Chris Hennes

I feel lucky to have access to both Yoplait AND Dannon here! And actually, the new-ish Yoplait "Greek-style" is OK. Much better than the Dannon version of the same, even in a smoothie.

I just ordered some from http://www.willpowder.net/products.html, who will sell you a three ounce package (though of course shipping will run you about the same as the product... oh well).

The table of contents and full index is available at the MC website here: http://modernistcuisine.com/

It's really a shame that all the press coverage focuses purely on the whiz bang stuff: sure, there are recipes with (optional) centrifuged components. There is also an entire section of grilling! And one on braising! And one on roasting! Plus don't forget that all of volume one is stuff like food safety. A lot of people (Alice Waters I'm looking at you) are pooh-poohing the book based on some ludicrous belief that "Modernism" is somehow unemotional or some such crap. When it's not like the book is even exclusively focused on techno-wizardry at all! It's sort of infuriating, really.

My plan is to hit up Specialty Bottle: I was thinking of buying a couple dozen of this one -- http://www.specialtybottle.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=141

I just got the "Artistre" kit from Amazon, which is a pretty nice starter collection. It's got about 50g of: Tapioca Maltodextrin Kappa Carageenan Sodium Citrate Sodium Alginate Calcium Lactate Gluconate Glycerin flakes Methocellulose F50 Calcium Lactate Calcium Chloride Xantham Gum Lecithin Agar Agar All told it's a pretty nice starter kit (though I wish it had Iota Carageenan so I could make the Macaroni and Cheese in Modernist Cuisine). Has anyone else bought this one, or any of the others out there?

Agreed: though it's hard to convince yourself to order one with that roast pork on the menu, it's definitely worth the occasional hit.

I just got yet another random newsletter touting some bacon-wrapped hot dog, which set me to thinking that I'd never actually had a good one. Colleagues tell me they exist, though: how do you make them so the bacon gets properly cooked at the same time the hot dog is?

Anybody know anything about Haven?

Before we all go stand at our doors waiting for the UPS guy... what Chris has there is a press-preview loaner copy. I wonder how much flights to Rhode Island are these days?

Rice Krispies. They can also be coated with a thin layer of caramel to make them more water-resistant I think, but they work nicely on their own as a coating on truffles and the like. There are also extensive possibilities for various deep-fried things.

Right: beef shank should braise just fine, but your oven temp likely should have been closer to 250°F (as Anna N says, it's not an exact science, I set mine to 235°F for most braises).

The cool thing about pancake mix is you can buy dried buttermilk powder, allowing you to reconstitute buttermilk pancakes without needing buttermilk on hand. In fact, you can manipulate the ratio of powder to liquid to make them even more buttermilk-y than normal buttermilk pancakes. The catch is that its best to store it in the fridge.

No doubt: it's great to have access to a free review copy online, but I'm glad I ordered the book. I need this thing in paper form. The five volumes frequently reference each other, to the point where I think when you're plotting out a meal you will probably want to have most of the set in front of you.

Metal is not terribly soluble in wine, nor is it terribly reactive to it. I'd be very very skeptical of anyone's ability to taste a difference between a bottle of wine in contact with a few square centimeters of metal for 30 seconds and a bottle that wasn't.

Potato Puree (Parametric recipe p. 3-297) This recipe is based off of Robuchon's famous potato puree, with additional refinements from Jeffrey Steingarten, Heston Blumenthal, and the Modernist Cuisine team. First off, peeled some Yukon Gold potatoes and put the peels, potatoes, and 4x the weight of the potatoes in water into a vacuum bag: Drop into a sous vide rig at 70°C (158°F) for 35 minutes (picked my circulator up for $20 on eBay... proportional control only, and not much power, but it does the job): Chill (yes, we actually have snow on the ground here right now): Now, what I think is an MC-innovation, break out the potato flakes: Saute them in butter until browned: Then grind using high-tech grinding mechanism: 50% of the weight of the potatoes in butter: I used a potato ricer rather than a food mill here: At this point, you fold the butter into the potatoes and then either continue, or chill. I chilled it because the main course was not done yet. That's where the trouble started. After adding the liquids and potato flakes things were OK, but I made the mistake of then trying to heat the potatoes further in the microwave. Oops. The butter separated out from what must actually have been an emulsion of butter fat into the potatoes. After whisking for a minute to try to bring it back together it was clear that was not going to work: I needed a better emulsifier. Unfortunately, I'm just getting started with this "Modernist" thing, so none of the fancy ones have arrived yet. I used pretty much the only emulsifier I had on hand: egg yolks. I added about a teaspoon of raw egg yolk to the mixture and whisked like mad: viola! It came right back together: So obviously, my techniques need some refinement, but a disaster was narrowly averted. The puree was excellent: in particular, the added potato flavor from the potato skin infusion and from the toasted potato flakes were a welcome addition to what otherwise can taste like a plate of butter. It also went very well with a decidedly-un-modern beef stew.

From my reading of the relevant material in MC, the precise time at temp in this case is less important than the temp, and making sure you are there long enough. I started timing when the bath hit 70°C (never exceeded it), and went for 35 minutes. We'll find out soon enough if it worked...

I like it as a topping for well-Maillardized red meats (beef or lamb). Go easy on it so you don't overwhelm.

edsel, yes, it's that technique (cooked at 70°C in this case). They have a couple other tricks up their sleeves, however. Amirault, are you doing the instant potato flake thing? I've got my potatoes and peels in the bath now, and was contemplating a quick trip to the store for mashed potato flakes to try it out. Also, edsel or Chris or anyone else who knows: my water bath temp dropped pretty far when I added the bag: do I start timing when the temp recovers, or right away? How sensitive is the retrograde technique to the exact time spent at 70°C?

I know people who do both, but even if you eat them, you aren't chewing on them hard enough to extract any of those bitter flavors, are you?

The concern with the seeds it that they add a bitter taste, I think.

Gotta agree with you on chili and carbonnade. I also liked the beef daube Dorie Greenspan's recent book.

Did it look like the one in the photo on this page? I'm having a hard time tracking it down under that name, what keeps coming up is a cured sausage.

In their forthcoming book Modernist Cuisine, Myhrvold and company present a technique they call "hyperdecanting": basically, running a bottle of wine through your blender for 30-60 seconds and the highest speed. This oxygenates the wine and allows it to outgas in basically the same way as traditional decanting, but much faster. According to the book, it works best on young reds. Has anyone tried anything like this?

There are several pages covering centrifuges and their use: in them the authors suggest "Restaurant chefs would be well served by units that are about the size of a washing machine and can process up to 3l/3qt of food at a time, at rotational speeds up to about 30,000 rpm." Regarding chamber vacuums: it's difficult to distill the massive amount of information in this set of books into a few sentences, I'm afraid. Volume 2, Chapter 9 is "Cooking Sous Vide" and covers more or less everything you want to know about the subject. "Comprehensive" hardly does it justice. It has five complete pages on chamber vacuums alone, not counting the more general discussions of vacuum packing itself, etc. Remember, this project started with nathanm's interest in sous vide... this is it: THE comprehensive sous vide reference.