set utensils on the sheet pan that I'd used to prep the thighs. After they were browned on both sides, the sheet pan and all the utensils went to the sink for washing and sanitizing. Otherwise, I'd have just kept recontaminating the surface of the chicken. That pan and those utensils didn't get used for anything else until after the chicken was browned and the tools and surface sanitized.

My experience 100%. I still consider this "neat." It's much less water than you'd get if you ordered a whiskey and water. And the effect is the opposite of what anyone would intuitively expect. More flavor, not less. I don't understand the chemistry either.

I gave up on making neapolitan-style pizza in a home oven (although I haven't had a chance to use an oven with a top broiler yet, which should help at least a little). Even at 500° and with a 1/2" steel preheated for an hour, cooking times were over 5 minutes and the crust turned into a cracker. Other styles don't interest me. So the whole project just turned into a workshop in making sourdough bread (sometimes with some Modernist Cuisine tweaks). And the pizzerias get to keep my business.

I've never understood why people are trying to make coffee less acidic. The acids are where half the flavor is. Maybe if you're dealing with poorly roasted coffee, there's an advantage in muting its natural character. I've had some cold brew that tasted fine. But there are a couple things people should be aware of: cold brewing is less efficient at extracting flavor, so you need more coffee beans for any given amount of water (it's expensive). But caffein is highly soluble in cold water, so this higher ratio brew will much more caffeinated than hot-brewed coffee.

There are minor differences, but nothing to worry about. It's easy to just make it yourself. You can make a few ounces at a time; it lasts a few months in the fridge. But I actually don't use it in ice cream anymore. Dry sugars are easier to use and eliminate any variables. My newer variation on the coffee recipe uses fructose powder. The end result should be the same, but it's easier to work with: For 1000g: 65g granulated sugar 25g dextrose 15g fructose Pastry chefs typically prefer invert syrup because they have it around for a million other things, while fructose is not a common pastry ingredient.

For anyone in Brooklyn, I just discovered a great local option. There's an unassuming little bodega down near the corner of Windsor Terrace / Park Slope / Sunset Park. Reyes Deli and Grocery. 532 4th Ave. They make tacos, burritos, etc., and have a seating area for 2 very slim diners. We stopped for an emergency lunch yesterday, and were blown away by the red hot sauce that they served in a little plastic ketchup container. Really full-flavored and smokey. Like a mole, but not really. We asked, and it turns out the owner's mom makes it from scratch down in the basement. They sold us 2 jars for $5 each. Highly recommended!

I'm glad to hear you had success with that method. And yes, it's too time consuming. I still think of that coffee method as a work in progress because there's no practical way to scale it. I'm hoping for an opportunity to work with a pastry chef who might have some ideas on how to streamline and scale it without compromising the flavor.