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Everything posted by nickrey
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Alcohol free whisky and vodka: WHY?
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There was an article in our newspaper today about wine in plastic bottles. A study commissioned by a plastic bottle manufacturer found that wine stored in glass and plastic tasted similar in the short term. After about eight months, however, the wine in the plastic starts deteriorating because PET bottles are permeable to air, which oxidises the wine.
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Nice looking menu. I’m thinking things like: Introductions to dishes • providing information about the provenance of the dishes • featuring small elements of dishes building up to the final product • working on palate (cleaning, priming) to gain maximum effect of flavour; this could complement or contrast with the dish • multimedia presentations on evolution of the dishes (think El Bulli-type creativity timelines in multimedia format) Presentation of dishes • lights go down, dishes appear, various different lightings of dishes • releases of scents • vapours from dry ice or (harmless) chemical reactions • use technology to enhance the sensory experience: things like amplifying the crunch of chips making them seem more crisp Evaluation of dishes • Get them thinking about the dishes: what was in them, what dominated, which flavours went well together (use technology to collect or quantify the ratings, feed them back, gain a consensus) – use keypad, scoring device (use pocket computers as data entry devices) • Get them thinking about memories that were evoked in the dishes; when was the first time they tried something like that, what was the experience, how has it affected their approach to food. I’d avoid: • Pictures of the food product prior to cooking (brings up memories of that scene from "Restaurant at the end of the universe" where the talking animal recommends various parts of its body to the diners)
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Any thoughts on why? As they report it, the meat is very moist, yet dry in mouth feel. It seems from the article that they are proposing that the fibers are too compressed in higher vacuums yet the juices are retained. Perhaps this is an extreme version of why a some people don't like some sous vide salmon, because the mouth feel is not what they are used to. I wonder what would happen if they rested the meat with the vacuum released rather than in the pressurised bags? The oil samples most probably reflect an extension of the "mouth feel" variable. It seems we may need to add some extra descriptors to allow us to better describe our perceptions of sous vide versus normal cooking.
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One theme that is coming through loud and clear is to avoid any gimmick that detracts from the eating experience. Heston Blumenthal's sound of the sea works because it evokes on an emotional level the sensations associated with his memories of eating and the beach. The question is how do you make technology enhance the overall experience. How can you make people relive emotional highs to really kick the eating experience up a notch? The other way that technology is used is to violate our normal assumptions about food (think the El Bulli olives that look and taste like green olives but squish in your mouth). Technology is a way of achieving these outcomes but it is a tool rather than the end in itself. Let us know what you are thinking of serving and I'm sure we can come up with some ideas along these lines.
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I've dabbled in doing vegetables and although they produce reasonably good results, I'm not really convinced that they are better than vegetables cooked by conventional methods. My reading suggests that it is the vacuuming process and its impact on texture rather than the cooking that may hold some promise, particularly with fruit. Unfortunately my vacuum sealer is not sophisticated enough to explore this further.
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Larousse Gastronomique 1938 (the first edition)
nickrey replied to a topic in Cookbooks & References
It might be interesting to trace the whole history of this book in French and in English. Mine is actually called the New (Nouveau in French edition) Larousse Gastronomique and is an English edition published by Hamlyn. The French copyright is 1960 (English version 1977). According to the preface it was the first total rewrite of the Prosper Montagne original. The preface was written by Robert J. Courtine and one of the chief additions is the concept of refrigeration, which was when the first edition was written. It was edited by Janet Dunbar. Was the 1988 Edition and update of this? Did they then drop the "New" part of the title? I got this copy from a library selling old books: silly people. -
Forgive the old eyes -- what's that garnish between the tomatoes. It looks like it's sitting on slivers of cheese, but for the life of me I can't make out what it is. At first I thought it was a mussel ?? Rhonda ← It's a rather tasty pesto-like creation made from continental parsley, pine nuts, salt, olive oil, tomato, and balsamic vinegar. When tasted on its own, believe it or not, it tastes like it contains avocado. What appear to be slivers of cheese is how the extra virgin olive oil pooled around them.
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Tonight's dinner: Smoked Salmon with Celeriac Remoulade
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If it's a sour taste, the likely culprit is some form of lactic acid producing bacteria (eg. Leuconostoc, Pediococcus, Lactobacilli). These are an anaerobic bacteria which grow when oxygen supply is limited and carbon dioxide increases (such as in vacuum packaging). Lund, Baird-Parker and Gould (2000) in their book "The microbiological safety and quality of food" state that growth of spoiling bacteria is moderated by the pH level of the food and the oxygen permeability of the barrier used. "Below 10C, meat with a pH in the normal range [5.5-5.8] will support the growth of lactic acid bacteria and eventually become sour." (p.395). Interestingly, the presence of lactic acid is an inhibitor to the growth of spoilage bacteria and foodborne pathogens [Vermeiren, Devlieghere, and Debevere (2004) Evaluation of meat born lactic acid bacteria as protective cultures for the biopreservation of cooked meat products. International journal of food microbiology 2004;96, pp. 149-164.] The meat may not have tasted nice but it was most likely quite safe to eat. The bacteria grow across a wide temperature range (-1 to 38.1 degrees celsius) [Korkeala, Mäkelä and Suominen (1990). Growth temperatures of ropy slime-producing lactic acid bacteria. Journal of food protection, Vol 53, pp. 793-803]. Somewhere in the food chain between producer and your plate, it seems that anaerobic storage has led to an increase in lactic-acid producing bacteria. As it has happened to you on two different types of meat from two different suppliers, one can posit that it is happening somewhere in your handling of the meat and that it is probably related to vacuum packing and storage. Have you checked the temperature of your freezer? As to the smell in the water of the sous vide bath, I posted a while ago that I cooked some beef cheeks that were sealed in a food saver bag in a jus that included cloves. The water in my rice cooker came to smell strongly like cloves (much more so than one would expect from residue on the packaging), despite the seal being apparently intact (no water leakage). My thought is that the plastic is potentially permeable to small molecules which then leads to the smell. No-one replied last time; perhaps with two of us experiencing similar issues, the question may assume more prominence. Is it potentially something to do with the plastic used in Food Saver bags and scent molecules?
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A proprietary cleaning agent. It removes Calcium, Lime, and Rust: hence the name.
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Ok, now we're getting there. The tart you are talking about is called "Elsässer Flammekueche." It's actually closer to pizza than to quiche. This recipe is translated from the German. For 6 persons Ingredients: Dough 430 g flour, salt 15 g of oil or lard 1 / 4 l water Topping: 400 grams fresh cream (use creme fraiche) 400 g sliced onions 200 g bacon cut into thin strips (obviously optional in this case) (no cheese but you could add and reduce the cream) Preparation: Put flour in a mound with a well in the middle. Add the oil, salt and water, mixing with a fork until a soft dough is formed. If doing in a food processor add all ingredients except the water, start the processor and add the water until a smooth dough is formed. Cut the dough into six equal portions and roll into thin circles. Transfer to baking sheet/pizza trays. Roll edges slightly to give a lip to the base. Place the onion rings on the surface spread the cream(/cheese) mixture over the dough. If using bacon spread over this mixture. Cook in a very hot oven for 5 to 10 minutes until the pastry is crispy and the topping is bubbling.
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Was that Celsius or Fahrenheit? If Fahrenheit, the temperature seems way too low. There was a series of posts on cooking beef cheeks sous vide around Dec 15th 2008 and the temperatures ranged from around 56-57 degrees celsius (133-136 F) through to much higher heats. I think the consensus (if there is such a thing) would be around 57C/136F for around 48 to 72 hours. The Wagyu is high quality meat but even in these pampered bovines, their cheeks are still doing a lot of work and are thus tough and in need of tenderising (low and slow cooking).
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That you not a bacon eater probably means that you are looking for an Alsace onion tart. If the one you are thinking of uses a shortcrust pastry, try this recipe. If not, perhaps you could specify more exactly what you are looking for.
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Thanks everyone for your input. Attempt one is described below: I wound up using the following ingredients to make my loaf: 340g unbleached wheat flour 40g soya flour 220g organic wholemeal spelt 80g burghul 40g coarse cut oatmeal 30g unprocessed bran 20g oat bran 35g linseed 4g dried yeast Lukewarm water in 0.75 ratio of weight (604g) (added after first step) 6g salt. I mixed all the ingredients together (except the salt) and transferred around 2/3 of the mixture to my electric mixer's bowl. I then added the whole amount of water and mixed on low speed. The other 1/3 of the ingredients mixture then formed a blanket while the mixture fermented at room temperature. After around 90 minutes, I put the mixing bowl containing the pre-ferment on my mixer and added 6g salt. I then used the dough hook for around 9 minutes to first mix and then knead the bread. This was done until the gluten was forming obvious bands in the mixture. This was covered with plastic film to rise to double its height. The dough was then knocked back gently, formed, and placed in an oiled bread tin. Again it was left to rise until double its height. The loaf was then sprayed with water, placed into a pre-heated 200 degrees celsius fan-forced oven, and cooked until the internal temperature was 92 degrees celsius (measured by my trusty thermapen). It was then cooled on a wire rack. The resultant bread had a very crisp crust and a strong grain texture. It is dense and moist but very edible: more like northern European than "conventional" bread. (I know, no presoaking of grains, minimal pre-ferment, no added sugars to speed up the fermentation: but it seems to have worked despite this) Here it is:
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I've always understood that TBA and Eiswein are sort of semi-overlapping categories...you don't always even get them in the same year, but TBA is an unfrozen grape that has a certain potential alcohol from the sugar content, and has begun to raisinate on the vine...the word trockenbeerenauslese literally means "select harvest of dried berries". No ice involved though, but botrytis often is. ← The early 70s saw legislation in Germany for categorisations of wines based on their natural sugar content. The top-tier German wine categorisation "Qualitätswein mit Prädikat" defines the higher sugar classes of wines as being from German-grown grapes with specific ranges of natural sugar by weight. They cannot have sugar added to them during production. A rough guideline for the minimum Oechsle values for the wines according to the categorisations are: Spaetlese: min 85 degrees Auslese: min 95 degrees Beerenauslese and Eiswein: min 125 degrees Trockenbeerenauslese: min 150 degrees. (Before people reply, these guidelines differ from those given on many English-based web sites and were instead sourced from German-based web sites). You can see that Eiswein is made from grapes with the same sugar concentration as beerenauslese grapes. Eiswein is unique in that the grapes are picked frozen at temperatures less than -7 degrees Celsius. Eiswein is thus more appropriately a category partner to beerenauslese rather than to trockenbeerenauslese. The Trockenbeerenauslese is categorised by the natural sugar content of the grapes. The minimum is 150 Oechsle (around 35% sugar by weight). They are normally botyrised, as you point out, but also are left on the vines until nearly dry; hence the extremely low yield. By definition if they are left on the vine that long, they are subject to cooler climactic conditions but do not involve the deliberate harvesting of frozen grapes.
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My learning was for German Wines that the categorisation went: Spaetlese - late picked Auslese - very late picked, more a dessert wine Beeren Auslese - very very late picked Eiswein (Ice Wine) - Damn where is our Beeren Auslese? Just go out and pick those grapes, I don't care about the ice, I hope you get some juice from them. Trocken Beeren Auslese - what do you mean, you infected some of the grapes, isn't the cold enough for them? We in Australia don't have the cold that you have in the upper Northern hemisphere so we tend to use botrytis for our dessert wines.
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That all looks delicious. The whole wheat baguette especially. The uniformity of colouring on that steak almost looks like a sous vide product
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Seems the issue is a global one. There was an interesting article on this topic in the Australian Newspaper last weekend: link here.
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Fish sauce in the fridge leads to salt crystals. Olive oil in the fridge leads to a viscous gloop. Having experienced both, I now keep these items only in the pantry. Have you tried gently heating the fish sauce and stirring to try to get the salt back into solution? We also had an interesting article on choosing the best Asian ingredients in one of our newspaper magazines on the weekend. They recommended Viet Huong Three Crabs brand fish sauce. Having discovered this a while ago myself, I can fully endorse that recommendation. The taste difference from widely used fish sauces is like moving from cheap to vintage wine. If this is not what you are using in your Vietnamese cooking, why not try and get some of this instead?
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The problem is the complexity of what you are trying to reproduce. There are nine acids in fruit juices (oxalic, citric, malic, quinic, galacturonic, ascorbic, succinic, and fumaric acid) and three sugars (sucrose, glucose and fructose) [Chinnici et al (2005) Optimization of the determination of organic acids and sugars in fruit juices by ion-exclusion liquid chromatography. Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, Vol 18, pp. 121-130]. To get the sourness and sweetness balance right for a true citric flavour you'd need to add these in appropriate proportions. The absence of any of these components through filtering, etc will lead to people tasting it saying that it seems like orange juice but that it's not quite right.
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Many many famous artists have teams of workers knocking out their works for them. They just issue the brief and put their signatures on the finished piece. Damien Hirst works in this way and Salvador Dali was known to sign blank canvasses. ← All the Rennaisance artists worked in this way, including Leonardo Da Vinci. A chef, by definition, is head of the kitchen. They are like a conductor of an orchestra, who coordinates and leads others who play the instruments that make up the final piece as envisioned by him or her. The chef is there to create dishes, train others in making these to exacting standards, and maintain quality control. How often would any named chef in a restaurant actually touch your food? The answer is most likely very rarely. Even then, it may often be down to a final check over before the dish is sent to your table. We have seen at least one notable British chef who appears to have spread himself far too thin and is currently paying the cost for this. Will Heston do so? I suppose that remains to be seen.
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For my daily salt, I use sea salt from the Trapani Salt Pans by Vincenzo Gucciardo. This is an Egullet friendly link on Amazon. The taste reminds me of beachside holidays when I was young (in Australia, not Sicily).
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Deep fried chicken roll. Stuffed with prosciutto, baby spinach, garlic, pine nuts, fetta, semi dried tomatoes. Crumbed with Panko breadcrumbs. Served with triple cooked chips and simple arugula and parmesan salad.
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Presto was reiterating the USDA recommendation not to use pressure cookers for canning. This is based on differences in size and thermal properties of the cookers/canners, particularly in terms of times for heat up and cool down, which are included in the processing times given. Because of these differences, the timings for a pressure canner cannot be used on a pressure cooker while maintaining the safety margin. I do use a pressure cooker for canning stocks (I have more shelf space for jars than freezer space so canning is necessary if I am to use home-made stocks with convenience). These are left under pressure for times that give a conservative safety margin. The timings are calculated from food processing tables rather than from manufacturer's booklets. In my earlier reply I stated that the details of timings are too complicated to put into a reply here. Safety in food processing is not an art, it is a science. Basically you need to know the Fo values appropriate to the food, which is the total integrated lethal effect (lethal to bacteria, not to humans) required to deal with the bacteria typically found in that type of food. Also involved is consideration of heat applied, thermal conductivity of the material, and the size of the container. The maths is typically something that should not be tried at home and requires access to scientifically derived lethality tables. Sorry if I didn't make this clear earlier. This is a safety issue we are talking about here. If you intend canning food regularly, follow delta doc's recommendation and get yourself the proper instrument, which is a pressure canner. Then follow their directions to the letter.