Paul Kierstead

Hot wings. I even try to control it by demanding I only make them the best I can, no shortcuts, and I still eat them too often.

Saying they employ 'pressure' is really stretching for all of your list (including sous-vide, where the food is at atmospheric pressure) except for using a pressure cooking. We could expand the term to mean things like braising as well, but then why bother having different terms? It isn't very useful; restricting instead the term gives common ground for discussion and information.

Just remember: All cookbooks have errors (and a helluva lot of them from what I've observed) and very very few (damn near zero) give errata. Please don't punish them for being honest and helpful. Take the errata for what it is: damn useful information.

Not exactly a goof, but the pressure cooker instructions for tough meats (eg carnitas) are quite confusing. They seem to imply that you bring up to pressure, vent, then cook. It is written as a sequence, but the 'cook for x minutes' is after the vent ... could be clearer.

I used the mac'n'cheese one on a burger. Three deviations: less salt, used gouda, use Kappa. I used it frozen, but even then you had to be quick slicing it to be able to 'handle' it. Once sliced into slices an placed on the burger, it was all great. I get the feeling you'd be better off using a mould then slicing it for that particular recipe. Even then it would be quite delicate at room temp.

I didn't cook with Modern Cuisine tonight. However, I did use their sous-vide recommendations for a hamburger (hurriedly purchased ground beef from the supermarket since my KA died, so no grinder). I didn't happen to have any liquid nitrogen on hand, but I did deep fry the burgers for a minute as recommended. I topped with some left-over cheese from the MC mac'n'cheese, and slid it under the (very very hot) broiler for a very short period. They were delicious, and I loved that MC gave me excellent guidelines and not just a protocol (recipe). In a way, that is what I bought the book for. Not that it is going to stop me from going all nuts with some of the recipes

Not necessarily true at all. You assume that they are actually getting rid of refurb units, but it may not be that simple. Quite a few companies strongly resist heavy (or even any) discounting; I'm pretty sure Blendtec is one of them. They don't want to discount the brand, or have consumers holding off for "the sale", that kind of thing. These companies can work around that limitation by selling "refurb" units. This could allow them to dump some excess inventory, etc. I'd see it working this this: they discover they have both quite a few refurb units kicking around as well as some excess inventory. So, they offer a quick sale, with the plan to dip into the excess new units if they get rid of the refurbs, since they want to move a few of them as well. Also, they might get the blender a few places like egullet to get some good "press" (in internet terms), selling to people who might not otherwise pony up. They extol its virtues, you know the rest. It would not surprise me if the refurbs were actually a blend (heh) of refurb and new.

Measured how? If we are to measure by outcomes, it fairs poorly. It may well be that the "inputs" are significantly worse (almost certainly the highest obesity rates, etc in the industrialized world) and that the outcomes are bad because the system has such poor material to work with, but I think Americans should examine that assertion and get a lot more methodical about measuring its effectiveness. Casual observation says it is not only inefficient, it is poorer then other countries of similar wealth. That indicates that some serious inspection is probably in order. As to school lunches, I don't have kids yet, but I'd seriously object to a school that told my kids they had to eat at the caf; to the point of withdrawing them. I'd also not tolerate a requirement for clear or mesh backpacks, or metal detectors. I will not have my children brought up thinking that level of authoritarianism is appropriate.

Now Kerry, if you're going to be making food worth eating, you are absolutely going to have to get rid of that Lakeport and replace it with something resembling beer. OMG.

What other cookbook tells you how to calculate the speed of light using your microwave and some cheese?

I have to say, I really like the honeycomb spacers they put in there. In honour of the packaging and in the spirit of the book, I think I'll vacuum press some veneer on one of them and make a small shelf. Sous-vide shelf!

Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. Well done, you're on the path to getting better!

I think there are two things at play there: One is profit margin. I suspect that the margin on prepared foods is better than 'raw' food. For one, it is harder to price compare, but more importantly, it offers a good value proposition to the consumer. I think the other factor is, as another poster mentioned, that the prepared foods are restaurant replacements. So for the store, those prepared foods present a new market, which means more money coming in. Doubling the produce section size won't make any more money unless the selection is so fantastic that you can draw people away from someone elses produce section; a tough proposition unless the competition is really awful. But I think it is a much easier proposition to take a chunk out of the restaurants, between the cost savings and likely perceived health benefit, not to mention time, schedule, etc.

Some data for Canada. Overview of Canadian eating habits This data is very flawed because "fast food" includes coffee, which getting out is a fine Canadian tradition. It also does not differentiate between home cooking from scratch vrs. a Lean Cuisine. Still, it does provide some information; things like the direct decline of home cooking with increasing income.

My KA Classic never overheated, it just broke a gear if it didn't like what you were doing. When I replaced it, I didn't buy KA.

Unfortunately it seems that the vast majority of 'luxury' appliances relate to materials and look, not function, at least in my observation. I've been looking for a fridge with better interior; of the zillion I've looked at, high and low, the interiors are all almost identical. I think only a Miele had a significantly better interior. There is no excuse for electric ovens fluctuating wildly. It would take *very* few dollars of electronics, especially in quantity, to PID the oven and make it extremely steady. Gas is a little tricker, since you can't imply pulse modulate the output, but could almost certainly be done for not much more. Steam, etc of course would add to the cost, but there are plenty of $5000 ranges sold.

Reminds me of people who review movies after viewing only the trailer. I would be interested in his analysis of the content after reading the full chapter and maybe cooling off a little; I think he has something to contribute, but it gets lost in there with the hostile tone (regardless of whether or not the hostile tone is in the same tone as the article)

Yes, we had the indicated amount for two people as a side and it was plenty sufficient, if not more so. You'd figure a 50g serving of [dried] pasta is pretty small, but in this case it is the right amount, maybe even a little on the 'much' side.

If you have storage issues or plan on large batches, the Sous-Vide supreme might be flawed. OTOH, the price is very nice. I use the Fresh Meals Solutions set-up, which is kinda sorta immersion circulator on the cheap; can do large batches, small storage.

Wine cooler, and small ones can be had cheap. They happily operate in the target temperature zone. Edit: Doh. Inadvertently resurrecting old threads. My apologies.

He is apparently unaware that Keller uses modernist techniques like sous-vide?

Since about the only recipe I had was the mac'n'cheese, made that. Had to use kappa carrageenan and used the reduced salt amounts listed in this thread. Really really good. I think the mouth feel was not 100% dead on (maybe 98%), slightly too .. something. Slick? And I'd swear I could smell the carrageenan. OTOH, this was, by far, the best mac'n'cheese I've had, and I like mac'n'cheese. Delia Smith has a recipe for a 3-cheese one that I quite like the cheese mixture on, so I think I'll try blending this method for super cheesiness with Delia's selection of cheeses down the road.

I recently used some liquid smoke + brine with some skirt steak using the zip-lock method. The next day the smell of smoke was fairly noticeable, but I could not locate any leaks in the zip-lock bag. I've observed it with other spices with the zip lock bags as well. With foodsaver bags, I've only notices a smell once or twice. All were on long cooks, and in all cases I've not found evidence of a leak. Doesn't mean there wasn't one, of course.

That is good news. Heh, I was amused at all the americans getting hot and bothered over Amazon.ca. We have to put up with being the poor cousins most of the time, availability wise. For the ingredients for my upcoming MC, I just gave up and purchased it in the US and had it shipped to a UPS store and popped over the border to pick it up. We have 1/10 the population, and while I love Canada dearly, somethings can be a major PITA, especially things like foodstuffs which very few companies will cross-border ship.

It seems to me that an awful lot of MC may not appear to be so. Sure there are the spherifications, and the foams and what-not, but there are also perfectly cooked meats and the diner is none the wiser, or the perfect cheese sauce, or the constructed steak which only careful observation would notice is glued together. MC does't have to mean food which appears to be "Modern", it may well be food that appears to be traditional but is, in some way, special -- whether it be a chicken leg with no skinless portion, or a ham bonded perfectly to mackerel or a sauce with is unusually smooth or has perfect mouth feel. Or, perhaps, it is a powder is made using liquid nitrogen, but the diner need not be aware, now do they? Sure, we might like to pump the 'unusual' aspect, or novelty, but we can also use it for just plain old deliciousness.