paulraphael

He says he just uses a stick blender after cooking the custard. Last he blogged about it (not that long ago) he didn't have a real homogenizer. I had originally misread this; I thought he blended it after aging, which is something I usually do to thin it enough so it can run through a strainer easily. But this probably has no homogenizing effect.

Thanks Ruben. With a little luck Jenni will tell me some more, or maybe point me to some of her sources. Some pastry chefs have the benefit of working directly with guys like Douglas Goff and Cesar Vega, so they get information that we might not be able to find online or in books. In the mean time I think I'll do a taste test of different cook times and temperatures. Part of the issue is that cooked milk flavor is so subjective. Some people want it, some don't. So the real issue might be what milk flavor you personally prefer. I'm not putting the highest priority on the functional properties of the milk proteins, since it's possible to get those elsewhere.

Laiskonis just moved his blog to luckypeach.com/category/columns/opusculum/ (to make it easier to remember?) I've been investigating some of long cooking theories w/r/t protein denaturing and emulsification. Most of what's in the literature doesn't concern ice cream ... it acknowledges that sugar content can push temperatures up considerably, so there are a lot of question marks. Jenni Britton may know the most about this. She details her process on her site. Basically, she separates milk into skim and heavy cream, and then concentrates the skim portion with microfiltration, using no heat. She pasteurizes at 79°C for 2 hours (!) before homogenizing. her goal is like Ruben's ... to use the milk proteins as a stabilizer and emulsifier blend. This is related to what brands like Haagen Dazs do also, although they don't talk about their process. I'm corresponding with Jenni about this. My primary concern is flavor. She believes that the long, slow cooking actually leads to more cooked milk flavor—which in her opinion is good in some circumstances and not in others. I may have to do a more regimented than usual experiment to see what time/temperature combination I like best in terms of flavor. I can deal with the texture through other means. For one, I'm happy to use hydrocolloids. For another, I'm ok with using some egg yolk, as long as I can't taste it. Incidentally, I think you can come closer to Jenni's result by using nonfat dry milk than by reducing the milk with heat. The better nonfat dry milks are evaporated with a low-heat process, so you don't get that caramelized, condensed milk flavor.

Plymouth is pretty nice. I've only tried with a few different gins.

Brine (will firm up the texture and reduce moisture loss) Water 100% ice 20% salt 6% (will be 5% after ice melts) sugar 4.2% (will be 3.5% after ice melts) -disolve sugar and salt into room temperature water in a plastic container -add ice and scallops -cover and hold in refrigerator for 30 minutes -drain and replace brine with plain icewater -soak for 10 minutes Cook -wrap in a cylinder in 2 layers of plastic wrap (to help hold shape)* -cook in 50°C / 122°C water bath (to bring scallops to 49°C / 120°F) 1” diameter: 40 minutes 1.5” diameter: 80 minutes 2” diameter: 120 minutes 2.5” diameter: 40 minutes (don’t roll. bag in ziploc, no vacuum, with space between scallops) -chill in ice water bath (sets a firmer texture) you can hold chilled for several hours -unbag. dry and lightly salt. -sear in neutral oil on hot pan. will go fast—just a few seconds per side (optional, for faster sear: -dust with maillard enhancer (1:1.5 baking soda / glucose) -immediately before searing dust with wondra flour) This is a combination of ideas from Modernist Cuisine, Ideas in Food, Cookingissues, and some original research. *for rolling technique check out cookingissues (near bottom of page)

Something to remember with vinaigrettes is that lots of things work as emulsifiers. If you're using adding anything like shallot or garlic, you've got all the emulsifying power you need right there. So mustard should be seen as a choice based on flavor. I usually add a tenth of a gram or so of xanthan, because it's such a good stabilizer. It lets me make the vinaigrette hours ahead of time and not have to worry about separation. It also slightly improves the ability to cling to the leaves. For proportions, I always eyeball it and then adjust to taste. Different vinegars have different acidity levels. And sometimes I want a more acidic result than others. The vinegar itself seems like the most important ingredient. The subtleties of a high quality raw oil can't stand up to the vinegar flavor, so there's little reason to spend money and attention there.

I just did scallops yesterday for the first time ... just about the best I've ever had. There's some controversy about whether or not s.v. is worth it; I think it makes sense if you it as three stage process, with brining, cooking s.v. (rolled into a tube in plastic wrap; not vacuum packed), chilling, and then searing. It's pretty involved, but all of it's easy, and the first two steps can be done well ahead of time. Searing takes seconds and can be done right before serving. The brining process is like what you'd do for s.v. salmon; it firms the flesh. The chill step after cooking also firms it, and helps keep you from overcooking during the sear. Rolling the scallops into a tube in plastic wrap for the cook increases the cooking time, but it results in perfectly shaped scallops that trivially easy to sear and to present nicely.

Jo, keep us updated! That thing looks great. You'll probably find a million non-ice cream uses for it too. I bet you could make stable emulsions without an emulsifier. Would be interesting to test a traditional vinaigrette (with mustard and a whisk) against one made without mustard but with the homogenizer. I wouldn't be surprised if the latter was more stable. She's just using the concentrated milk proteins as an emulsifier and stabilizer. It's a cool trick, but I can't imagine it offers any advantages over modern hydrocolloids, besides being easier to find and use. There are options which don't add any flavors, don't interfere with flavor release, work in minute quantities, and which can be tweaked to your heart's content to get the texture and other qualities you want.

That's probably the best emulsifier in the whole kitchen. I can't speak for its deliciousness.

Here are some standard variations I dug up: Camparinette: 1oz gin, 3/4 oz Campari, 3/4oz sweet vermouth (similar to the gin-heavy versions we've been talking about) Negroni Sbagliato: replace vermouth with prosecco Boulevardier: replace gin with bourbon (predates 1st known negroni) Old Pal: rye, dry vermouth, campari (predates 1st known negroni) Kingston Negroni / Man About Town: replace gin with Jamaican rum Agavoni: replace gin with Tequila Blanca Negroski: replace gin with vodka (emergencies only)

The main thing I do is avoid boiling huge pots of water. I've seen recommendations to cook a pound of pasta in over gallons of water; I use around 3 quarts, and honestly don't think it makes a difference. I buy good pasta—that makes a difference. When cooking green vegetables, instead of pre-blanching them, I pre-steam them. This can be done with a cup or two of water instead of a gallon. It works! You get the same vibrant green, and it works nearly instantly. 1:45 to 2 minutes for tough stalks (kale, etc.), under a minute for the leaves. This can be done effectively and with extreme laziness by forgoing the steamer: just bring 1/4" water to a boil, and throw the greens in. Time it conservatively. Dump into a colander and run under cold water. Set aside and sauté when you're ready.

All canned food is sterilized. It takes a lot of heat, which will definitely have an effect on flavors. But as gfweb suggests, the problems you noticed are just as likely due to it being hospital food. FWIW, sterilization is extreme. It means killing everything, including bacterial spores (which are practically indestructible). Everyone else has been talking about sanitizing, which just means reducing pathogens to a very low level. Lots of traditional cooking techniques accomplish this already.

My favorite sanitizers are ones based on quaternary ammonium compounds. I never use chlorine bleach, because it damages everything (side towels, stainless steel, wood, my clothes) and is surprisingly ineffective on porous surfaces or anywhere there are traces of organic matter (food). Acids like vinegar don't kill viruses, and are of limited effectiveness in general. Quaternary compounds are odorless, don't attack skin or metal or textiles, and don't have to be rinsed off. Spray or dip and let dry. As with any sanitizer, they can only be trusted if the surface you're sanitizing was already clean. You can't sanitize something covered with chicken fat. I mostly use this stuff on cutting boards. When I host big dinners, I also use it as a final rinse for dishes.

Ah, sorry, I missed the irony.

I've heard that some people go 1/2 and 1/2 with sweet and dry vermouth. Before I found a good replacement for M&R, I made a few drinks with half M&R and half dolin vermouth blanc (which was in the fridge left over from something or other). I don't know anything about vermouth blanc but it tastes pretty good. The resulting Negroni was fine if a bit pale looking and mild. And apropos of nothing, last week I had my first boulevardier, made with makers. That's a nice drink ... maybe should have its own thread.

My stock would be pretty clear if I just ladled it off the top. But it clouds up when I dump it into a strainer to get all the liquid, which is what I do. I usually don't need it to be clear. I can partially clear it by pouring through a superbag (I just use generic 25 micron bag filters). For consomme, I'd use agar clarification. A pain in the ass, but it preserves a lot more flavor than a traditional protein raft. One trick that gives some of the benefits of a raft without the drawbacks is to have some lean, ground meat in with the stock ingredients. It both contributes flavor and traps coagulated protein. Depressurizing the cooker slowly is also important. If you do it fast, the liquid will come to a boil. I don't think the type of pressure cooker matters so much w/r/t clarity. Dave Arnold and company found that flavor suffers if your cooker vents steam. But clarity should only be impacted if the stock is allowed to boil. This is just a matter of paying attention no matter what kind of valve you have.

Yeah, the world survives. But individual people survive at a much lower rate when they don't have 1st world sanitation. This is a fact; look at WHO mortality statistics for infectious diseases. CDC statistics for the U.S. on foodborne illness aren't exactly rosy. The idea that "no one gets food poisoning" when living in developing world conditions is just wrong. Food-borne and water-borne illnesses wipe people out. In less extreme cases, people develop tolerance to organisms like giardia ... which just means that after their initial weeks of being sick as a dog, they feel fine. But they remain carriers the rest of their lives, and spread it whenever they go to the bathroom. I'm fine with the That Which Doesn't kill Us Makes Us Stronger approach, when it comes to myself. I have a sense of what my own immune system, and it's my fate to gamble with. Different story when I'm cooking for other people. I find it stunningly irresponsible to be dismissive of food safety when you're making the choice for others. If you cook for people, learn to cook safely.

For long cooks I use an insulated cooler. I haven't measured power use, but would imagine this brings it closer3 to the LED bulb range.

I have an extra 8oz sample tub of TIC Gums GuarNT in the NYC area, if anyone's interested. Maybe you have something interesting to trade?

Aside from it being a bit of an acquired taste, there's a lot of range available before you mess with the proportions. Gins are different from one another, and sweet vermouths are radically different. You can get a lot of flavors while sticking with the 1:1:1 If you do deviate, the most common thing is to up the proportion of gin a bit. Like 1.5 : 1 : 1. A little boozier, but less intensely bitter. BTW, I like that you're posting about Negronis at 9:02 AM.

I haven't tried Punt e Mes in a negroni. I've heard others talk about it. I'm surprised it works, since it seems like it's well on the road to being a bitter just like the campari. You find it balanced?

Nathan Myhrvold talks about this at length in the Modernist Cuisine series. There are some advantages to smoking pre- and post- S.V. I gather that his preferred method for barbeque is to sous-vide first (very long and low for traditional tough bbq cuts), then to place in a low oven to dry out the surface to the right level of tackiness, and then to smoke. When the surface moisture content of meat is at the right level, it soaks up smoke very, very quickly. Which suggests that during traditional smoking, there's a fairly short window when most of the smoke molecules are actually getting absorbed by the meat. This is a variation on the progressive smoking method developed by German sausage makers. There's also mention of smoking first, cooking sous-vide later. I can't remember the supposed advantages of this. The disadvantage is that the smoke flavor diminishes a bit during cooking.

I just tempered chocolate for the first time s.v.. Holy moly was that easy. Very little mess / waste. Not going to do it any other way.

Mine was brand new from the store around the corner (admittedly it may have been on their shelf forever). I haven't had Cinzano. One of the M&R haters in a cocktail forum suggested that Cinzano had a similar flavor profile and yet he found it inoffensive. The cocci tastes nothing like M&R—darker, less sweet, some bitterness, orange peel and spices. The flavors I get from M&R are like sweet bathwater and imitation oregano. This is drinking it straight. In a negroni the campari is powerful enough that I don't find the M&R terrible. But I also don't find the overall effect magical. Edited to add: I'd be curious to hear a description of the flavors of M&R from some of the people who like it. Is this one of those cilantro-like things where we're tasting something completely different?

This being my favorite cocktail, I've been experimenting lately. I'm loving the classic proportions with Plymouth Gin and Cocci di Torino. Stirred vigorously and strained into a glass with fresh, big ice cubes. They melt slowly enough that it's still satisfying at the end, but even in the beginning it's not quite the punch in the face of groni served up. My girlfriend, a bit tired of being knocked completely off her feet, has asked for a "girly" version. A regular negroni diluted 1:3 with soda, served on a lot of ice, is refreshing and delicious. On a hot day I might even prefer the girlygroni. N.B.: I'd previously been using whatever gin was lying around, and M&R vermouth. The latter, I've come to realize, is disgusting. I've found a lot of debate online about this. There may be something in it that freaks out the taste buds of certain people. Some knowledgeable cocktail folks seem to like it but mine is going down the drain.