ChrisZ

The 'egg' handle is about 3/4 the size of a real egg, so without finding a ruler and measuring it I'd guess that the head is just under an inch wide. It's comparable to a big teaspoon. Roughly. My wife got it as a kris-kringle christmas gift many years ago, so unfortunately no idea where it's from. But it is pretty robust- it's supposed to be an 'omelette mixer' and the wires are definitely stiff and rigid, not like a balloon whisk. It's probably intended as a novelty gift and it's a fluke that I like using it...

This tiny whisk sits perfectly in the palm of your hand and is perfect for mixing small quantities. It's my go-to whisk for things like cornflour, gelatine and anything else where the amount is so small that a full-size whisk would have trouble even getting wet!

For those in Australia, I have some excess N-Zorbit M (tapioca maltodextrin). The stuff is so light and fluffy that it takes up much more room than I anticipated, so I'd be happy to offload some to anyone interested- but preferably in Australia only. I'd be happy to do a swap for some gellan, but PM me if you're interested and we can go from there...

It's slightly ironic that a custard shouldn't taste 'eggy', or that a scrambled egg flavour is a sign of an overcooked custard. So as much as I love creme brulee I wouldn't want one that tasted like egg! How about a simple victoria sponge? Filled with whipped cream and jam. If you have loads of eggs you could use a (non-eggy) custard/cream filling instead of straight whipped cream... Or if you don't mind separating them, you could make a large pavlova with the egg whites, and a custard or ice-cream with the yolks.

Have you tried either Harrods or Fortnum & Mason? Obviously very expensive, but also very extensive... Would at least be a starting point. Otherwise I'd look online.

I assume you're talking about freezing yourself in a domestic freezer? I think the effect that freezing has on fish depends on how it is done, and the industrial processes are much less severe. Certainly tuna are deep-frozen at sea, so even when you read about a new record being set for the price of a tuna at auction, which seems to happen every so often, that record-price-setting tuna has been frozen. I think they use liquid nitrogen, or at least a slurry of dry ice and liquid nitrogen, which doesn't harm the flesh as much. I noticed that a thread on 'wormy fish' has been bumped up, it contains a few statistics from Modernist Cuisine in one of the newer posts. The risk is very slight... But while it's good to know there is a potential risk from eating raw fresh fish, I think the risk of getting food poisoning from eating an oyster is far higher, but it's never harmed their popularity. It just goes with the territory...

Last week at a local Italian restaurant we were given an amuse-bouche of minted pea soup with truffle oil. The peas were the 'normal' green garden variety, not the dried type you usually associate with pea soup. It was very simple, very creamy, and delicious. It may not have been much more than a puree of peas with some mint in them, and the flavour was so strong it may not have even had any cream in it. And the truffle oil worked really well... it was the best dish of the night and I wish it was on the menu!

Just to add a note of caution... I'm all for making sashimi at home, and David's photos are making my mouth water on the other side of the world. But it's important to note that really fresh fish- as in fish that hasn't been frozen or is even freshly caught- may contain parasites that pose health risks. The 'sashimi quality' label is not related to the quality of the fish, it simply indicates that it has been deep frozen for a long enough period to kill any parasites or eggs. It's a disappointing fact that sashimi made from fish that has been frozen is safer than that which is made from a freshly caught fish. It's not some misplaced paranoia, in 'Modernist Cuisine' there's a photograph of a worm emerging from a piece of fish they bought at a supermarket- I vaguely recall Bourdain mentioning something about worms in fish in his first book, although I can't recall if he was discussing sashimi. My mate had the good fortune to marry a sushi chef and we had visions of going fishing and eating the freshest possible sushi and sashimi. But to be safe we have to restrict ourselves to buying 'sashimi quality' fish from a reputable fishmonger...

I do think you're overreacting a bit. Firstly, vanillin itself is found in natural vanilla and is the dominant 'vanilla flavour'. Whether it's made synthetically or extracted from vanilla beans it's still the same chemical. The difference between 'natural' vanilla and vanillin is not the chemical itself - but a 'natural' vanilla extract also has other chemicals in it too which supplement the flavour, however subtly. A suitable analogy may be the difference between table salt and a sea salt - in both cases the salt is identical (NaCl) but the sea salt will have minuscule amounts of other minerals in there too. Blind taste tests have shown that vanillin is indistinguishable from 'natural' vanilla extract, no matter how much this may horrify gourmands or embarrass the chefs who took part in the tests... I have previously recommended the Pralus tasting pyramid to people interested in artisanal chocolate. It's a selection of 10 single-origin chocolates which have the same recipe (proportions of cocoa/cocoa butter/sugar) but each bar uses beans from a different plantation. It's amazing how different they are. Everything about the bars is the same except where the beans have come from, but one bar will give you a burst of rich red berries, the next will be nutty, the next will be smoky and so on. The huge variation in flavour comes from the beans alone, everything else is identical. There are so many variables in chocolate that determine the taste and quality that the tiny proportion of vanillin will not make any difference at all.

I'm thinking out loud here, and would appreciate any input. I love traditional dauphinoise potatoes (scalloped potatoes to my mum), but my wife's not so keen on the amount of cream and butter that goes into them. So I'm thinking that I could adapt some of the modernist cuisine techniques with cheese sauces to make a low-fat dauphinoise potatoes without compromising on texture or taste - perhaps even improving on texture as I've found the cream/butter sometimes splits depending on which cheese you use. My first thought is to start with the cheese from the 'mac and cheese' recipe- but basically I'm thinking that that skim milk and a carrageenan, along with gruyere cheese and sodium citrate, should do the job nicely. What I'm wondering is how a skim milk / hydrocolloid base would affect the cooking of the potatoes? In a traditional dauphinoise potatoes the potatoes are actually being cooked in the cream, as opposed to the 'mac and cheese' recipe where the cheese is mixed into the cooked macaroni. So in order for this low-fat approach to work, and for the potatoes to cook in the cheese sauce, is there one type of technique or hydrocolloid that's more suitable than another?

They are different, and complimentary, but I'm reluctant to try and describe the differences myself as I don't think I can do either book justice. Perhaps you could describe McGee as an encyclopaedia of food, while MC is an encyclopaedia of cooking? One of the quotes on the back of McGee observes that it doesn't actually have any recipes in it - perhaps that's the most poignant difference. I might be oversimplifying, but McGee doesn't really spell out cooking advice, whereas MC is full of step-by-step guides on various techniques.

I've done the potato flakes, I think I posted about it uptopic. I sautéed them in butter until browned, then added to a potato purée. I thought it worked pretty well. Yes, you posted this way back on page 1! I didn't even know that potato flakes existed but I was intrigued by the photos, so I found them in the supermarket and gave it a go. At the time I didn't have my copy of MC and so I was using Chris' excellent report as a guide, but it worked fine. I browned the flakes in butter (using a non-stick pan) and thought the result tasted a lot like a packet of plain crisps (we say chips in Australia, but I'm not talking about the hot kind, rather the things you snack on). Without a recipe I added too much to my mash, as the flavour was very noticable, but I thought the concept was great and next time I try it I'll be much more cautious with the quantities- I'll treat the browned flakes more like a seasoning than an ingredient.

I have been thinking about this since I half-attempted the 'beer can chicken' (2.109), and I'm wondering what people think about the appeal of roasting a whole chicken vs the practicality of cooking it in pieces. As I don't have a brining syringe I actually followed the brining technique in Heston Blumenthal's 'In Search of Perfection' book (for the perfect roast chicken) but the underlying premise is the same. (I cooked the chicken according to Modernist Cuisine's recipe, and finished it on the BBQ which added a great smoky flavour - success) What I have been thinking about is that the process outlined by both Modernist Cuisine and Blumenthal is obviously more involved than a conventional roast chicken, and therefore it will only appeal to certain types of cooks and certain personalities. But those particular cooks who see the benefit of the modernist cuisine approach will be the ones who can also appreciate that cutting up the bird and cooking the individual pieces separately is simpler, easier to control, and will potentially give better results. So that made me try to identify the appeal of roasting a whole bird - do the types of cooks who might describe themselves as 'modernist' still enjoy the ritual of carving a whole bird at the table? I guess my point is that both Blumenthal and 'Modernist Cuisine' have identified a reasonably involved process to produce the 'perfect' roast chicken, but if the goal is purely to produce perfectly cooked chicken then cutting the bird up and cooking the individual pieces sous vide will give better results more reliably. So the goal of cooking a perfectly cooked whole bird must be subtly different, perhaps encompassing tradition, presentation, etc... I'm just thinking out loud, but if I'm making sense I'd like to know what you think...

I saw a sushi chef in Japan use an electric planer to shave his cutting board to a clean surface, something he did every day. The cutting board was (originally) extremely thick though, and it appeared as though they were purchased in thick 'planks' designed to be regularly shaved. I'm guessing anything from 10-20cm (4"-8") new. It was a white plastic material, not timber. It struck me as a very hygienic practise. I'm not a carpenter so I don't know how different the surface would be if you used an electric sander rather than a planer, and if this would affect hygiene.

Yes, I recently discovered in a fairly embarrassing way that all 3 sets of "metric" measuring cups I have are inaccurate. A plastic set from the supermarket that are all clearly embossed with their supposed quantities is just plain wrong- it clearly says "1 cup 250ml"but only holds 220ml. A "quality" set of stainless steel measuring cups - again etched with "250ml"- only holds 215ml. Ironically, a novelty set of matryoshka doll measuring cups is the most accurate of the three, with the "one cup" holding 230mls. But they're all innaccurate. If they didn't have their supposed quantities etched/embossed then I would have assumed they were US measurements or a different arbitrary size. But the manufacturer has gone to the trouble making a mould/ etching the cups with exact sizes in mls- they're just wrong!

If press coverage is the measure then Paul Lynch is probably Australia's most controversial chef. Do you remember way back in 1994 when Paul Lynch made headlines in Melbourne - and then around the world - because of his restaurant's 'no children' rule? My memory is hazy but I believe a couple turned up to his restaurant with a baby and he turned them away. He was found guilty of discrimination, but I'm fairly sure that he kept the 'no children' rule in place and no one ever sued him. That was almost 15 years ago now and it's still a controversial topic, and it's still mentioned in the Australian food press occasionally. Lynch's was a high-end restaurant and personally I agree that if you're paying that type of money for a fine dining experience you don't want it ruined by a crying baby at the next table. But enough people disagree - including the courts - and so it's still a topic for debate today. I don't think the media coverage he received harmed his business in anyway, I would guess that it actually attracted clientele who appreciated his attitude to dining.

He gets my vote as most dickish. Larry Yeah totally! Obviously each 'TV chef' has a personality and a style that creates a particular image and appeals to a particular audience. While I agree that he comes across as a bit of a dick, there's something about him that commands respect as a chef. There are loads of other fluffy TV presenters that sometimes make me think WTF, but with Ramsay I've never doubted his skill or expertise. So dick = yes, controversial = not to me.

We buy tinned tomatoes by the carton (24 cans), tomato passata by the carton (12 bottles) and olive oil in 5 litre cans. I'll often buy Lindt couverture chocolate in 2.5kg bags. This makes it comparable in price to the supermarket blocks of Cadbury/Nestle 'cooking chocolate' which I don't like as much. And it's nice to have a pantry with several kilograms of chocolate in it :-)

They are not adding wood pulp, that's an inaccurate, hysterical simplification. They are using methylcellulose, which is a synthetic derivative that's been used in the food industry for decades. Methylcellulose has some interesting qualities and it's popping up in modernist cuisine- it's in some of the modernist cuisine/ molecular gastronomy kits you can buy. In volume 2 of 'Modernist Cuisine' it illustrates how methylcellulose can be used to create a high quality consomme with less flavour loss than the traditional egg-white method. Methylcellulose is also added to foods that are to be deep-fried as it prevents them from absorbing oil. But just because it's an interesting, harmless product doesn't mean it should be used to artificially bulk up products. But claiming that these companies are 'adding wood pulp to their products' is just as misleading.

The filling is green, and the voiceover mentions an 'English pea agnolotti', so I'd be happy to bet that what we're seeing is the agnolottis being made. Some pastas have a degree of ambiguity about their name. I've never known what the strict difference between fettucine and tagliatelle is, or if there even is one. I've seen the term 'agnolotti' simply defined as 'large ravioli', but I've also seen it used to describe semi-circlular raviolis too, which are also called 'mezzaluna' (half moons). The point at which a ravioli becomes an agnolotti, and an agnolotti becomes a mezzaluna will probably be irrelevant to some but a matter of critical importance to someone else...

Yep, Quay was given to me as a gift but I bought 'Bentley' when Amazon UK had it on sale for £13, also well worth a look. With free shipping that's just under Aus$20, while the book sells in Sydney for Aus$90. I'm still working my way through 'Modernist Cuisine' so I've hardly opened 'Bentley', but from flicking through it it seems to be well worth the $20. Jump in before the free delivery to Australia expires! The 8 texture chocolate cake in 'Quay' really impresses me, it's something I will definitely attempt at home. I was especially struck by the concept of using the heat of the sauce to deliberately melt an opening for the rest of the sauce - brilliant piece of edible drama! The only problem with trying it at home is that I will need to go to the restaurant to see what their version is like... I'm just waiting for strawberry guavas to come into season so I can try the famous guava snow egg...

Wow, I'm thrilled to discover that 'Moderist Cuisine' mentions a device I already own! Maybe I should keep my dremel in the kitchen from now on... Although I would assume that the dremel is the best way to do this, UK chef Martin Blunos simply uses a serrated knife and a lot of patience. His technique formed a segment of the Australian Masterchef series last year, where both he and a contestant had to make his recipe for 'boiled egg and solidiers'. You can see the clip from the show on Youtube. The video is a great example of not only the difficulty of the task, but also Martin's approach and demonstration of his own method- he talks through the knife technique and you get plenty of useful closeups. Hope this helps.

I agree that this looks like a fun and very feasible DIY project. I thought I'd mention that model making forums - ie model airplanes, model trains - are a good source of information as those guys have been making their own vacuum forming presses for longer than chefs have been bagging sous vide. I just did a quick google and even found a book on the subject. At the very least, combing through model making forums might give you good leads on suitable vacuum pumps and other materials suppliers, if nothing else. I do like the way that the DIY spirit can cross hobbies. I have learnt a lot about liquid nitrogen from serious computer gamers who use it to cool down their computer CPUs so they can overclock them for additional performance. One interesting thing to consider if you build your own vacuum chamber sealer is that just as water and alcohol will boil at lower temperatures when under lower pressures, any glues/solvents/paints/sealers etc etc will also boil at lower temps too. So some glues and sealers will be better suited than others for use in a vacuum chamber - for example, one guy on a model airplane forum said that epoxy resin is not a good glue to build a vacuum chamber with as it leaks too many vapours at low pressure, presumably failing after a short period of time. Perhaps this doesn't matter as much when you're only bagging for a few seconds, as opposed to curing model airplane parts for hours or days... but still, it's an interesting point to consider. HTH.

I thought I'd suggest that McGee's most recent book, 'Keys to good cooking', is more or less a 550 page collection of modernist cooking notes. When I first read his original 'On Food and cooking' I felt like there was so much information there that I needed to read it several times and takes notes of the specific tips that I found useful. But then 'Keys to good cooking' came out, and I discovered that he'd done it for me. Of course 'Modernist Cuisine' covers vast new areas that aren't in McGee's books, and a 550 page book may not sound concise (unless you're comparing it to the 5 volumes of 'Moderist Cuisine'), but if you are after a single reference for current practical tips in the kitchen, then 'Keys to good cooking' is definitely worth a look...

I love lamb backstraps on the BBQ. (That's an Australian BBQ, which is flame-grilled to everyone else). And I agree that you should include liver - the traditional lamb's fry! Now you've made me crave lambs brains, I loved them as a kid. Maybe try deep-frying them in panko crumbs just to accentuate the difference in textures... It's all good, honest farmers food.