Tri2Cook

They're not easily (or not-so-easily) available in Canada either (at least not where I live or online). After seeing your post on that sorbet back when you first shared it here I was curious and went on a mission to find them or even a packaged puree or juice. I still haven't found them.

It's actually as simple as replacing the butter in your favorite recipe. Make brown butter, chill it and proceed business as usual. I also replace the white sugar with sucanat (brown sugar would work too), don't add vanilla (not that it would hurt, just my preference) and up the salt a bit when I do the brown butter version.

I like simple shortbread to munch on but I do a variety of non-traditional types for use with desserts (brown butter, peanut butter, cornmeal, etc). I'll have to see what I can come up with, this sounds fun.

BLATANT UNSAFE INFORMATION WARNING: Do you have access to dry ice? If so, break up some into small chunks, put it in a container (not glass) and slowly pour some 190 Everclear in. Let it sit until it quits "boiling" (doesn't take long) and experiment away. This won't be as cold as LN2 (only about -100 f) and in some ways it's less safe (it won't roll off of your skin like LN2 so don't try the little dunking your fingers to move things around thing you see some people do with liquid nitrogen, use tools or cryo gloves and try not to let it drip on you when you remove things from the tank). It does make an effective and fun way to play with quick freezing things though. If you're going to freeze food items that are sealed in plastic and won't be in direct contact with the liquid you can use isopropyl alcohol instead of the Everclear (much cheaper).

If you do the recipe exactly as written, not particularly. It is truly neutral. The texture is nice, the flavor is bland. That was intentional. The idea was a blank canvas. Add whatever minced herbs or whatever is appropriate to what you're doing. Try using some deeply browned brown butter instead of the melted butter. Whatever works for the project at hand. Then I would put it in the "yummy" category. I did one with minced sage (because I had some fresh sage sitting there looking at me) and the flavor came through quite nicely. Edit: I want to expand a bit on that. You have to keep in mind when tasting it that it is not "cake", not in the traditional sense anyway. Tasting it with the idea of a dessert cake in mind doesn't work. You have to have your head in the savory world when judging it. Unless you're good at being objective (I'm guessing most here probably are), it might be better to try it with something to flavor it even for the first time just to keep the verdict from being influenced by the fact that it's rather bland in it's base form.

No problem, it was fun. PM me a mailing address and I'll send you enough of each to give it a try or three. That way you can make sure it works for what you want to do before committing to buying anything unusual.

Nope, that's for stews and pies. I bought ground elk too, just forgot to list it in the first post. I've never actually had an elk burger. I've had steaks, roasts, tenderloins and sausages before but this is my first time buying the ground meat.

Yeah, I haven't quite decided what I'm doing yet (beyond the obvious stock) but I couldn't pass on them. The vendor said most people want them for their dogs but they have a couple chefs in the town they're from that buy them for use in their restaurants. I also got some really nice ground elk that I forgot to mention in the first post.

That's cool. I'm glad I preordered through the site. I never had a doubt it would be a first class book but a signed copy with a different sleeve will be sweet. Only problem is I may have to buy an off the shelf copy so I don't have to muck up the signed copy in the kitchen.

5 kg of smoked elk bones 4 kg of elk stew meat 3 kg of elk striploins 2 kg of elk and wild rice sausages and some really nice elk tenderloins. Disclaimer: The numbers may not be exactly accurate and may have been modified to fit the tune (but they're close). I think I'm going to have fun. I also bought a ton (blatant exaggeration) of really nice veggies, some jars of gooseberry jam, chokecherry syrup and pickled patty pans and some elk summer sausage. I had to splurge a bit, they won't be back until next summer.

Ok, I'm done with work for today so I'll expand on this a bit. This was the result of one late night of playing with an idea and probably can and possibly should be refined a bit. All I can say is that it worked. So the recipe at this point... 180g egg white 120g egg yolk 40g flour 60ml warm water 30g melted butter (brown butter would probably be nice, didn't try it) 7g salt 14 g sugar 1.4g xanthan 2.5g methylcellulose Mix water, salt, butter and flour to just smooth. Whip whites to frothy, add combined sugar, methylcellulose and xanthan and whip on high to almost stiff. Beat egg yolks to pale. Mix in flour paste. Mix in part of the whites. Fold in remaining whites and spread on lined, sprayed and floured pan. Bake 220c 'til done (just under 15 minutes in my oven on an 18"x12" pan). Cool in pan covered with damp cloth. Trim edges and have fun. Now to my theories, which I freely confess were based on my own ideas and experiences and have no scientific value whatsoever. Theory 1: methylcellulose would help stabilize the meringue during whipping and even more so as it heated until the structure set enough to support itself. Theory 2: xanthan would help stabilize the meringue during whipping and, I've read, is commonly used in gluten-free baking to help with texture (reduce crumbling) which led me to believe that it may help with texture here as well. I have nothing scientific to offer as to whether either theory proved true, all I can point to is the results.

It's even cheaper at chef rubber but you may want to check out the shipping cost from each place before deciding where to order. Sometimes that's a much bigger difference than the price of the book when ordering from outside of the U.S.

I couldn't stand the thought of you abandoning your idea so quickly so I've worked something up for you that may help. It is not a sponge, it's more a variation on biscuit roulade. It rolls easily without tearing or cracking, it is not at all sweet and it is tender, not rubbery. Maybe not as tender as a sweet version but pretty darn close. I did this one completely neutral. I was just trying to put together a formula for you, not a recipe. This base will allow you to add whatever flavor component works for what you're doing. Fold in some minced herbs, minced sun dried tomato, lemon zest, vegetable powder, whatever makes you happy, at the end.

I haven't tried doing the ice cream but I've done a strawberry-basil sorbet that I served with a balsamic caramel and was very happy with the results. I'll have to try it as an ice cream sometime.

Buttermilk biscuits. Ok, I'm being a bit silly but those things are more of a knack than a technique... you have the feel for it or you don't and no cookbook is going to change that. If you think yours are good, go find some grandmother in a little house way out in the country and try hers. If yours are still good, you've got it.

Yeah, the natural gelatin can throw a wrench in things. Sometimes it's higher than optimum without adding any additional gelatin. I enjoy duscussing this stuff but we should probably take it to the "gelatin filtration" thread or PM at this point, we're kinda hijacking the topic here.

I've never made it, eaten it or even seen it... but I think I will remedy that situation. It sounds really good.

So do I... hot, spicy things too for that matter. Nice looking sorbet, nice flavor combo. Did you use habanero? I love the fruity flavor of habs.

Nice glaze Rob. I have to confess to never having worked with gold sheets, it is a nice look against chocolate but I guess I'm too cheap.

Lemon Meringue... lemon curd ice cream - baked meringue crumble - graham cracker crust puree - graham cracker crust powder - poached meringues - lemon curd

Mmmmmmm..... Yummmmy. !!!! ← Yeah, that may have been carrying the point a bit too far I guess.

I would add Michael Laiskonis' "Notes from the Kitchen" blog to my personal list but I definitely agree with your choices. I was a bit of a late-comer to Studio Kitchen but I did a lot of late night catching up once I discovered it. Very inspirational.

It's difficult to do something that hasn't been done in some variation by somebody somewhere but that doesn't mean you didn't create something new. If you have a concept you haven't seen done and develop it to a finished item/dish/etc. you have created something new. Finding out later someone else already made pickles and ice cream mousse doesn't make yours less of a creation. The odds that they did it exactly the same way are small and, even if they did, you didn't know about it. I've had a lot of ideas that I worked on only to discover later by typing it into google that 8,319.63 other people did it yesterday... it was still an oiginal idea for me.

The ones living in Stilton. My favorite molds are silicon. I don't have a favorite shape, just depends what I'm doing. Of course, I don't mold chocolates.

I've used it a few times, and like it quite a bit. I filtered some tomato juice for a clear bloody mary. I'm curious, what do you use it for? -anthony ← I use it for anything I want to clarify. I use the agar version for things I feel safe allowing to drain out at room temp because it's faster. I've done a caramel apple consomme, the Ideas in Food white chocolate consomme and bacon broth, Sam Mason's chocolate consomme which I modified slightly to use with syneresis filtering instead of the raft he used, tons of fruit and veg juices. I do all of my protein consommes this way now. The results are well worth the necessary planning ahead.