Paul Kierstead
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Posts posted by Paul Kierstead
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It is, in a way, an old argument about beauty and science. Feynman had some very interesting writing on it.
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But part of the joy, for me, in cooking at home, is the thrill of discovery. I feel a personal satisfaction when I create something outstanding with a simple chef’s knife, a cast iron skillet and good old intuition. Cooking something to 72.3°C for 18.4 seconds and having the equipment available to measure that with such precision…well, that’s just not fun. For me.
No one else can determine what is fun for you, but consider this: What happens if you change that to 59.8°C for 2 hours? I understand the love of process, I really do: For example, I still use a view camera for photography, purely for the love of the process. But discovery? I think discovery is opened up by the MC techniques. SV has enabled cooking methods that are essentially impossible with traditional methods. So discovery is more alive then ever. But I will give you that the discovery is not as hands-on; it is a step or two removed. If you love to cook for the touch, feel, smell and interaction with your food, SV and much (or some at least) of MC will be left wanting I think.
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I've made the bread from it several times and quite like it. I've made the scallops several times also, and find it a very foolproof and delicious method. For the rest I've been using it on inspiration, but the mac'n'cheese now have me curious....
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I found the NYT review to be very positive. To me, most of the negative was applicability (which will be an issue for some people) and breadth. Those seem like possibly fair issues: it is a somewhat specialized volume, even if purely due to its size. The review's view of the actual content seemed positive, the negative was more meta.
I'd agree with the false modesty comment, but on the other hand, I think that false modesty in this context is a sort of dance or ritual; its expected he would say it.
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Spending $100-$200 on a weekend hobby would be way out of reach for the vast majority.
What does the majority have to do with it?
Thomas Keller, Grant Achatz, are talented people. But isn't it time to move away from the over complicated and costly and back to reality?
Why? I don't understand this statement at all. This isn't public policy here. Again, it isn't prescriptive. Nobody is making you eat, make, buy or otherwise have anything to do with it. If you want to go "back to reality" I totally understand that, but why I should follow you I don't understand at all.
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Maybe there is, but every review I've read says it advocates an obsessive sensibility, unreproducible in almost any real kitchen.
You've been reading different reviews then I have been. In the reviews I've read, "advocate" doesn't enter into it. I'm not just splitting hairs here, there is a big difference. From what I've read in excepts and reviews, it gives you the extreme, just how far you can go. It isn't telling you that you should do that, or that it is necessary, it is telling you what the outcome would be if you did it no holds barred. Anyone with "common sense" would know that you don't slavishly follow a book, you use it for inspiration and information, picking and choosing your techniques and recipes. It isn't a Bible, and isn't prescriptive. It is just information for your consideration. If the book held back and only gave you "practical" methods, it would deny the reader the choice. This way you have your choice, and it doesn't have to be all or nothing; all the excepts I've seen give plenty of information to allow you apply the general technique without the same level of obsession if you should so wish.
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For those for whom cooking is a way to decompress from a long day of mental exercise, the analytical, MC way of thinking is no good.
Perhaps true for you, but for me the only way to suppress the day's buzz is to refocus the mind; make it work hard on something else. My mind isn't worn out at the end of the day, it tends to be in hyperdrive and sure isn't going to stop if I do something 'organic'. Whatever I choose to do on those days must be hard; it can be physical or mental, but must require all my attention. I look forward to MC
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Hmm .... a package of spreadsheets, or an iPad/whatever app with all the recipes (ingredients only, keep the book valuable
) would be lovely so you could baseline any ingredient quickly. Mind you , with metric measures it sure isn't hard in general. -
What size are the jars? I have a hard time telling scale, are this like supermarket spice size, or quite a bit bigger or...
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That VP112 looks like a great form factor, more manageable weight overall a great idea. If it pulls a really strong vacuum (the so called "high" vacuum) and the capacity is good, and they discount it some more ($500 pls, special offer, sale, whatever), I'll plunk down for it in a heartbeat.
It would be nice to see a tilted bed, though if the whole machine can operate tilted that would be OK
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I wonder if the bruising introduced by the vac-packing makes a significant difference? Ideas in Food explores using this some.
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LOL, I'd swear someone from Amazon was reading my post; I too go the message right after I posted!
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In my prior experience with Amazon pre-orders, it usually says to say your pre-ship date until the last minute, when they can no longer fulfill it. I don't think the system knows much at all; I suspect someone just punches in a ship date and it sticks until someone takes action to change it. I suspect the automated system assumes the publisher has infinite supply.
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I wonder if the best-seller list is by units or revenue...
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What's your point?
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Thank you very much, Technophile. That was very interesting and informative. Hundreds of thousands of g's for 24 hours? That would be quite the machine; bearings, etc would all get seriously stressed. If you had one, you'd want to throw every cooking liquid you had in it to see what happened to each....
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If I go to my grave and never had the ability to make pea butter in my kitchen I think I will be fine with that.
Well, no one was exactly demanding that you do so....
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Well, its a tautology of sorts; you aren't an average home cook if you have a use for a centrifuge.
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OK, we get it, they can kill you. So can bicycles (quite easily I'll add). Don't try it, but if you do ....
I think the fundamental question is: Does a higher .. force ... centrifuge do a better job of separation, or just a faster one, for this kind of application? If I ran a centrifuge that applied, say, 1/10 the force for the same volume of liquid, but ran it longer, would the same level of separation occur? How about if I ran one with 1/10 the force but a lot less volume?
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I'd still love to see some smaller portions of transglutaminase.
There seems to be a product opportunity for Nathan (or a partner) here.
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I see that potentially a problem, not an advantage. When heat is transferred faster than a pie's ability to conduct heat, the outside gets burned, and the inside gets un-cooked.
Perhaps what you are thinking of as "pizza" is not what they are thinking of (or at least not what this technique applies too). Consider Chicago-style vrs Napoli-style pizza, and the difference in cooking them
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As far as I can tell, the fl oz settings just don't roll over to lbs. So 30 oz would show 30, not 1 lb 14 oz. They assume water.
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In Canada, serving size on the label is regulated. For example, here crisps would be 40-60 g (up to the manufacturer). In some cases (notably "The reference amount of the food is less than 100 g or 100 mL and the package contains less than 200% of that reference amount") the entire package is considered a single serving, and the data must be given for the entire package. So a bag of crisps that is 75g (common here) would be considered a single serving and must have the data for the full serving).
Lots of if ands or buts, but I think mostly our sizes on the pack are relatively reasonable since these newer rules were instituted.
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I'm sure you'll learn to swim quickly, DaveJes1979
"Modernist Cuisine" by Myhrvold, Young & Bilet (Part 2)
in Cookbooks & References
Posted
That "skill" is acquired by extreme levels of repetition. If the number of poorly done steaks I've received is any indication, it is also a rather rare one (see what I did there). Otherwise, using a thermometer is not a "crutch", it is quality control.