KennethT

I second the Khymos collection... but also check out the texturas el bulli site where they sell lots of ingredients but also show excellent videos on how to use some of them.. I think it's albertandferranadria.com or something like that... do a google search for texturas el bulli then click the link for the videos and recipes... Also, Willpowder (who also sells the ingredients) lists them by function - spherification, gelling, emulsification, etc., and gives a pretty good description of everything they carry...

That's a good idea - but I was thinking about if you wanted to cook something 'in liquid', not just marinated - sort of like a braise... There are many times that I cook things in a court bouillon, stock or equivalent flavored liquid - the great thing about SV is that you only need a few Tbs of liquid as opposed to a few cups in traditional cooking. It's true that you can pre-freeze many liquids and add them to the bag, but I've found that mostly it's a pain in the neck - frozen olive oil melts really quickly, for instance, and it's always a race against the clock to add it to the bag, vacuum and seal before it starts working it's way up the bag. Plus, I usually like my oil flavored, and unfortunately, I'm usually more on the spontaneous side to plan too far in advance... Lastly, I have a small apartment kitchen, and my foodsaver typically lives on a high shelf in a cupboard where I have to get a step ladder to access it (I have very limited counterspace) - so it's a pain to constantly get the thing, so I try to avoid it as much as possible...

You could definitely do this if you wanted to... glueing the seared meat to the salmon is the hardest part - so you should wipe off all the oil that you can, and then use the Activa GS - it has 10% more bonding strength than the typical Activa RM... The way you use it is to make a slurry of 1 part GS to 4 parts water by weight... then wisk for 3 minutes or so to dissolve, then wait until the foaming stops and then it's ready to use. Brush the slurry in between each layer, then wrap tightly and refrigerate overnight... I once glued an already cooked duck skin onto a raw duck breast to get crispy skin, completely rendered fat and perfectly cooked meat... I would recommend talking to the Ajinomoto people - they're very knowledgable... and there's lots of info on the website...

I find that if you're SVing something with liquid in the bag (marinade, olive oil at room temp, etc) it's very hard to get a really good vacuum with the foodsaver because it starts to suck liquid into the machine before it finishes sucking all the air... so I've manually stopped the vacuum and sealed it before it's finished "sucking".... these have the tendency to float... if I vac something that's dry I've never had a problem with floaters... Lately, if I want to do something that's been marinated or in olive oil, I'll use a zip lock bag and seal it in a sink full of water... when you put the open bag in the sink, the surrounding water pushes all the air out... just give it a little jostling and you can get all the air bubbles out, then move the bag so that the zip lock is just at the water line and seal it.... I haven't had a problem with floaters ever since... and they're a lot cheaper than the foodsaver bags!!!

I second (or third) the Bun Cha in Hanoi..... I'm considering going back there just for it! There's a thread on the eGullet somewhere where we were discussing bun cha and I think the consensus was that one of the components to the sauce was "caramel sauce" - I gather it's easy to make - just caramelize sugar and add water or I think you can find it in an asian grocery... Nakji wasthe poster - and we were discussing it while she was living in Hanoi and was trying to ask her friend to ask one of the guys on the street how it was made...

I have to agree, Bryan - Aldea is one of the few restaurants I have been excited about in a while... a couple of weeks ago, my wife and I visited, and sat at the counter. Sitting at the counter was great, for a few reasons - it was really interesting watching this kitchen, and seeing Chef Mendes actually cooking - but also, one dish (the shrimp) arrived and wasn't explained by the runner (one of the few service flaws) - Chef must have noticed my wife and I guessing/discussing what we had in front of us and he came over and explained it to us himself. Very nice of him to do that... he also chatted with us a bit as we were walking out... We wound up getting the tasting menu - my wife and I usually order separate dishes and then we split midway through each, but for some reason, we decided to go with the tasting that night... Your rundown was just fine - the cuttlefish was not technically part of it, but was comped.... The shrimp was incredible - it just bursted with flavor... the sauce was so good that it highlighted the other service flaw - namely that I ran out of bread and it wasn't refilled... so rather than waiting for some more, or hunting some down, I very discreetly began wiping the plate clean with a finger... not my finest hour, granted... but effective... as I was almost finished, someone came over and upon seeing her, I said "this was so good I would have licked the plate if it was socially acceptable" to which she responded apologetically - "maybe we should have given you some more bread"... haha... whatever - the sauce was freakin' fantastic... The cod was also a star - perfectly cooked - juicy, slightly fatty, moist.... just delicious... the rest of your remarks are right on....

If you're from the East coast, you can get Bobo farms chicken - both silky (which has black skin and black meat) and black plume - similar to normal chicken but is leaner and a much more pronounced "chickeny" flavor...

I had wanted to edit my last post and add that I've read that 176F also works well for re-producing a braised texture, but is said to leave the product more succulent than 185... but I haven't tried it yet myself...

I find that 185F does a good approximation to traditional braising texture, but I think the end product is more succulent... I've done Yucatan style pulled pork shoulder, BBQ ribs and duck confit (not reallya braise but I'll include it anyway) this way and they've all come out great... For times, a 2 pound boneless pork shoulder took about 8 hours... St. Louis cut ribs (not baby back) took about 6 hours and the duck confit (from Moulard ducks) took about 7 hours. I think there are definite advantages to doing these SV rather than a traditional braise - in addition to succulent texture... first is easy cleanup... and less marinating materials... especially for the confit - only a few tablespoons of fat is necessary for each leg, rather than a whole tub-full.... plus, you always end up with much more fat than you started, so you don't need to start with very much for a first confit project... plus, it's easier to infuse flavors - for ribs, only a 20 minute pre-smoke on a stovetop smoker is enough to make them nice and smoky... the same for the pulled pork...

In the same line of thinking, what if you used osmazome that's been heated to coagulate proteins and then strained - the resulting liquid is VERY flavorful... lately, I've been taking the extra 5 minutes when doing things sous vide to save the osmazome, pouring into a small cup, microwaving for 20 seconds, then straining and using to enhance the sauce... works very well... It has even been discussed somewhere on the eG (probably the sous vide thread) of getting some cheap meat, and cooking it just for the osmazome....

Typically, ER discusses adding piment d'espelette - typically recommending cayenne if you can't get it... piment d'espelette is not as spicy as cayenne, but has a subtle smokiness.... he also adds a couple of drops of tabasco for the same reasons you discuss... David Bouley says that most of his sauces now are based on juices rather than meat based stocks - he says he rarely uses meat based stocks anymore... now he uses mushroom water, or dashi, or other types of broths as bases and will thicken with a super-fine puree of shallots cooked for hours in redwine until dry then run through a tamis... or thickens with garlic treated in a similar way... he has moved away from thickening with roux or butter because it's not as healthy, and he feels that the fat coats your tongue and supresses more vibrant flavors...

Interesting - so is that to say that you will mix a 1:1 ratio of flour:water and then let sit in the fridge for 30-40 minutes, then add flour+yeast to bring the flour:water ratio to 100:70 (for 70% hydration)? Then you ferment after that - overnight? Sorry for all the questions - I'm very inexperienced when it comes to anything baking.... but I'm learning...

a 4% sugar solution would be a bacteria extravaganza. My guess is that precision isn't all that important and you could wing it easily. 1/4 tsp of honey or glucose syrup in a shot glass of water will get you in the ballpark. ← That's what I thought... glad to check it though.... Your guess is on the money - I used 2g glucose in 50g water... the biggest problem is that the glucose sticks to everything - so while I put 2g in my mixing container, probably 1.5 g stuck to the spoon.... plus, to get it to dissolve faster, I stuck the glucose/water mixture in the microwave for about 20 seconds to warm it up... I know I could put warm up the glucose too to get it to flow better, but it's in this big plastic tub that would take forever to warm up... oh well, I'll just have to think ahead each time I need it!

It wasn't just the bottom that was hard - the entire untopped portion of crust was uniformly hard - even the top which had very little excess flour.... also, most of the excess bench flour stayed on the bench... I made two small pizzas out of my dough experiment... the first one was ridiculous beginner's luck because it just slid off my peel (an upside down 1/4 sheet pan) onto my stone... the second one was more of a mess but it did make it off, miraculously... the second one convinced me to do the parchment paper trick the next time... For an autolysed dough - would I just mix the total volume of flour and water together first, and put in the fridge... then after 30 min. take out and add yeast and mix a bit more? How can the yeast be evenly distributed?

ok... so I need help... what am I doing wrong? My first attempt used King Arthur "Italian style" flour - http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/...tyle-flour-3-lb I mixed about 2 cups of dry flour with about a half teaspoon of SAF instant yeast, then mixed with water for a 70% hydration by weight, but it looked a little dry, so I added a bit more water so it would all come together so probably a 72-73% hydration... This was mixed in a large stainless steel bowl, covered with plastic wrap and fermented at room temp overnight for probably about 15 hours or so... Then, I poured the extremely wet and sticky dough into a ziplock bag (poured is not exactly accurate - more like scooped handfuls of dough and slopped into the bag) and let sit in the refrigerator (about 37F) for 7 days.... On the day of baking, I put a large terracotta saucer upside down in my cold oven - then set the temp of my oven to about 250 to gently preheat the stone... then cranked the heat to 500-550F and let it sit for over an hour.... My oven thermometer which has a max of 500 was reading way off the scale... I took the dough out of the refrigerator probably about 2 hours before use... and when I had my mise complete (first trial was filetti style - cherry tomatoes, buffala mozzerella, basil, EVO, salt) put a crapload of AP flour on my work board.... scooped out a large handful of extremely wet/sticky dough (which stuck to the bag, my forearms, seemingly everywhere) and put on the pile of flour - I then dusted the top of the blob with a generous dusting of AP flour and gave the dough a couple of folds before I nudged/stretched it with my fingertips... For King Arthur to claim their flour makes an extensible dough is an understatement - if I would have sneezed, the dough would have ripped apart... Then quickly throwing on the toppings and slid it onto my stone with great difficulty - I'll definitely try the parchment paper trick next time!!! But, to my surprise, I did not find a soft pillowy crust as a result... instead, the outside of the crust was hard like a crusty breadstick, while the inside was soft-ish... Baking time was approx. 7 minutes.... What did I do wrong? Help!!!!!

I tried this method for the first time this evening... success!!! I tried it on a dish I do every few weeks - flank steak cooked 131F for about 36 hours - I find it's still a bit tough after 24, 36 hours is a bit better... Typically, I would remove from the bag, blot with paper towels, sprinkle with wondra flour, then sear in a smoking pan with grapeseed oil or peanut oil (high smoke point).... Tonight, I tried a medium hot pan (grapeseed oil was not smoking) and a 4% glucose wash.... I found out the hard way that less is more with this application as the first side was a little wet and splattered all over the place when it hit the medium-hot oil... but still, in very little time, I got great color and since the heat was lower, it didn't cook through more than 1mm or so... I was thinking about making a big jar of 4% wash that way I don't have to mix it fresh every time I need it... do you think I should refrigerate it after mixing or can I keep it sealed in the cupboard?

Pat O's hurricane is like cough syrup on steroids... yum.... Did you hang out by the flaming fountain??? Classic... It's a shame you were there in August after live crawfish season... while Acme is touristy and reknowned for their oysters (deservedly so), they have IMO the best boiled crawfish in the french quarter - great boil flavor, big, plump, juicy crawfish.... and I think I've sampled every crawfish in hte immediate area... I can't wait until next year's season starts!!!!

I agree with the concensus that behind the stovetop may not be the best place for the spices... I also keep my spices in the magnetic canisters - but I bought a 24 x 36" white board from staples and hung it on a wall in the corner... that way, I put just about all of my spices in there and i don't have to make choices! One thing I find about the canisters is that they tend to get a little sticky and hard to open sometimes... Some things I use a lot that you don't have up there are coriander and cumin, herbs de provence... and piment d'espelette... don't know what I'd do without it!! I guess it all has to do with whatever you use the most...

success!!!! I tried again using Dave's quick agar method (no freezing - just set in ice bath until set, then break up the curds and press through cheesecloth).. it worked great - I now have a pale greenish clear mint water that has a great mint aroma... A few things that I think helped: Vit C powder when pureeing the mint... plus I used a food processor rather than the blender - no, it didn't puree the mint as thoroughly, but the food processor didn't cook my mint while doing it... Tri - I think your idea of using gelatin is a great one - but one person who will be (hopefully) enjoying the mint water is vegetarian and while there technically wouldn't be any gelatin in the water, I don't know how much of a sticking point it would be if she knew that gelatin was used in the process... Thanks for the help! Ken Edited to correct my crappy grammar

John, thanks for the link... I had actually read those articles in the past, which sparked my idea for the clear mint liquid... I think my biggest problem is that the mint cooked in the blender and oxidized - the resulting brown liquid, while being minty, did have an oxidized note - you don't have that problem with OJ because there's already so many anti-oxidants in it... but thinking about it - if you cut up a bunch of mint and leave it out, what happens? It turns brown at the edges... like an apple...

So, yesterday, I tried to make a clear mint liquid using agar filtration. The resulting 'consomme' which came from the dripping agar puck was "clear" but it was also brown!!! It has an intense mint smell... I think one problem started when I was pureeing the mint in the blender - I think the speed of the blender actually cooked the mint a bit - because when I went to strain the liquid it was quite warm... but the mint puree was a dark green color... To mix with the agar, I heated the agar with a small quantity of boiling water, then, when dissolved, I mixed this hot water/agar mix into my strained warm mint liquid. Then put into a plastic bag and froze.... After frozen, I put the pieces into a strainer lined with cheesecloth and waited - about an hour later, I checked it, and what was dripping out was a clear brown liquid... by now, all dripping has stopped and I'm left with a dark green sludge in the strainer, and clear brown mint liquid... I guess the mint liquid oxidized... should I have added some VitC powder or something to my puree to keep it from oxidizing? What else could I have done to prevent this?? I'm still figuring out how to post the pics here - but there's a folder in the ImageGullet with them...

Thanks... are they intended to be eaten raw, or slightly cooked? Also, what are they supposed to taste like?

I recently got a gift of some greek caper leaves, packed in brine... the question is - what to do with them? I haven't tasted them yet, but I gather they taste like capers, but there's a bitterness to them... Any ideas?

I've seen different types of butters (salted, unsalted, goat's milk butter) etc... or lardo that's been infused with rosemary, then whipped and piped into the dish... or olive oil with olives pureed into the oil...

I like the idea of a somewhat varied menu... plus, I think the idea of a steak tasting is fantastic - so people can compare a grass-fed to standard or wagyu or maybe even different aging times - which I know can be logistically difficult, but with computerized inventory management, I don't see why it couldn't be manageable....