eternal

OK. I am a believer in that commercial starter Y4. Thank you so much for the info. My first batch came out kind of weird but the second batch was perfect - exactly what I want in a yogurt. A slight tang and a great texture. not super thick but almost like a slightly whipped heavy cream consistency. So why do I have to continue buying the commercial stuff? I like the idea of self-sustaining the yogurt culture. What happens after 3-4 uses? Why does it not keep living?

Had a good few days in Amsterdam. I used the Google map created in this thread but I have to say, there is almost too much stuff in there. I had a hard time figuring out where to go. In the end, we ended up at Stadscafe van Kerkwijk BV a couple times and enjoyed it each time. A little further down NES street were a few more Italian restaurants that including a very modern one with a giant open space and a wall of wine and good prices. Sorry. Can't remember the name. We ate at Cafe Josephine but it was pretty mediocre. All in all, I thought the food was good

Heading to Amsterdam on Tuesday for 4 nights, work related. Been collecting and building my own little map (because I didn't see the pre-built one until it was too late!). Have been to Bo Cinq before. Thought it was pretty good. Might check out Beulings and Levant and Vesper looks good too. I'm not interested in the Chinese food as have plenty of that here. Is there a similar movement in Amsterdam to what's going on in Copenhagen - local food, seasonal, etc? If you had only two dinners, where would you go? Thanks for all the notes, Chufi. Very helpful!

When I have followed the Ad Hoc recipe (without any sous-vide), I have found the chicken to be very crispy, crunchy. Is it possible that your frying temps aren't quite right or that you are overloading the skillet and getting a huge temperature drop when the chicken goes into the pan? Btw, I pan fry them rather than deep fry as Cook's Illustrated convinced me that pan frying (i.e. in a skillet with oil that doesn't completely submerge the chicken) gives a better result than deep frying. I don't recall whether the Ad Hoc recipe calls for deep frying -- but it if does I departed from the recipe at that stage and did pan frying. I used a deep fat fryer that holds a gallon of oil and only did two thighs at a time. The temp drops about 40 degrees according to the display, but recovers nicely. I'm thinking that one reason to sous vide for longer would be to help the fat in the skin render out longer. That might help..and raising the temp too.

So maybe I need to move to a purchased culture, though I don't like the idea of having to constantly replace the culture. Ideally, our yogurt is fairly cheap and consistent. I do get it to at least 180. We usually set the alarm at 185 and take it off the heat at that point. I'll look into buying some other culture.

I did another batch of Ad Hoc fried chicken, adding a step where I let the chicken dry out in the fridge, uncovered for about 1.5 hours. This didn't have much of an effect and for thighs at least, I'm willing to throw in the towel on using sous vide for this. I think if I was cooking breasts, it might be a different story. Thighs at 140 for an hour is really borderline on cooked. I'm using a pretty ghetto sous vide setup and probably overloading it, but the meat near the bone was a little more red than I would like. Thighs are generally juicy anyway. The little wings did come out very well though. I would do that again. I also don't think the breading in ad hoc chicken is to my preference. I'm looking for more crunch. The search continues...

It doesn't "cut" the shape. The dough comes down the hollow tube and gets pushed out between the teeth.

I would argue that this is a site for hobbyists. This isn't a recipe site and it isn't targeted at people who are just trying to figure out how to put food on the table. Especially this thread. It is all about hobbyists. Why anyone comes into such a thread to argue that the thread is dumb is beyond me.

We are making yogurt every week now - for the last several months. In general it comes out very well. We use a liter of whole milk and about a 1/4 cup of skim milk powder. We "cook" it for 11 hours on an electric yogurt maker in 8 cups. The taste is perfect and the density is right. The only thing I would like to improve is the texture. It comes out a bit broken - like a broken emulsion. It isn't consistent throughout. Any ideas on how to improve that?

What does Keller do in Ad Hoc? He doesn't mention any other steps in his recipe. Is it maybe the maturity of the chicken or the quality? If I went and bought some young, organic and free range chicken that had been caressed to sleep every night and given milk baths would the skin be thinner and not require all this work? Nathan mentioned something earlier about the maturity mattering so I'm curious what the difference are.

I guess you could remove the skin and roast it instead of sous vide. But that is a bit of pain

I just did the ad hoc fried chicken using thighs and little wings from costco. I cooked the chicken sous-vide at 143 for an hour and then fried half the chicken starting at 370 in a deep fat fryer. I didn't realize the fryer didn't reheat once I added the chicken so it ended up finishing off at around 310. The second half I put in at 360 and the temp stayed up near there the whole time. It was really delicious but it seems like the skin didn't quite cook/render long enough. You could taste the fatty layer there and while it wasn't totally unpleasant, I didn't care for it too much. Would like to cook that a little longer. So maybe I need to try a lower fry heat and longer? Or should I do something different during the sous vide step to render more fat out? The wings came out the best.

I picked up the baldwin sous vide book and it is a helpful resource around the house, but it seems like the temps are awfully high. For example, it says to cook a chicken leg at 175 F for 4-6 hours and the perfect egg is at 148. Does this seem high to anyone else? I'm going to sous vide some chicken thighs for fried chicken today and the other recipes I'm finding say 140 F for one hour is plenty...

I cooked the short ribs at 133. I use a sous vide magic and it'll move a bit on the temps so it might have hit 134. When I placed the ribs in the oven, I have covered them in foil and they were only in there for a few minutes while I finished the sauce and grits. Don't think the broiler contributed to much of anything. I will try adding a little brine to the bag next time.

Will have to try to salmon at a lower temperature. Also, I finished my 48 hour short ribs. They were very tender but the dish wasn't a revelation by any means. I pulled them out of the bags and used some of the juices along with some sauce espangole, shallots and butter. I took the torch to the ribs to give it some crust and then stuck it in the oven with the broiler for a few minutes while I finished everything up. The whole thing wasn't hot enough. I'm thinking now I should just put them closer to the broiler to finish them. I also think I should have salted more aggressively before sealing them. I don't know. Good stuff but I was expecting more...Oh well. Keep trying.

I've had copper river salmon 3 times in the last 2 weeks and they were all delicious. I can't compare to regular salmon because I just got the sous vide magic and these were literally the first two times I used it. The first two times, I used 56C/133F for 11-12 minutes. The texture is perfect. A friend of mine did them at 60C for an hour and they were nice as well, but I thought it was a tad overcooked. it lost the silky texture that the lower temp had. Today, I'm finishing a 48 hour short rib. Can't wait!

The pork burgers from Sunday Suppers at Lucques are delicious. Have had them three times and in my experience, actually taste a little better if you let them sit for a bit after grinding and mixing (maybe a day?). She uses shoulder, chorizo and bacon... http://books.google.com/books?id=Z7atEFdzMjAC&pg=PT166&lpg=PT166&dq=pork+burger+sunday+suppers+lucques&source=bl&ots=dMKcka--eM&sig=jtnG4xovaJDx1PwtYUNEXIfAmoY&hl=en&ei=KqT9S4PQCZPiNcT-zN4H&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

The brunch looks great but something tells me we are going to be incredibly full and bloated on Sunday morning. Leaving tomorrow morning!

Did you sear before or after the water bath?

6pm flight back to Seattle on Sunday

Excellent info. We're definitely in for some stuff not on the normal list of attractions. I think I might just cancel the Mercat reservation and head to MSM instead. I think we're set for the weekend. Thanks again.

Thanks for the input. Looks like we could try XOCO for lunch on Saturday, before the dinner at Alinea and not get crazy full - something I don't want to do before 25 courses. On sunday, we have to wander and were thinking of doing a city walking tour near the park, so Mercat de la planxa sounds like a good spot. Too bad none of the Bayliss restaurants are open on Sunday Also, any recommendations for a good bakery/breakfast spot? Nothing big. We just like a nice pastry, maybe some yogurt and a good cup of coffee. looking for something within walking distance of The Wit. Lake & State

I'm also heading to Chicago with the wife and some friends specifically because we have a rez at Alinea and because we never do this sort of thing. I had heard about the Publican while dining out here in Seattle and so got a rez there as well. Is there any place that we should check out for lunch? We're looking for outside the norm option (we can get great american/italian/french food here). So maybe a particular ethnic restaurant/street food or somebody doing something else interesting with molecular gastronomy. I've always been a fan of bayliss too so maybe we should look into one of those...

I do like roasted cauliflower but in this similar situation, I've steamed it in chunks and then thrown it into the blender with a little roasted garlic, olive oil and some butter and salt and pepper and served as a warm bed for some nice pork chops. It is delicious.

I reuse oil. I have a gallon of peanut oil that I would fry anything but stuff from the sea in. After I'm done, I strain it and freeze it. Still smells fine. When it gets to the point that it doesn't smell good, I would throw it out and start over. For the home cook, tossing a gallon of peanut oil every time I used it would make frying too expensive. If restaurants can use oil 100 times a day for a week, I don't see why I can't use it once every 3-4 weeks for 6 months...