jk1002

I don't think noting the difference between milk and cream is super tasting. Cream has a very different mouthfeel due to the increased fat content. Cheers JK

I think if school makes sense or not and depends much on the school and the kind of job you are eye-ing. Giving how cookery is paid, there is a very good chance you waste time and money. However if a school can open doors for you, something which I would expect CIA or FCI to do it might make a start less frustrating for you. By frustrating I mean the restaurant in that you are peeling vegetables in the beginning may not be as interesting as something a top rate school may get you into - even though you still will be peeling vegetables. To me it seems more crucial to change jobs to see other kitchens and styles and may even do a stint at a restaurant for free. Just think about it, working 6 month for free at a very good restaurant if you can get in and have that name on your resume versus hanging out at FCI or CIA and burn through 30K on top to start a 25K a year job. JK P.s. I am amateur, considered a career change for a bit but there is just no way.

I thought I saw somewhere a recipe for Kewpie cole slaw. It's not in the book, triple checked. Does anybody know where I can find that.

> The obvious way is to recommend higher temperatures for longer times. < In the scrambled egg recipe on their blog they are using 75 celsius / 167f so your probably right. I understand the risk is not that high as long as you do not use a professional vacuum machine, what bugs me with them is that they sort of nodded of in some blog comments the notion to throw in professional packaged steaks from the super market.

"The early parts of the demo were hosted by the creators of the machine, Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades and gave me uncomfortable flashbacks of late-night Ronco infomercials." snatched from serious eats. That is a bit how I feel about it too. On the other hand I am sort of happy that somebody takes the lead on this, besides the fresh meal solution. I did some more research, Addelice does not have a release date for the US even though they plan to do it at some point. I read in a few places that the supreme is creating sort of a current by switching on differnet heat elements distributed around the bath and that the wholes in the platter underneath the rack facilitate the current as well. Not sure if that works well enough, I do know that when I do it on my induction cooktop I have horizontal cold spots at higher temperatures so the need for circulation is there. The egg demo is impressive I admit.

I got an email from fresh meal saying that their updated solution should be available early december, so they will go head to head under the christmas tree ....

I took a shot a "Cereal Milk" flavor based on the Momofuku recipe (Martha Stewart Website has it). I toasted 4 cups of cornflakes and blended that with a quart of milk. Let it steep for 15 minutes after which it had a thick custard like texture. I pushed it through a sieve, added half a cup of sugar and a quarter cup of corn syrup, pinch of salt and mixed it with a hand mixer. It taste good, very sweet but that's how I ate my cereal when I was a kid, may tone it down a bit and may also push it through a chinois to get a more milk like consistency when it melts in the mouth. Now its in the freezer, turning rock hard. I know I probably wasn't churning long enough, probably 15 minutes rather then 25 but it had a soft serve like consistency at that point - should have red instructions earlier - doh!. The combination of corn syrup and milk without eggs or much cream I snagged out of the A16 cookbook. They are saying these types don't keep well in the freezer. I don't want to add eggs as this would alter the flavor of the cerial milk, any ideas? Did someone try the "inverted sugar" trick out of Johnny Iuzzini's book? Does it help much? He doesn't seem to use much, looks to me more like fine tuning then a complete turn around which is what I need. Cheers JK

For salting, he is using diamond crystal, he is writing an entire page about it. He even goes as far as comparing the cup of morton's (8 oz) to the cup of diamond (5oz). I haven't cooked anything yet but that has more to do that so many books came out recently. There always seems to be a cluster of releases towards christmas. Being from germany I find cups and spoons deeply annoying, I have 2 scales, one rough and one precision that goes below a gram. I am not sure why he is "pimping" the vita prep. Yes they are great but 500$ is a lot of money for a single use appliance.

http://www.sousvidecooking.org/tag/sous-vide-equipment/ http://www.cookingsousvide.com/info/freshmealsmagic-from-fresh-meals-solutions I found the link to the updated fresh meal solution product. What I am not getting with the Supreme is how it will hold the temperature consistent without a circulator. Using my induction cooktop I noticed that it could keep temperature stable at 60c but not so at 70c, depending where I put the thermometer I would get deviations of 3 or 4 degrees quickly. The unit looks thought through though with rack and lid.

I made the pork buns as well yet switched the pork belly out and roasted chicken leg in. I guess any juicy fatty meat will work. I was eying the pork belly at savenor's, skipped though. I had bad salt crust experiences earlier ... Did you use a gas or electric stove?

What you mention about the 600$ deal is exactly the point. I am guessing over time you could score a complete Buchi on Ebay but that takes patience and some luck ... http://www.cuisinetechnology.com/RotaryEvaporator.html Polyscience is selling a rotovap for the kitchen as well. I think the drug posting should be taken seriously but times change and it should be fine for a restaurant to buy one. For the home, as with all Ebay used lab supplies, who knows what they did with it, I am not touching that stuff and my simple distilling setup works OK for the flavored booze the FCI guys are producing. The thought of creating herb essence is intriguing not sure though how that would work without using alcohol.

I got it yesterday. Haven't cooked anything but will try over the weekend. The language is a bit over the top but the book nicely shows his passion for cooking. Half memoir half recipes it seems, it has something for everyone, from the amateur to the guy who goes off to order half a pigs head and activa. I like it as much as I like A16 o Colicchio's books, will for sure expand my horizon. JK

It's a more professional/commercial version of a sous vide magic with a rice cooker I guess. Actually that guy wanted to come out with something like this as well. EiPod or so it was supposed to be called. It's not as exact as a circulator I figure but for home cooking this should be fine. I actually just use an induction cooktop, I did only steak and chicken so far at 60 and 70 fahrenheit and while I had to babysit it a bit it worked out Ok. JK

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modified_starch Certain types show up every now and then in molecular cooking recipes. It retains a thicker consistence in molten ice cream. Cheers JK

I do Campari with normal Aranciata and a good squeeze of lime juice. The lime juice takes out a bit of the sweetness of the Campari. Served with lots of ice in the glas. Not really Campari related, when I need an aperitif without booze I usually turn to Sanbitter with Lime juice and crushed ice, this has a similar flavour profile as Campari based drinks. JK

Interesting. In europe you can find rotovaps already in some restaurant supply stores. http://www.willequipped.com/rotoVap.html For US, at the link above. Note the 10K price tag. I just checked ebay, there are a few core systems for under 200$ but the glas bottles and vacuum pump and water bath are quite expensive and the core system doesn't come with that. Also note that for the FCI applications they modified the rotovap to get better results. I just don't see this beeing used outside molecular restaurants or as you say, drug manufacturing operations. Cheers JK

I am playing with it. I sampled some of the liquors at the FCI during a cocktail class. I recreated their Habanero Vodka and Peanut Brandy. Obviously I am not using a rotovap but a distillation kit from a lab supply store. Its not as effective but still does the trick. You could exract herbs into a neutral booze, I don't think you can use it to concentrate. For one as not all flavor compounds will distill you alter the taste. For two, after making peanut brandy I tasted the residue peanut base and it tasted horrible. I would think the same applies to herbs. When you distill wine into brandy it is supposed to work - leaving you with a yummy syrup but I haven't tried that yet. What got me hooked was the Habanero Vodka ..... the compound in the Habanero doesn't distill so you get a very intense Habanero Taste and smell without the spicyness. Is a very nice party gimmicky shot - haven't figured out how to combine that into a dish but am pretty sure it's possible. I looked at the Rotovaps on ebay, mostly they miss key parts like the glasware and the vacuum pump which are expensive. Complete rotovaps are somewhat expensive even on ebay. Cheers JK

Does anybody know a good US source for Hering Berlin "Pulse" and "Cielo" dishes? http://www.hering-berlin.de/e/index.html You find these plates often in cookbooks and high end restaurant (French Laundry and L2O) It is very expensive to the consumer besides that I can not find any place that stocks it. Thanks JK

I have the Viking Induction Cooktop, I actually tested this and it does reset when you pull out the plug. Depending how often you want to use it, you may get around this. Remember that Grant Achatz demo'ed in a video a turkey sous vide without a water bath at all. He just used a digital thermometer. This may not always work and probably too painfull for longer cooking time ut a good way to start off. Cheers JK

I was sort if inspired by the video that Grant Achatz and his sidekick Nick did. They made a sous vide turkey at home without vacuum pump or temp control. I followed the instructions in Thomas Keller Book. He used 59.5 celsius for about 45 minutes on a 400 gr piece. I had a little less, 320 gr piece. I spend some time figuring out that the induction burner would keep the water at 60 celsius when set to low. So I heated the water on high to 64, switched back to low, dropped the meat bag in and cooled it with ice to 60 stirring every now and then. I don't have a vacuum pump so i used a normal ziploc bag. I put the steak in, dropped it into water to push the air out and then aeh, I sucked the remaining air out with my mouth - I cooked for myself so that was OK. I am getting the ziploc bags that attach to a manual pump though ..... I finished it off with a pan sear on all sides to kill off the bacteria. Tasted awesome, texture was really nice even though the piece of meat was a 5$ choice Sirloin filet from Wholefoods. I am a bit of a steak snob - I haven't eaten a choice sirloin in ages so I can't really compare but I was really happy with the results. You do need a digital thermometer though. JK Result:

If you read the reviews of the bucket heater, there is one guy using it for making beer. He is saying it takes 45 minutes for 7 gallons over 2 hours on a normal stove top. Maybe get 2 .......

http://www.amazon.com/Allied-Precision-742...8797790&sr=8-10 I think I would look for a bucket heater if it is just water .... I would think for 15 gallons you would need commercial equipment and doubt you find anything with 120volt. Are you planning on making beer?

I haven't read much about what cocktails you would actually show. I am not professional, here is what would make it useable for me: For one, I would want to know about cocktails that I can mix with ingredients at that I can stock so that I have a repertoire that I can pull off without any preparation. I know for some it may sound horrible, but I have lime pieces in my freezer and lime juice in my fridge which can last for month. I use that to make Gin and Tonic if I need my boozy fix. Of course if I can use fresh ingredients I do that but thats just not always the case .... Then I have few ingredients that I can store long time but require some work. For example I do a simple syrup with ginger and mix that with fresh cranberries that I can keep in the fridge for weeks, little gin, little calvados. Or I have a fresh peppermint brown sugar syrup that I mix with bourbon for mint julep. This also will last a few weeks. Then lastly I have a few things up my sleeve using fresh fruit juices and other hard to get ingredients that require pre and planning. I would want to learn about drinks from all three categories. How to built a basic bar would be next, what bottles to buy. maybe built something for different budget categories. Lastly, what tools to pick up. How many shakes do I need. How I do I chill expensive glassware. Do I need an ice crusher? And then lots of tips mentioned here ...... How to make good ice, what different sized ice cubes do for you and so on. Cheers JK

http://www.moreintelligentlife.com/story/t...0-gin-and-tonic This explains what they (Dave & Nils) did with the acids after "clarification". Besides this, entertaining and interesting article.

Since I had that "Asian Flavors of Jean Georges" cookbook lying around for so long and have eaten twice in his Spice Market and liked the food I checked out my local asian supermarkets and was badly overwhelmed. 20 types of soy and fish sauces, chili oils etc. What to pick? So what are common high quality items that I should look out for in an Asian Supermarket. He recommends for example "Bangkok Market" brand Coconut Water. What else is there? Pictures would be nice as well.