FoodMan

Sounds like bullcrap. The whole thing should be packaged together in an acrylic box.

I'm not sure it's that much of a pot shot. Interesting article, I discovered the magic of foil wrapped ribs in the oven many years ago when I was too lazy to fire up my grill in the middle of winter. Now, my preferred methodology for ribs is apply rub--quick grill for smoke--foil wrap and cook low in oven--unwrap to add sauce -- finish under broiler. I've never had less than awesomely succulent ribs since doing it this way. I'm surprised that the article describes this as some new trend, I think Alton Brown had an episode on Good Eats about oven ribs years ago. Back on topic, my copy of MC arrives today!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, he was going for the funny closing comment. The first time I ever used foil for ribs was from an Alton Brown recipe/show (baby back ribs one). That was maybe about 9 or 10 years ago. So nothing new there. Now, my prefered mehtod is similar but much simpler to the MC one. Well, similar in that it uses SV I suppose based on the temp from Douglas Baldwin's book. Before they are CSV, they get a good spice rub. When they are CSV until cooked, they get grilled with lots of smoke, then brushed with my bbq sauce (last time I used a reduced red wine/thyme/honey glaze) and grilled quickly again. Best ribs ever.

so they took 50% off the online discount price, not the list price?!! That is odd and unusual. They usually take it off the list price.

Meat+Dutch Oven+Coals?? How "Modernist" and crazy of the MC team. Serously though, can you not insert the probe (assuming it's an electronic thermometer with a cord and all) and then put the clay/dough around it?

Moroccan Chicken with Lemon and Eggs One of the most lovely looking dishes I made from a Paula Wolfert recipe. This amazing stew was the first time I use an actual clay tagine. This specific Tagine is an inexpensive glazed clay one I bought from Sur La Table. It’s made in Portugal and as far as I can tell it worked great. I do admit that I was a bit apprehensive as to how it will all turn out since I was not sure what to exactly expect. In the intro, Paula refers to another tricky Moroccan recipe that “encases” chicken in a cooked egg mixture and then discusses this one as similar but different in that it uses eggs but they form more of a custardy sauce for the chicken. That sounded good, but the eggs get cooked in butter in the tagine alone before adding any sauce and that concerned me. I was worried that the end result would resemble cooked chicken in an eggy scrambled sauce. If the Diana and the kids hate it, then all the work would be in vain. I really needn’t have worried because it far exceeded my expectations. The base for the dish is a mixture of butter, grated onions, garlic, saffron, dry ground ginger and cinnamon (a tiny pinch of that). With water, that base makes for an aromatic liquid in which the chicken pieces gently stew. The chicken pieces get finished under the broiler for a crispy skin right before nestling back in the sauce for service. For the sauce, the cooking liquid is mixed with caramelized grated onions, olives, sliced preserved lemon peels, parsley and cilantro. Eggs get cooked very gently in the tagine in butter and mixed with lemon juice. To bring it all together, the onion-olive mixture gets mixed in to the eggs. The mixture turns to a wonderful velvety a very deeply flavored sauce. Add the chicken pieces back in and it is ready to serve. I did blog about it here

Great! I'm betting I should get mine by mid-late April then. Only two or three weeks after my B-day. Not too bad .

This link worked better for me. The one edsel linked would not open.

Why do you assume that you will be pushed to the second printing? I thought that Amazon was still shipping from the first 500 that were air-shipped and the rest of the first printing will be arriving by ship very soon. Am I missing anything?

yikes! that does sound like a lot. I would just go with a small pinch or 0.2 grams.

Got this as well... Hello, We're still trying to obtain the following item you ordered on February 26 2011 (Order# 002-6019448-6604253). Nathan Myhrvold, et al "Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking" http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0982761007 Still want it? We'll keep on trying. To keep your order for this item open, please click the link below. Otherwise, we'll cancel your order on April 16 2011, if we haven't located it by then. still trying to obtain it?? Of course I approved it but this sucks...I'm hoping it'll be here by the end of April at the latest.

Exactly, concerning El Bulli, it is not "dying" or going out of business! I just read Adria's interview in this month's Saveur and he underlines the fact that El Bulli is evolving and probably getting more influential over the next few years. Here is a link to the article: Adria's Second Act I really like his last comment as well I for one am looking forward to see what he comes up with next. On the MC front, my books are supposed to ship this week and I have not received any delay notes yet...fingers crossed.

The latest higher-end restaurant we tried was Stella Sola. The food was overall very good if a little heavy-handed with salt (at least for my main course of pork belly and scallops). The desserts were not that interesting but solid. My appetizer of polenta, a sous vide egg and house lardo was phenomenal and alone worth another trip to the place. I would love to go back with a couple of friends to try out their suckling pig as well.

The Burger Guys make unique burgers and shakes (with homemade ice cream...like Bacon Vinnaigrette and salted caramel). They also have huge and delicious hot dogs, like the idaho one wrapped in potato ribbons and deep fried. The Fries are the best in town IMO, finished in duck fat. Give it a shot if you have the time. Feast, is a favorite and a carnivore's dream with offal thrown in for good measure. It's rustic British/Spanish food done well with great ingredients. The place got written up in the NYT by Bruni at one point I think. I was just there last night and enjoyed the Bath Chaps very much (you got to go to find what those are). For Vietnamese, the midtown area has several joints, one of my favorites is Van Loc. It has what is possibly the best tofu dish ever, the Tofu Luc Lac. Their soups are great as well. There are a ton of options in Houston and if you are here for a few days, I'd be happy to meet up one day. hope these options help.

Deli-Style Roast Beef I was so happy with how good this turned out that I figured it is worth sharing. It's the most delicious deli roast beef I have ever tasted, it's texture was perfect and the flavor just right. Here's what I did, 1- Brined an eye of round, ~ 2.5 in. in diameter, in 4% solution (included some onion and thyme) for 36 hrs. 2- Seared in grape seed oil and cooled 3- Rubbed with a pounded spice mix (coriander, pepper, bay, smoked paprika and a little salt). Spice was heavy on the coriander. 4- Bagged with a halved/crushed garlic clove and dunked in 190F water for 20 seconds before CSV @140 F (60 C) for 5 - 6 hours Here it is in a sandwich with horseradish mayo, pickles, lettuce and provolone.

I used to feel the same way about pressure cookers, until I finally asked for one and got it this christmas. I got the 7 or 8 liter Kuhn-Rikon mentioned before and now I honestly cannot imagine not having it! It is very simple to use, safe and so versatile that I use it once a week on average. It makes amazing stocks in a couple of hours and perfect beans in 10 minutes. Get one.

Thank you. This post, more than any other here -well almost- sums up my issue with some comments made about MC. Individuals, from A Brown, Alice Waters to board members, who love food and cooking want to poke fun or dismiss this work (mostly without having even looked at it) for no logical reason. Other than the $$ factor, there really is no reason to dismiss it because it is "modern".

I also have successfully made their red wine vinegar. I'v enever been able to do that before with mothers harvetsed from store bought vinegars. This recipe was very straight forward and produced a delicious vinegar. I used that to also start a batch of the Maple Vinegar from the book. It still needs a couple of weeks to finish maturing...so I'll report back then. The 5 (or is it 6) minute egg worked great, but the Onsen not so much. I could not peel the Onsen egg properly and when I did it was fairly solid as opposed to an egg that can be used for Eggs Benedict like the recipe claims. I used my IC to cook the egg, but the stove top to re-heat it, so it is possible that I screwed it up during the reheat process. Need to give this one another shot. Another recipe I tried was the sourdough waffles. I was not a fan of this one at all. I used my own refreshed starter (had it for about 9 years now) and it was too strong tasting and a bit too tough in texture.

I'd go one step further and say that many of us are the ideal readers for this project, and as such it feels like a dream come true. It is certainly appropriate to imagine other readers who, for perfectly legitimate reasons, don't feel the same way. I’ve been following the modernist cuisine threads on-and-off and do find it all pretty fascinating. And such a thrill to have the author on line and engaged in discussion with us. But at the risk of coming off as a little old lady shaking her cane in the air at newfangled methods, I’ll admit to having some reservations about the whole concept of manipulating food so extensively. I realize that many of the ingredients and techniques we think of as part of traditional gourmet cooking are ingredients that have been already highly manipulated and processed to produce something revelatory. Like bread, wine and cheese, among other things. So I get the argument that modernist cuisine is just taking that same philosophy and applying it in new and unique ways. And yeah, it looks really cool, the techniques are astoundingly interesting and I know some of it is downright delicious, delighting the eye as well as the palate. However, I work as a product developer for a major food company, and something about it all just rubs me the wrong way. Don’t get me wrong, I know mass-produced, cost-reduced factory-made food for the masses is in an entirely different league than genius chefs turning out brilliant creations for high end restaurants. But they’re using the same tools. For instance, I have, at my disposal, hundreds of flavors from flavor scientists who are world-renown experts in their field; some of these would knock your socks off in intensity and quality. Although I’m tempted to sneak a few of the more outstanding examples home to add to my own cooking (Trust me, I’d be a rock star in the eyes of my family if served a Thanksgiving gravy that had a cleverly concocted blend of a great caramelized onion flavor, the most perfectly intense roasted top note, a savory enhancer perhaps.), I couldn’t do it. To me, that’s not cooking. And then I realize that these flavors are tools that, with the right equipment, the highly skilled modernist cook could possibly create in their own home (or restaurant). In fact, the picture of the modernist’s kitchen looks horrifyingly similar to our pilot plant here at work! So it feels right to use these tools as long as I invest in the equipment, learn the science and techniques and produce them myself. But not right if I take what’s already out there in the food industry, add a splash or two, and use them to elevate my own cooking to a higher level? In other words, where is the line drawn? Maybe it shouldn’t be? And what’s next? The virtual meal that has the ability to far surpass the real life experience? I don’t want foie gras that looks like a cherry. Or olive oil gummy worms. Yeah, they’re really interesting and I can appreciate the skill it took in their creation, but it all just seems too gimmicky for me. Not to mention that many of the ingredients referenced in the book are things we’ve been using for years here at work that consumers balk at on our labels. The world is being turned upside down! These are just some nagging thoughts regarding the intersection of technology and art and not necessarily a criticism. A good analogy might be hand painted art vs photo shopped pictures. Both use the creative process and both might be equally pleasing to the eye. And even traditional oil painting utilizes some chemistry in the manufacture of the oil-based pigments. But I tend to have a greater appreciation for the cruder, more soulful, old-fashioned methods and the product they create. Which is ironic given my food science background. Or maybe it’s my background that has me stubbornly insist on drawing that arbitrary line that separates the culinary arts from food technology. That makes a lot of sense and is a subject worth talking about and discussing. I certainly do not want virtual meals or my whole days nutrition in the form of a sheet of paper. I think the "line" needs to be drawn on a personal level and everyone will decide foro themselves. For example, I seriously doubt that cooking in my clay pots and pans actually makes that MUCH of a difference, but I love to use them and enjoy doing so. So, I am not about to chuck them all out just because MC tells me that it's all BS. Going back to MC, it's point is to actually provide the cook/chef with all the possible information and scientific proof to make that "where to draw the line" decision. At least I hope it does. If adding meat glue to fried chicken is your "line", then skip it and just follow the rest of that technique and so on.

hmm...don't know about that last question of yours, but you are definitly being limited in your thinking to what you "know". The point of books like MC or McGee is to examine those long held traditions or assumptions and see if they satnd to scientific scrutiny. If you are grilling the steak, then of course you will cremate the outside, but he is probably talking about even low temperature (like SV) in order to get the core of the steak up to the proper degree of donness. It's not rubbish, it's proven science. I can prove that using my own SV setup. Really, like DalJ said, it is not either extreme Roto-vap cuisine or cooking in a hearth in this day and age. Both can coexist quiet well. The 100 or 200 that was mentioned was intended to mean like an initial investment, not necessarily breaking that out every time you open MC! Common sense tells me I can maker that Macaroni and Cheese that was mentioned with less than $10. I am not even sure what that means. The more we can learn from the masters in any subject, the better we are! Honestly, some comments are very illogical and defy common sense.

I think Ruhlman's review was well written and reflects his own personal biases. That is fine and balanced in my opinion. It is a daunting task -like he mentiones on his blog- to review the monster and do it justice in 2 weeks. He does offer the chance to answer any question on his blog, so we are more than welcome to ask him to clarify any points. Now did anyone else read this: ...and wonder if Ms. Waters has any clue that a recipe (or recipes) in the book are inspired by her??

Exactly. I am not sure anyone is saying that foods should not be labeled "Gluten-Free". The marketing bit we are mostly taken issue with is very well illustrated by KitchenMom's comment about her coworker. I do not mind seeing "Gluten-Free" on a baked good or packaged food, but I do mind (well more like get annoyed) by being offered a "Gluten-Free" aka "healthy" option wherever I go. If I want a GF option I'll ask for it. Another example, apparently (per a podcast I was listening to today - Adam Carolla's to be specific) Rebecca Romijn is now on a gluten-free diet and is enforcing it on her husband (Jerry O' connell- who was telling the story) and her 3-year old twins. No, she has no digestive problems whatsoever according to Mr. O'Connell and he has no clue why she is doing that! I hope she will not be sponsoring an infomercial about it soon.

Over at Baltimore magazine While I have enjoyed Alton's view on cooking in the past, I find this blanket statement about a book he hasn't read yet to be very dissapointing and wrong. While I have only seen bits and piece of the book, I know that while some parts of the book are out of the reach of people to recreate at home,, the science and practices in the book are applicable to everyone. While he did have the saving line at the end that he appreciates anything the furthers the knowledge of food, there is definitely a contradiction with the previous sentences. I think there is a broad misconception about Modernist Cuisine in much of the media right now. I'm sure his opinion will change once he speaks to people who actually know something about the book or sees it for himself. His comments are pretty disappointing though and I have always been a big fan of his. rg I love Alton and his shows as well. I learned a lot from him and still do. His comments about the book which he had not seen are pretty stupid though. I think what he was trying to do is go for the "funny" comment in a spontaneous interview. Unfortunately he, in person, is not that funny. He is a bit awkward actually and has a much more of a shy persona. Very nice guy, but he is no Bourdain in person. He should know better in any case, just like Alice waters should've.

Some recent examples include: - At a local new pastry/coffee shop that sells mostly cupcakes I saw they had nice-looking little macarons (turned out too sweet, too expensive and too bland). When I asked the young lady behind the counter if they make those in-house she replied with the affirmative and instead of extolling the virtues of the ingredients, care and skill she kept on telling me "AND they are gluten free". Why do I need to know that??? I asked her why was that important and she had no clue...other than that it is "good for you". Really? Food without gluten is good for me? - Another shop that also sells cupcakes advertises macaron's as "Gluten Free". That's it. Again, it's like gluten is "evil" and needs to be avoided. - My local grocery store does those announcements/adverts while people are shopping the isles. Their most important special a couple of days ago? Tortillas. Their most important feature according to the helpful store employee announcing the sale? yes, they are "Gluten Free"! Other than celiacs, who cares and why should they care? Now, please understand that I am not saying that offering gluten-free options is a horrible, stupid or harmful to anyone. I understand that Celiac disease is real and those who suffer from it need to know what's in the food they eat. Just like those who have severe nut, shellfish or any other form of allergies need to know and make it a point to ask about their food. Celiacs do not avoid gluten because it's a "healthier" lifestyle, but because they need to. I doubt anyone chooses to eat gluten-free bread if he or she did not absolutely need to. My rant is aimed at how the "gluten-free" options are being marketed. To me, it looks like idiotic food marketers are equalizing gluten with "bad-for-you". All these gluten-rich items are bad, just like trans-fats or cholesterol or carbs from a few years ago,....Please by all means offer gluten-free options, as many as you can, but marketing them as a healthy or healthier option is misleading, confusing and pisses me off. Case in point, I was at a dinner party this past weekend and one of the guests was talking about how he cooked this pasta and how it fell apart and got gummy and a total mess. After a few clarifying questions he mentioned that it was a gluten-free pasta! When I asked him why on earth he would buy that if he is not a Celiac, he said he just wanted to check it out because it might be healthier or taste better!! He had no clue what gluten is and most people don't. Those who care about gluten can easily find gluten-free options these days and usually are well informed as to what has it and what does not. Those who have no problem with gluten have no need to care if their macaron has gluten or not.

Ask her if she would give you this book as your birthday, Father's Day and Christmas present this year. Have her wrap up two volumes each holiday (even though you've already looked at them ). Then she doesn't have to shop for you anymore this year. Haha...That's exactly how I got her permission to order mine.

hmm...the bath is Sodium Alginate. Right? When I do that I usually follow the Alinea version and freeze the "spheres" in ice cube trays. you should have no problem getting them to sink in the warm Alginate bath when they are frozen and they sphere-ify gently as they thaw. It works great and streamlines the process a bit if you need to do a bunch of them right before serving.