TheSwede

I do belive the meat is there to re-add flavour, since the clarifying process removes a lot of flavourful particles. Or rather, I've seen that reason given in a number of sources. That might just be a kitchen myth and the real reason is because it helps the clarifying process?

In cases like this, my usual solution is to simmer some bones and trim in white chicken stock, or even canned chicken broth. Lamb and pork bones-trim both can sway the base flavor substantially in 20 to 30 minutes. ← That is a most excellent suggestion. Definitely what I would do. It would probably work fine with any base stock.

Thanks, will try with bottled water.

During the last weeks, I have made several attempts to do a plain wheat starter. I've gotten activity pretty quickly, but on the second or third day the starter has separated into a greyish/brownish watery layer and all the flour at the bottom. It has also started to smell a bit off, almost like puke (sorry, no better way to describe it...). Acidity has been very high. I've tried both organic and standard wheat flour with the same result. Any ideas? I've prevously made rye starter without any problems, but maybe some nasty bug is currently inhabitating my kitchen. I went out and bought some wheat starter from a local bakery the other day. It smells much fresher than my own attempts, none of the puke smell...

I used a small submersible aquarium/indoor fountain pump to actually pump the water. Worked like a charm - until I started to test some higher temps. It didn't like 80C over 8 hours... Try the air pump solution instead.

Butter is already an emulsion between water and fat (and some proteins etc). That is why it is pretty easy to emusify a piece of butter into a water based sauce. Theoretically (according to McGee) you could emulsify a piece of butter into ordinary tap water, as long as the water is warm, but not hotter than approx 50 C (if I remember correctly). With enough viscosity in the sauce, you should be able to emusify back the coking fat too. I have a theory that it won't taste as smooth and (eh) buttery as with real butter, but who knows? How about an experiment?

65 C for X number of hours should be perfectly safe. If I rember correctly from upthread, the magic number is 52 C. Above that tempt, no harmful bacteria will grow and over time, you will even achieve sterilisation. Don't take my word for it though, check the relevant posts upthread.

"The Cooks Book" has a chapter written by Ferran Adria on foams. It is probably the most comprehensive source in english on the subject if you don't have the El Bulli cookbooks. But we are only talking twenty or so pages, so you could probably get the same information from this forum if you are willing to dig around a bit and do some experimentation on your own. The link above in spanish has probably at least the same information as the Cooks Book, if not more. PM me if the link still doesn't work and you want a copy.

In northern climates (like here in Sweden), this is the way potatoes are in the winter months and during the spring. Harvested in autum, kept in cold storage during the winter. I haven't noticed any particular effects of the aging though.

I think he used a Food Saver for the duck breast (ie sort-of-vacum) in the finale, but otherwise it was a stock pot and a candy thermometer. I think one comment he got on the duck breast was "three star food"", perhaps even from Eric Ripert?

Well...you could use your Misto to recreate El Bulli's candied-lemon-peels-with-margarita-mist "cocktail".

For breasts, just do what you did: Score, season, crisp the fat, into the oven. Use a low temp oven (100C/212F or so, higher if you are in a hurry) and a digital thermometer (important!). Take out the breast when the thermometer shows 55-60C/130 - 140F depending on how pink you want it. 60 C will only be bareley pink, so 55-57 is what I do. Rest. Carve. Will be perfect every time. Can't help you with the wet marinade preparation though.

I'm guessing you want them in english, not swedish...? I would have plenty of suggestions in swedish...

Head chef of a Michelin starred resturant should have pretty big selling power if you would consider teaching. You would be in the kitchen, but hours would be reasonable and the pay would probably be pretty ok.

Yes, yes, and yes! I think it would work excellently with most kinds of desserts/cheese - even chocolate, which is hard for most kinds of wine.

Scale arrived during last week and works as advertised. I don't have a calibration weight, but I tried the scale with sheets of gelatine which I know weights 1.7 g each. I even tried it with a 1.2 kg approx load and added a single 1.7 g sheet of gelatine. Worked perfectly! I think it is a excellent bargain for 15 EUR.

I think the Malmsey will work fine. You want sweet madeira for the madeira sauce. If madeira sauce is the optimal choice for aged prime beef is of course another question altogether. Even it might not be optimal (depending on your taste etc), I think it will work extremely well.

Some scruffed up enamel doesn't seem much to be upset over? Does everything work? If the enamel only had fallen on the top of the meat, I would have tried to salvage the sausage too...

It might be something with the pH of your base. Raspberries are probably much more acidic than peas and apples and I seem to remember that you have to adjust the pH if your base is too acidic. Hopefully someone much more knowledgeable than I will offer their opinon.

And the end result is going to be used for..? (Just curious...a wild guess is something to do with spherification?)

Excellent program. The guest were giggling in one moment and stunned in the next. They really behaved as kids on christmas day - which I belive was Mr Hestons intention. For the more technical among us, there were some glimpses of high tech cooking. Roto-vapouring, freeze drying, freeze/gelatine filtering, sous-vide cooking, making heat resistant gels...

Five or six quarts perhaps (not home right now)? Since I had a pump, it didn't really matter that the heater was only submerged halfway down in the pot. Heating from tap water temperature up to working temperature did take some time, but was entirelly doable if you weren't in a hurry.

My heater has no kind of auto turn of mechanism. It has a a small plastic fork like thing where the heating element meets the handle. You hang that fork on the edge of the pot and the heater stays in place. It looks like a waterproof seal where the cable meets the handle but I wouldn't be entirelly comfortable submerging the whole thing. Sorry, no photos of that particular setup. But basically the heater just hangs on the edge of a pot and the submersible (now burnt out...) small pump is attached to the side of the pot with suction pads.

Make a small terrine with some white port, cognac and a little pink salt. The alkohol, sugar, ordinary salt and pink salt should all act like preservatives.

Just add a pinch or two to any dish you feel needs it (especially chinese dishes of course). If you taste the MSG directly (won't kill you, promise) you will notice that it hasn't really got a flavour per se, but rather just a "savory back ground note".