arbeck

I've been cooking out of this book for a while, and I've almost used up my winter supply of smoked meats. Thankfully it's just about time to get the smoker out again. My question is about the bacon recipe. I've had very good success with it. I've been buying skin on bellies from a local Japanese Market (Uwajimaya). I'd like to upgrade the quality of pork I'm using, however I can not find a local supplier of bellies with the skin on. All the Berkshire and Mangalista sources I've talked to only process skinless pork. My question is, has anyone tried the bacon recipe using skinless pork?

On the surface the winner of HK gets a better reward, but I don't know that what they get is truly better. They get to be the executive chef of a Vegas restaurant. They never disclose what the salary is. I'm under the impression the HK winner is basically a figurehead who does nothing for a certain contracted period of time. If your goal in life was to have a do nothing job for 3 or 4 years, HK is probably better for you.

I just got my access to the Alinea Mosaic website, and I'm really interested in one recipe. But the caveat is that it calls for an antigriddle. I of course do not own one, and I don't see myself shelling out the money for one. It did get me to think though about a substitute. What if you sandwiched some dry ice between to aluminum sheet pans? The temperature of dry ice is well below the surface of the anti griddle, so it should work. I'm curious though as to whether or not anyone has tried this.

Tri2Cook, That sounds about exactly what I was going to attempt. I'll let everyone know how it turns out!

My guess was going to be mixing coconut milk and rice flour into a dough and then just steaming the thing.

Here is a picture: http://vegfoodie.typepad.com/.shared/image...coconutcake.jpg It was almost like the texture of a steamed bun. Very smooth, and slightly chewy.

This is a dish I recently had at Tamarind Tree, a local Vietnamese restaurant in Seattle. It's on the menu as Bánh mặn củ cải tôm. It was basically a square of steamed cake with some shrimp on top. I really want to reproduce the cake at home, but I can't find any recipes for it. Can anyone help?

Seriously? Isn't that the same combo someone did on "Hells Kitchen"?? ← When I heard white chocolate and caviar on hells kitchen I got excited. When I heard raw scallop, raw venison, raw egg, and caper; I got disgusted. Strange flavor pairings are a tricky business. The goal is to find items that have a lot of flavor compounds in common. White chocolate and caviar do. Also, the sweetness of the chocolate is tempered by the saltiness of the eggs. The problem with the chef (and I use that term loosely) on Hell's kitchen is that he tried to do to much. Lobster and white chocolate actually pair fairly well, so the scallop may have worked (though butter poached would be better than raw), but the venison would do nothing but clash. Venison actually pairs fairly well with a dark bitter chocolate, not a white chocolate. The caper and the raw egg seemed only to be there because they are in many tartars, not because they would add anything. For more information on how white chocolate can pair: http://shopping.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,708751,00.html http://hungryinhogtown.typepad.com/hungry_..._high_frid.html http://www.playingwithfireandwater.com/foo...-8-white-c.html http://khymos.org/pairings.php

I wonder if the reason for maunel's departure had more to do with his contributions to the team. The sea bass and the pickle were the two worst elements of the dish, and that's what he did.

I was actually excited by Richard's dish. White chocolate is an ingredient that works surprisingly well in savory applications, basically any thing that you would add both a fat and sweetener to; which is a lot of dishes. I served a dish I stole from Heston Blumenthal for Valentine's Day (white chocolate with caviar) and my wife was blown away with how good it was. Somehow I'm going to try to figure out how to make that sauce!

I recently bought a leg of goat at the farmers market. I've never had goat before, so I don't really know how to cook it. I have a Webber Smokey Mountain that I'd like to use for a slow and low BBQ. I've done pork shoulder, ribs, tri tip, chuck roast and brisket before. I'm not sure how I should do the goat though. The beef I usually marinate and cook until it reaches 190-200F (except the tri tip which I stop at medium rare and then sear). The pork I alway brine, but cook to the exact same temp. I'm wondering if I should treat the goat more like pork or beef. Should I brine it or marinate it? Will it get for tender if cooked slowly (I'm guessing by it's size 10 hours) to 190? Anyone done this before?

Two quick questions. 1) what temperature/method do you use for poached and hard cooked eggs? 2) has anyone ever tried to render lard via sous vide?

What is the lowest temperature that is safe to do a long cook of red meat? I've done 12+ hour cooks of 'roast' beef at 135F, but is doing it at 130F going to be an issue?

What temperature do you like your steak cooked to? For a long cooking steak, I usually go with 135F as that is high enough to not worry about pathogens, but still leave the steak medium rare. If you like a steak more medium adjust the time up. Personally, when doing a thick steak I like to season it first (and I always use some smoked salt), then seal it, and let it sit in the fridge for a bit first while the bath gets up to temp. Then I cook it through (or longer for flat iron, hanger steak, and flap meat) in the bath. When I'm satisfied it's done, I sear the outside with a blow torch or a smoking hot cast iron pan.

e_monster, I actually buy my smoke salt, simply because it's so much cheaper than the amount of work it takes to make it. I get mine at World Spice Merchants here in Seattle. (http://worldspice.com/spices/0697alderwoodsmokedseasalt.shtml) But, I have made liquid smoke, and I imagine that the process would be quite similar. Just put some brine (either salt water or other) in a smoker until it evaporates and you get salt.

Something I've found (and I must admit I stole the idea from Heston Blumenthal) is replacing some of the salt I use to season my meat with smoked salt before sealing. I've done this with pork shoulder that I turned into carnitas and steak. While it doesn't completely substitute for the smoke flavor real smoke imparts, it does do a pretty good job.

I have the 800W Auber Model and use it with a 6.5 Quart Crockpot that I already had, and it works great. The temperature is pretty rock solid except for when I drop in a particularly large item to cook. So far I've done short ribs (30 hours at 147), eye of round roast (24 hours at 135), duck breast (3 hours at 135), poached eggs (8 hours 147), duck confit (8 hours 185), pork carnitas (8 hours at 185), and chicken thigh carnitas (6 hours 185). Everything turned out really good. e_monster, do you have a link to that pump? I'd be interested in that.

Well they probably could make one for that price. It wouldn't surprise me that you could increase the cost of a crock pot by 20 or 30 dollars and add some sort of circulation and a PID temperature control instead of the simple hi-med-low settings. The question would be, what is the market for such a device? I don't know many people who are interested in buying one. Most people who I explain sous vide to think I'm crazy. If they are only going to sell a few thousand a year, it's not worth it. The other thing that may be an issue is liability. If you aren't careful and don't follow the instructions, you could cook something this way and do some damage to yourself or others. Imagine the first lawsuit when someone cooks something at 135F but the sensor was malfunctioning and it's actually at 120F. Someone put some herbs in there, and then they get botulism.

That's what I'd do. It can't take much power to keep the water at the right temperature, but getting it there could be a problem. For added efficiency, you could also wrap your stock pot in the rolls of aluminum duct insulation they sell at the hardware stores. In fact I might have to try this with my 16qt stock pot if I ever find the crock pot too small.

What kind of immersion heater?

I think the problems with hotplates would be a bit different. First of all, an electric hotplate usually is going to be much closer to the maximum wattage; and I've even seen a few that would exceed it. Second, a hot plate is not necessarily designed to keep a constant temperature like a crock pot or a rice cooker. When it turns on the element gets hot and remains hot even if you cut the power. Finally, a rice cooker and crock pot have a built in failsafe if the controller fails. When I used the controller I turn the crock pot on high until I reach my target temperature and then switch it to low. Even if the controller fails completely and the crock pot is powered all the time, I'm not in any danger as the crock pot is designed to stay in it's keep warm mode for long periods of time. The same can't be said for the burner on the hotplate. If that think turns on and stays on, you could be in trouble. The best solution would be an induction device of some sort. But unfortunately, they all seem to have electronic controls so they won't work. I will attest that the crock pot works great. I made "roast beef" last night for dinner. A top round roast vacuum sealed and put it at 130F for about 20 hours. Seared and sliced thin it was very good. Not quite as flavorful as a rib roast, but pretty good none the less.

muichoi, The recipe does call for doing that to some of the skin. But it also calls for lining the pot with even more skin.

Dave, If you curious, the Les Halles recipe is here: http://travel.discovery.com/tv/bourdain/re...-cleveland.html Bourdain made it on an episode of his show, so the travel channel put it on line.

So, if I leave it whole, someone would be able to scoop out a bit if they were so inclined.

I'm making the Les Halles Cassoulet for Christmas dinner, and have a question about the recipe. It calls for lining the bottom of the dish with the pork rind before cooking. Does this get eaten? There is no mention of what happens to it later in the recipe. Should it be taken out and chopped? or just ignored? Or does it get soft enough to get scooped out?