nickrey

Nick, what kind of wood did you use to smoke it? I used applewood, which turned out very well. I think hickory, the other choice I have on hand, would have been a bit too much. I've been using a blend of mesquite and apple woodchips. I agree that hickory would be too much.

Having made this with two different cuts now (a leanish round and beef cheek), I can state categorically that Chris is not exaggerating about the taste. The cheek was a better texture: I suspect more similar to the ribs that Chris used.

I inherited my grandmother's Salton tray. Still works like a dream.

My cut was topside, which is something more equivalent to US round. I agree with you on the tender cuts, they are fine just as they are.

Mashed potatoes can be successfully cooled and reheated over gentle heat without any discernible (to me) change in eating quality. It surprised me when I first saw someone do this but I tried it and it worked. I also use a warming tray to hold wet foods such as casseroles, stews, and soups. It keeps them over the danger zone but not sufficiently hot enough to continue cooking.

I'm pretty sure it relates to time in the "danger zone." If you thaw it slowly in the fridge, it never reaches the danger zone. If you thaw it in the sous vide set up, the thermal conductivity means that it passes through the danger zone sufficiently quickly so as not to do damage. The heating process through thermal conductivity is what Douglas has modelled in his equations and tables. Thawing it in cold water with many changes is a way of maintaining a temperature differential between the meat and the water so it thaws comparatively quickly. To my mind, this would be potentially the most dangerous option of the three, particularly if you were not cooking it straight away and needed to rechill it.

It will be interesting to see if you replicate these findings.

I'd avoid that one unless they were made specifically for cooking. One of the liquids used in some of them is mercury. No point poisoning yourself to get better heat conduction in your food.

Being on the Asian rim, we tend to use a lot of garlic in cooking here. I've broken four to five garlic presses over my lifetime, including some ostensibly heavy duty ones. Seems the lever action makes a weakness in the metal rather than pressing the garlic out. I really hate it when they snap. As a consequence, I gave up on them around twenty years ago. This led to me using a paring knife, chopping the garlic like I chop onions (fine slice from top to tail, flip 90 degrees, fine slice to make long strands, then cut across the other cuts). This comes up with an extremely fine dice. It's fiddly but quick with practice. More recently, however, I've bought a microplane for garlic and this is my new toy. Quick peel with a paring knife and then micro-fine grating on the plane. Even with my clumsy fingers I can hold the clove in such a way as not to slice my skin. The mince is so fine, I'm sure there is no need to bruise the garlic to get maximum flavour extraction.

Sure do and that's where it came from. My wife asked if we would need steak knives and I said, no, just a spoon.

How about the Yotam Ottolenghi book called Plenty? These are the sort of dishes that you'd see in restaurants. The emphasis is on tasty, well-presented, dishes without meat rather than tub-thumping vegetarianism.

I know this may lead to a whole new discussion, and it is one that we've had previously, but as a general guide the following core temperatures correspond to the associated level of "doneness". Note that if you are using a high heat source to cook, you are going to get continuing cooking while "resting the meat" which can represent up to an additional 2C. Blue = 45C rare = 50C medium-rare = 55C medium = 60C medium well = 65C well = 70C

Posted this over on "Cooking with Modernist Cuisine thread." Thought I'd post it here too as it was dinner and many of you are possibly not looking over there. 72-hour sous vide cooked beef cheek pastrami. Served tonight with mashed potato, Red Cabbage with Wine, and an Israeli pickle.

My books have arrived. Here is the beef cheek pastrami. Served tonight with mashed potato, Red Cabbage with Wine, and an Israeli pickle.

As Corinna says, all the vinegar is not 50 years old. That is part of the Solera process. The vinegars are stacked one on top of the other with the oldest, from which the product is drawn, being on the bottom. Every year they draw off up to a third of the vinegar and sell it. This is replenished from the next oldest vat, and so on. All the casks used were previously filled with Sherry. As far as I am aware, the same process is used for Balsamic except they tend to use different woods in the vats, thus imparting a multi-layered flavour. This vinegar is not a sweet vinegar by any means. If you were expecting that, I'm sorry to have misled. If you compare it with other similar vinegars (ie. not sweet ones such as the Pedro Ximinez vinegars), you will see that it has much more complexity from the aging process. On a personal note, I like "sharp" rather than "sweet" vinegars. Not quite sure if that is a synonym for "rough" or "harsh" but if you are used to and prefer sweeter vinegars, it makes sense. I am sure that andiesenji's suggestion will make it more palatable if you prefer a sweeter product.

Is it matured coke from the bottle or post-mix that you use Blether?

I go to Scotch Malt Whisky Society tastings where we sample cask strength, unfiltered, brews of around 55% alcohol or above. The water we use is spring water at room temperature, which is the same as the whisky temperature. So temperature changes are not involved. We try the whisky without water first. Then we may add a miniscule amount, which always results in a cloudiness forming in the glass. Some whiskies benefit from the addition of water, some don't: but in both cases it changes the taste of the whisky. If you want to read some musings on the chemical underpinnings of this process, check out this post on the Khymos.org blog.

My favourite is Marcella Hazan's tuna and bean salad. Small can Italian tuna in oil. Can of cannelini beans, drained. 1/2 Spanish onion, finely sliced and soaked in water for an hour (change water a few times) then drain. Mix it all together. Add salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil to taste. My wife normally won't go near canned tuna. She does with this recipe.

He's one of Marco Pierre White's proteges. Tough school to be brought up in: Marco is notoriously known as the only chef to make Gordon Ramsay cry. Stone was head chef in one of MPW's restaurants. Must be able to cook.

Never to high heat. I've seen what it does to non-stick surfaces (those bubbles do split and the coating goes into the food). Mostly I'll heat to medium before adding food and put a little bit of oil in. With onions and garlic, I put both in together and start the pan off at cold. For some reason this does not lead to blackened garlic that you get when you try this in a pre-heated pan. Perhaps the modernist cuisine people can tell us why: all I know is it works.

My BBQ has a smoker tray with a burner underneath so hot smoking is easy for me. I've been interested in cold smoking for a while, but never made the move. Maybe when my copy of MC turns up I might make the leap. I just checked the Bradley web site - the 4 shelf digital in the US is $500 and here in Australia it is $825 (USD=AUD at the moment). I can't understand how a 240V conversion could cost >$300. Might just go for Chris' Ghetto 4000 instead. Cheers, Peter. I suspect the same way that books published in Australia can be exported to the US or UK for us to purchase them (including postage) cheaper than we can source them locally. A fine example of the profit motive at work.

Like all forms of ceviche, the acid in the grapefruit cooks the protein. You can definitely eat it as is.

How about Kibbeh? Minced lamb plus cracked wheat, pine nuts, herbs and spices. Form it around a pre-soaked skewer, grill it and enjoy.

I use Gran Gusto from Bodegas Paez Morilla in Jerez. Amazon link here. have tried a number of sherry vinegars and this is one of the best cheaper ones around. On a related point, you can also get aged Sherry vinegars at a fraction of the cost of comparable balsamics. I use a few drops of this 50 year old vinegar on 12 month old Manchego cheese. It is a taste sensation.

I asked ages ago in the old sous vide thread if anyone else had experienced this. For me it tends to happen when there are cloves in the marinade of whatever is being cooked. It's interesting to hear that it happens to others as well.