Guy MovingOn
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Posts posted by Guy MovingOn
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I just ordered a waterproof notepad and some Sharpie fineliners... I'm hoping I can use them to make notes, and then keep them with the Kitchen Manual. Not quite sure that the waterproof notepad paper will be as strong as the Kitchen Manual paper, but should be more hardwearing than normal paper anyway...
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Although each portion looks pretty tiny... you had 29 courses?!?! That must have required a crazy amount of prep! And I wouldn't like to be whoever has to do the washing up!!
Yes, 29 by my count. (And six very nice wines served throughout the evening). They started out small, but by the 20th course, they looked HUGE!
I keep trying to come up with the appropriate words to describe the food and the experience, but my limited vocabulary fails me completely!This was, by far, the culinary highlight of my life!
Larry
I am incredibly, incredibly jealous! So far going to the Fat Duck has been the culinary highlight of my life, where we had 13 courses plus an extra course of cheese. That already took 4 hours. We weren't totally stuffed, but very full by the end. The MC dinner seems to have smaller courses than The Fat Duck, but still... 29?!?! Crazy!
Thank you so much for sharing!
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Although each portion looks pretty tiny... you had 29 courses?!?! That must have required a crazy amount of prep! And I wouldn't like to be whoever has to do the washing up!!
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OK, I clicked through the site to check out the dermaroller, and I don't quite understand how it's going to work on a piece of duck. They seem to have very, very short needles, at least as far as I can tell. However, I suppose the only way to know for sure is to try it... you first, GMO!
I actually have a couple of brand new ones at my family home, I can't remember what lengths of needles I ordered, but I am at my university home at the moment and currently taking my finals, so I wont be able to conduct any experiments immediately...
Well I just spent a few seconds googling... I couldn't discover the thickness of the dermis of a duck, but apparently the human dermis ranges from 0.5mm on the eyelids up to 3.0mm on the back.
The longest dermaroller/skin roller I think you can buy also has a length of 3.0mm. I found one on eBay here. Please note I am in not way affiliated or anything with these devices... it is just an idea I had, and I really hope I could contribute something to the Modernist Cuisine body of knowledge!
As long as the thickness of the skin on a duck breast is no thicker than 3.0mm, this should work, right???
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OK, I clicked through the site to check out the dermaroller, and I don't quite understand how it's going to work on a piece of duck. They seem to have very, very short needles, at least as far as I can tell. However, I suppose the only way to know for sure is to try it... you first, GMO!
I actually have a couple of brand new ones at my family home, I can't remember what lengths of needles I ordered, but I am at my university home at the moment and currently taking my finals, so I wont be able to conduct any experiments immediately...
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Are the holes from a dog brush really that noticeable? I thought the whole point was that after cooking they all but disappeared?
I am not sure, but definitely rolling something up and down a duck breast a couple of times only takes no more than 3-4 seconds, rather than positioning the dog brush each time and kind of "stamping" the skin which could take up to a minute I suppose.
Still, I would bet that the needles of a dermaroller are even less noticeable than the holes from a dog brush.
You can pick up dermarollers for not too expensive prices on eBay...
Actually I had another thought whilst in the shower (my usual place of inspiration). Could other beauty techniques be applied to food. I was thinking specifically in terms of rendering fat. There are forms are Radio Frequency and I think ultrasound cavitation treatments which are supposed to rupture subcutaneous fat cells. Could you apply this onto poultry carcasses, and then follow up with the skin piercing to aid in rendering even more fat at an even quicker pace? Or could you perhaps use some form of skewer or device to emulsify the fat like they do in liposuction before the suction actually takes place?
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Interesting to see that cryoseared duck was featured on Marcel's Quantum Kitchen in S01E06.
This gave me an idea... so far the best tool we have heard of for puncturing the skin of the duck is by using a dog brush. I have found it hard to find a suitable brush. Furthermore, I am concerned that the resulting puncture holes will be quite large and visible.
Has anyone considered using a dermaroller for creating the holes in the duck skin? They come in various lengths and I believe various diameters of needles... although they are quite narrow they have a high concentration of needles, and I think it would be very fast to roll a dermaroller across a duck breast.
What do you guys think?
Holy cow! I just googled these things. My Gran said you had to be brave to be beautiful but I bet even she would have drawn the line on these things. Still for docking a duck breast.........................
Yes they look like a medieval torture device! But I think I may be onto something...
Much smaller and less visible holes but more highly concentrated, certainly much quicker too.
They often come with a cap, and are smaller than dog brushes.
Finally there is a choice of needle sizes, so you can be much more precise with the depth of penetration etc.
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Interesting to see that cryoseared duck was featured on Marcel's Quantum Kitchen in S01E06.
This gave me an idea... so far the best tool we have heard of for puncturing the skin of the duck is by using a dog brush. I have found it hard to find a suitable brush. Furthermore, I am concerned that the resulting puncture holes will be quite large and visible.
Has anyone considered using a dermaroller for creating the holes in the duck skin? They come in various lengths and I believe various diameters of needles... although they are quite narrow they have a high concentration of needles, and I think it would be very fast to roll a dermaroller across a duck breast.
What do you guys think?
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I have been lugging various volumes of MC backwards and forwards between my university accomodation, the library, my family home, and visiting relatives etc... Yesterday the leather on my Mulberry bag eventually gave up under the weight of volumes 2 and 3 and fell from my back crashing to the floor... <snip>
You see, MC is not just a cook book, or a history, but also an exercise device to offset the caloric intake caused by ogling the pictures!
A very expensive exercise device!
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I certainly don't think that AB is infallible. But in this particular case of the reheating of braised meats, I think he's right, based on a combination of personal experience and the absence of contradictory evidence (though unfortunately, outside of AB, there seems to be a lack of supporting evidence as well). Does MC say anything about reheating braises for service?
I just quickly looked through MC and McGee but can't see anything specifically about the energy required in reheating braises. McGee does however recommend cooling braised meats in their juices as reabsorbtion takes place, cooler meats have a higher water-holding capacity, and gelatinised collagen can also hold onto more juices.
I just quickly looked through, but as I say I didn't see anything.
I wasn't directly discrediting AB's theory of the required energy to reheat the braised meat, but his idea of the resting juices was something that was on my mind for a while, and when he was mentioned again in this thread it reminded me to point it out, as I was disappointed that someone interested in demystifying kitchen science was making a false statement.
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I don't always agree with Alton Brown... I think for example in this video his theory of resting the meat for juice redistribution is to allow the internal pressure of the meat to subside and allow juices pushed into the meat of the steak to go back to the edges. However this seems to contradict what is written in MC in that actually when cooking juices in fact go to the edges and not the middle due to evaporation and capillary action, and resting is to allow for coagulation of the juices.
Watch from this video from 6:04
It's also interesting to learn that since McGee we have always been told that searing does not seal in the juices... however in MC they say that after juices from the edge have evaporated, a dry crust forms which inhibits further evaporation significantly. Obviously it is not the same as a waterproof seal, but it is interesting to learn...
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I have been lugging various volumes of MC backwards and forwards between my university accomodation, the library, my family home, and visiting relatives etc... Yesterday the leather on my Mulberry bag eventually gave up under the weight of volumes 2 and 3 and fell from my back crashing to the floor... that's the price I have to pay to being addicted to reading these volumes!
Oh, and also possibly failing my finals because I'm so obsessed with reading MC! Hope the MC team fancies hiring a final year undergrad student!
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I don't always agree with Alton Brown... I think for example in this video his theory of resting the meat for juice redistribution is to allow the internal pressure of the meat to subside and allow juices pushed into the meat of the steak to go back to the edges. However this seems to contradict what is written in MC in that actually when cooking juices in fact go to the edges and not the middle due to evaporation and capillary action, and resting is to allow for coagulation of the juices.
Watch from this video from 6:04
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I've just finished the task of correcting my copies.
Like others, I did not want to mark my texts but still wanted to have an indication as to whether there was an error on the page I was looking at.
To do this, I decided to "red flag" each page with an error. In my case, however, I "red dotted" them with stickers (something like these).
This indicates to me that there is an error on that page. I will then look up what it is on the errata for that volume, which I will keep in the front of each volume.
As more errors are found, I'll update the dots and errata.
Thank you Nathan et al for not securing the PDF, this allowed me to copy it into Word for reformatting to my needs.
Would it be possible, however, to get a complete list of the errors in Volume 6 on the MC web site? I realise they are contained within the individual chapter errata but it took a lot of cutting and pasting to make a consolidated list for this volume.
This is still a three step process:
i) Look something up in the index
ii) Find it inside the volumes
iii) If it has a red label check the amendment in the errata
If the index could already have this colour coding we would know to check the errata straight away before searching for it in our volumes.
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I think it would be a good idea if the index had some colour coding to indicate if a recipe has been published with an error in it.
That way we wouldn't have to look through the entire errata to check every single time if the recipe we want to use has an error, we could simply check the index, find the recipe, if it is in black we can just find the volume and page number to look it up in the books.
If however, the recipe in the index is written in red or has a star* next to it or some other symbol, we would then know that the published recipe has an error, so before we look it up in the books we would know to check the errata list first.
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Has anyone so far discovered any recipes that could be made/made easier/ or specifically call for machines such as a Thermomix or Kenwood Cooking Chef?
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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 agree
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Interesting article from Seattle Food Geek with Ryan Matthew Smith looking at some of the techniques the Modernist Cuisine team used to capture such fantastic photography.
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The extruded pasta in the book looks absolutely amazing, did the Modernist Cuisine customize their bronze die at all to make the pasta come out even rougher than normal??
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Are the lids on or off the jars inside the pressure cooker?
On, but only barely tightened. The book notes that the jars might explode if they're overtightened.
Does that mean that the contents themselves are under pressure due to the expansion of the air remaining inside the jar? And wouldnt they be under pressure anyway if the lids were totally off?
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Are the lids on or off the jars inside the pressure cooker?
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I felt sad today... I through away those hollow pyramid cardboard corner protectors... they are still in the recycling box outside so I wonder if someone can suggest an alternative use for them??
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I'm going to make the mac & cheese tonight when I get home (to serve with some pulled pork sandwiches and a few other things), so I thought I'd share a tweaked version of the ratios in the book. We found that it was a bit too salty, and I wanted a stronger cheddar component. I also tweaked the techniques a bit.
Whisk & simmer
- 100g water
- 75g (wheat) beer
- 10g sodium citrate
- 4.5g salt
- 1.25g iota carrageenan
Grate and combine over low heat:
- 140g aged gouda (was 200g)
- 145g aged cheddar (was 80g)
Stir until melted/emulsified. Pour into container; bring to room temp; freeze. Just before serving, pull it from the freezer and grate/shred 160g.
Boil over high heat:
- 300g water
- 100g macaroni
- 1g salt [down from 24.g]
Don't drain it. When pasta is al dente, add cheese and heat through until smooth and combined.
I then put it in a Le Creuset au gratin pan, topped it with seasoned breadcrumbs, and let it sit until the broiler for a couple of minutes.
Oh, and, yes, that's dried macaroni, not fresh.
So I just made the macaroni and cheese. It was pretty tasty!
I didn't have any problems with my cheese setting. It went pretty darn solid. So solid in fact that I had problems removing it from the container! However it started to get pretty sticky in my hand and inside the grater when it was approaching room temperature.
I followed Chris' suggestions of quantity of gouda and cheddar. I already read his advice of scaling the salt in the water down from 24g. Since his suggestion was 1g, and what I read in the post was 24g, I decided I would just try 5g... that was way too salty!
I then checked Volume 3 Page 387, and saw that the recipe calls for 2.4g of salt in the cooking water, not 24g! Haha... I think I had better double check the books in future!
It was still pretty nice though! Just overly salty!
- 100g water
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I still don't like the layout...
"Modernist Cuisine" by Myhrvold, Young & Bilet (Part 3)
in Cookbooks & References
Posted
I think that anyone who complains about the price of MC, or the lack on inclusion of a baking/pastry section, should take a look at this book and the number of pages it contains, and there is a also a follow up. They are actually books that I would be interested in owning... but MC is definitely WAY better value! And it will take me a while to get through that first!