nickrey

Hi Maxime, thanks for all your input. As many of us have already noted the errors, would it be possible to indicate in the list of errata when each particularly entry was added? In that way we can just add the newly discovered errors instead of having to go through the entire list to find the additions.

Having just got the pressure canner, it seems the only difference is the ability to accurately measure the pressure via the attached gauge and manipulate the pressure by the addition of extra weights. Some pressure cookers do not seem to go high enough in pressure (and hence temperature) to reach the levels that you can reliably maintain in a pressure canner. This has to impact the ability to sterilise the food. Some ad hoc methods I've read about include placing a coin on top of the weight but this smacks of bodgy home engineering and there is no guarantee that your cooker will be at the appropriate pressure. Unless your cooker guarantees maintaining the correct pressure needed to can, it would be most unwise to use it for this purpose. The canners (under $70 on Amazon link here) are cheap, especially when compared with potentially gambling with people's lives.

1/4 inch deep?

My technique is slightly different from those mentioned, but only in the details. First, blend eggs lightly, no need to whip air into them which I suspect may have been Julia's point. Second, I used to use a double boiler but the main thing is keeping it low and slow. If you think the heat is too high and the eggs are cooking too fast, take it off the heat and settle it down a bit. This takes a bit of practice but is quickly learned. Third, I use creme fraiche (or sour cream) rather than normal cream -- it gives a nice additional level of flavour. Add it as you are finishing. Fourth, take off before they're done -- they will continue to cook to the level that you want. Fifth, as many have said, salt at the end. I also add some chopped chives when I add the creme fraiche. Use a whisk that you can get into the edges of the pan with. Mine come out like a very thick cream rather than having grainy bits, which I see as a by-product of overcooking.

Similar temperatures and humidity then. I have a portable air conditioner that holds around three litres of water in its tank. It turns off when it is overfull. To give you an idea of the amount of water that is extracted by the air conditioner, this will not last through the night without turning off because it is full. I suspect you will face an uphill battle trying to keep the humidity up even using an humidifier.

You need to have a vent outside the room (through a window, or the like) for the air conditioners to be effective. We have one that we use in an upstairs bedroom that leaves the bathroom that we vent it in almost unusable because it becomes too hot. This is Australia though and the temperatures we are cooling from are possibly higher than yours. An additional consideration is that air conditioners remove humidity from rooms so you will never be able to get the proper level of humidity to cure or age meat using one. You could potentially use an evaporative cooler but this will increase humidity in a closed space possibly too much for your purposes. It always comes down to the battle between temperature control and humidity control.

I keep a dual purpose humidity and temperature pen from Thermoworks in my wine fridge. It can stay on and I can tell at a glance what the temperature and humidity is. At $25 it meets your requirements for "sanely priced." Accuracy for humidity is +/- 3%, which is ample for my needs.

I've used a similar process with a number of casseroles and it works just fine. Although for Goulash I tend to prefer low and slow in my Staub enamelled cast iron pot. As for Pedro's point about searing the meat to give flavour, why not pre-sear the meat before cooking it sous vide to achieve this? I tend to sear my meat and remove it before cooking the onions in the pot and this would mimic it. With my Goulash, I use essentially the same recipe above with the modification of using equal weights of onions and meat (this proportion came from Austrian in-laws)and stock in place of the water for more flavour. I also use sweet, smoked, paprika in place of "normal" paprika. I think traditionally it would be served with Spaetzle, but I'm sure pep. can correct me if I'm wrong. As a non-traditional but tasty variant, serve it with some creme fraiche on top and some parsley sprinkled over.

Belachan (Malaysian Shrimp paste). Even supposedly airtight containers won't contain the odour. Tastes wonderful when cooked but you'd have to wonder how brave the first person was who tried this.

Use bay leaves as a substitute.

I seem to remember reading in the Cooking Issues article on using transglutaminase that salt enhances its effect. You may need to use less Activa with the pancetta.

Like pep., I notice with bemusement that a number of the commentators saying that Alice Waters is well known outside the USA are writing from within the USA. As someone living outside the USA, I say "Alice Who?" Not on my radar at all. Had heard the name but do not know anything about her apart from some comments on this board. I don't know what she looks like if that gives you any idea of how much impact she has here in Australia. As for the USA influence on world food, I'd have to comment that it is huge but the influence to my mind is more along the lines of fast food and predominately negatively viewed. To my mind, the Chinese or Japanese have had far more influence on world food than the USA. In many countries around the world, I'd also add the Indians to this list. Before the hackles come up, not criticising merely observing. Given what I've said above, I'd have to give my vote for the world's most controversial food figure to Ronald McDonald as what this marketing icon represents has probably caused more protests and law suits around the world than any other figure in food history (although I do like the comment above about the author of Leviticus).

I've found exactly the same thing. It actually helps in the long run because the Pastrami is so good, you're going to be making more and will need the rub. Still...

I was always told to dilute a bit of vanilla essence in water and use this to wipe out the inside of the fridge.

Interesting discussion. Out of respect to foreign languages I try to learn the correct pronunciation from the country of origin. I see this as polite rather than pretentious. Not sure I always get it right but appreciate being corrected when I don't.

Using Japanese iron knives that will rust even if left briefly on the countertop with some water on them, I always wipe/wash appropriately straight away, dry, and put back in rack. If I'm feeling particularly obsessive, there will be an oiling step in there after the drying. Awkward, I know, but the cutting product is to die for.

This is still a three step process: i) Look something up in the index ii) Find it inside the volumes iii) If it has a red label check the amendment in the errata If the index could already have this colour coding we would know to check the errata straight away before searching for it in our volumes. But the errata only give the correction rather than the whole recipe. You will always look it up in the index and then find it inside the volumes. So two steps in your definition are always going to occur. If there is a red dot, you look up the correction; if not, you don't. Playing around with the index as you suggest just means that you consult the errata before finding it inside the volumes: a change of order, but not a step less. I'm not sure what benefit would be gained by this process apart from not putting the dots on the pages. Moreover, as I will often go to a recipe without checking the index, your process actually adds another step, viz. 1. find interesting recipe, 2. check index to see if it has an error, 3. look up errata. By flagging the recipe direct, you cut out step 2.

Searing steak taken directly from 55c with an extremely hot grill pan (heated on my stove top wok burner) adds a maillard effect and produces lovely grill marks without seeming to cook the food below the surface. Perhaps your pans are simply not hot enough.

Modern English usage or modern American English usage? I'd make the observation that there is a significant difference between the two in terms of pronunciation.

In Vino Veritas - In Wine [there is] Truth

I've just finished the task of correcting my copies. Like others, I did not want to mark my texts but still wanted to have an indication as to whether there was an error on the page I was looking at. To do this, I decided to "red flag" each page with an error. In my case, however, I "red dotted" them with stickers (something like these). This indicates to me that there is an error on that page. I will then look up what it is on the errata for that volume, which I will keep in the front of each volume. As more errors are found, I'll update the dots and errata. Thank you Nathan et al for not securing the PDF, this allowed me to copy it into Word for reformatting to my needs. Would it be possible, however, to get a complete list of the errors in Volume 6 on the MC web site? I realise they are contained within the individual chapter errata but it took a lot of cutting and pasting to make a consolidated list for this volume.

I use a Bamix blender. it makes exceptional salad dressings, mayonnaise, etc.

Thanks Pam for a wonderful blog. As a gentile, it was very interesting to see how you celebrate Passover.

The Pommes Pont-Neuf recipe is in essence Heston Blumenthal's triple cooked chips. When I make those, I use water to cover and a heavy simmer rather than a rolling boil, which is likely to produce too much agitation and break up the chips. I then take them out when they look appropriately cooked, and cool/dry them in my refrigerator as I do not have a chamber vacuum sealer. These work very well.

I tea-smoke duck all the time. You only need a wok and a bamboo steamer with lid. Take off the duck's breasts. Put them skin side down in a cold pan. Turn on the heat to let the skin brown slightly and render out some of the fat (a few minutes will do). Next place the breasts skin side down in the bamboo steamer with the lid on. Put two layers of aluminium foil on the bottom of your wok. Mix the contents of a tea bag with an equal amount of rice and sugar and put it on the foil. Turn wok on high, place bamboo steamer in wok covering the package. Cook/smoke until done (probably around five minutes, depends on the heat of your wok burner). A few tips: 1. This produces a lot of smoke so it helps if you have a good range hood or, as I do, do it outside on the wok burner on the BBQ grill. 2. The bamboo steamer will become very impregnated with smoke. It will become your smoking steamer only. Here is a picture of the finished dish when done with puy lentils, carrot, celery, and onion.