Chris Hennes

Texture, too? I know Merkinz reported some toughness in some of his pork.

Clever! I'm stealing that.

Fresh Egg Noodles (p. 268) Pistachio Pesto (p. 102) I talked about the pesto uptopic a bit: tonight I served it on the egg noodles. This was the same pasta used in the Chicken Noodle Soup, and I really like it. It is firmer than traditional fresh pasta, but I think there are a lot of applications where that is desirable. The pesto is the best I've ever had, so it was a very successful meal.

Pistachio Pesto (p. 102) I normally wouldn't post about this until I actually used it in something (I think it's in the dinner plans three nights this week), but after finding myself literally licking the bowl I thought I'd get a head start. This is a multi-herb pesto, with basil, chives, cilantro, scallion, and spinach: That all gets blanched, then added to a food processor with blanched garlic, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and pistachios (plus olive oil, pistachio oil, and lemon juice—I used macadamia oil, lacking pistachio). An optional addition of a tiny amount of xanthan gum thickens it just slightly: Best pesto ever? Yes, yes it is. The balance of flavors between the greens is superb, in particular the bright note added by the large amount of cilantro (obviously you have to like cilantro: if not, stay away!). I also loved the use of pistachios, which add a great flavor to the dish. I'm glad I decided to make a full batch of this so I have enough to cover multiple meals.

Did you order from .ca or .uk?

Lucky for me, it's ryansm you owe a batch of wings! I made them as instructed in MCaH and they turned out perfectly.

@Merkinz, I'm looking forward to trying that one: the pressure cooker works wonders on pork belly. Uovo Pizza (using the Neapolitan crust and Oven Fried Pizza technique) I decided to take another stab at the Neapolitan crust that I struggled with last week, since I wound up quite happy with its texture and flavor, just not its handling qualities. Today I double-checked all my weights to ensure I wasn't screwing anything up there. Next, instead of kneading on "medium" that the recipe calls for, I kneaded on "2" (out of 10, on my KitchenAid)—this is the setting I normally use for bread. Finally, I was much more liberal with the flour while handling the dough, and I worked it more quickly. Here is the dough in the mixer: At that point it cleared the sides of the bowl but not the bottom, exactly as described in the recipe (for the record, the same was true of my last attempt). Here it is straight out of the mixer: It's quite sticky at this point, and comes nowhere near passing a windowpane test. I rolled it about in a large amount of flour and divided it into four pieces (two of which went into the freezer). The remaining two pieces I aggressively worked into balls, allowing them to absorb a lot of flour, and working out the gluten a bit more. I wound up with this: That's much better than last time. After an hours' rest, I shaped the dough, which was much easier this time. It was still fragile, but working faster, and making no attempt to dress the pizza before placing it in the pan, I was able to produce a couple of respectable pies. The Modernist touch of adding extra milk solids to the butter paid off again in this recipe: the browned butter flavor easily stood up to the other toppings, balancing very well, IMO (I used Chukar eggs rather than quail, since that's what I had on hand). I'm still not 100% pleased with the handling qualities of the crust, but it may simply come down to the exact brand of 00 flour used: I'm not using the same one the MC folks do.

Interesting: I've never seen anything that looked like that in my local Asian megamart: leaves and flowers, but never stems. I may look harder next time I'm there.

Can you use banana leaves, or does it have to be stems? The leaves are generally available in the US.

No-Knead Pizza Dough (p. 300) Tonight I made the same pizza as the other night, but used the no-knead crust recipe instead of the Neapolitan. This is a 75% hydration dough made with all-purpose flour (based on Lahey's recipe, which I have made many times). The dough was relatively easy to work with, showing none of the susceptibility to tearing that I saw the other evening. Of course as a high-hydration dough you have to handle it gently and quickly, but it held together quite well. Possibly even better than I am used to, actually, maybe due to the additional gluten that gets added. At any rate, when baked via the oven-frying method the crust ends up very soft and puffy: maybe not my favorite style, but "it is what it is."

Nope! It could definitely be a measurement error. I don't remember making one, of course, but it's always a possibility. I'm just tossing my results out there: now we wait until the next person tries it, and see what happens to theirs.

It wasn't 70% hydration: it was 62%.

Chicken Noodle Soup (p. 273) which is composed of: Fresh Egg Noodles (p. 268) Pressure-Cooked Carrots and Leeks (p. 272) Sous Vide Chicken (p. 244) Aromatic Chicken Broth (p. 266) Pressure-Rendered Chicken Fat (p. 123) This chicken noodle soup captures the spirit of Modernist Cuisine quite well, I think: it's all about careful, precise cooking of each individual ingredient, accentuated with steps designed to take the basic flavor profile of Chicken Noodle Soup to the next level. What you end up with isn't so much a mind-bogglingly awesome display of Modernism as a perfect example of Chicken Noodle Soup. I did not have access to chervil, so I just sort of punted on the herbs in the broth, increasing the amount of tarragon and adding some Italian parsley: I'd really like to try it with the right ingredients next time, since I thought the herbs were a bit too subtle in this incarnation. Probably can't do that until next spring, though.

I have, but since I haven't used them as pizza dough I can't recall if I had a similar experience with them. I'm going to try the "rustic" dough next I think.

I strongly doubt under-kneading was an issue here: it gets kneaded for five minutes on medium speed, rested for ten minutes, and then kneaded for five minutes more. Medium struck me as insanely fast for kneading, actually, I was more concerned that it was overkneaded, rather than under. It did not feel like a hydration issue: the dough was tacky, but not wet, per se (certainly not as wet as my usual pizza dough, which is 70% hydration). It simply flowed. A lot.

For reference here's a link back to the post up-topic showing what I think the packaging should look like. I could see amazon.ca skipping the outer box, but that inner box is MC-branded, you should definitely be getting that.

Wouldn't have worked with the baking technique, the pizza is fried.

The original MC talks extensively about the flavor release of various thickening techniques: it's talking about how well, and how quickly, the flavor goes from the food to your palate. It's one of the key improvements in the Modernist Mac & Cheese for example: a classic M&C made with bechamel has quite poor flavor release, resulting in a muted cheese flavor. The Modernist M&C has very little starch in the sauce (just whatever was on the surface of the pasta, usually) which results in a very fast and complete flavor release, giving a much more vibrant cheese flavor.

It's not that liquid, and the problem isn't making the pizza round, it's getting it to hold together while you transfer it to the cooking surface.

Capicola Pizza (p. 306) -- Composed of Neapolitan Pizza Dough (p. 296) Pizza Sauce (p. 112) Oven-Fried Pizza (p. 305) The taste of this pizza was excellent: I liked their sauce recipe, and of course the topping combination is a great one. I used the Neapolitan pizza dough for it, and I really hope I messed something up, however: it was almost impossible to work with. I have never attempted to maneuver such a slack dough before, and had a very difficult time doing so. It flowed so much it was practically liquid, and tore at the slightest provocation. For the second pizza of the evening, in fact, I gave up on trying to shape it on a peel, and instead pushed it into the pan directly, trying to work quickly so it didn't burn. I found that to be a more effective technique, though it still required some finesse and careful watching in the oven.

Definitely: the results I showed upthread were with "old" oil (second or third use). There's more info on the science behind this in the original MC if you've got access to it.

You drained the marinade? I think that was your problem: the marinade is used to form a batter with the starches. ETA: Yeah, I see now that the "adapted" recipe on Chow calls for that step. The real recipe in MCaH does not have you drain off the marinade.

Not just a standard Amazon.com box: actually a branded MCaH box inside a standard amazon box: see the photos here.

Crispy Chicken Wings, Korean-Style (pp. 252-253) These wings are marinated and then battered and fried, giving them an extremely crispy crust: I have never made battered wings before, but it worked great: they were the crispiest wings I'd ever had. The Korean-style sauce tasted great, though could perhaps use a bit more heat. Overall a very successful recipe.