Chris Hennes

Yeah, they thought a cookbook for home cooks seemed odd without it, so they expanded on their custard work from the original Modernist Cuisine.

I got mine in the mail today: it's too early for a G&T, but I love tonic water straight so went ahead and mixed up a glass. Unfortunately, this is not tonic water. The taste itself is fine: as a beverage in its own right it's not bad. It has an interesting molasses-like smell with floral notes on the palate. Unfortunately, it is far too sweet, and not nearly bitter enough, to be considered tonic water, in my opinion. Although the ingredient list and color seem to indicate a fair amount of cinchona bark (and thus quinine), either there is just not enough in there, or there is simply too much agave syrup. I am a big fan of Fever Tree tonic (my favorite) but also really enjoy Q. This is not even comparable, it's too far removed from the taste of a standard tonic water. Maybe it works with gin to make a drink you can call a Gin & John's, but you're not going to get yourself a Gin & Tonic with it.

Nice: here's the main table of contents they list there— Chapter 1: Countertop Tools Chapter 2: Conventional Cooking Gear Chapter 3: Cooking Sous Vide Chapter 4: Ingredients Chapter 5: Basics Chapter 6: Breakfast Eggs Chapter 7: Salads and Cold Soups Chapter 8: Pressure-Cooked Vegetable Soups Chapter 9: Steak Chapter 10: Cheeseburger Chapter 11: Carnitas Chapter 12: Braised Short Ribs Chapter 13: Roast Chicken Chapter 14: Chicken Wings Chapter 15: Chicken Noodle Soup Chapter 16: Salmon Chapter 17: Shellfish Chapter 18: Pizza Chapter 19: Mac and Cheese Chapter 20: Risotto and Paella Chapter 21: Cornmeal Chapter 22: Dishes for the Microwave Chapter 23: Custards and Pies

Another question about the turkey variants: is it ever made with a smoked or cured turkey, or always just roasted?

I just saw that Eater has a few brief comments up about the journalists' preview of the book.

From that Eater article I gather that there are chapters on: custards and pies chicken wings mac and cheese pizza Presumably there are more, but that's a pretty good set of home-cooking topics. I'm sensing a Modernist superbowl party next year...

If you are having trouble sourcing rye bread, but not rye flour, I used the recipe in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day to make the stuff pictured in my post above: it was excellent.

Myhrvold has mentioned that they are at least considering it: I'd pre-order that sucker in a heartbeat. It better have a chapter on sourdough!

The best "Reuben" I have ever had was made with pastrami, but if that's allowed to count as a Reuben I'd be inclined to agree with you.

I've never actually had the variant made with turkey, but that does seem to be a common one. Is the turkey always paired with slaw, or does it sometimes get the kraut?

Doubtful There are a lot of related variants here, and I disagree with your definition on a point or two... Why sliced thin? When I make homemade corned beef or pastrami I rarely if ever slice it thin. Today's, for example: I'm OK with that taxonomy, but just because something isn't a "Real Reuben™" doesn't mean it isn't good, or shouldn't be considered as part of the same family of sandwiches. In that Restaurant Life discussion I think someone insisted that if it was made with pastrami it had to be called a Rachel as well: I love this sandwich made with pastrami.

Over in the Restaurant Life forum we recently had a discussion about the disappearance of the Reuben sandwich: naturally, the answer was to make it yourself at home. Considering that this is the greatest family of sandwiches humanity has yet conceived I think it's right that we should have a discussion about how exactly we should make them at home. Also, how do you decide what gets called a Reuben, what a Rachel, and what a... bastard hybrid monstrosity? Corned beef, pastrami, other meat or meat-like product? Coleslaw or kraut? Gruyere? Emmenthal? Other? Russian or Thousand Island? Grilled, broiled, or both? And then there is the question of ratio: is more meat always better?

My objection is that you are almost certainly going to be badly overcooking the chicken using that technique: skin really needs to be cooked at a much higher temperature than the meat itself, especially the breasts. When you sear off in a hot pan the skin is acting as an insulator, protecting the meat underneath, but the slower you apply the heat, the more time it has to get through that insulating layer. I think there's little doubt that cooking the skin and meat separately is the best option, allowing you to get both perfect, but obviously it's a bit fussy and not everyone's style.

Physically? No. The amazon page says 456 pages: at $140 retail I'd have to guess it's similar in size to a single volume of the original.

I wonder how many of the recipes will be of the "workable on a weeknight" variety (a la the mac and cheese) and how many will be more extensive.

Yep, that's one of the things that makes it so fabulous.

There's always our good friends at amazon.com.

I guess I hadn't noticed this before, but today I was looking up a recipe for Thousand Island Dressing on EYB: what came up was the recipe from Joy of Cooking, and a list of ingredients. On looking at the recipe I was surprised and delighted to note that EYB was actually listing out ALL the ingredients, including those from sub-recipes that the main recipe references. That's awesome.

Modernist Cuisine was released just over a year ago to much acclaim (we're cooking with it in this topic), but there was an immediate clamor for a more home-cook-friendly volume: as nathanm mentioned here, that clamor is being answered in October 2012 with the forthcoming Modernist Cuisine at Home (eG-friendly amazon.com page). From nathanm's post on the book: I've been doing a lot of cooking from the original Modernist Cuisine set and it has resulted in some of the very best food I've ever produced, and in some cases the best I've ever eaten: so of course another volume was a no-brainer for me. It's still not cheap, but I'm pretty stoked about it. Eater has an interview with Myhrvold here with some more details. Who's in? Edited 6/27 to add: book homepage and table of contents.

How is it chilled?

There's not really a way around the shrinking, but depending on your penchant for culinary Modernism you can work around it. For example, there is a fried chicken recipe in Modernist Cuisine that has you leave large flaps of skin that get wrapped back around the thighs and "glued" on with transglutaminase. By wrapping it around and completely encasing the piece of chicken, and firmly binding it onto the meat, you can get a piece of fried chicken totally surrounded by crisp skin. Another technique is to actually take the skin off, cook it separately, and then plate it as a sort of garnish.

Agreed, I have a table next to mine (ignore the dirt, I didn't use it today and there's no point in cleaning it before I need it ):

My stainless work tables are pretty thin, with a support running down the middle: it might be more trouble than it's worth. I think a purpose-built rig is the way to go here. Then again, I like my tripod mount .

Do you have a sous vide setup? Even just a vacuum sealer? The closer they are to the exact same temperature and the exact same re-heat profile the more valid the test will be. Are you planning on a triangle-test setup?

Sacrilegious, I know... but I like my ratios better.