Tri2Cook

I don't know why anybody would want to take some perfectly good white castles and stuff them in a turkey. Yeah, I know... but I haven't had a white castle in years so I think if I came across a dozen of those little gut-grenades at this point they'd never make it to the inside of a turkey.

You could do some sort of duck roulade. Maybe grind some of the duck and mix it with whatever flavors you want going on and roll that in the breasts. If I were to do that, I'd probably pull the skins, roll them, then wrap the whole bundle in the skins before cooking.

You could use it in combination with fruit purees to make some nice sorbets or granitas.

Me neither. If I have the money, I'll buy what I want and won't think I'm obligated to feel guilt over it because someone else can't. A person on welfare driving a brand new corvette is much more of an offense to my morals than buying something that is within ones means... even if it's a very expensive and frivolous something.

So you were mildly allergic to it or just slightly irritated by it?

Callets are worth the extra money to me. Does that mean I'm lazy?

The ideas in food recipe works great and tastes good. Alex and Aki rock. Go into it with an open mind though. It will be firm and hot after poaching, it will soften and melt as it cools, it will look like a scoop of ice cream (that part may take a little practice to get right, it did for me anyway), you can make it taste like ice cream... but it won't be ice cream. It will be a warm mousse. It doesn't have any of the sensory experience of eating ice cream other than visual. I'm not saying that to be negative, I think it was a very cool creation, just be sure to plate it in a manner that supports the ice cream visual or you may not get the reaction you're hoping for. It is fun to do and a cool exercise in one of the properties of methylcellulose.

That part's not really a valid complaint considering the release date has always been Oct. 2008 regardless of when you decided to place the order. The damaged part sucks, did you file a report with the carrier? ← Oh I was not complaining about that. I spoke to the Post Office about it. They did not commit to anything. ← Yeah, I hate dealing with the postal service sometimes. My latest shipment from l'epicerie arrived with a big hole punched in my bag of apple pectin and about 2/3 of it gone. I'm going to ask next time if they'll ship another way.

And the funny thing is, for them it's behind the times. We're getting the "been there, done that" recipes that they've already left behind in search of new ideas. A beautiful book, I'm inspired to do some serious woodshedding with this one.

That part's not really a valid complaint considering the release date has always been Oct. 2008 regardless of when you decided to place the order. The damaged part sucks, did you file a report with the carrier?

What's the texture like? I'm not sure where we're at with "too soft". Are we talking a soft but still chewy "gummy" texture or a strong jelly texture? I'm assuming not a soft jelly or gelee texture since you mentioned mixing cubes into sorbet. I like Kerry's idea as long as it's not too chewy or too sticky to cut cleanly.

My vote would be for apple butter... but that's mainly because I really like apple butter.

Very cool Rob. Sorry about the noodle trouble. For some reason, I didn't realize that you were doing noodles. I thought you were wanting to do warm sheets. I've never tried something as thick as the noodles with that recipe. I usually use it with a fruit or veg base for very thin sheets for draping or encasing. I've done it with meat and poultry stocks as well but I usually leave out the gelatin and rely on the natural gelatin in the stock which I bolster with the agar for the higher melting point. I'm sure it could be made to work for noodles with a little tweaking. I'm wondering if the fat in the coconut milk contributed to it being more brittle? Although the fact that they were warm seems like it would offset that somewhat. I'm curious now. Anyway, apologies for rambling. Looks like you did an awesome job yet again. I'm inspired and I really want to do one of these. I did a multi-course tasting last year on valentine's day that went well but it was all desserts. I may fall flat on my face attempting something like this but it would be fun.

Looking forward to the report Rob. I have a dinner coming up next month that I do every year. The district governor's meeting for the local chapter of the lion's club (usually 24 - 30 people). You almost inspired me to go this route with it this year instead of the amuse, app, main, dessert, petit four format I usually do. Almost. This particular group just isn't adventurous enough for this sort of thing though. I'll save the inspiration for an occasion where it would be more appreciated.

Did people really think this was going to be a "how to do truffled lobster sous vide in your coffee pot with a chicken breast and a radish" type of book?

THIS should help get you started. It gives a recipe for a base to work from which is just milk, cream, sugar, invert sugar, non fat dry milk, atomized glucose and stabilizer (which can be omitted). You could sub in your own favorite base as long as you stay in the same range as far as total sweeteners. It has charts for percentages and additions for various flavors. It's based on their own purees, most of which contain added sugar at 10% but the PUREE PAGE lists (underlined) the ones that don't contain added sugar, so you can easily adapt it to any puree. I also highly recommend the recently released "Frozen Desserts" from the C.I.A. if you'd like to have a book on hand that covers a lot of ground on the subject.

Randi, I think you're in a place where you're never going to win unless you can find a way to take it for what it is. There's a point where I say (to myself) "Screw it, if there's really a problem then why do they keep coming back?". We have a guy that comes into the restaurant usually anywhere from 1 - 3 times a week with his wife. Every single time he's been in the place he has some little snarky comment about something. This has been going on for years, from what I'm told it went on before my time there... they're still there 1 - 3 times a week. I figure he's just a person with the need to complain or he's really not too smart because I don't keep spending money at places I don't like. He's had very few complaints about his food but there's always something he's not happy about. If I were hearing the same or similar complaints from others I'd be concerned but after this much time with it being only one person I just don't let it worry me anymore. He can fuss and grumble and I'll cook his food and take his money. Then we're both happy.

Yeah, I've been following his site for quite a while. I've done a few of the recipes from it already. To be honest, I buy books more for learning techniques and for inspiration than for the actual recipes but I haven't been disappointed with any from the site that I tried.

It took me a little playing to figure out the site but if you click the arrows on the right side at the bottom of the page it will turn "pages" on the little book on the screen. I don't remember which page it was on but it's there. It's easy to navigate once you see how it works, it's just not readily apparent how to go about navigating it.

"Cooking"... you're cooking the mushrooms. "Cook the mushrooms on high heat to brown, toss, repeat." I suppose you could go with frytéing.

That's the long hours job? 40-ish hours a week? That's probably about what I get paid for if I worked it out to hourly but I'm lucky if I put in less than double that. And it's the good money job as well? Wouldn't be too difficult a choice for me as long as there's opportunity to learn and you'll enjoy what you're doing. I've done the starving artist thing... it's overrated. It's not like you have to pick one and do only that forever.

Yeah, I think so. I'm not sure what the goal is here unless it's to sound interesting on a menu. In that case, just call a batch of eggless vanilla ice cream "panna cotta ice cream". Maybe use a little gelatin as the stabilizer so all of the base panna cotta ingredients are there. Artistic license to naming food happens all the time.

Let me explain it another way, the correct ratio is the one that gives the result you want. The amount needed can vary from fat to fat and batch to batch of the same type of fat. I haven't done any testing but I wouldn't be surprised if results can vary when using different brands of tapioca maltodextrin. You can use a ratio to get in the ballpark but if you read through threads on tapioca maltodextrin you will see many accounts of inconsistency in results using a set ratio even when working with the same type of fat. If you keep track of the amount you use on a specific fat the first time you get the result you want, it will put you close the next time but don't be surprised if it requires a bit of fine tuning each time. It may not, but it could. Try starting with 40 - 50% maltodextrin to fat and be prepared to go up to 60 - 65% for some fats.

I'm not familiar with this chocolate Kerry, could you tell me more about it? Is it good eating/baking chocolate or more in the range of chocolate decoration that could but not likely would be eaten usage?

So herbalcraft.ca is a valid Canadian source, I ordered tonka beans and menthol crystals from them, and alchemy-works.com is still a valid U.S. source, my order from them arrived today. I now have 10 oz. (300 or so) of tonka beans and 4 oz. of menthol crystals so I don't think I'll be out of either anytime soon.