OliverB

one also has to keep in mind that MC is a very unusual project with a lot of financial backing that I doubt any cookbook ever had or will have again. Add a custom built kitchen and a lot of specialists (not only kitchen), it's really much more of a text book. Actually, as a cook book in the more usual sense, I'd say it's too long winded, way too big, too expensive and not focused enough on cooking To me it's in a class all by itself, a very unique art and science project. It's like comparing a super sports car like a Koenigsegg with a 5 series BMW or a Mercedes. Yes, all have wheels and drive, but one is a piece of art, the other is a good mass produced car. Of course, all these "best" lists are always a bit of nonsensical, as it's really a personal thing. One man's treasure.... As for cookbooks of 2011, I was surprised to find that I don't have any yet, all my most recent acquisitions are copyright 2010, so they don't count. That includes Ideas in Food by the way.

I'm not sure MC fits into this thread all that well. Is it a cook book? I think it's so much more, an illustrated history and encyclopedia of a lot of things, with recipes to illustrate the text. Calling them cookbook doesn't do them (or cookbooks) justice IMO. They are a category all by themselves, nothing like it was ever before and probably never will be again. Just a thought? Comparing MC with any "normal" cookbook is really not possible.

Nice article on Steve and Rancho Gordo: Napa heirloom bean venture changes lives in Mexico Great job!

just make sure to buy from an authorized dealer (and not online) or you won't get the lifetime warranty. Yes, they are expensive, it took me over two years to finally decide what I want (smoker? BBQ? Steel? etc) but the extreme versatility of the egg finally made me go with a large one and I could not be happier. It heats up fast, stays on what ever temp you want w/o much fiddling, goes from slow smoker to high heat steak searing pizza baking machine. Also uses very little coal, so I don't even mind the silly price the brand coal costs. I have no idea if they even deliver to Spain or Europe, why not contact them directly and ask for dealers? Also, if you live close to a store or egg head community, check for deals. Here in the Bay Area the Eggs by the Bay store has a yearly eggfest with cookout. All participating cooks use a brand new egg that you can buy that day at a serious discount. Used once and full warranty, a great deal. I think you have to pick it up at the fest. Other stores might have similar things going on. I really can't think of a better bbq/grill. It heats up in 10 min, uses real lump coal, not the compressed who-knows-what's-in-it stuff and not gas. Everything comes off perfect, juicy, with a wonderful smoke flavor from the coals - or real smoky with added wood. It seems a bit silly to gush like this, but I've looked at every smoker option out there, I have a weber grill which I also love. But IMO the egg is simply perfect. Even if it looks a bit goofy.

a creamy sauce for beef or pork? Also if you cut them small and cook them nice and crisp - maybe with a bit of bacon - they would be great sprinkled over potatoes or country fries, over bitter greens or on a soup. Lots of them in the Bay Area hills, but not easy to find, since they're so - well - black :-)

depending on how long you've had it sitting in the fridge, I'd either toss it or cook with it soon (or freeze it). The extra salt is probably drawing liquid out, was it kind of hard when you stopped the cure? My guess would be it's fine, if you eat it soon or freeze it. If it gets slimy or smells funny, toss it. Also if the liquid looks icky cloudy and or slimy. If in doubt, toss, but IMO you should be fine to use it soon, I guess you just made it recently? As long as you're still within a reasonable fridge storage window for meat (meaning, you would still cook it if it were in the fridge for that long raw) I'd not be concerned too much.

I refuse to pay their outrageous prices, no matter how pretty the pots are, but they really should send you a free replacement, steel if you want. I'd call them. You can also get metal drawer handles to use as knob on your lid, might be a lot cheaper than their price? And you can just pick it up at a hardware store, no need to pay for and wait for shipping. This was once discussed somewhere to replace cheap handles on cheaper pots (Target, which is what I have) so you can make the no knead bread w/o melting the handle off. My pot actually has a metal handle, I just took out a plastic washer in between handle and lid, that would have melted.

if they sell chemicals, aren't they required to know what they are and supply material data safety sheets if needed as well? Seems odd that they either would not answer at all, or answer with something that makes little sense. You'd think they know what they have in stock? I guess I won't order from them anytime soon, if they don't know or won't/can't tell you what it is you actually bought.

Uhm, Modernist Cuisine comes to mind there Of course, not everybody has Nathan's financial resources to go about it ETA: the self publishing via print on demand is actually quite easy, there are several online companies that do offer this service. You upload your book and if somebody wants it they can order it and it gets printed and bound on demand. Same goes for photo books, lots of services that offer that.

oh, this looks wonderful! Did you cook the roe just in it's natural "container"? No seasoning? I haven't come across it so far, would love to know what to do. The dish looks really wonderful, I wish there was something like taste-a-vision so I could lick my screen

not knowing your idea, you might want to look into print on demand self publishing too, you can get an isbn number at some of these services, then you can even list it on amazon I believe. To get into the door at a publisher with a cookbook is said to be close to impossible, unless you know somebody, are somebody, or have a complete novel idea to pitch. Doesn't mean I don't wish you luck, I'll be first in line if it's a topic that interests me and all the best of luck to you! It's just a very competitive market with lots of people shopping ideas and even finished books around.

finally got to use my portable kahuna and I'm in love! I wasn't even planning to use it, as it was a bit windy and cold, was gonna use the BGE, but the wind died down and I set it up (which is quick to do). Seasoned the wok once more with oil, Chinese chives and ginger and then cooked my food, which turned out delicious with "that" taste of a stir fry that you just can't get on the stove I guess. I didn't even follow a recipe, since I had planned to bbq, but here's what I cooked: boneless pork spare ribs, marinated in commercial "classic stir fry sauce" by House of Tsang, Chinese long beans. A side of lightly steamed broccoli with Asian style dressing, cashew nuts, a couple left over asparagus and home made bacon and garden harvested shitake (growing to my surprise from a tree stump). Also had chopped ginger and 4 or 5 fat cloves of garlic. I was gonna cook the ginger first quickly and then remove, and the long beans were already half steamed since I was just gonna toss and heat them on the bbq. Of course I threw the now cut into cubes meat first, so I cooked it for a bit, dumped it out on top of the beans, cooked the ginger, took most of it out, added the garlic, cooked that for a couple seconds and put all the rest back in, stirfrying in a heavenly cloud of steam. Added some more of the sauce and that's it, cooking was done in less than 5 min. Tasted fantastic, I can't wait to do some real cooking from my books now! The wok works great, it's already nice and black on the bottom half. I might get a friend to weld a long handle on it, not sure yet. But I bought a pair of Ove' Gloves that work great for handling the hot wok and will be handy in many other ways. Not cheap, but a good investment. The whole Kahuna unit stores very small, legs come off and collapse, and they have a dedicated spot on the bottom where they are held in place for storage. It puts out a lot of heat, way sufficient for woking I would say! And - on the portable - you can also put a pot or a pan on it, this will be my go to camping stove from now on. I hope to set it up again this weekend, takes a minute or two to do and it's nice to be able to store it small and out of the way, it's not the prettiest thing I've ever seen ;-) Only having used it once, I'm already pretty confident that I can highly recommend this unit. I got their 18 inch wok (carbon steel) but you could use a smaller one. And if you believe the box, you could use a 22 inch one too, but that would be a very big vessel, I can't imagine needing that size. I can see it from where I'm sitting, and it makes me hungry just looking at it :-)

Thanks pazzaglia and others, that's great info! I overlooked the aluminum issue, definitely a no no. I don't can much, well, not at all with pressure so far, but it's something I like to explore. I love making pickles, mostly make the quick ones that need to stay in the fridge, and my fridge is tiny, so something that stores in the pantry makes more sense. I think I'll put that Fagor on my wishlist, seems to be exactly what I'm looking for, thank you so much!! Oliver

this thread is turning into more fun than I expected! Somebody want to make a world map or something in google earth etc? Could be fun to see. (moat finished, check! Guns purchased, check! Need to get land mines and razor wire next, pack of wolves is on order, laser alarm system set up, I think my copy will be safe!)

...moat finished, off to the gun store....

wish I'd have the room for one of these things! So pretty. One of these days..... :-)

It's unlikely that I'll buy a centrifuge or even an industrial vacsealer anytime soon, but there appear to be recipes using a pressure cooker in Modernist Cuisine, and I've been thinking about getting one for a while. Today at the hardware store I came across this Presto Pressure Canner (and cooker) and started to wonder, if I couldn't get a two in one unit, as I love canning things as well, but don't have a pressure canner, which you need for certain things. This unit goes up to 15psi, I can't tell if it has different settings or can be set to anything on the scale. Would this be a purchase that makes sense? It's mostly a canner, but the box says you can use it as a cooker as well. It doesn't go up to the Asian turbo setting of 21psi, but does any pot you can buy here in the US? Do I need that option? I can't tell. I do like that this unit is big enough to use as a decent size canner, I really don't want to have a canner and a pressure cooker sitting around, there's a limit to how much stuff I can store. If anybody here has this unit (or a similar one) I'd be curious to hear what you think about it as a cooker, as I'm sure it'll work fine as a canner, being advertised as such. Amazon reviews also indicate a good product and the price is certainly good.

one at the foot of Mount Diablo, CA Note the Diablo in there, he's my friend and protects the books on the rare occasion that I'm not at home growling at the door myself Back to the yard, have to finish the moat today~~

For those that can't wait for (or afford) the books, there's a little publicity article accompanied by a couple recipes in the May 11 Food&Wine magazine, page 93ff The recipes center around using a pressure cooker (funny, I just looked at one at the hardware store today!) and are: Pressure Cooker Pork Carnitas Caramelized Carrot Soup Braised Pine Nuts with Butternut Squash Something to get you started or for the curious, to show you some of the "normal" recipes in the books.

As I'm from Germany, I really love their Germany book, as I learn things that I never knew. I grew up in Bavaria, and it's interesting how different food is in other parts of this tiny country (which I think would fit 3 times into California, if I remember my boy's school project correctly. Also has about 3x the population of California though) These are really gorgeous books, very well made, fantastic photos. Very much like the "beautiful cook book" series, that I also love. It's just so much fun to get some local perspective and history about the dishes presented.

that takes us into the "what is art" discussion, which has been going on since the first cavemen took a piece of charcoal to the walls of his cave Sustainable Food is a neat idea, unpractical in a global sense, but that doesn't mean that parts of the ideas can, should, and are being implemented in mass production of food. And if you google Chez Panisse and click over to the images, you'll find lots of pretty pictures of the food they serve there, if they don't think food is (or can be) art, why the artful display on the plate then? Alice Waters is a pioneer, and a very important person in American food culture, but her flippant dismissal of an other area of food preparation is just stupid IMO. I'm sure there's all kinds of technology in her kitchen that you don't find in most home kitchens. Oh, and her Alaskan Wild King Salmon ain't from next door either. Nor can most of us afford to shop every week at the small regional farms that supply her (thus making this kind of "sustainable food" a very tiny niche of the food industry, one that would not exist w/o expensive restaurants, as it would not be sustainable to run such a farm) To me, any good tasting food is art, be it a great hot dog or some outlandish creation at Alinea. As soon as the cook/chef put more thought than simple assembly into it, it's art, as it contains creativity that goes beyond what would be the basic necessity of cooking the items. But then, some adore the Mona Lisa, and I'd store it somewhere in the garage

baby garlic! To me the best thing in spring. Just eaten fresh sprinkled over steak, cooked on the bbg, sauteed in butter, steamed and turned into a salad, oh, I could eat this stuff all day! Young purple, white, orange carrots, either as salad, as a quick pickle, or sauteed with butter and some kind of syrup. Fava beans have not yet shown up here (NorCal) but once they do I'll be all over them. I even love peeling them :-) Asparagus I either steam quickly or more often roast in the pan. Serve with olive oil, balsamico and some shaved parmesan or just good salt and pepper, maybe a spritz of lemon or lime. Or orange. I also cook it on the big green egg on days when I heat it up to 600+ for steak. Creates nice grill marks. I always keep it crunchy. baby beets in all colors! Oh, I love beets. Roasted, steamed, raw, they're so flexible and gorgeous to look at!

Any steak works well, that's what I did first. A quick sear in a very hot cast iron pan once it's done, delish! I also love to make pork chops in there. I don't usually like them, as they tend to get a bit gummy, at least the supermarket ones, but done SV they stay very juicy and tender. Quick sear again. I've only made fish in it once so far (kids aren't that much into fish right now) and that was not so good, but I think it was my mistake. It was frozen and once thawed I took it out of it's store bag, leaving a lot of liquid behind. Turned out a bit dry. Cooked right, but not juicy as it should be. Next time I'll either cook it in the bag it came in and season later, or repack it with seasoning while still frozen, so I don't loose any of the liquid. I've not made eggs so far, I'm working on getting poaching (traditional) right or just scramble them (kids like it) right now. Chicken breast also works very well and does not dry out, I'd do that as one of the first things as well.

"sustainable food" is a neat idea and really good if you can afford it, but IMO it's a pipe dream that this will eventually replace industrial food production. It's simply not possible! The way the population of this planet is exploding, and countries are moving into "modern age" (going from one phone in the village to a cellphone in each hand) and people wanting the same living standard what we just take for granted, it's simply impossible to have food for all these people that grows on that little farm down the road. That aside, I'm sure there's plenty information in the books that can be used by the locavores out there, I really don't understand the silly hostility by some of these people. What are they afraid of? Alice Waters etc need to come off their freshly picked next door green throne, not everybody can afford to eat at her restaurant either, certainly not on a daily basis. I'm lucky in that we don't have to use coupons and turn over every penny twice, but many many people don't have that luxury. I shop at the farmers market because I can afford it, but it's a good 2-3x as expensive as shopping at the cheaper supermarket chains, where most people have to shop. Is it silly that strawberries from somewhere in Mexico cost a third of those grown an hour from here? It's just the way it is, and there's really no realistic way to change these things back - just as we cant replace "made in China" with "made in USA" anymore. Maybe this would be a good topic to discuss elsewhere, but this ignorant and arrogant stance of "I have no interest in this what so ever" is just stupid. They talk as if these books are meant to be the next Joy of Cooking for the masses, which they clearly are not, nor are intended to be. Alice Water's comment that "it's not a kind of way of eating that we need to really live on this planet together." just makes me laugh out loud. So, modernist cooking is not, but $60-95 per person dinners are? Oh please, get a grip. That's just plain silly. Nobody "needs" Chez Panisse either. Why people can't just say "not for me, looks nice, but thanks" instead of getting into this hostile attack mode I really don't understand at all. Personally I actually see these books as art books with interesting information about food, I most likely would have bought them even if the only thing I could cook is water, just for the photography alone. Anyway, just my 2ct, but ignorant comments like this just make me loose a lot of respect for those that utter them.

you might have overdone it there. I usually go across once on each side, always cutting across the fibers. For thinner cuts like flank steak I only go over once on one side. As for the disinfecting with marinade, I doubt you can do that, the tiny amount you'd press in there would not do much at all. But your meat should be fine on the inside (hopefully!!) anyway. If really concerned, wash the outside, dry it off, if really concerned you could even brown it quickly and then jaccard it and cook it as you like, but I think that's overkill. I'm not even sure a marinade would penetrate much, it's not like you're leaving gaping holes with that tool, just narrow slits that usually close up right away again.