Tri2Cook

Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking is a book. I wish I could claim everything that book encompasses as "my experience".

On Food and Cooking... ... ... ... ... ...yeah, that should cover it. If I have the how and the why covered I can handle the rest myself. Recipe books are fun but limit you to the ingredients/equipment they require. A book full of knowledge will help me make the best of what I'm given to work with.

That's what I meant by "if you use the right alcohol". Some high octane stuff. Of course, if it's just for visual effect and to create a little aroma when you drop the pepper skin on it, it doesn't actually have to be a consumable alcohol.

That's pretty close to what I do at work. The main differences being I do use salt, I do it in the 60 qt. mixer (because I'm doing a little over double what mroybal's recipe does, it's based on a 20 kg bag of flour) and it doesn't get 5 days, it usually gets about 2 - 3. I average 3 - 4 of those batches a week so there's always some going... and we're not even a pizza place as such. We added them for extra income and they took on a life of their own.

I'm not sure there is an absolutely safe way to have an open flame on a diner's plate but a cube soaked with alcohol will burn and if you use the right alcohol it will burn quite intensely. Maybe if you can get everybody to blow really hard to put out the flame as the sugar starts to melt you can get a cotton candy blizzard happening at the table.

Sounds interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing what you came up with.

You could also just make your own.

I've finally committed to actually and thoroughly reading On Food and Cooking. I've scanned through it. I've read deeply from it on certain subjects. I refer to it often. I've never made the effort to completely read and absorb it from beginning to end. That's what I'm doing now.

I've had that problem a few times when doing chocolate sorbet. A quick blitz with the stick blender while it's still hot solves it for me. I haven't had it happen with custard ice cream yet but if it does happen that will be my first plan of attack.

Would you be willing to give an example of how you would do something aerated with alginate? I don't have a specific idea in mind that I need a solution for, I just like learning things I don't know (which makes for a very long list of things to learn).

Fair enough but I'm fairly certain (as in I've read it and been told so in food safety classes but never actually went in a lab and tested it myself) that salmonella isn't destroyed by freezing. Not by the freezing that can be achieved in the average freezer anyway. Maybe there's some super-chilling method that will kill the little buggers, I don't know. Personally, I figure millions of sunny-side-up/over easy/soft-poached eggs are eaten everyday without any major outbreaks of egg related illness but everybody has to draw their own lines.

Does he have a website? That sounds awesome. That cow is going to be really cool packaged that way, definitely hope you get a picture.

You have to hydrate the gelatin (doesn't matter if it's powder or sheet). Once hydrated, you can dissolve it directly in the liquid to be clarified if it's hot. If not, you can heat part of the liquid in the microwave or on the stove, dissolve the gelatin in it and stir it into the rest of the liquid.

Sounds like a reasonable question to me, I was wondering the same thing.

I'd think that would be a textural decision, that's about all the seeds really add.

That's cool Kerry. And I'm jealous that you have a "favorite organic meat farmer". I wish there was one of those near me... even if he/she wasn't particularly my favorite.

Coffee filters work fine for smaller amounts but if you can find yourself some cone filters designed for filtering oil the process is much faster than with the coffee filter. You can send gallons of oil through those in almost no time at all, even with cold oil.

Add up the costs... ingredients, time, packaging, delivery expenses, office supplies, waste, advertising, etc. Add in your profit margin. Then squeeze in as much above that as your market will tolerate because there always seem to be costs that don't occur to you until they've nipped into your profits.

Yeah, by the literal definition I suppose I could be called a chef. I just don't feel comfy using that title in reference to myself. For me personally, there is more to the title than the literal definition. I have no problem with others choosing to use it. They know better than I do if they merit it or not. Me, I'm just a cook with a lot to learn.

If you get the gelatin right and are patient enough to let it drain out completely (if you've been doing the French Laundry recipes you're patient enough ), the yield is surprisingly high. The patience required depends on the volume you're working with. I'd say you lose no more (or not much more, possibly less) than you would to evaporation in the traditional method but I've never done a side-by-side test, that's just based on casual observation. Too much gelatin leads to a steep descent in yield as the level goes up. I have my best results with something that's almost, but not quite, too fragile to actually think of as a gel. It wobbles around in a way that makes you think it didn't gel at all and looks like you could still pour it (maybe you can, I haven't tried). There's a bit of educated guesswork and finger crossing involved with liquids that have some degree of natural gelatin in them if there's not enough present for them to gel on their own without a little booster shot. In some cases the natural gelatin exceeds what you actually want in there. That's a fun one. "Hey, it's been draining for 3 days... where the #&%@ is my consomme?" I had bad luck with the agar version but it appears that may have been my fault. I drained it out in the cooler instead of at room temperature and it took much longer than I expected, longer even than gelatin. That one may have to be reserved for specific applications, some things I won't feel happy about leaving out at room temp all day.

Good job. As for being "a tad dry"... the good thing about a syrup soak is nobody (other than you) will ever know that they were dry.

Cool. I did something similar for a party not too long ago. I made my own clamato with clam juice, tomato water and a few other ingredients, clarified it and added vodka. I called it Caesars Ghost.

I agree with Sethro, that is interesting. Is kuzu starch the same thing as kudzu starch? I used to use kudzu leaves (as a veg) and kudzu blossoms (as a flavoring agent, tastes and smells like a grape lollipop) when I lived in the southeast U.S. and I've read about the starch but I've never worked with it.

It just seems kinda unimportant to me. I'm a hack. I'm a wannabe. Maybe even a borderline poser. I'm not a pastry chef. I'm not a dessert chef. I'm a self-taught cook who happens to really enjoy doing desserts. I read, I research, I experiment, I play, I practice, I have fun. I rarely eat my desserts beyond tasting to know if I'm happy/not happy with the results (and why/why not). People seem to enjoy what I do and I enjoy doing it. That's good enough for me.

I'm not a pastry chef, I wouldn't insult those who have the education and experience to wear that title by claiming it for myself. However, I do know the fundamentals and I do make all of the desserts for the restaurant where I work and the catering business the restaurant owner and I have going on the side. So I guess if I had to have a title "dessert cook" would be kinda awkward sounding but appropriate (because I do almost all of the other cooking as well). But I'm not really into titles, I just enjoy doing what I do.