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Everything posted by nickrey
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My thought with vegemite in sauces would be to avoid adding any extra salt until the end of cooking. Treat it like fish sauce.
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I used to have a centrifugal juicer and know from personal experience how it heated up the product. My non-centrifugal one does nothing of the sort. These findings have also been found in independent tests carried out by the Australian Consumer Association, Choice. As part of their review they looked at oxidation in apple juice. Here is a part of their findings: "The apple juice from the centrifugal juicers separated and went brown a few minutes after juicing. After two days it was noticeably deteriorating, didn’t smell fresh, had a hard froth on top and a layer of sediment at the bottom — indicating a higher level of oxidation. By contrast, the juice from the non-centrifugal juicers didn’t separate, smelt fresh and looked palatable and green after 48 hours in the fridge, indicating less oxidation." (Choice website, review 2009).
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I'm Australian and I haven't tried it. Tend to boost the Umami in my dishes using Heston Blumenthal's suggestion of putting star anise in. I supplement this with dried and powdered shiitake mushroom powder. Will try vegemite in next one.
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Not that it's going to help you much Chris, but the one that I purchased here in Australia is non-centrifugal juicer like a Champion but also minces, stuffs sausages, makes pasta, etc. I use it often. The link is here. When compared to my type of juicer, the sort that you linked to tends to underextract juice while simultaneously overheating it through the mechanism used.
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"Modernist Cuisine" by Myhrvold, Young & Bilet (Part 2)
nickrey replied to a topic in Cookbooks & References
As someone who had access to the electronic preview copy of the book, I'd have to say that even with a 22 inch monitor, it was hard to read. Plus as Chris Amirault said, there is the the desire to cross reference and have mutiple volumes open at the same time. I'm still to get my print copy, which is on a slow boat from the US but I'm sure that it will be easier to use than the PDF version that I had access to. Transferring it to an e-format that would be usable would be a huge undertaking and hence would not come cheaply. My suggestion is don't hold your breath for it happening any time soon, if at all. -
I was quite taken by the concept of sausages cooked with grapes in Pierogi's food blog. Decided to try it out. Bought some white and red seedless grapes and then consulted the Flavor Bible to see what other flavours went with grapes. Amongst their suggestions were blue cheese and walnuts. I cooked the sausages on the grapes as Pierogi did but then diverged slightly. I had already dry roasted the walnuts in the oven while it was warming up. So I took the sausages and put them aside, served the grapes in the serving bowls. Then grated some hardish blue cheese on the grapes. Because of the heat, the blue cheese immediately became a sauce. I then sprinkled the roasted walnuts on top and put the sausages back on top of the dish. Here it is: The sausages I used were Toulouse sausages, which incorporate red wine and garlic. The flavour combination was exceptional and it was a meal in itself. Rustic and comforting.
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Hi Anna, Nice to see that you're getting some success with sous vide. Your US cuts are different from the Australian/UK cuts. Sirloin here is a tender cut of meat. Apparently yours is less so. With less tender cuts, I tend to go long and slow. I'd try 12 hours at 55C (131F). If it's too mushy at the end of this, cut the cooking time down to six hours.
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In US cuts it would approximate the piece of the round near the tail. Had it in a Reuben for lunch. Out of this world. Chris, I adjusted the cooking time to 12 hours at 55c to account for the composition of the meat.
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I thought that cooking the meat in liquid would remove the outer surface. This didn't happen at all. This is a picture of the meat after 12 hours of sous vide cooking: And cut: The cut that I used was a topside, which was not as heavily marbled as the cheeks that the Modernist Cuisine authors used. The meat appears a bit dry in the photo but it is not in real life. It is also absolutely delicious. Next time I'll try the cheeks or another cut with more marbling.
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"Modernist Cuisine" by Myhrvold, Young & Bilet (Part 2)
nickrey replied to a topic in Cookbooks & References
Before MC, there was a whole thread on the use of the Jaccard to tenderise steaks (see here). This works by putting many small holes in the steak. NathanM was a key contributor to this thread. He, and others, found that the holes actually reduce juice leakage from the steak. I cooked two pieces of the same steak, one jaccarded and one not for exactly the same time. The jaccarded one weighed more than the non-jaccarded one, showing it retained more "juice" (Total weight loss post resting Jaccarded - 13.64%; non-jaccarded - 17.19%) I think this whole thought process of juices leaking comes from the totally incorrect concept that searing the meat at high heat somehow "seals in" the juices. Nathan et al write at length in the book about the properties of meat and how heat affects it and, like McGee, debunk this myth. In answer to your specific question, yes you will lose a bit of "juice" but it does not form a well from which the juices will flow from the sealed meat. -
The problem with making something that requires brining for a long period is that you announce that you're making it and nothing happens... As announced well over a week ago, I've been making the pastrami recipe from Modernist Cuisine. Well it's been brined (I left it for 9 days in total) and has today been smoked in my Weber barbeque kettle (at or around the dictated temperature, always above 60C so it has never been in the danger zone for growing beasties). Later tonight, I'm going to put it back into the boiled and strained brine and finish it off sous vide. As I've used a different cut from that recommended, it will not need three days of cooking so I'll report back in the next few days as to how it turned out. Here is the picture of the newly smoked piece of meat with its pastrami spice rub in place.
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Use the Chinese sausage in your fried rice. Jack fruit is quite different from Durian. The latter smells horrible, like sewerage, the former more like onions. I've had jackfruit as a fruit component part of an Asian breakfast, where it tastes like a tart banana. It can also be eaten as part of a savoury meal: today we had a delicious Indonesian jackfruit curry.
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"Modernist Cuisine" by Myhrvold, Young & Bilet (Part 2)
nickrey replied to a topic in Cookbooks & References
I notice that the traditionalists are out in force. Hi guys, we meet again. Tonight I cooked a piece of ocean trout sous vide for an avid foodie who had not tried this preparation method before. Her response was that this is now her benchmark for eating this fish. For those of you who won't try any form of modernist cuisine 'on principle,' I feel sorrow that you will not try something simply because it is new. I still poach my eggs the traditional way because that's how I prefer them. But I've tried other ways of preparing them and was very open that there may be better ways of cooking them: my preference was for the traditional in this instance. I certainly hope my tombstone says "searching for perfection" rather than "keeper of the faith." -
"Modernist Cuisine" by Myhrvold, Young & Bilet (Part 1)
nickrey replied to a topic in Cookbooks & References
Not sure if I'm a true believer or an accolade (sic, do you mean acolyte?) but having had access to a review copy (yes, actually seeing it and cooking from it) all I can say is it is one of the most informative and well presented books I have ever seen. The information covers the scientific and historical basis of cooking and provides a solid foundation for anyone doing any form of cooking, not just modernist. If a populist chooses to deride the book sight unseen I really think he's fair game for those who have seen it or even to those who do not accept baseless opinions because an "authority" makes them. Reading through this whole thread, it seems that most of the acolytes or true believers are concentrated amongst those who think because the book has to be bad because it has the word "modernist" in the title and/or is more expensive than what they are used to. As is the case for Alton Brown, I haven't seen evidence any of them having read the book. With the high level of expectation around this book it would be likely, and understandable, that people who paid a large amount of money for the book would get stuck into the authors if it didn't live up to the hype. Has anyone done so yet ... anyone who has read the books? < ... queue cricket noise ...> -
I second Silo bakery. Also, try the Fyshwick markets. Here and is some select supermarkets, you can buy exceptional Italian bread packaged in white paper bags. The brand I used to prefer was Carbones. It's woodfired and ideal for bruschetta.
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I salt and brown steak on a very hot grill pan to give grill marks and some maillard effect (as if I were starting cooking from scratch). If there's fat, as for the cuts you described, I cook that in parallel with my high-strength butane blowtorch.
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eG Foodblogs: Coming Attractions (2010/2011)
nickrey replied to a topic in Food Traditions & Culture
Looking forward to the blog Pierogi. Ollie and I will be watching with interest -
"Modernist Cuisine" by Myhrvold, Young & Bilet (Part 1)
nickrey replied to a topic in Cookbooks & References
Woot, mine too. Up until the status change, it had said shipping on Mar 7. -
eG Foodblogs: Coming Attractions (2010/2011)
nickrey replied to a topic in Food Traditions & Culture
My first thought was also rancho-gordo or could it be Jmahl? -
Given that Nathan said they use the equilibrium cure method, I'm surprised that 7 days is long enough. For example, these guys found the concentration of salt was not yet at equilibrium after 11 days in one of their experiments. Does MC say that they expect the meat to reach equilibrium by day 7? I copied the recipe before access stopped. The wagyu cheeks are brined for 72 hours only and are around 250g each. The recipe is for 1 kg and in the substitution section, they say to brine brisket, fatty end, for 7 days. Took that as around equivalent, especially considering my piece of topside is only 600g. Will let you know results. I note from your link emannths that the piece of meat they referred to there was 1.2kg, that's twice the size of my piece.
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You can use it to suck the moisture out of potatoes for tripled cooked chips. Infusing liquids into fruits (eg. watermelon juice into watermelon to give ultra tasty watermelon). Infusing fruits with vodka. Compressing fruits (including tomatoes). Make your own aero chocolate. Vacuum seal food so it lasts longer/in preparation for freezing. Did I say infusing fruits with vodka?
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Slice Ciabatta. Toast. Top with freshly sliced sun-ripened warm tomato. Add shredded basil, a bit of sea salt, drizzle on a bit of olive oil. Eat. To get fancy, add buffalo mozzarella in the mix. Summer delight.
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Had some beetroot I needed to cook so tonight's dinner was sous vide cooked fillet steak salad accompanied by beetroot in a yoghurt and horseradish sauce and pine nuts.