nickrey

That looks awesome!

It doesn't hurt the meat to have it slightly higher than temperature until the pid sorts itself out. A few minutes is nothing compared to the effects of pre searing (or for that matter post searing) on the meat. I'm with Martin: let's keep this all simple.

Have a look at Martin Lersch's blog (blog.khymos.org). That should give you what you want.

It's definitely transfer sheets. The Astrance cookbook has a similar creation that has meringues filled in one end with green tea buttercream and the other end with ricotta ice cream. Instructions are to spread the meringue onto printed transfer sheets, roll into logs, cook, cool and remove transfer sheets.

I have an update. They were very prompt when I sent the email to the correct person. They are going to do the same as they did for you, send me a new unit under warranty. I'm very impressed with their after-care service.

Still waiting for a reply. Have written again (this time to service rather than to sales rep). Will let you know.

Try chilling the egg before crumbing. When you deep fry it will cook the outside well but only bring the egg up to eating temperature.

In Australia I've bought retail from them via email order. They are prompt in communication and very helpful. The prices only show up once you register and log into the site.

Discarding the white is not something I'd previously seen associated with an Onsen egg. I know some chefs do this (eg. Rene Redzipi) for serving but as far as I know the traditional Onsen egg is served in toto. Can anyone with experience of these eggs in Japan clarify this for me?

Soak them overnight in water with a small amount of vinegar added. The vinegar eats into the shell and makes it very easy to peel the following morning. Reheat for serving in water at 55 - 60C.

Thai food works on a balance of sweet/sour/salty/hot (piquant). I've often found that this can also be applied to other types of cooking to bring balance to dishes that are out of alignment. If you want to explore flavour combinations in more detail, you can try: The Flavor Bible (Page and Dornenburg) The Flavour Thesaurus (Segnit) The Elements of Taste (Kunz and Kaminsky) These all deal with balance and flavour combinations that work. Questions you can ask include: What goes together? If they are together, how do I prepare each element so it blends well? What happens if I vary the proportions of ingredients? How about if I add one or more of the ingredients cooked in two different ways? Once they are combined how does it taste? Is anything missing (eg. sweet, sour, salty, hot; or texture)? If so, what do I add to bring it back into balance? Rather than looking at recipe books, look at what is fresh and at its peak at the markets. Choose some key ingredients and then work out what will go with them. If you are thinking of being creative with ingredients, look at how they are used by people who have a reputation for being creative. I'm not sure that it is science that will help you to the next level. It is where the artist and the knowledge of the expert combine to produce creativity. You could also read Tom Collichio's book "Think Like a Chef" where he attempts to take you beyond recipes into his thought process. One last comment. Reading these books will give you ideas. But if you don't try them out and are not prepared to fail in some of your endeavours, you will not move to the next level.

I remembered this discussion when I read an article about Riedel developing a glass especially for Olivier Krug for the Krug Grand Cuvee. There is a quote in the article from James Halliday, who is a very well respected wine writer here in Australia. He recalled the day that he first came across the full Riedel range in 1990, along with British Critics Michael Broadbent, MW and Hugh Johnson. He said "we are all dumbfounded at the way the different glasses impacted on a given wine." Not sure who Daniel Zwerdling is from Gourmet (referred to upthread as having debunked the whole notion of different glasses for different wines) but somehow I am more inclined to listen to the real experts on this one.

He didn't even dry off the steak before putting it in the pan. Sloppiness in technique doesn't prove anything.

One other method of making the exterior of meat safe is to dunk it into boiling water.

What about in America then? But joking aside, I still say there is a huge range of room temperatures whatever is 'assumed'. As a wine writer, I often come across people telling me that certain wines are ideal at "room temperature", when in fact they have been carefully made to be optimum at cellar temperature which is almost always cooler than your 20 - 25C. But that's another story. Room temperature in Australia is often quite different from this. Can't tell you the number of times I've had to ask for an ice bucket to cool down an overly warm red wine.

Another "expectation of outcome" effect: A young scientist needs to believe at least a little bit that they're smarter than 500 years of predecessors, to make progress. At least they're aware part of the time that progress doesn't work that way. When a modern chef dismisses "tradition", I wonder if they're giving someone like Fernand Point credit for being more than a country yokel. Yep, that scallywag Galileo was sure upsetting a lot of experts when he had the temerity to challenge conventional wisdom. The difference here is that psychologists test assumptions that haven't been tested before. One of these psychologists, Danny Kahneman, won the Nobel prize for his work on, amongst other things, faulty decision making. His research and that of others shows that in areas where predictions are made so-called experts make incorrect predictions as much as if not more than "non experts," although they do so with greater speed and considerably more confidence in their incorrect judgements. 57 wine experts tested at the University of Bordeaux. Despite years of training and expertise in the area expectations affect judgement and subjective opinion. And if you read Barb Stuckey closely, she talks about the importance of blind tasting trials, even with supertasters. Keep coming with the opinions, I'm sure that we can find research evidence that either refutes (most likely) or supports (unlikely) what you are proposing. And while we're at it we may talk about the conventional wisdom that searing steaks seals in the juices. Applying the arguments given here about the opinions of the masses, we should probably still believe this "wisdom" despite evidence to the contrary.

By my training as a psychologist I know that expectations of outcome can swamp anything else. White wine dyed red tastes like red wine. Chips eaten with an amplified crunch in your ears taste fresher. You expect the pre-searing to give a better result and voila there it is. There's a reason why blind tasting is conducted. It is to remove biased expectations. Give me a controlled study over an opinion or "conventional wisdom" any day when we are discussing issues such as this.

I mainly pre sear steaks. I find that little bit of charred fat adds a bold flavor to the meat while cooking. It also gives the steak a nice color straight out of the bag, and sometimes i find no need to post sear. To each their own, but i swear by pre searing. I use a blow torch to do my searing. Pre searing takes 30 seconds per side and has no effect on outer ring color. Steaks come out med rare all the way through with no grey ring at all. Check out this post on Serious Eats. As far as I have seen when people run experiments with blind tasting there is no difference between pre-searing + post-searing and post-searing alone.

Why pre sear at all? Many of us don't. It is fine to cook from frozen. The additional time is dependent on the thickness of the product rather than just an arbitrary time.

Hi Bojana, I think I've got the same problem. On arrival the shaft was rubbing so much it was making a noise that was 72dB. I opened it up and played with it and it seemed to be fixed. Tonight the shaft didn't turn at all until I opened up the access point and turned it by hand. Will contact them tomorrow. Should be interesting to see what they do with a unit shipped to the other side of the globe. Will keep you posted.

Welcome to eGullet Peter. Looking forward to some more of this nice looking food.

Reading, trying things out, watching others, going to cooking demonstrations as part of food and chef showcases. The latter is important because the chefs often say why they do something (or will do so if questioned) so you can get behind the words of a cookbook or video. I'd second trying other ethnic cuisines. If you look at top chefs they quite often incorporate ideas from other cuisines into their cooking, not the least because they have stagiers who come from these countries and who share their knowledge. Many recipes from top chefs involve creating multiple elements and bringing them together. Don't be afraid of spending a few days preparing for a special dish. One very important thing to do is to learn to taste and adapt cooked products to make them better. Work through Barb Stuckey's book 'Taste what you're missing.' Once you understand how food comes together you can work out what it needs to make it more satisfying. Dishes are made on the basis of adding: a bit of salt, a bit of texture, multiple variants on ingredients (eg. onions cooked two ways), learning to harness the brightening power of acid, working out how bitterness adds to a dish, beefing up umami, adding heat or sweetness. Lastly, keep trying until you get it right. Some of the processes are complex skills and require lots of practice to master. Set yourself a project such as learning to poach an egg properly and consistently. This will take a long time but when you have it, you will always be able to do it and add it as an element to many dishes. Join a food society and associate with others who share your passion for food.

Variants can come from the risotto used (eg use saffron risotto for gold filling squid ink for black, etc). You can also vary the centre by enclosing meat with ragu, or mushroom, or bernaise or bechamel. With any runny filling, I'd do what the Chinese do with their liquid dumplings and thicken it with gelatin so that it is malleable when cold and melts when hot.

Sous-vide has been used in top kitchens since the 80s. However, it is modernist cuisine that has fetishised outré techniques. You may claim not to be impressed, but MG's most lauded exponents never shut up about the extent gadgetry plays in their cooking. Indeed, scientism has given an added value of food for over a decade. Emphasis on something being labelled as being cooked sous vide. I eat sous vide cooked food all the time including at top restaurants. They don't label it as cooked sous vide. To them it is simply cooking.

The botulinuum toxin does grow in an anaerobic environment but only if it is present in the first place. Pasteurisation reduces the likelihood of toxins, including botulism, being present to acceptable levels. There is science behind this but it is better just to say that pasteurisation leaves you with a product that is safe as long as you follow chilling and storage guidelines. So follow the guidelines to pasteurise the food, treat it appropriately and you will minimise your chances of food poisoning. Bottom line, if you have cooked something and opened the package treat the contents as you would any other leftovers. Do not reseal them under vacuum. If you have cooked something to pasteurisation, held it at an appropriate temperature, not opened the bag, and chilled it appropriately then it can be kept using the guidelines in Douglas' guide.