FoodMan

So damn nice Jason. Very good work. Did you make the Saurkraut as well from MC?

I am planning on making a Strawberry Blond ale this weekend. The inspiration is Abita's refreshing "Strawberry Harvest". Anyways, adding fruit to my beer is fine with me. I've made a really nice Cherry Ale a while back that was a favorite of everyone who tasted it. My question concerns Elederflowers actually. Elderflowers are in season here now and are growing all over the place. I already made a nice syrup/cordial with some (sugar+water+flowers) that has a great spicy taste and a lovely chartreuse color. I am also soaking some in vodka to make a cordial. I would like to add some elderflowers to my beer but not sure what the best approach is: - Add a bunch of flowers at flameout along with the berries and let them steep while chilling the wort? - Add a cup or two of my Elederflower syrup? - Add a cup of Elderflower infused vodka (not sure I have enough time for this one)? or maybe adding the Elderflowers is not a good idea at all.... Any suggestions?

You would be absolutely correct to go with the weight measures. See Page 28 "... So we cannot recommend strongly enough measuring dry ingredients by weight rather than by volume." Personally, I'd always suggest also using weights for liquid ingredients, when accuracy is required! Same here. I do not think I ever used anything but weight measurments when making any recipe from Charcuterie. So I would not have noticed the issue. OTOH it does not surprise me at all that volume measures for dry stuff (esp. stuff like garlic and herbs) would vary a lot.

I don't mind being singled out, i'm a big boy i can defend my arguments I also agree with you that that comment was probably was put me "over the edge" to actually boil over and say what i said, but clearly, rightly or wrongly, i've had something simmering for a while that i've kept to myself, and rightly or wrongly it came out in this thread. I stand by my statements. Maybe my delivery was wrong, but what i said remains uncontested i believe. Edit: The book does remain a good book for beginners to read, i don't argue that. I even put it on my short recommended list on my blog, and intentionally left others off. And the hobby is bettered by having that book. BUT i wouldn't mind seeing some kind of errata or clarifications on his very popular blog. And as far as i know, no corrections were made in the 2nd printing (i could be wrong). As GFWeb said, i would just like to see him hold himself to the same standards as he holds others. Fair enough Jason. We'll have to disagree about the percieved intentions of his MC errata comment then. Ok, so to steer this back into an actual useful thread and to cut through all the other stuff. Here is what I could gather from these posts as actual (in some cases possible) errata: - 9th line down: "adding 1/4 cup/30 grams of dry cure" should read "adding 1/4 cup/50 grams of dry cure" - The recipe for Russian dressing contains no tomato or ketchup despite describing it as a mayonnaise and tomato-ey dressing. - the salt levels in Ruhlman's Charcuterie for Soppressata is downright dangerous? 1.7%? That is well below any and ALL accepted minimums of 2.5-3% for cured meats. - He calls chunks of shoulder meat Coppa. That is not Coppa, more like "cured shoulder pieces in the style of Coppa". - The book uses 1/4 pack of starter culture for a 5 lb batch of salame, where it would be more than enough for 50 or 75 lbs of meat. - The recipe for Bread and Butter pickles is clearly wrong. I forget why since I do not have the book with me, but if you read it you can tell. I think he does not use one or two things from the ingredient list. I emailed him about it a long time ago and he said it will be corrected in subsequent printings. Did I miss anything that is not subjective? (like how much sage to use) Personally I think he uses too much salt in the fresh sausage preparations and a long time ago I resorted to using what works for me. ...another example of a subjective issue with the book.

It will. It might be a slow and gradual change, but it sure will.

What has prompted me to post stuff here detailing the shortcomings of his book was his tweet on the errata Modernist Cuisine issued where he basically said "good thing i waited for MC so i don't have to look at an errata". The way i read that is as a putdown that such an expensive book has to issue an errata list and corrections. As though his book were perfect. Not only is it not perfect, it has gross errors, and some which could lead to someone getting sick. Let's call a spade a spade. I do not really mean to single Jason out but whether many here admit to it or not, this is what this thread boils down to. It might not spell the words "Hate Ruhlman" anywhere but the message is clear. 4, 3 or maybe even a year ago this thread would have had a much different tone. It would have actually been concerned with actual errata and would've been a constructive and supportive thread for the book that spawned a few hundred -mostly postive- posts on eGullet! Are we going to be bashing Myhrvold in a few years too? Oh how quickly we forget... I love the MC books and I barely scratched the surface of the knowledge in them. However, Ruhlman's comment about the errata is being so misinterpreted that is it is really making a mountain out of an ant hill . His tweet was fair and anyone who is having to wait till July to get MC is probably saying the same thing. Nothing wrong with that and Ruhlman did not take the cheap shot many here seem to think he took for who the hell knows what reason.

Rinsing it and drying it very well works fine.

Yes you can and I have done just that on a couple of occasions when I needed some back fat. Like you deduced, reducing the amount of salt in the recipe might be needed depending on how salty the backfat was to start with and how long you soaked it for. I would start with reducing the salt by 20% or so and do a quenelle taste. You can add more after that if you need to. I find that after the soak, the backfat is almost salt free honestly. Another option is to use pork belly instead of the backfat if you can get it. In this case count on the belly being a good 50% fat (but could be much more) and 50% lean and adjust the recipe accordingly. How long do you usually soak for? Will an hour or so do anything or do I need to do it overnight? Do you swap the water at any point? Not sure an hour is enough. I usually do it the night before and swap the water once.

Is a mole hill being turned into a mountain? Is it a big deal really? My wife complained about the smell which escalated into "what are all these gadgets and chemicals anyways." So yes, it is being a mole hill being turned into a mountain. ;-) Well, that is understandable then :-). My wife would complain as well if our kitchen/living room smelled like smoked meat and vinegar for two days. Luckily my IC is in the laundry room and it has a plastic cover over the tub. So the smell-effect on anything is minimal.

Is a mole hill being turned into a mountain? Is it a big deal really? Yes. Not at all. ...well as far as I am concerned.

I'm seeing this now with the pastrami. After about 18 hours the water has become slightly brown and there is a very obvious odor of smoke in the whole room where the rig is. It is baffling as my vacuum is still fine on the bags... Exactly! Could this be something to do with the quality of the Sousvide bags? I have a MVS31x chamber vacuum sealer which seems in perfect working condition so I don't get how it could be the seal. We had several posts about this in the SV thread. It is pretty normal as far as I can tell. The bags are waterproof, but they seem to not be -here comes a very scentific term- "flavoring compound proof". When I cook bacon SV, I get the mild smell of bacon in the air and water where I have my IC in plus the water turns very slightly yellowish. When I cooked the beef tongue with vinegar sauce a couple of weeks ago I could smell the vinegar as well....

Having just got the pressure canner, it seems the only difference is the ability to accurately measure the pressure via the attached gauge and manipulate the pressure by the addition of extra weights. Some pressure cookers do not seem to go high enough in pressure (and hence temperature) to reach the levels that you can reliably maintain in a pressure canner. This has to impact the ability to sterilise the food. Some ad hoc methods I've read about include placing a coin on top of the weight but this smacks of bodgy home engineering and there is no guarantee that your cooker will be at the appropriate pressure. Unless your cooker guarantees maintaining the correct pressure needed to can, it would be most unwise to use it for this purpose. The canners (under $70 on Amazon link here) are cheap, especially when compared with potentially gambling with people's lives. Nickrey is correct. That is pretty much why they say in MC not to use pressure cookers for canning non-acidic foods. Theoratically you can. All you are doing is processing the jars under pressure. But to be certain you are doing it right and that your pressure measurment is indeed accurate, you need a pressure canner. Winging it with a pressure cooker might work 99% of the time, but all you need is one screw up...

Be careful with Activa. Once it's opened and exposed to air it degrades fairly rapidly (or at least that's what they say). I keep my opened pack vacuum sealed and in the freezer as per Ajinomoto's recommendation. I have read (on another eG topic) that some people report decent shelf life for opened packs, but I've not heard of keeping it at room temperature, and I don't want to waste any by trying it out. Cheers, Peter. Hi Peter, Thanks for that. That's kind of what I'm hearing also. It's good to get the information about vacuum packaging and freezing it. I'll definitely do that with what I get. What percent vacuum do you use? I guess over time we'll be the test subjects for shelf life. Regards, Larry Edited for spelling Larry, I've had a sample package of GS that has recently celebrated its 2 year birthday since first being opened. I think it's important to say though, that I'm neurotic about how it's kept. When I plan on using it, I take it out of the non-defrosting chest freezer only long enough to remove the amount I need. I then press as much of the air from the sample bag as I can, and heat seal it shut, then put that in a vacuum bag and remove the air again with my foodsaver (my chamber vac is still in the works). I do it this way because my foodsaver would suck the powder into the pump - which you won't ahve a problem with your chamber vac. The original ajinomoto bag that holds the sample has a metal foil layer and is very good at keeping oxygen out, unlike most plastic vacuum bags. They also have an oxygen absorber in the bag to absorb any residual oxygen. I've actually added more oxygen absorbers as time has gone on, becasue I don't know how effective the original one is anymore. So, if you want to distribute the RM, I'd do the same thing - get a pack of either Mylar or foil lined bags, and stick an oxygen absorber in there with them, and you should be good to go. Same here. My samples from Ajinomoto are almost a year old. I keep the open one in the deep chest freezer, in it's original packaging and tightly wrapped. I only take it out for a few seconds to get what I need out and then it goes back in. I used it about 2 weeks ago and it worked great for a wild boar loin that I posted about.

I made their ricotta cheese recipe recently and it is certainly an improvement over my regular recipe (using butermilk). The Ideas in Food recipe uses a small amount of Citric acid and provides me with a much better yield and a sweeter ricotta.

...if a product is not acidic (below 4.8 PH) you should not can by boiling. These peas are certainly not acidic enough. Such products need to be pressure canned and that is not advisable unless you know what you are doing and have a proper pressure canner (NOT a pressure cooker)! Thanks very much for the heads-up! I don't have a pressure canner, so unfortunately that option is out for this weekend. Can I add lime juice and sugar instead and follow traditional canning procedures? Alternately, can you advise if the pea butter would be OK at room temperature in a jar for 24 hours with instructions to refrigerate? Or, even in a refrigerator, does the anaerobic environment pose a problem? Thanks so much! Well, and this is my opinion only and not based on anything specific I read in MC, I think that is fine. I am refering to putting it in jars and keeping it refrigerated not to adding acid to it. In this case though, I would not process it at all. I would just store it in jars in the fridge and it should have a shelf-life of a week maybe. Though, questions that come to mind include: - If it is processed, wouldn't be cooked and it will lose it's lovely freshness in both taste and color? - Even if not processed, how long does the pea butter keep in the fridge and not lose that same freshness? I am just not sure. I am also very jealous of your centrifuge

Chris, Where did you get the HA and LA gellan? Everytime I search online I come across manufacture webpages, LA or unlabeled gellan. Thanks Le Sanctuaire carries both Gellan types, Here: http://www.le-sanctuaire.com/. Just search for Gellan.

Kuhn Rikon 7qt model 3344. I was gifted it about a month ago, so far it has been great and has been getting more use than my stock pot. Ditto. I love this pressure cooker and six months ago, I was scared of even owning one! It is great for everything from stocks to beans.

Oh boy. Don't do that. Read the MC chapter about canning in volume 2. In summary, if a product is not acidic (below 4.8 PH) you should not can by boiling. These peas are certainly not acidic enough. Such products need to be pressure canned and that is not advisable unless you know what you are doing and have a proper pressure canner (NOT a pressure cooker)!

I like the idea of using an induction plate. This saves stove space, is efficient and can be used outdoors. Now, getting the wife to agree to a new "toy" is a different matter since buying Modernist Cuisine books

hmmm...the more I read about deep fryers for the home, the more I am convinced that I should juts buy a Lodge dutch oven instead and a candy thermometer. I had been thinking about this one here, but I might just save my $$ and get a dehydrator that I really want.

I make a lot of ice cream at home, but I Breyer's French Vanilla is my standard all-purpose ice cream for pies and such. It's pretty darn good. I have not tried any other flavors...well my kids like the Neapolitan since it gives them the "red, strawberry and vanilla" varieties in one tub.

Not that I could notice and what I made with it was fresh sausage.

Yes you can and I have done just that on a couple of occasions when I needed some back fat. Like you deduced, reducing the amount of salt in the recipe might be needed depending on how salty the backfat was to start with and how long you soaked it for. I would start with reducing the salt by 20% or so and do a quenelle taste. You can add more after that if you need to. I find that after the soak, the backfat is almost salt free honestly. Another option is to use pork belly instead of the backfat if you can get it. In this case count on the belly being a good 50% fat (but could be much more) and 50% lean and adjust the recipe accordingly.

Why not try and stick with plainly incorrect recipes here, since I believe Ruhlman deserves a lot of credit for how many are into making their own sausage and curing their own meat (I know I am). Just browse through the tons of pages through the years that are dedicated to his book! Simply bitching about him seems just wrong IMO. Anyways, the recipe for Bread and Butter pickles is clearly wrong. I forget why since I do not have the book with me, but if you read it you can tell. I think he does not use one or two things from the ingredient list. I emailed him about it a long time ago and he said it will be corrected in subsequent printings (were there any?? I hope so)

Oh come on Chris. You are making too much of his comment. I really do not think it is such a "low blow" from him. It is simply a fair observation of a person who bought the book. If I had to wait for the second printing to get my books like so many here are, I probably would say the same thing. It's a silver lining of having to wait in a way.