Chris Hennes

So this afternoon I made the Raspberry ganache with saffron (p. 135), and it is phenomenal. I used it to fill dark chocolate bonbons, and the way the raspberry strikes the first note followed by the haunting taste of saffron on the finish is just great. I played around with a new (to me) decorating technique, with mixed results. I started by brushing in luster dust, then brushing cocoa butter over that to hold it in place. Next up was a dab of white chocolate, them molded as usual with dark chocolate. Unfortunately, the white chocolate didn't always stick reliable to the cocoa butter, so in some places it cracked off when unmolding. What did I do wrong?

Did you get a quote on the 20kg?

That all makes sense to me. I think the one exception is that when the first occurrence of a link is in a subsection, it may sometimes be appropriate to also link it in later subsections (on the theory that sometimes readers are only reading one section). But certainly within any isolated chunk of text I think only the first occurrence should be linked.

I know we keep saying that, and it seems very friendly and all. But still, in my opinion your best bet is to start at page 1•1, and just read. You're going to need to read a lot of it a second or even third time (in my experience), but really: the team did a superb job of organizing the book so that you learn the things you need to know for each successive chapter as you read through. Yes, you can start anywhere. But I think you should start at the beginning. It's a very good place to start.

I buy that there is a strong correlation there. But do remember that not ALL "couponers" are bat-shiat insane. And I still think it's unfair to think that couponers are any more annoying at checkout that those of us with a dozen bags of unidentifiable produce (of which I am one, though I have at least learned to memorize the SKU for the epazote!) And my wife wouldn't be caught dead writing a check.

Well, I think it's important to remember that (contrary to virtually every other cookbook out there) the MC team did in fact develop many new techniques; still, the majority of what they were doing in the more Modernist sections was to document techniques that were already out there. So naturally you are going to recognize them, if you are familiar with the Modernist canon. It would be pretty astonishing for someone to pop out of nowhere with a book of techniques no one has ever seen before.

I agree, Todd, insofar as we think of a "cookbook" as a listing of recipes, with maybe some side info about them if we are lucky. This certainly isn't like that! I think this is an interesting observation. I wouldn't characterize my reaction quite like that: I looked at those recipes and said (with respect to most of them) "oh, that's got some cool components/techniques"... I guess it didn't bother me that I wasn't that interested in wholly reproducing their exact dishes. That's sort of a central theme of Modernism, isn't it? You take inspiration from another chef's work, but going your own way is a critical component. This isn't Escoffier anymore, where the goal is exact reproduction of another chef's dish. Now the goal is, learn from that chef, and make your own dish. So to me, the fact that Volume Five is inspirational, and still not really a "cookbook" per se, is just fine.

I love this part of coupons: the ability to try a new product basically risk-free. I must admit to refusing to deal with the things, but they amuse my wife (an accountant, go figure...). I see no more reason to be annoyed by someone with coupons than to be annoyed by someone with a full cart. I'm sure I piss off anyone in line behind me with my cart full of exotic produce, half of which the cashier has to look up on the sheet having not memorized the codes. Oh well, I don't stop buying epazote just because it takes a little longer to check out.

Awesome, that's what I've got. I'm making the raspberry saffron bonbons next time it is cool enough to deal with chocolates around here. Maybe tomorrow... (fingers crossed)

Oh man, now that is a bummer. I've come close before but always been able to resuscitate mine. A total loss sucks.

I wonder if Nathan M. will be posting his photos anyplace, he's a damned fine photographer, too. (No offense intended there Steven...)

I figured it was only called prawn brains, in that it sort of resembled brains. Was it, in actuality, prawn brains?

Wow. It killed the sage? Winter WAS brutal in Boston this year!

Understood. And you are indeed at an advantage there, because every time I hear someone across the internet spouting off about how these books are soulless, or destroy cooking, or whatever other opinions they have without ever laying eyes on them I can't rationally evaluate their impressions: my hackles are already raised by the seeming-idiocy of judging a book they've never seen. It's that, more than their opinion itself, that really grates on me. They are judging a book by someone else's description of a sketch of its cover!

Except that, to me anyway, following a set of instructions is precisely what Modernist Cuisine is not about. This is nowhere more evident than in their naming of the recipes: the recipes scattered throughout the books are all explicitly called "Example recipes." Each of them is designed to highlight a particular aspect of the chapter, but these books are emphatically not a collection of recipes, they are a collection of techniques. They are designed to enable cooks to imagine a dish and then figure out how to create it. Just because I have to look up the ratios for gelling a particular fruit puree doesn't mean that I've drained the dish I create using that component of its creativity. Modernist Cuisine has enabled creativity, not stomped on it.

So this was a "set" foam? How dense was it? Finely textured? I'm wondering if, based on the "Best Bets for Set Foams" table on Modernist Cuisine p. 4•288, it's an albumin/glucose/maltodextrin/xanthan thing, perhaps?

It is possible to smoke things on a conventional grill, though in general it's more work, and the results not quite as good. It's still worth doing, though, at least in my opinion.

He can rest Wednesday. In their new digs. Until then, we have high demands of our fearless leader. Dish, Shaw! (and thanks Ellen for the update, he's going to be paying you back for this for a LONG time!)

Nathan and team are far more gracious individuals than I: this sort of thinking makes me want to tear my hair out. I'd be off getting myself into flame wars with every one of them...

Wow, must have been some line at Customs! Steven, we're busy trying to live vicariously through you, where is the report?! Lazy punk.

It really is amazing how one word can come to mean so many different things in so many different places. Of course, that said, I live in Oklahoma now, and have a smoker. I love me some smoked brisket, or pork shoulder! And around here that's definitely what you mean when you say "barbecue"!

That's interesting Cathy, I had the opposite problem: mine never got sufficiently dark in the oven, I gave up and pulled it after three hours and finished it on the stovetop.

Where I grew up (upper midwest) the word "barbecue" sans article meant "involves BBQ sauce" -- for example, a "BBQ Chicken" was probably cooked either in the crockpot or on the grill, and was cooked with BBQ sauce. To my knowledge, in most of the northern US it is only the "food cognoscenti" who insist that BBQ must involve smoke. The general populace seems to harbor no such ideal.

Touché! (Me too...) I had a most excellent pulled pork sandwich for lunch today: the pork was smoked with applewood and hickory for seven hours, then cooked sous vide for 48. Absolutely unbelievable texture. If you've got access to a sous vide rig I highly recommend trying this method out.

Average last frost here is this weekend, but we haven't seen a frost in several weeks, so everything is growing like mad. It's very windy today so the tomatoes and peppers are still under the lights in the garage: The blackberries appear to be staging themselves, with each set of primocanes in a different stage of bloom: The peas are growing well: And the recently-uprooted and potted mint: Rosemary is the only thing I bring in for the winter, and it's not so happy to be back outside: But the rest of the herb garden overwintered nicely: Finally, parsnips are starting to poke their heads out: no sign of the carrots or rutabaga yet...