Chris Hennes

To avoid stall? Is there a reason it might be desirable to avoid it? Just faster cooking?

We have a few discussions of Diana Kennedy's cookbooks (and Oaxaca al Gusto, here, and another general one, here), one of Bayless's Fiesta at Rick's, and a few passing mentions of others. But I'm sure there are literally hundreds of other cookbooks out there, in English and/or Spanish, about the cuisines of Mexico. Which are worth seeking out? What are your favorites?

I second this use: I did it a couple weeks ago, at that RG oregano was fantastic, the smell alone is amazing.

Thanks, rancho_gordo. Looks like LL has the hardcover, as a special order, for $125. Amazon.com lists a used copy available for $75 at the moment. My copy of Zarela's Veracruz arrived yesterday, I think it will have to tide me over until Oaxaca al Gusto comes out in English this fall. It will be interesting to hear your take on the recipes, RG: I've never been to Veracruz, so I definitely won't be able to comment on the style of the dishes.

I get the feeling the Elves had to work pretty hard to make that elimination seem like it might be in doubt. And is that four wins in a row for Tiffany? She has been the most consistent competitor so far, I think. Has she been on the bottom?

This show starts up September 15, 2010.

This just in from Kerry Beal:

It's also fantastic with Doritos, and to a lesser extent Fritos.

Manitas con Crema y Chile Jalapeño (Pickled Pigs' Feet with Jalapeños and Crema) (p. 149) I went in with an open mind, I swear I did. But the texture of pickled pigs' feet is not one of my favorite things. This recipe mitigates that significantly by adding a lot of raw onion, and I served it on top of crisp tostadas (I can't imagine this as a soft taco filling), but that gelatinous meat is still in there. So while the flavors here are great, I'm not sure this is going onto my regular lunch rotation.

Yeah—the man is a Twitter maniac. If you post a question and include @Rick_Bayless he (or maybe a minion) usually direct-messages back (or at least, he has the last few times I've done it).

I think we're probably all in total agreement here, but I wanted to emphasize these two separate (but not mutually exclusive!!) concepts. The first tremendous advantage of all of these Modernist techniques, sous vide included, is their unparalleled level of control, allowing you to actually achieve whatever your version of perfection is with almost perfect repeatability. But the second advantage of Modernist cuisine is that it gives us the freedom to really treat each individual component separately, and properly. So whether you prefer your duck breast at 52°C or 58°C, you can make that decision independently of whether you prefer your skin a deep dark brown, or just barely colored.

That sounds to me like the water is too deep: the recipe only calls for an inch, since it's only supposed to protect the custard part while the cake bakes. My cake was almost certainly too close to the top of my (rather small) oven, Bayless agrees that is likely the cause if my uneven baking. I hesitate to condemn the whole recipe after I have only given it one attempt, and probably screwed it up. Especially since it tastes good .

Dzik de Res (Yucatecan Shredded Steak Salad) (p. 139) Another new set of flavors, and another winning dish. Maybe not in my top five from this book, but good nonetheless. It's also pretty simple to make, although you have to plan ahead because the meat takes an hour to cook, then you cool it, shred it, and refrigerate it for 30 minutes. So, simple, but not quick. I had to use lime juice because I don't have a source for sour oranges yet, but I still liked it.

According to Bayless the recipe time and temp in the book is exactly what they do in his restaurant, so it's transcribed correctly. I'm wondering if my problems are related to the rack I used. I put the pan on the middle rack in my oven, but with such a tall cake pan, and placing it inside another pan, that wound up putting the top of the cake pretty close to the top of the oven. I think I'll try this recipe again on a lower rack and see if that helps (I don't have a convection oven).

Nathan, does the food safety chapter cover anything related to charcuterie (e.g. the impact of salt, nitrite, nitrate, etc. on food safety)?

Pam, to return to your original question: In the video here nathanm demonstrates the superiority of Modernist techniques on duck breast quite convincingly, it's definitely worth a watch. It turns out that "all that messing around" is what separates a very good duck breast from a spectacular duck breast.

Well, there is that class of "serious foodie" that believes that anything enjoyed (dare I say...loved?) by such a large number of people must by definition be crap...

If you haven't already, take a look at Janet Zimmerman's Daily Gullet article on the myth of the perfect roast chicken: All That Glitters. When we are talking about true uncompromising perfection, and not just "the best I've ever had," she argues that you can no more create a perfect roast chicken (and by extension, duck) than you can create a perfect roast cow. Every part deserves separate cooking techniques to produce a truly superior, perfect product. Much as we remove the skin from a duck breast and cook it separately from the breast meat, to achieve a perfectly-cooked breast and perfectly cooked skin.

I suspect we are working from different definitions of "perfection."

Could you use something like nathanm's duck breast trick and freeze the chicken first? Pre-sear the skin side without cooking the meat at all, then SV, then a quick crisp-up at the end?

Impossible Cake (Chocoflan) (pp. 290–291) I figured everybody else was making this one, I had better give it a shot. I had the same problem kalypso did with the cooking time, and in fact, mine was off even further. I baked it for 20 minutes longer and the toothpick still wasn't coming out clean, but I didn't want to overcook the rest so I pulled it then. As you can see from the slice photo below, the cake is half overcooked and half undercooked: basically, just wrong. I am not sure where we are going wrong here. Is it a difference in the temperature of our hot water baths? The recipe does not state that it is looking for boiling water, so mine was probably quite a bit below that, but it was pretty hot. It looks from the photo that Bayless makes these as individual flans: I wonder if the oven temp and cooking time didn't translate properly to a full-size cake? Setting the texture aside: I made the recipe exactly as written, including using cajeta, and I hunted down some non-Dutch-process cocoa (I wonder what he doesn't like about the DP cocoa, that's all I usually use). I use the instant espresso powder rather than fresh espresso, and I did not find the coffee flavor to overwhelm the other tastes: the cake had a mocha sort of feel to it that my wife and I thought was pretty good. The flan was unremarkable, but fine, and I like the cajeta on top, again I thought it balanced well. It's a shame the cake's texture was so poor due to the cooking time issue: if we could resolve that this cake might be a party staple.

Ensalada de Nopales Asado con Jaiba (Grilled Cactus and Onion Salad with Crab and Red Chile) (p. 158) This was great. I was worried at first that the crab would get lost (there is not much in there), but it actually wound up perfectly balanced: you could taste each individual ingredient quite clearly. The only thing I would change is the nopales: I think 1/4" is too thick, I will slice them thinner next time. This recipe is yet another new flavor set for me, again it's quite different from the typical Southwestern US Tex-Mex fare. The red chile actually comes from hot sauce here, which makes the recipe very easy (and the hot sauce provides the acid necessary for the dressing). I used the Valentina Muy Picante variety, which was excellent, and gave the dish a really nice kick. Others Bayless suggests are Tamazula and Búfalo... my store had the Búfalo, but not the Tamazula, so I'm not sure what the regional distributions of these sauces are. I'm not sure how well something like the Cholula would work, and in this recipe the flavor from the hot sauce is critical, so I suggest seeking out his suggestions. ETA: Also, the recipe states that he uses 7 medium nopales, and that this comes to 14 ounces total. So I guess I get REALLY HUGE nopales, because I needed 3 1/2 to get to 14 ounces.

Almendras Enchipotladas (Chipotle-Roasted Almonds) (p. 36) These wound up overcooked by three or four minutes, I think due to the fact that the almonds were still hot from toasting when they went back into the oven with the chipotle sauce. So lesson number one: watch these closely as they near done, it's a fine line between cooked and overcooked. These aren't quite burnt yet (they are edible), but there is a bitter note where the brown sugar started to get into the "dark caramel" phase. They end up quite spicy, which I like, so I'm going to make another batch. I ended up making a double batch of the sauce because I didn't trust that my blender would handle the very small amount the recipe makes. I'm not sure if that was necessary or not.

According to Bayless, my Panela was garbage. In the recipe itself he actually suggests using a local fresh mozzarella instead of the generally poor-quality Panela available in the US, so I might have to give this another shot. After all, it did taste good.

What's the best airport to fly into?