tan319

The egg bit works "ok" in place of a hydrometer or refractometer but it's all for naught if you don't start with a balanced syrup = weighed water and sugar. Good luck!

This, of course, refers to the usual slabbed method of making PdF. I interpret their instructions to mean: remove the frame and allow to sit open to the air for 48 hours, flip them, dust with sugar, and allow to sit another 48 hours. Then cut, roll in sugar, and package. Pierre Hermé says that they should be cut, enrobed in sugar, and set out in the open for 72 hours so that they’ll dry out. Only then is it safe to package them. The French Professional Pastry series recommends drying the PdF for 24 – 48 hours in a warm area 40C (104F) before packaging. Portland is a rather humid place. So I guess I’m wondering what I can do to ensure no more weeping (for both my PdF and me)! I have a small dehydrator; should I use it after the PdF is in the candy cups? ← I don't know if this would help but Paco Torreblanca uses pectin NH in his pate de fruit. Maybe try a batch and see what happens ? Also didn't think you dusted with sugar until after drying/resting..

having trouble finding the slide show! Nice review though, thanks for posting!!!

No, just that I'm seeing them mentioned more & more. In October '08's Food Arts mag, a piece on Chef Laurent Gras' new Chicago restaurant L20 mentioned a company called the Freeze Dryer Co. That company did a mod on a "Floral Dehydrator" to get it to meet NSF standards. It looks like a washing machine with trays in it. I think the blog Chadzilla mentions their restauranr getting into freeze drying. So, what I was saying in the above post was that if books like Natura, Alinea ( yes?) mags, all start talking about freeze drying, some body is going to develop a restaurant version, and soon. In the meantime, here is a link for the freeze dry company Maybe it's all here? Good Luck!

A couple of thoughts spring to mind. One is that Polyscience or a company like them will be offering a "lower" priced freeze dryer to the public inside of a year. One might see freeze dryers ( I think they're used in botanical/flower business) on ebay. much like immersion circulators were in the "old' days. Pacojets, well,I still think they're worth it but... I haven't received my copy of Natura yet but if it's like "Los Postres de El Bulli" or the other books, I'll look at it as a springboard to new ideas rather then exact replication. Edit. I had to run out earlier so just to finish a though or two, books like El Bulli are, as you know, a thorough documentation on their process's and even though the techniques themselves I don't feel are that weird or hard, many if not most of them are designed for, appear to be designed for ala minute service. When I get Natura finally delivered to me hopefully I will get on the same page as you folks that are already drooling on it!

Vid from Madrid Fusion or other gastro con fab. Sort of an advert for the book. BTW, the "Spain" episode from AB's "No reservations is great, big segment on Natura ( I think it's been well documented here but...), well worth an Itunes download, the whole episode is a joy. Can't wait for my trip to Madrid and environs in Feb.

I'm not sure Ducasse is getting Turbo Chef ovens in all of his joints, no? Tradition surely must be one of his trademarks. I've done souffles in places where the servers had no concept of "firing" a dessert and been able to get it out for the customer, The souffle chef could also swap one out for a customer right then and put another in and no one would probably be the wiser, FWIW.

Thanks I'll have to give that a try next time I have 2 make sorbet which should be in a couple of days. peace ← This will help Get a scale Weigh your water and sugar , equal weights, combine, bring to boil, cool. After syrup is cool, take puree, whatever flavor you're working with, into container Wash a fresh egg in shell, gently place in/on puree Add syrup until egg is showing between a quarters worth and a dimes worth of shell. If it's a highly acidic flavor ( passion fruit/lime eg) you will have to add a bit of water more than likely. As silly as it seems, and I don't like using this method at all, it works! Short of using a sugar densimeter or a refractometer this will solve the problem 90 % or more of the time of separation/crystallization, etc. PS:If making a beer sorbet or juice w/o much fiber structure blend a bit of sweet apple or maybe even a very neutrally flavored applesauce and you'll find that will go a long way towards eliminating "wet" spots, etc. This technique is in the excellent "Grand Livre Desserts et Patisseries" by Frederic Robert & Alain Ducasse Good Luck

Yes, pretty expensive...

I just received it today, quite an interesting book. Mainly savory recipes but I love those too. Pierre Herme, Sam Mason, and a few others contributed the dessert items. Jean Francois Piege, Alain Passard, Jean Brouilly & Pascal Barbot & Eric Ripert are amongst the many others who contributed savory. Excellent photography seals the deal as well as a ample amount of female chefs such as Fatema Hal of Le Mansouriain , in Paris, and Judith Baumann of La Pinte des Moisettes, La Valsainte, Switzerland. A steal if you buy used as I did, new too at only 30 bucks or so.

Thanks to both of you for the info. I thought the flakes looked a bit too big for rgular old sugar. Next, does anyone use a refractometer to measure Brix in their 'fruit mix? I want a refractometer that does Baume & Brix measurement. Possible? Thanks in advance! ted

Is granulated sugar always used or a more "defined" sugar like a sanding sugar? info always greatly appreciated! :-)

RE: Shipping: these 8 to 11 # tomes add up when it comes to weight and shipping costs. Te shipping on Natura alone from El Bulli is e25 and the Sweet Diversions book looks like it would weigh as much as say, the "Day in the Life of..." book. As far as price goes. it's cheaper to buy from Spain.

Hey mjc! Nice to from you again! Yes, I think it's a must have. I was all ready to order it from Montugaud the other night along with Natura until I found out the shipping was going to be 81 euro for both! How much was the book at JB? 187.00??? Nice to hear from you

So as to not veer too far off topic, I understand what you mean. However, I'm finding that the Alinea book makes it all more human or natural to me. The cooking is not real far out if you look a bit deeper, as I'm sure I'll find Natura. As far as Bras goes, between him & Gagnaire, the influences from both run deep in the Spanish movement.

Question I ordered Natura from El Bulli books and I haven't had a confirmation from them or anything. Is that the way they do it? Just send it to you? Any info greatly appreciated Thanks BTW The Alinea book is pretty mind blowing

Ordered!!!

!!! La Puta Vida indeed!

Where did you order it from? The elBulli website? ← It would great to where you ordered it from Thank you!

can't wait to hear more!!!

choc souffle time is more like...20, maybe 25 min, no?

This French blog by the awesome Christophe Michalak has a feature on Chef Duytsche , one of Valrhona's (formerly?) corporate chefs and one of Frederic Bau's right hand men. His book, My Webpage[/urlin English here looks very interesting but, this IS a book that would make me nervous about laying out 100 e for. I bought the Balaguer "S-21 " years ago in Spanish and it was very patisserie oriented which isn't my scene. Anyone out there have this? Looking forward to your comments Oh, google that Michalak blog into English, you'll like...

I'm borrowing the coffee filter idea, excellent!!! If savory measure people would get bonus's raise more often, perhaps... I get tired of people freaking out over food cost's ( not at me), it stresses the other side out so much, it's crap. Yes, and there's always resistance from the throw in the measuring cups or bowl people, it's funny I was asked about some IQF stuff I lock up and saw the recipe which also called for "a bag of berries... tan319:" what's a bag of berries???" cook: "y'know, a bag of blackberries" tan319:" a bag of..blackberries...and?..." cook:'???..." Holy-sh-t...

The recipes are solid...

Yes, this is focused more on the savory kitchen, where most measurements are going to be volume, except in more, well, I would expect people like Mason, Ong, Liebrandt, Keller et al, to be using metric, if anyone is reading from one of those, maybe they can input? Food cost can be controlled if everything is consistent bang on. oh, if your scale is digital and packs up on you ( breaks down) you can jump on gourmetsleuth.com and convert your grams into oz. or vice versa. I had to employ it the other day