msacuisine

I think Xanthan Gum may be the solution to both of your problems. It will make the sauce more heat stable. It will also allow thickening with less reduction, though that will mean a little less flavor concentration.

So it's been a while since anyone posted to this topic, so I'm going to start it back up again because I got a VM 780 refurb at an incredible discount. So some of the things I'm thinking of adding to my smoothie are: Psyllium powder to get fiber without the calories that would come from oats. Caffeine pill because I'm going to replace my morning coffee with a smoothie and I don't want to deal with the headaches. I may gradually taper down. Zanthum for thickening because a family member is allergic to bananas. Protein powder. Does anyone have any advice about using the ingredients that haven't been mentioned yet in the thread.

I, too, do this all the time. Double and triple stocks are great and super easy in the pressure cooker.

I spent a ridiculous amount of money to get 12oz A5 grade Miyazaki Wagyu Ribeyes and the 96 Cos d'estournel I'm going to serve it with. I'm trying to figure out how to serve it and what with: Should I sous vide it? Should I serve it with something like a Madiera sauce, or a Bercy butter, or just let it stand on it's own? What side dishes would go best with it? I am open to ideas.

I have both an immersion circulator and a Sous Vide Supreme. I find I use the SVS far more often because I don't need the capacity of the immersion circulator for a few steaks or chops, however, if you are doing big items, the circulator may be a better choice for you. As far as the circulator holding the temp, I have never had a problem with it in an open bath. It would probably be more efficient if you built an insulated container, but then you loose some of the portability. As for vacuum sealers, I just use the displacement method with regular ziplocks or the vacuum pump ziplocks, which have always been sufficient. So I can't give any advice beyond that.

Thanks for the recipe!

I'm looking for a way to whip milk into a whipped cream-like topping perhaps stabilized with carrageenan in my isi whipper. Has anyone done this? Any ideas or recipes? I can't seem to find anything on the web. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks for the responses! So due to a beginner's mistake -- I forgot to buy bottled water, and Tucson has some of the hardest water in the country -- I had to forgo the caviar for tonight and postpone it for another day. Fortunately, the rest of the meal came off well. Hope to have my first caviar-making (and consuming) experience in the very near future. Still planning on using the Sauternes as the base. Blue cheese would be a great match, and I'm trying to figure out a way to work that flavor profile in in a way that will work textually with the mouth feel of the subtle membranes of the caviar bursting with a gush of complex, botrytized, honey-lusciousness. So there's still plenty of time for brainstorming contributions and creative collaborations.

As part of a celebratory dinner tonight, I am going to take my first stab at spherification. I've been putting it off for a while because, while the technique has become something of a modernist cliché, I've never experienced it before and I want my first time to be special. lol. So I thought, what would I most like to explode in my mouth, which lead me to the idea of Sauturnes. I have a 2007 Premier Grand Cru that I think will fit the bill nicely. Though I'm set up for both, I'm think reverse spherification is the way to go here. Does anyone have any advice on making this work? Any ideas on what to serve with it either as an accompaniment or a beverage pairing?

I want to do a modernist take on steak au poivre tonight. Anyone have any interesting ideas of how to give this classic a modernist twist? I have some nice Choice tri tips to base it on that I'm going to jaccard (after blowtorch sterlization) and sous vide to 130° F. One idea I had was to make a shallot infused cream and cognac fluid gel based on the MC onion fluid gel (the @Home version, since, though rapidly expanding, my chemical pantry does not yet include gellan). Thinking perhaps of trying to foam this in the iSI siphon (any thoughts on whether this will work?). Probably will serve this of some kind of MC/Heston-inspired "ultimate" frites. Anybody else have any ideas or suggestions? Maybe something interesting to do with the pepper component? I'm totally open to suggestions. Thanks in advance for helping me brainstorm.

I'd like to pick up a liquid nitrogen dewer, but they seem quite expensive, so I want to make a good choice. Does anyone have advice on the best size for kitchen use? Where are some sources to procure one at a reasonable price? Any other advice about purchasing one? Thanks.

Thanks, everybody for all the links! This has been very helpful. Please keep the suggestions coming. FeChef, take a look at this Cooking Issues article I found by following up on some of the suggested links: http://www.cookingissues.com/2009/11/18/daves-effort-to-stop-ruining-thanksgiving/ Dave Arnold has done the temperature/time comparisons for different parts of the bird. There's a very useful table about halfway down the page. It would suggest that 6 hours might not be good for texture.

I now have an Immersion Circulator, an SVS, a blowtorch, Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker, an immersion blender, accurate scales, pH meter, silicon ravioli molds, caviar syringe, thermocouple thermometer and will hopefully have my iSI Siphon by next week. I also have a reasonable selection of hydrocolloids and other powders to play with: agar, xanthan, iota and kappa carregeenen, sodium alginate, calcium lactate, methyl cellulose LV and HV, cacium chloride,sodium citrate,soy lecithin powder, wondra, and N-Zorbit, some culinary crystals (i.e., unflavored pop rocks) as well as malic, lactic, and tartaric acids. In short, the beginnings of a respectable modernist kitchen. I feel I have a really good handle on sous vide now and basically it is the only way I've cooked meat. Still experimenting and getting to know the "culinary powders", but each experiment has been a delicious, if not always completely successful, learning experience, Also, this year is the first year my family is coming to my house for Thanksgiving, which makes sense because my mother hates to cook and it's my passion. My mom like "traditional" holiday fare and has ask that the basics -- turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy -- be served. Outside of that, I'm pretty free to play. There are going to be 5-6 of us. I guess I should add that while I'm new to the modernist pantry, my traditional cooking skills are quite advanced, leaning French with an emphasis on technique. I'm looking for suggestions to put my new toys to work to a make spectacular, unforgettable Thanksgiving dinner. And the more that can be made ahead the better. Definitely thinking of MC Mac and Cheese, some version of the Robichon, Bloomenthal, Myrvold, et al, pommes purée. and would like to include spherification in some way, as none of my guests will have ever had that experience. And the more I can make ahead, the better. (Also tried the much raved about carmelized carrot soup last week -- loved the technique, did not care for the soup itself, probably because I'm not that big on cooked carrots, so not interested in doing that again.) So, anyone have any ideas/recipes?

Got mine about a week ago and I absolutely love it. I'm so glad I found this product (from this thread, btw) as I was right on the verge of making another choice. The unit is great -- easy to use, accurate temperature control -- and at this price, wow. I will probably get a second unit at some point. Also, I should mention, they have stellar customer service!

I have just got my Anova immersion circulator last week (which is fantastic, btw). I've just started experimenting with it, and tonight was sous vide sirloin steak. It was pretty thin (~7mm). I normally like my steak quite rare, but after doing some reading, I decided to go with a more medium treatment at 132° F (for 2 hours for pasteurization purposes). I did this, because in my reading, I came across a couple of claims: that at that temperature steaks are more flavorful (though no explanation as to why was given). and that only at 130° F does the fat that comprises the marbling start to liquify. Sounded reasonable,, so I though I would give it a try. I pre-seared with a blowtorch so I could safely Jaccard it. Then I touch up the crust with the torch just before service. The steak was tender, moist, and flavorful, but it seemed to me... well... overdone. So, now I'm wondering if there really are good scientific reasons to prefer medium rare over rare, or if the information I came across was just nonsense and I should stick with my preference. Any science to suggest that a different temperature might be objectively more flavorful, juicy, or otherwise preferable? Any explanation as to why those of us who prefer our beef on the rare side have this preference (in other words, what is it actually about rare meat that we are perfering)? I have no interest in getting into an argument about whose preferences are "better", but I'm really curious about the science that might underlie preferences for rare vs. medium rare.

Smithy, you must have missed a video. He does quite a lengthy introduction to the course in Spanish.

I really excited about this class! Ferran Adrià putting together a class for Harvard? Amazing!!! The is another thread with some reviews apparently of a previous time this course was offered, and a few people have made some pretty negative comments. Nonetheless, I feel honored to be in this class, am very excited, and can't believe it's free!

Wow, I'm really shocked by some of these reviews! Maybe this fall course that just started has been improved. A Harvard class taught in cooperation than some of the world's top chefs -- how bad can it be? I feel really lucky to have access to this course for free. Despite the disappointing reviews here, I am still really excited and looking forward to the class.

Pangty: sounds delicious. I will give it a try. Thanks! Chris Taylor: Definitely nothing to do with shipment or storage. This is out of the same bag I have been using a couple times a week for months. I'm going to try some experiments and see if I can recreate the result. Thanks for the input everybody. If anyone has any other ideas, I would certainly be interested in hearing them.

It is certainly possible that I inadvertently added an extra cup of water. Making rice is something I kinda do on autopilot, so it's a possibility. Maybe I'll do some experiments and see if I can recreate it. I was hoping maybe this had happened to someone else and would have an easy answer.

It's from the same large bag of Safeway long grain white rice that I have been using for months.

A strange thing happened when I made lunch today. I made plain white rice the way I always do--boil the rice in about twice as much water for a minute or so, then turn the heat to low and cover for 20 minutes. When I went to serve the rice it had turned into a soupy mush. My first thought was, "great, the rice is ruined, now what am I going to do?" Then, once I strained the rice to get rid of the excess water, I realized that it had basically turned itself into a risotto all on its own. I played up the creaminess with a generous amount of butter and a little cream and it was absolutely delicious. The only problem is, I can 't figure out why it happened, how I could reproduce it when desirable, or how to keep it from happening again in the future otherwise. Can anyone think of an explanation?

My partner's family is Italian and I want to start a new family tradition. Our families have all of the other major holidays covered, but I would like to have a big family get-together. From my days in New Orleans, I know that St. Joseph's Day is a big celebration there with Italian families. I would like to bring this tradition to them in Arizona. I know it's a bit early, but I would like to start the meal planning now. Any help you could give about celebrating this holiday would be much appreciated. Recipes are particularly welcome! Thanks in advance.

I live in the Arizona, where such things are not that uncommon. I had a chocolate mouse cake with chipotle chiles that was outstanding. The smokey flavor of the chiles married beautifully with the richness of the dark chocolate and the heat was far enough in the background that it was interesting without being overpowering. I intend to experiment more with sweet and hot combinations. I think this flavor (okay, technical a flavor/sensation) combination is under-explored. Just got an ice cream maker recently and one of the things I want to try is a dark chocolate chipotle ice cream.

In Sauces, James Peterson gives the impression that roux-based sauces have all but disappeared from modern restaurant kitchens, while Professional Cooking, le Cordon Bleu’s basic text, makes it sound as though it is still fundamental to restaurant practice, only once mentioning that the modern trend is towards less roux, nowhere mentioning the extreme reductions, coulis, or glace-based sauces or full-flavored broths that according to Peterson form the foundation of modern sauce making. They can’t both be right. I would love to hear other people’s opinions on this matter, especially from those working in high-end restaurants.