Tri2Cook

I guess I'll have to be the first negative on the chocolate cherry. I bought one and thought it was horrible to the point that, after a couple more drinks to give it a fair chance to prove itself, I poured it down the drain.

Maybe we need to invent cook-inism... when you cook for a living it seems like most people assume you should, and want to, cook every meal at every opportunity. "I think it's hot when a guy cooks!" "Yeah, 'cause then you don't have to." That's it, I'm burning my apron. Wait a second, I just realized I frequently wear an apron.

Hmmm... not sure if I'll bother if I can't get it in English. The only French I know is Kiss, Fry and Toast. I have his other expensive book (Patisserie of...) as well as Chocolate Desserts and, while I think they are both awesome books, I've yet to use them for anything other than inspiration. Of course that's what most of my books are for, I rarely use the actual complete recipes so maybe this would be a good one to add to the collection.

Nice! Sounds more tropical than springtime but still looks and sounds tasty and he can call his dessert whatever he wants to.

I'm not squeamish and I'm all for not sticking my head in the sand in regards to where my food comes from but, unless there are some secret morsels of really tasty meat tucked away in there somewhere, there wouldn't be much point in it for me. I haven't met a piece of offal I've liked yet, and some I've been persistent in trying to learn to enjoy. Still a cool thread though, I'm glad somebody is making use of and enjoying the parts I don't.

I used beer with two courses of a multi-course valentine's day dessert thing I did. One course was paired with Morte Subite raspberry lambic and another with Fruli strawberry beer. There were people present who aren't wine fans so I went with beers and cocktails as pairings instead (with the exception of a Canadian ice wine with a course involving milk chocolate and pear... they can't have everything their way). I've been a fan of lambics for a long time but this was my first time with the Fruli. It was well received and it's not bad as fruit beer goes but it's not really something I'd sit around and drink on a regular basis.

wrong thread for me to post this, but is PH10 worth it? i really want that book! ← Yeah, we need to start a thread about it so we don't take over this one 'cause I'm curious too.

I'm casting my vote for that approach, takes care of both sides of the fence. I can definitely see where Rob is coming from and in a perfect world I would probably agree completely but I also share a bit of Anne's skepticism of people asking for my money so they can be nice to someone else with it. Not to the point of being paranoid, I agree with Rob that that would be a miserable way to live, but it still lurks in a corner of my mind and makes itself known from time to time. My biggest question about what I've read in this thread is: just what exactly is this "tips for the back of house" thing that was mentioned? We must have very efficient filters at work, nothing makes it that far back.

I'm partly siding with the "idiot" on that one (the disclaimer being that that probably wouldn't be my first choice in a restaurant situation, there are definitely more profitable ways to use them up.). Tenderloin trimmings make nice burgers depending how you like your burgers. I'm not a fan of the super-thick meatloaf-on-a-bun type of burgers. I'd rather use a couple thinner patties than one big thick one, I like a high crusty surface to interior ratio. A couple coarse-ground tenderloin patties cooked super hot and quick to char the outside and get medium rare-ish inside with some good cheese, mushroom ketchup and a nice bun works for me. I guess you could get some activa and build a few more steaks.

That could be the problem. I dusted all of mine (when I did the long list of flavors all at once... that's not happening again unless I have a volunteer cutter/packager crew) just in icing sugar and all of them held up fine except the 3 flavors that had fat in them (chocolate, mayan chocolate and coconut) which began to weep a bit and get sticky. I gave them a second dusting in starch and that solved the problem at least for a few days (I didn't keep any to see if the problem eventually returned).

Looks like it might be interesting. I don't speak or read spanish though. Not even a little bit.

I don't like silicon for baking. I love it for freezing though, everything pops right out.

That's awesome! When I was 17 opera was just something I wished mom would take off of the stereo.

Sticking to your list, I would probably lean towards the pistachio, raspberry, white chocolate. There are other combos not on the list that I would probably go with if I were a participant (not because they would be better, I just like to go with unusual things at group events to minimize the chances of something similar from someone else... that doesn't always turn out to be a good thing) but that one from your list is a tasty combo.

Ok, first of all... thanks a lot. Now I have to clean earl grey off of my computer. Farting in a shower. Second, I'll say it again... this is so cool! I would have never thought to infuse it through a humidifier. That's brilliant. I'm inspired to blatantly rip off your idea (on a smaller scale)... with your permission of course. I'm a polite thief.

Rob, you rock! That is so cool. I want to hear more about that cilantro cheesecake but putting them in a room full of chocolate aromafied air? Brilliant! Achatz's aroma pillows or Blumenthal's dry ice aroma bowls taken to another level. Did you get to hear some of the reactions when they found out they hadn't eaten chocolate at all?

They'll be fine. The torch isn't going to hurt them in the time it takes to caramelize the sugar. I've bruleed in champagne glasses. I used a torch to brown meringue on lemon meringue cupcakes that were in paper baking cups without burning the paper. Your pyrex will be fine.

This thread just amazes me. I wish I had the skill to do chocolates half as nice as those that show up here. Mark, I love the edible box. I did a plated dessert for an anniversary dinner for some very good friends of mine that involved an edible chocolate box with my cherry popper version 2 inside as part of it. There was an explanation that went with it but I'm not sure if posting it violates the EG code of appropriateness.

That's cool Mark! Orange-honey spice cake sounds really good. I'd say your imagination does just fine, your stuff always looks great.

Great stuff everybody. I'm busy preparing for a multi-course valentine's day dessert thing I'm doing so I haven't had time to do much more than check in to see what everybody else is doing but it all looks awesome.

I'm sure they've been mentioned many times by now but Ideas in food and Curious Cook are my favorites.

I've never seen that magazine around here but I'll have to look into it. The second filtering of my first round of playing didn't work out like I hoped. It's crystal clear (I'll get a pic up soon) which is what I wanted but the cocoa butter which was still making it's presence known after the first filtering couldn't handle two rounds of filtering. It disappeared. I was left with sweet and vanilla which is what I didn't want. I started a batch of the white chocolate buttermilk consomme that Alex and Aki at Ideas in Food created and shared with us in this thread. They were awesome for doing that and, as usual, they got it right. I haven't filtered it yet but the buttermilk did exactly what they said it would... it balanced it. It has all of the good qualities of white chocolate but that almost overwhelming sweetness is mellowed perfectly. It's truly a thing of beauty and if it carries through after filtering (which I don't doubt it will) I'll be very happy. I would definitely recommend it as the place to start to anyone wanting to play with this. Thanks Alex and Aki, you rock!

Or one of my broke college days favorites. Cook the noodles, drain, stir in the seasoning pack and scramble a couple eggs into it.

I'm somewhat committed to using the g-pectin, I already bought it. I don't have time to get any other in before I need it (this is going to be part of a multi-course valentine's day dessert thing I'm doing). If nothing definite comes up by tomorrow I'm just going to give it a try. My next problem will be deciding how much of the acid to go with, I'm not very experienced with pdf's. Edit: I'm definitely interested in giving this a try but I think I'm going to test a backup plan as well. I think I may also try an apple agar jelly. My plan is to use the pdf (or jelly) with a caramel ganache (testing another idea I had for that one, if it doesn't work I'll go with white chocolate/caramel ganache) on a thin dried apple chip. Either way, I could dust the apple chip with a little malic acid to solve that problem.

The funny thing about that one is, if you took the cushion out from under her it could double as a cake for a happy couple.