IndyRob

Well, after freezing overnight I took it out this morning and let it thaw. I'd say it's a partial success. It had a tuna-like appearance and sliced smoothly and cleanly, but there's still a bit of crunch when bitten into, but not so much as unalterated watermelon. I think it could still be quite interesting, especially with a flavor twist. I think I need a new seal for my Food Saver, and could've gotten a better vacuum with a new one. But I think that might bode well for tying it with the $3 ziploc vacuum pumps. I also wondered about good old fashioned mechanical compression. So I put a piece in a Food Saver bag and pressed down on it with a sheet pan. If anyone ever needs to do watermelon roadkill, this is a good method.

Did you receive an incomplete order, or nothing at all? There's a difference between those that received the product as expected, versus those that haven't received it, versus those that have received it in an unsatisfactory state.

My guess is that a chain of errors in the Amazon.ca warehouse occurred. But here's the thing. Amazon doesn't normally have chains of errors. It would ruin them. Yes, this may be a unique offering for them, but we've been told that all the volumes are packaged together (I haven't seen it myself, but I assume that to be the case). But (and I've recently worked in such a company), if the robots deliver 50 lbs worth of books, and the packer selects just one, he's got to deal with 45 lb's of books that have no destination. He can't just sweep them under the rug. That's going to raise a red flag. That's why I think they come from returns. Because that's a more chaotic environment where things can't be predicted with the certainty one might expect from the 'bots.

I'm going waaayy out on a limb here, but I suspect returns. Someone gets a copy, opens the box and ships it back for whatever reason, in whatever way is most convenient. So it comes back (separated) and a warehouse picker sees 'Modernist Cuisine' and knows they are to get these out ASAP. So they do just that.

Or maybe a salad of microgreens topped with a quail egg on a crouton. Kind of an Alice in Wonderland sort of thing.

We don't do sous vide so I'm not sue what we have access to in terms of equipment. Are there low-tech ways to do this? I have seen the concept before and it would be a cool thing to do. There's this version which seems to rely more on freezing than compressing. [ETA]I was just out and decided to pick up some watermelon and try it. I tried using my FoodSaver. I didn't seem to get any appreciable compression, but I'll see if the freezing does anything. I'm going to test another idea which I'm going to find hilarious if successful. And potentially more hilarious if it fails.

From the SodaStream FAQ: We've documented two fizzy messes so far. You'd have to make a concentrate to add after carbonation.

There are many versions of compressed watermelon 'tuna'.

Just eavedropping on my husband's high school chemistry lesson on gas laws ... did you chill the wine? (Henry's Law) I don't think it would help. For some reason, it must be chilled plain water. I once prematurely added the flavoring syrup and realized I had not carbonated it yet. Rather than pouring it down the drain, I decided to try to carbonate it (the instructions say specifically not to do this, and that it could damage the machine). I got the same fizzy countertop syndrome.

Do you have a residential area around the location? Is there a neighborhood you can target?

After going to the fridge... Store Brand: Cultured Cream, contains less than 1% of: Whey Protein Concentrate, Food Starch-Modified, Sodium Phosphate, Maltodextrin, Cultured Dextrose, Sodium Citrate, Gellan Gum, Carragenan, Guar Gum, Calcium Sulfate, Locust Bean Gum, Potassium Sorbate (to preserve freshness)

Reading this topic has brought up a broader pet peeve I've been developing - Food that's fashionable, or on-trend, versus food that is not. If a foam is there because foams are hot right now, then the foam probably didn't need to be there. If a foam is not there only because foams have become passe, it probably should have been there. I feel the same when a dish is dismissed for being, say, "heavy, so '70's". Some of our great dishes come from the 1910's. Bourdain raved about a classic French restaurant still doing the classics ("Who does this stuff anymore?. Nobody!" - but in an almost ecstatic tone). If you're 18 years old today, what are the chances you're going to get to experience this sort of thing? Fashion seems to destroy itself decade after decade with a mad rush to the new, or the old made new. We jump on the new things so enthusiastically that we over-expose and smother them in their infancy. And in so doing, we turn our backs on what came before in our quest for what's next.

I'm often able to find cheap pork rib tips or riblets and just throw them on a sheet pan and slow roast them. I usually just wing it with the herbs, but a typical application I've worked out over time is salt, pepper, garlic powder, cumin and paprika - often with a drizzle of olive oil. Chinese five spice on ribs is also a good change-up.

Except that big processors like McCain deal with a large network of contract farmers, for whom companies like McCain comprise the bulk of their market. Which means that McCain has a lot of power to basically set the price they're going to pay for the potatoes. But, are either of those strategies at odds? Or are they complementary?

When I read the original post I was doing a lot of waffling. But the logic here is unassailable. It should be printed up in cards that can go in your wallet.

Potatoes are interesting because, on sale, I can buy a sack of potatoes for $2.99. But a single baker will cost me a dollar if purchased alone. But in the case of frozen fries, I suspect that quite a bit of savings can be had by putting your potato processing plant close to the source. Farm->Truck->Plant. God only knows the route my single baker took get to my corner grocery.

...The publishers have the right to protect their Valuable Intellectual Property, and any discussion of methods to bypass their protection are a violation of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (in the US, at least.) I agree, both philospohically and legally, but I'm wracking my brain trying to think of a downside to allowing the index to be printable. It's already viewable to anyone with an internet connection. It can be downloaded, emailed, torrented, reposted, etc. What's the problem with a paper copy?

Really? It's interesting that it's presented that way. My husband had this dish at Zaytinya over a year ago when Mike Isabella was still working there... Huh. I had to go back to see exactly what he said..."I had never made it before, but I took the idea and ran with it." Perhaps he'd tasted it and or/saw it made, but never did it himself. Was it good enough to warrant Gail's reaction?

I'm really struggling with this because I agree. Still, I have seen endorsements here of putting sriracha on grilled cheese. I think the dipping sauce was meant to offer something you couldn't get at home. I think Meltworks should've sayed longer, but having been eliminated, I don't really feel like the world has suffered a great loss. But I think Joey should've gone. As an investor, do you want a partner that completely forgets about his concept when he steps in font of a camera to promote it?

BTW, I found it impossible not to seek out more details on the pepperoni sauce. Here's the method and ingredients, but no measurements. It turns out that Mike was winging it.

The real world could be giving Narnia a run for it's money. Ruth Bourdain has been nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award. Tony approves of the nomination, but not the foundation. Meanwhile, Alice Waters is claiming to be Ruth Bourdain.

Getting a FoodSaver caused me to hoard meat. Every Saturday morning I'd go hunting. Not for game, but for bargains. More was going into the freezer than was coming out. I think I'm recovering now, but there is probably still a few pounds of miscellaneous cryovac'd proteins in there.

Given the requirements of TCM (mainly, that it should never risk ruining anyone's established reputation), I like the silly challenges more than I like the more serious challenges. With TCM we're not watching a bunch of people trying to establish a reputation. These chefs already have that. We're just learning more about them. Seeing them in a casual atmosphere, and a more personal way - a little bit out of their comfort zone. I don't think one can look at TC and TCM in the same way. I hope that TCM will evolve into some individual challenge specials rather than an overall competition that can't really compete with the real-world competition that they're aleady engaged in.

I wonder if there will be a culinary restructuring that would accompany the financial and/or organizational restructuring.

Yes, thanks. I think that's it. Salami had me thinking in terms of italian words despite the deli reference. But it looks like there's no kosher salami around these parts, except for our big deli here whose product looked different. It wasn't Hebrew National. I think that's what I may be looking for.