ChefZ

MSG is the essence of umami or "the fifth taste" as mentioned earlier: Umami was first identified as a taste in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University while researching the strong flavor in seaweed broth. Ikeda isolated monosodium glutamate as the chemical responsible and, with the help of the Ajinomoto company, began commercial distribution of MSG products. There is quite a long list of foods that naturally have MSG and also have more umami than others. Soy sauce, tomatoes, parmesan, ham, chicken, kelp etc In Japanese cuisine some traditional recipes call for placing chicken on kelp for 30 minutes on both sides before cooking. What actually happens is a transfer of MSG (umami) from the kelp to the surface of the chicken. MSG has been "bastardized" over the last decades, with the reason to have allergic reactions, also called CRS Chinese Restaurant Syndrome. Studies in 1993 proofed that MSG did not cause these allergic reactions. Fact is that our bodies need glutamatic acid to function properly, so allergic reactions are to something else than MSG there is a great blog post on khymos.org here I have used MSG for sweet/savory chutneys. A few years back I made a bitter orange marmalade and added some MSG. It suppressed the bitterness of the oranges without having to add too much sugar. On kymos.org you can also find in the same post firther down a chart which explains how the five tastes suppresses or enhances each other depending on concentration of each. That explains why MSG of umami interacts with the other four tastes and why it workes sometimes with sweets and other times not. Usually when I get a request for MSG free because the guests is allergic to MSG, I ask if the guest can consume tomato, soy sauce, dashi, chicken, ham, parmesan, etc... Usually I get the answer "yes they could". I always honor the guests request and would never serve any food with added MSG, I do serve any of the foods listed above, if the guest assured me that it is safe for them to consume. So to answer the original question. At home if a recipe asks for MSG i will add it. If a recipe does not ask for MSG I might add some if I think it should, that does not happen very often. At work I only use MSG in natural occurring form, execpt in experimental dishes, or when the cooks/chefs cook lunch for ourselves. Z

Reading this I admit I am torn. I think cost of health care should be calculated into to price like other all other costs. What would be next 30% surcharge for cost of food, 20% for leasing/rental costs and another 15% for utilities? As much I like the idea to tip the cook and dishwashers, I believe it should not be done by adding an additional charge. In my entire career I have worked in only one place where we had on tip pot/pool and it was shared between all employees, maitre d, servers, hostess, busboys, cooks and dishwashers. Grated there were different points for each position, and it was fair. The beauty of this was that everybody worked towards a common goal. It was the smoothest service, and best teamwork/camaraderie between front and back of the house. Special request were welcome and executed quickly and always beyond guests expectations. Overall the servers made as much tips as they would have done without having the pool. It was about ten years back in Europe. Average tips were 8-10%. In this particular restaurant we averaged 24% into the tip pool. So as noble it might sound I truly believe there are other ways to compensate the entire staff properly. Z

Sandra I assume with "you've been here for a year" you mean here in the US. I feel for you personally I miss the Austrian butters. As a chef I normally use Plurga, sold also at Trader's Joe, when my does not look I sneak in a pound for at home . Plugra is european style but not made in Europe, it is made in the US by Keller's Creamery. Kerrygold Irish butter (salted or unsalted) is a pretty good everyday butter. Z

Nathan I figured you like the Rationals, reading your previous posts :-) . I am aware of the temperature variations. Actually during my test series I pulled the HACCP logs of the unit just to review them and noticed the variations. The best to prevent this in a low temp SV setting within a Rational is to put the packages into deep GN pans filled with water. At the highest fan setting, enough to agitate the water. Even if the combi itself fluctuates by up to 10 degrees the water barely does by more than 2-3 degrees. I have one of the waterproof onset data/temp loggers on order, just to see what is going on in the SV bag. During the testing I had the ovens probe in the "water bath", as well as an dual logger with one probe in the water bath again and a second hypodermic probe right in the product itself. After the process I compared the logs side by side. I do have a few temo-circulators and use them quite a bit, just for a production kitchen I would have buy quite a few of them to get 1000 portions of salmon cooked in water baths. Therefore for volume production and much of my testing/usage is in the rationals. Agree with the 150F setting I referred to the asparagus. Carrots we do at 165F. Though personally I like the crunch and color of bb carrots at 150F. Also for those who use the Rational SCC - BQT application we found it is enough to cook carrots at 150F and chill for the cold plating. After rethermalization the carrots come out perfect Thank you Nathan for your feedback. I just needed another opinion before I call the local health department to review my process. I do not feel we are ready and/or have the capability of implementing a HACCP program yet. So I am trying to find ways to do SV while within FDA rules local health department codes as well as corp mandated specs while still making the third party auditors (EcoSure) happy. Z

Mike your dinner looks very impressive. I better not show the pictures my wife, she might expect something like that next v-day. Regarding the asparagus, I have been playing around now for a while. I am with you regarding the crispy-al dente texture. I set up a test series with different temperatures. Added just some butter (plugra) and salt into each bag and cooked them in various temperatures. We used the rational ovens since i have 5 of them rather than the thermo-circulator since I am testing it for a high volume banquet application. We started at 185F and worked down to 135F in 5 degree increments. The best results so far we achieved were at 150F for 6-8 minutes, depending on the size of the asparagus. After cooking I still recommend to shock it in ice water, to retain color of not served immediately. Unfortunately I was called to a meeting and did not see the remainder of the test series and only have to trust my sous chef's opinion. I do have a question though to the group. As I mentioned i am testing this to find a way to prep the vegetables once or twice a week. My only concern is regarding anaerobe bacteria and if we take the proper precautions. I hope this group can review/comment our current process. In this case produce = asparagus - produce delivered (between 41F and 45F), delivery temperatures are taken - produce is stored immediately in cambro containers (not original boxes) - produce is washed in ice water (should we consider a produce wash like Ecolab- Victory - produce is trimmed, prepared and packed in a sanitized area - SV cooked immediately after packaging to 150F 8 minutes - packaged are chilled in chiller 150F to 41F in 45minutes - packages are labeled, indicating type of food, need to store below 41F and use day/month/year (no longer than 6 days form day of production) Thank you Z

I would just call Callebaut USA and ask for a sample. Following numbers are on their web page Barry Callebaut USA 600 West Chicago Avenue, suite 860 Chicago IL 60610 USA Tel: +1 312 496 7300 General Info E-mail address: gourmetusa@barry-callebaut.com Direct phone: +1 312 496 7300 I never asked for a sample myself, I just ordered a whole tub and have been using it ever since. On the other hand I do recall they used to send out samples. The shelf life is 1 year. Well never really tried it, we go through 2-3 tubs a week, though the first tub we had for longer than 3 months. The only caution you need to take is not to keep it too close to a heat source or store it above room temperature. Mycryo is freeze dried cacao butter and just regular body temp is enough to start "melting" the fat. One tends to go through much more product if sprinkled with ones hands. Other than that I can only recommend it. Z

Its perfectly fine and quite common practice. ← I agree, although searing in a pan would be my preference -it allows to caramelize a larger surface than a blowtorch, and it get's done at once. The temp should be very high, so searing is quick. My lipid of choice for after SV poaching would be clarified butter, BTW. ← I agree with Mike, caramelizing with a hot pan and clarified butter. I also started using cacao butter powder (like Mycryo from Cacao-Barry). Mycryo has a very high smoke point and allows a very uniform sear (caramelization) in a very short time. It is also perfect for searing non-SV products like fish, meats, vegetables and especially foie gras. Z

Hello everybody First and foremost let me tell you how great of a topic this is. I actually joined eGullet because of a google search looking for sous vide recipes. It took me a while to read from page 1 to now page 52. It answered many of my questions and also raised many more. As this is my first post in the forum I want to take the opportunity to introduce myself. I have been cooking now for a few years. My family has been in the restaurant business for almost 400 years. I used to do extensive sous vide cooking for a few years, over ten years ago when I was in Europe. Ten years later I feel that I lost most of my knowledge and notes about sous vide cooking and basically start back at square one. This 4 year old thread has helped me tremendously and I want to thank Nathan for all his hard work, dedication,research and answers. Almost 4 years ago in March Nathan had the same questions I have now and over the years Nathan has evolved to the "sous vide authority" not only here in this forum. Over the weeks of reading this particular topic as well as Juan Roca's book it crossed me a few times to get on and compiling a guide or even writing a book. Well midway reading the topic I gave up the idea when I learned that nobody else than the sous-vide professor himself, Nathan, is actually working on a book already. Thank you for everybody else for contributing to this topic. Sous vide is unique and personally I am experiencing an era of renaissances of a cooking technique I "shelved" for too long Z