OliverB

interesting. I find some of the eggs in the supermarket quite good, one brand (eggland's best or something?) I find quite tasty, but the come in some styrofoam or plastic box which I don't agree with. Now I buy them at the farmers market, one place seems to run this more as a "oh, we have some eggs here, let's sell them too" kind of thing, as it's a huge vegetable stand. They do show a picture of the chicken of course. Expensive at $6 for 12, but not really worth worrying about at $0.50 each either. And me and my wife find them to be a lot better tasting than any other eggs we've bought over the years. (for her it was a sort of blind tasting, she didn't know where they came from). Maybe it's because those chicken really just run around and pick and eat what ever, and aren't fed or kept for egg production. More like some backyard chickens. I don't know, but they have a much "eggier" taste to them. Since we really don't eat that many eggs, I don't care about the price, but the taste has me coming back. It would be interesting to do a blind test, but I'm not gonna fill the fridge with 6 egg cartons :-)

means nothing, just as "all natural" or "natural" or "cage free" or "uncured" (oh, look, celery juice!) means nothing. Just an other word play to get people to buy it. Costco sells some prime beef at times, but sometimes I wonder even there. I'm not a meat inspector, but I've seen many photos of prime beef, some in those blue trays would not qualify IMO, others are way excellent. And in the regular selection, sometimes I find pieces that I'd grade prime and jump on them. Overall their meat quality is quite excellent actually. Too many of these labels are not regulated at all and have little (cage free) to no meaning. But people fall for it, as for so many other things~~

just read about them, and hope they'll open up one here. Fries are still best at McDonalds IMO, most other places have them all soggy. I'm an anti fan of In'n Out, first the name is a lie, as it takes way too long to get my order (it's supposed to be FAST food, right?) and the burgers are beyond bland, but others love them to bits, fine with me :-) I don't eat much fast food, but if I do, I like crispy fries and a nice juicy burger soggy with sauce or other condiments. And bacon, there needs to be some bacon in there. (which InO doesn't even offer!) Five guys is expanding like crazy, it'll be interesting to see how well they do. Taking on fast food chains is not a business model I'd invest in, but they seem to be on the right path and have it worked out. Of course, remains to be seen what happens once the newness factor wears off.

while I love Whole Foods, here it's definitely the most expensive. I sometimes walk out with ONE bag that cost me over $100. Now, this may be related to the fact that I go to Whole Foods for the "good" stuff. Air chilled chicken, nice aged beef, wonderful olive bar (at $9 or 10/lb), fresh water cress, things like that. I'd never go there for regular groceries, for one, they don't have everything a household needs, and they usually don't have a "normal" option next to the expensive meats or other things. It's definitely upscale here, I don't know of a more expensive store. There are two not too far that tend to the same high end market, at about the same prices. (Lunardi's and Diablo Foods) just not as convenient to reach for me. We have a new Fresh and Easy, I found it disappointing. No meat counter, everything in those filled with gas boxes, nice fresh (supposedly local) produce, but I get that at the market, the rest of the store just felt too sterile to me, I prefer the somewhat cluttered with millions of things WF or the fake pirate ship Trader Joe's, though the later is now decorated with nice paintings of Mount Diablo and surrounding areas. But even TJ's doesn't have everything, so I find myself at Safeway at least once a week. We have a nice small one very close and two large ones not too far. They even freshly grind meat for me, which is nice. For fish I usually go to the asian markets, as they are a LOT cheaper than Whole Food ($16 or more per lb of fish gets expensive for a family of 4) and it's always fun to marvel at all the things I've never seen or heard of before. So, in a way, I can understand the whole paycheck thing. If WF would be the only market within reasonable distance to me, and I'd live in a big town like NY where I'd either not have or at least never move my car, it could get very expensive to only shop at their store. Quickly. But I do love shopping there!

you can make great creamy soup with it, and they are also fantastic as a quick pickle. I've also seen them sliced very thin (look like a photo of a tree) and then - I believe - roasted in the oven with a bit oil, in between two baking sheets to keep them flat. Makes great looking chips! I've yet to do that myself, and I'm not sure where I saw the recipe, but it's probably pretty straight forward.

I'm quite tempted to buy some of the pure capsaicin from that website! Seems like you could do interesting things with it, hot butter, oil, put heat into things that would not be good with a chili flavor, but could be good with a hint of heat. Oh, and it would be kind of a fun thing to have a round, a little vial of something 1000 times hotter than a jalapeno. This might just be the thing for the clear hot sauce, seems a lot easier than steam juicing (never heard of that before either) or other ways to get the heat, but not the color.

I doubt my post came across as severely critical, but I do feel I can post my light dismay, after all, I paid for it (a lot). I'd voice the same if some new camera gear would not work right or a new car rattles after 3 days. That does in no way mean that you guys did something wrong no worries. I am very happy that you post the errors, I don't see that as a point of attack, but as a point of praise! Alinea did the same, I printed that and put it in my book. Some computer books also offer this, I always appreciate it. I will not glue labels or make notes in my MC, I'm a book nerd, not quite wearing white gloves, but I like my books in pristine condition. To me it's a work of art, and I treat is as such. It would be great if someone at MC - or maybe we could even make it an eGullet project? - would highlight the real big errors, so we don't all have to work through the books and replicate the work. I'd be happy to take on part of that. As someone said above, recipes are guidelines and the food is what you make of it, that's certainly true, I hardly ever cook word for word from recipes. If ever. But many of these are not just "recipes" in the traditional way, they use mini amounts of odd chemicals, and if there should be an error stating use 5g of unobtanium while it should be 5mg you won't be able to make it your own, well, except your own mess :-) I'm sure there are cooks out there that will spot this kind of error, just as I can spot that 5Tbsp salt is probably wrong on roast chicken, but I never cooked with any of these modernist things and would have no idea that I'm making cement instead of a fancy gel. The books are amazing, the work, dedication, and money that went into them is mindboggling! That there are errors is a given, people might still find some in the 5th edition, some might even be new. That you provide us with a list of them is awesome, thanks! Being able to get a corrected kitchen manual somewhere down the road would be nice, but I know the logistics of this are most likely prohibitive and we'll all live. But one can dream I still haven't decided what to cook, the carrot soup is very tempting though. I'm not a big fan of Mac'n Cheese, but the kids are. I'm just afraid if I make it once, I'll never be able to go back to Kraft, and for a quick lunch I just have to go that route at times...

I haven't come across a canned fish I don't like, but I'm alone with that in my house. Usually a late night snack with some crackers or crusty bread. In oil, in water, mustard, tomato sauce, smoked, all good by me. So handy to have in the pantry for the quick fix hunger!

I'd be curious to do this test with more than one brand, and maybe even different within brand ones, but if my wife opens the fridge to find 5 or 6 barely used bottles of ketchup in there I won't be safe.... That being said, I recently switched to organic Heinz, since it's mostly my kids eating mass quantities of the stuff (if I let them) and no nasty chemicals seems like a good idea. Tastes quite good too. But I'm not religious about a brand in most cases. Heinz is usually available and tastes good, so I get that, if there's only hunts, fine, and if I need some and I'm at Trader Joe's I'll get theirs etc. I've never had BAD ketchup, they taste a bit different, but not as much that I'd go and make a special trip for one brand. I use ketchup as a cooking ingredient too at times, cases where a tomato sauce just isn't quite "there" yet and I can't figure out what else to add, a tbsp or two of ketchup might just do the trick. I have to try the curry ketchup soon, have a bottle from Germany in the fridge right now, but the people that sold it (and sausages) at the farmers market haven't been back in a while. :-(

I only go to ballparks when there's no game (took my boy to a Monster Truck show that was a lot more fun than I expected!) but I really prefer a nice good hotdog or polish at such a venue. Sushi seems way out of place, maybe a greasy slice of peperoni pizza. The garlic fries always smell fantastic and are a disappointing soggy mess, don't buy those anymore. But there (Oakland) are bbq places, sandwiches, quite some variety from what I saw. San Jose (shark tank) seems to have even more, but I'm only there for concerts, where most of the food places are closed. A nice juicy hotdog on a bun, onions, relish, lots of mustard and ketchup, that's just what hit's the spot for me at these venues

I hardly ever use mine. Spoke my plumber about them once, his advice was "if you can grab it, throw it away" which is really quite easy to do, it's just food stuff, not dog poop He also said to never run hot water while grinding, as it softens fats and oils that then cool and deposit in your pipes. Not good. I really don't see the point of them, I peel right into the trash or if it's stuff like onion skin etc, it's on the counter and a quick swoop into the lifted up trash can takes care of that. I also don't ever rinse dishes before they go in the dishwasher, all modern dishwashers have their own grinder and - so I've read - actually work better with some food stuff on the dishes. But mainly it seems silly to me to wash stuff half way and then wash it again. Just because it's there, doesn't mean you need to use it, and if you made do for all these years without, why change your procedures? I can now even throw food waste into the green garbage can for composting, seems a much better idea than throwing yet more stuff at the water treatment plants, where it all will end up on the landfill anyways, probably on a toxic waste one actually.

not punishing them at all, I think it's great they offer this but I also think that factual errors should have probably been caught before, we're not talking about a $30 book here... Yes, being able to trade in a the kitchen manual for a corrected one - or at least be able to buy one w/o having to buy everything again - would be nice. I will never have the books in the kitchen or anywhere close to it, so if there's an error in there but it's correct in the manual I'll know it's a correction and can proceed. As noted, this is really only important with real errors, where quantities, times, temperatures, things like that are wrong and will lead to failure. Once I spent 3 days on making something I'd be a very unhappy person if a print error somewhere screws things up and I end up with some inedible or ugly mess I think the idea of marking errors with different colors - even if only on the online page - would really be helpful. I don't really have the time to work through all the posted errors to find out which are crucial, nor do I think I should unless I get paid for it Maybe that dual reading test should have been done on a test print, after all, with this collection of books, it appears to me that they strived for perfection, not the next 30 min meal throw away. I'm sure they're even more unhappy about mistakes than I am, they put a ton of love and work into these books. But I'm also the customer that paid a crazy amount for the output... Maybe a great first step would be the color coding, maybe there crucial errors that lead to failure are few and far between (my guess) and can be fixed at home. I'd never write in them, but a post it note can easily be applied or a printed page inserted. (on acid free paper of course). Anyway, just my take on it. Of course there will be errors, nothing is perfect. I'm still surprised at the high number or errors I counted for the manual (as I'm sure the team is) and if there's a way to remedy this in the future, that would be great. Or maybe I'll just sell my "first edition" to a collector and get me a 2nd print down the road, if I should find that the errors would really throw me off.

interesting info, never heard of that read back thing, that must take a long time! And a lot of concentration, books on tape never work for me, as I just zone out the talking eventually But it really would be great if eventually a short list of Fatal Errors could be compiled, those that would make a recipe simply not work. Or set the cook on fire. I don't care about grammar; or speling tat mutsch unless it changes the meaning of a sentence to something else. Hats off to the work you guys put into this AFTER it's been published! Errors always happen, they don't often get actively searched out, much less posted online and then corrected. I'm not happy they're in there, but I'm happy you take care of them.

hmm, it's certainly a lot more mistakes than I would have expected in this kind of work, especially in the recipes. I don't care about a misplaced comma or misspelled word, but wrong numbers in a recipe are really not good and I'm a bit dismayed by seeing so many errors here. Maybe it's a good thing I kept the box, maybe I'll buy a 2nd printing and sell the first printing to a collector Actually, it would be neat if we could at least somehow obtain a correct kitchen manual down the road, at this high price and with such involved cooking, a wrong number can cause complete failure of a potentially expensive and time consuming dish.... It is great they are on top of it and post errors online, but the idea to mark up my expensive books with pencil (and who knows what works on the kitchen manual pages) is extremely unappealing to me. So far it seems that 112 errors are listed for the kitchen manual. I have not looked at all of them to see if they are real errors (g for mg, 3 for 5) or just grammar etc. It would be great if the real fatal to a dish errors could be highlighted somehow.

I find it interesting that you say the cook top does not really get hot, despite the hot pot or what ever sitting right on it. You can really remove the pot and put your hand on the surface after cooking up a storm? Also, can you move the pot half off the element? I do that sometimes to slow down cooking or for everything in one pan but this piece needs a bit longer cooking. Just for fun I checked the jenn air site, doesn't seem like they offer induction inserts as replacement, just the flat ceramic ones (at $290 each, hahaha!). I guess I'll live with the crappy coils until I can afford a nicer stove. And it for sure won't be a jenn air, ever again. A downdraft "hood" is utter nonsense, but great for collecting odd food bits and grease....

I still have to get me a Tagine, they are so pretty , but I'm curious why you would call this a pressure cooker? I've never looked at one close up, but isn't there a hole in the top there? And even w/o a hole, I doubt the lid is heavy enough to create pressure? I thought the idea is more to have steam condensate and drip back onto the food, basting it while slowly cooking away? I've had my eyes on one of the nice cheap and traditional clay ones for a while....

If you cut it up (make sure to check the bird first, I've had some where the breasts were so small that they didn't make a dinner portion by a far reach) you can also take the skin off, put it on a parchment paper lined baking sheet, one other paper on top and an other baking sheet on top, put in the oven (I'd have to look up the temp) until crisp. This way it stays nice and flat. you can trim it into strips or squares before you cook it, then use as garnish. Cook the breasts Sous Vide if you can (as mentioned above, zip lock bags and a big pot of water works, if you have a thermometer to control the temp reasonably well) I think I gave them a quick sear before plating. Very tasty. If you cook it hole, make enough little holes in the skin so the fat can leak out. Either nick with a sharp knife or use a skewer or needle. There is probably going to be a LOT of fat leaking out, you don't really want that under the skin or inside the bird. I've never done confit, but just read about making it Sous Vide with little fat in Modernist Cuisine, says they could not tell the difference between one made this way, and one made the traditional way in lots of duck fat. I tend to believe them. And I think this could be done relatively easy even if w/o a waterbath machine. I'm not sure I'd smoke it, I find poultry from the smoker develops an almost inedible skin, more like plastic than something crackling, at least my experience with chicken. I'd say you'll have the most success if you cut the bird up and cook the breasts and legs separate, but this might not be practical for a dinner party. A whole roasted duck is still quite good :-)

Finally got around to picking up the books again, or book 2 to be more precise. Still blown away by just about every page. I paged through half the book, reading a bit here and there, and already found so many new to me things and so much cool stuff that I'll use to explain to my kids (and myself) why and how cooking works. Can't wait to try the beer can chicken now! Didn't even read a single recipe in the books yet, and if there weren't any, I'd still love the books! I really don't understand why some call this hard to read, I find it extremely well written, engaging, not patronizing, precise but not overly scientific, but also not dumbed down popular science of the TV Land Zombies. I love side boxes and notes too, I'm very happy with the books. Of course I haven't even really scratched the surface yet. It's older news, but I finally received my first two copies of Art Culinaire magazine (well, they're actually books) and there's a nice interview with Nathan in issue 98.

definitely brine it over night, it makes a huge difference, might even make them like the breasts, as they'll be juicy. I'd slow cook it in the bbq with some smoke, maybe layer some bacon on top as well. Or oven roast. The benefit is that you don't have to do much while it cooks, more time to have a good time instead of slaving away in the kitchen. I'm not a big turkey fan at all, but if I have to eat it, I prefer a nice golden roasted bird, carved up so everybody can take what ever meat they want. You can glaze it sweet or spicy or Asian (soy sauce and honey etc), though I like just s&p best. I've never done nor eaten it, but deep fried is supposed to be quite tasty as well.

I just ate a fine dinner at a small plate spot here in town, we sat at the "kitchen counter", a bar that has a small glass wall separating us from the chef and line cooks. Very interesting to watch the speed and to see that there was not one expensive pot or pan in sight. All the dinged up pans looked like they're made of aluminum not shiny but a bit dull. On the stove, food in, food out, on a pile on the floor (or maybe a box, could not see) and a young guy came buy ever couple minutes to pick them up, wash them and put them back on a big pile. And this is one of the more upscale places here. I actually don't recall ever seeing expensive pots and pans in a restaurant. I don't own any overly expensive ones. The most stupid investment I've made for the kitchen is an All Clad non stick pan for some $120 or so. Does it work? Yes, just as well as my cheap $10 one from Safeway before. Will it last longer? Maybe, but not 12 times longer. Is it prettier? Yes, but who cares, it's nothing but a tool. (And I really don't like the All Clad handles..) My most used item on the stove is my cast iron pan, ancient "technology" with no fancy layer of this and that. It works a lot better than my more expensive steel and who knows what else pan (wedding gift) that I hardly ever use, stuff sticks to it. My stove? crappy Jenn Air with those electric coil elements. While those expensive pots and pans are gorgeous, I can't imagine what they could do better than the stuff I have, most certainly not THAT much better to justify the silly prices. My go to modernist tool? My Sous Vide Supreme Demi. I was not sure about SV (and still see it as a bit of cheating for home cooking) but the convenience of prepping part of dinner sometime during the day and being able to get everything together in about 10 min or even less come dinner time is fantastic. Next on my shopping list is a pressure cooker, that ancient kitchen tool that seems to have so many modernist uses.

I haven't eaten there in a good decade, after I left my cubicle hell job and my friend/boss could no longer drag me there DESPITE THE FACT THAT TWO QUITE GOOD HOLE IN THE WALL MEXICAN RESTAURANTS WERE RIGHT BEHIND IT!! Sorry, had to get that out, LOL. I never liked it, and I do like the occasional fast food (except in'n out and Tacco Hell) and I'm surprised that this place is still here, as there must be a good 10 or more mexican restaurants around within 5 min by car. But I guess many think that it's actually Mexican food (sorry Mexico...) and go there because it's quick and they don't have to understand or speak a tiny minimum of Spanish I simply find it so bland, that I could only enjoy it with a good load of hot sauce that wasn't even hot in my book. Just bland, soupy and boring compared to what I can get right behind it. I'm surprised to read that it's hard to find Mexican restaurants in some areas of the country, there's certainly no shortage here in California - where Mexicans will be the majority soon I guess, which might explain it. I'm not that much into Mexican food, but if I get the craving I want something authentic and good, not some industrial plastic version of what somebody decided IS Mexican food and pays millions on convincing us that it's actually true. (I'm glad that stupid toy rat dog is no longer in the ads, but I wonder, where did he end up??? ) Even places like High Tech Burrito are ten times better than anything they make at T'Hell IMO at least.

this is semi on topic: I'm wondering if it's just me, or did you also more recently buy a bag or box of salad mix just to get a nice whiff of compost smell once you open it, even if it's totally fresh? I've returned quite some lately, even though most of the salad looked nice, the smell was simply off putting. I wish I'd have room in the fridge for a couple different heads of fresh salad, but it's not there, so if I want a mix of things I need to get those bags or boxes, but lately I've almost given up on them and just get a napa cabbage and slice some off for salad. Quality or freshness or what ever they do for preservation seems to lack lately, and not only at one store.

I've never used the oven for bacon, interesting idea. I usually make it in my non stick pan, the same I use afterwards for the scrambled eggs, they pick up all the nice brown bits and pieces. Most of the fat I drain out before and keep - or discard if I have lots in the freezer already. I sometimes also use my George Foreman 3 in one or what it is grill thing. Works quite nicely, the fat drains out since the machine is tilted up, cooks from both sides. But I pretty much only do that if I then make waffles on the same machine, which isn't that often. I also tried the microwave way, wasn't all that happy with it, but that was years ago, should probably give it an other try. Not that practical for a whole package of bacon or a whole piece of home made though, I'd guess. After cooking I drain the bacon on a plate with paper towel, all sits in a low oven to keep warm, but not cook any further.

I have one of those gigantic garlic press like things, actually works for lime with a small press and lemon with the large part. for just one lemon or lime I either just squeeze it or use a wooden reamer (if I don't care about the seeds, like in a marinade etc)

a bra for your lady? party hats? Lady Gaga shoulder inserts? I kept the entire box, just in case the "first edition" eventually is worth more than a 2nd print run I can sell it and retire on the profit I also might have to store it for a while (remodel on the house) and the box is a good size to store other things in. The inserts I might use in artwork.