Paul Kierstead

I tried the AB method of cooking this week (though not his sauce). I followed the recipe pretty doggedly. I'll give you that the crunch remains some time after saucing; impressive on that score. Also, clean-up wasn't horrid. However, they were somewhat dry and flavour was more neutral then one might wish. I also rarely have space in my fridge for a tray of wings (though did this time). I'd say if I wasn't feeling like deepfrying, and I was out of charcoal or it was below -10 C, then I might be doing the AB method. If someone has had juicier results, I might try it again more quickly; it is possible that mine were simply overcooked.

Pretty much. To be good, the curds must be extremely fresh; same day or next day from whence they were made. They need to squeek when you bite them. I think the curds are from cheddar manufacture here. Another variation (not poutine, but on the form) is the Newfoundland chip meal, the CDG, Or Chips, Dressing and Gravy. In this form the chips are piled on top of dressing (stuffing, as in poultry stuffing) and gravy added on top. Very fulfilling, especially for us dressing junkies. If you ever visit St. John's, Chess's has the best CDG there. Unlike these bigger cities, a place in St. John's that does not cut fresh potatoes the same day as use is considered a travesty; here, only a good chip truck will do that.

Poutine outside of Quebec is likely to be made with some bad fries (McCains) and shredded cheese. Quite horrid, though you can get some good stuff at something like a chip truck sometimes. The time I am totally unable to resist Poutine is while downhill skiing. Taking a mid-day break for some Poutine is truly heaven. A hill with bad poutine quality doesn't get returned to.

I am really fond of that recipe as well, and have made it many many times. It is really excellent, IMO. Just out of the fryer, the wings are so crisp and lovely it is almost a shame to sauce them, but the sauce is very good, so I always give in Last night I grilled some wings; brined and sprinkled bit of Pepper & Cheyenne. Over charcoal, 2 level fire, they picked up a lovely smoky flavour as well. Served with three dipping sauces: 2 locally made hot sauces (one kind of citrusy flavored, one with some cumin and more southwestern I expect) and some franks.

I put it on my facebook wall. Is that close enough? DEATH TO SKIMMING!!!!

I bought it recently (last week), and have made only the Basic White Bread, which was competent but not special (and was advertised as the plainest one...). Reading it has been fun, and I look forward to making the more advanced breads with mature starters and the like. I am not an advanced baker. I do resent the omission of weights, and have not yet located in the book where he states how much his cups weigh, that sort of thing, which is quite unexpected in one of his books. I shall report more as more happens!

Yup, crispy duck skin from confit is one of my favourites. The rest of the confit is OK too

I'm not kevin or a chemist, but hey, this is the internet. I did do a reasonable amount of 'controls' work. A PID controller can easily do 0.1C, *if* the system it is controlling is correct. First off, maintaining 0.1C at 'steady state' with no changing outside parameters is pretty easy. Assuming the thermocouple that is responsive enough, and a heater that is powerful enough, "all" you need to do is characterize your system and plug in the P,I and D parameters. A controller might be able to learn this in a specific set-up. It is when you distrub the system, like dumping a thermal load suddenly in it, that it goes off. Now, to regain your footing, you'll have to pump heat into it. So, you will need a more (how much? hard to say) powerful heater. Of course, the heat is localized; to spread it around, you'll want to circulate that water; the more powerful the heater, the harder you will have to circulate. And your PID settings will have to be choosen to have the response you want to that. Of course, the typical water volume, thermal loss to the surroundings, and typical thermal load can all be guessed for most situations to within some kind of sane guess, so I'd bet it wouldn't be too hard to have a system that can not only maintain 0.1C, but recover to it quite quickly. Of course, it might cost ya.

Come now, it is easy enough to convert the volumes to weights. I am sure someone here who has access to diamond crystal willing to weigh some out for out if google doesn't cough it up.

Mmmm ... chocolate product. Yum. Bringing the factory home!!! As an aside, you look at 50's and 60's cookbooks and that is indeed what they were often trying to do, trying to bring that factory product to your home kitchen, like make your own TV dinners kind of thing.

He loves things whizzed together and then thoroughly strained. Ad Hoc doesn't seem to have changed that. I'd suggest that what is required is a very very good blender. I had a blender, thought it was kinda useless. I bought a KA, and it is a *huge* improvement; it is one of those appliances where the gaps in performance are much larger then they should be. Now I know my KA is not a vita-mix, and I would really love to have the full variable speed of a vita-mix (*), but I believe any good blender will do the trick. PK (*) A good example of that was when I made the parsley water. My KA has a supposed 'soft-start' but still tended to flick the solids all up the side on start, causing grief. A real slow start would be very handy for that; a lot less stopping and scraping down. But you can make do. OTOH, I've made things like chive oil, for example, which is blended 'to death' (or steaming, actually...), and the KA did a lovely job on it.

Received Ad Hoc at Home on Friday, and made a few things saturday night. Course 1 Caramelized Sea Scallops. I served it on a little bed of arugula with some apricot preserve drizzled around the perimeter, and a light sprinkle of fleur de sel. The flavour was fantastic; they were moist and totally lovely with great texture and flavour. The cooking procedure was a little iffy. I could not get his brine to fully dissolve the salt (2 cups kosther salt in a total of 10 cups water); I may not have had the initial 2 cups water warm enough, though I don't know if 2 cups of salt can be dissolved in 2 cups water no matter how warm. When I did the caramelization, some of the scallops went awry and did not release. This caused those stuck bits to burn and generated some smoke and also left me some uncaramelized scallops; in spite of this, they (all of them) tasted wonderful, but the fully caramelized ones did indeed have some extra flavour. I was a little ticked on the caramelization thing, so no pics. I think I was betrayed by my pan here; I should know better by now. It is an *extremely* thick demeyere pan and almost inevitably holds heat better then instructions assume when the cold food hits it, so I usually back off the heat some. I had already backed if off some due the stove, I should have done a bit more for the pan. Course 2 Wild Cod en Persillade on top of Nantes Carrot Stew and Asparagus Coins. I also added some baby new potatoes, boiled and tossed with a bit of butter and S&P, I used Halibut, as suggested by the recipe as one of the substitutions, because the Halibut looked at lot better than the cod at the fish mongers. The "cod" (halibut) was delicious, totally wonderful, and dead easy. I'll note it was very good fish to start (and should be at its price, $17 for one moderate fillet). In addition, the dish was extremely easy and quick. The carrots were a little more complicated (especially since I couldn't find carrot juice and had to make my own) but were also extremely good and will be repeated. Even my g/f, who "doesn't like carrots" loved them and devoured them. The Asparagus Coins were good, maybe even quite good, but I doubt will be repeated. They are a bit of hassle, requiring chive oil (which I happened to have) and parsley water (which I had to make), and honestly weren't really better than some nice broiled or grilled asparagus. However, in fairness, I was stuck using peruvian asparagus, which I won't normally use, so that could have been a limiting fact. I think the potatoes rounded it out nicely and make it a pretty fulfilling meal. On a weeknight (when we eat less), I'd likely omit it and sub the asparagus with something else. pic: Our last course was a blueberry turnover from a local bakery. Good pastry, so-so filling. I need some pasty skills. Also, on Sunday night, I used his method of preparing duck confit for use in a salad (a little different then most suggestions) and it was fantastic.

OMG, no, they will never do that. It is their copyrighted material, and they'll die before they ever give it to you, whether it helps their sales and users or not.

LOL, too many years negotiating corporate mazes. Hope you'll enjoy the book! I made sorrel sauce from it last night; fairly unique and interesting sauce. Served it over salmon. One of those sauces where you taste the core ingredient (a sorrel puree) and you have a hard time believing this will come out well. Even the finished sauce was uhhhhh ... oh boy. But on salmon? Excellent! PK

In my opinion, yes. Of course, finding dissenting opinions is likely pretty easy To clarify, the quantity problem is the size of the book, not the recipes (though they need cut down too). Until you've given the whole book a serious skimming (maybe a few times), it can be hard to pick a sauce. Also, it is notable that it is a lot more about technique then recipes, so it isn't a "solutions" book, more of a learning book. Though lots of solutions too

That is the book. It may not be his best book (I don't know), since it is the only one by him that I own. I more often use the sauces section on a whim than with recipes in the book. I wouldn't buy the book for the sauces section alone; it is very good but relatively small part of the book. I really really love Sauces; I doubt it has a peer. However, its single biggest flaw can be its breadth and size; if you want a nice sauce other than brown butter for that sole meunière you just made (always a lovely fast and healthy dish!), it can be hard to know where to start in Sauces if you don't know, a priori, the right sort of sauce. This is where cut down size can help. Robuchon is a great book for me though, because it is so .... different then the common sort of cooking in NA. A lot less sautéing, a lot more gentle cooking, poaching, etc. More subtle and delicate flavours; really quite a different experience. Most of the recipes are for "modern" use, so relatively quick and easy, as these things go. My only real complaint is ingredients. No John Dory around here! But still, I use it often, especially for simpler meals.

Browse through a book like The French Laundry and you will quickly discover that, normally, the web and a book are not at all the same thing. The book will inspire (or scare) you, make you try new recipes you didn't even envision, let alone google, and pique your interest (and appetite!). To some extent, food blogs can do this, because they will offer you new information or new ideas you hadn't thought of. Other books, like Charcuterie or On Food and Cooking don't really have (currently) any web equivalent. The key is buying the right kind of books. In many cases a book which is just a reference book of recipes can, indeed, be replaced by web resources (*), but most good books contain far more than that. I love the web dearly, for cooking, but as of yet it is a long way away from replacing good books. (*)I find notable exceptions to even the recipe colleciton rule. For example, take Robuchon, which is largely a collection of recipes. Go to the sauces section. Now, how would you select and find those for a dish, without the book? Sure, given the exact name, you'll likely find it (though not always), but if you just 'want a good sauce for fish', that is the kind of resource that is wonderful!

Well, I started of with Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and, just because it seemed kind of fascinating, The French Laundry Cookbook which is admittedly a different kettle of fish altogether. I'll report back with a result or two.

Well, we ate there last night. About 12 courses, with wine flight. I really enjoyed the experience and will definitely return. The food was very interesting and varied and often gave pause for thought. A few of the dishes were truly extraordinarily good and the rest were very good and enjoyable. The wine pairings were very well done. Excellent and friendly service and atmosphere. Highly recommended if you love food.

Their cream cheese is the best you can find at regular supermarkets too, in my opinion anyway. Wish they sold it in smaller tubs with the full fat.

No, I had previously looked it up. I don't care for the taste (actually, its more of a mouth feel thing...) of the stabilizers in the common whipping cream. I was curious as to the regs and looked them up. Ahhhh ... a "container of whipped cream" is a very different beast then "whipping cream" (or, as the reg calls it, cream for whipping). The latter falls under fairly strict dairy regulations; the former, being a more "finished" product, probably does not fall under the dairy regulations and can contain anything food safe. Might depend on exact wording on the container. Try Western, it seems to be better then most. It has quite a bit more flavour. Also, make sure you buy full fat; the lighter stuff tastes funny. My g/f is from Romania and is horrified by what most call sour cream here; she says the Western stuff is passable. Tis true though, good sour cream is hard to come by. Yogurt too, though the balkan stuff is pretty good.

Wow. With one exception (*), around here it is only 30 or 40 cents more or something like that. Still over $5 though. At least where I shop. (*) The exception is very specific: Costco will sell salted, block butter much cheaper. If you want unsalted, you pay a lot more. If you want blocks, you have to shop elsewhere.

Ah, no, I had not read that. Thanks!! I am not sure I narrowed down my choices any by reading it though I am now considering one in French though....

Canadian cream regulations: =============== Cream a) shall be the fatty liquid prepared from milk by separating the milk constituents in such a manner as to increase the milk fat content; and (b) may contain (i) a pH adjusting agent, (ii) a stabilizing agent, and (iii) in the case of cream for whipping that has been heat-treated above 100°C, the following ingredients and food additives: ( A ) skim milk powder in an amount not exceeding 0.25 per cent, ( B ) glucose solids in an amount not exceeding 0.1 per cent, ( C ) calcium sulphate in an amount not exceeding 0.005 per cent, ( D ) xanthan gum in an amount not exceeding 0.02 per cent, and ( E ) microcrystalline cellulose in an amount not exceeding 0.2 per cent. =========================== So, if it does contain sugar in the form of glucose, it is less then 0.1 per cent. It can be difficult to obtain whipping cream that is not ultra pasteurized with stabilizers; there are some organic ones available which are *extremely* expensive.

We have really really been enjoying "The Complete Robuchon" by well, Robuchon. The recipes we have tried have been delicious, get prepared within a reasonable amount of work, and have a wonderful delicate and complex flavour. The only real flaw is we probably can't make over 1/2 the recipes due to ingredients issues, though we do sub some. I have the urge for more. A recent CI article complaining about the 11 pages on omelet making in Julia Child's book ("Mastering the Art of French Cooking" I think) gave me a pretty strong urge to buy that book; I could really dig a book which is willing to spend 11 pages on omelets. So, I am looking for a modern-ish book on french cooking that focuses on technique. For reference, one of my favorite books in this style is "Sauces" by Patterson; that is, ideally, the kind of book I'm looking for. I think Child's book *might* be the one, but my primary concern is it's age; modern tastes tend to prefer things with a little less fat (well, ok sometimes). Does it hold up? Is there another book which I should consider? Would one of the english translations of Escoffier be a good idea? I'd like a book without *too* much focus on stuff I can't buy, although I am resigned to have at least 25% (maybe more).. Your suggestions are appreciated!