Guy MovingOn

Finally getting around to making the Modernist Mac & Cheese recipe. Ordered some sodium citrate from Boots Chemist online, trying hard to choose one that is not cranberry flavoured... once it arrived I saw on the front of the packet, "Lemon Flavour". Oh well, I proceeded with the recipe, the cheese sauce seemed to taste pretty nice anyway, so I have popped it into the freezer in preparation for tomorrow night's dinner.

Anyone in or near Surrey, UK, fancing fixing my PID waterbath??

I understand but if you look at Volume 1. Pages 62-71, you will see the amount of interspersed text boxes and the difficulty encountered upon trying to read the linear prose. This is just within a few hours of reading. Furthermore, this is Volume 1.

I have to say that I don't think the book is as easy to read as everyone else has claimed. I have started reading the book from Volume 1. Page 1. The language itself is absolutely fine and clear and I have no problems at all understanding or intrpeting what has been written. What I find difficult is the layout. The prose is so often interspersed with histories and biographies that occupy two thirds of each page. These text boxes actually occupy more space on the page than the continuous prose that I had intended to read. A lot of the time the histories and biographies are not relevant to the other text on that page. It's a bit like a book with ADD.

My books arrived yesterday! I could hardly sleep for fear that I wouldn't hear the DHL guy knocking at the door. Luckily I was awake coz he only knocked once very lightly! I couldn't believe the box was so big! I actually found it difficult to remove the books in the acrylic case vertically out of their cardboard box, but I agree that the packaging is very nice! These pages are very big! I feel like I have been reading it a lot since it arrived, but I am only up to page 50 of volume one!

Extremely jealous!

Woohoo! Just checked my account on Amazon.ca to see: Shipping Soon Shipping Estimate: April 5 2011 - April 6 2011 Delivery Estimate: April 7 2011 - April 8 2011 I ordered mine on December 20th. CAN'T WAIT!!!!

I bought a pork shoulder yesterday with hopes to make pulled pork. Any tips on how to make MC pulled pork? (Since I don't have my books yet!)

Noooo! That's very disappointing! So no chance for a autograph and photo?

I have a question regarding the pressure cooked carrot soup. I don't have the books yet (2 more weeks hopefully!) but I seem to recall from the videos talking about this recipe that no water is added to the carrots inside the pressure cooker. I'm pretty sure that most pressure cookers require you to fill them to a certain level with a liquid. Could you clarify on how the pressure cooked carrots are made? Thanks!

We talking London, Ont or London across the pond? London, England... I am hoping!

I ordered mine in December so I hope it includes mine too! And Nathan, I just commented on the Modernist Cuisine blog, but would you be able to let us know which talks you are giving in London? As I would really love to attend!

My waterbath has stopped heating up recently, but I already had a batch of duck legs cured and vacuum packed, and since my pressure cooker is the largest cooking vessel I had, I decided I would cook them inside that but with the lid just loosely placed on. The bag burst pretty quickly and I ended up eating poached duck legs

I think the review is very self-serving. The author is almost self-justifying his criticism by constantly referring to the fact that he has ONCE visited the establishments of each chef, and further crediting this claim to criticism by exactly stating what he was served, again repeating the ingredients of the dishes frequently. It is almost as if he is using the entire second half on the review/article to settle some form of personal feud regarding a who-said-what. Talking about airing your dirty laundry in public. I am getting quite sick of people's intent focus upon the extreme cases of modernist cuisine implenting expensive machinery. Yes, those are far and beyond the reach of the home cook. But this book wouldn't be concise without their inclusion. As said previously, this book is like an encyclopedia, and what kind of a reference would it be if it only included those recipes which could be made in a family kitchen? Personally I salute the extreme lengths the authors and team have gone to to share as much information regarding the science of cooking as possible. I am in sincere and severe anticipation of the arrival of this book upon my doorstep. I am a final year undergraduate, and honestly cannot wait until the end of my exams whereby I can bury my head deep into this book, and learn as much and far more than I had ever hoped to have learnt about the nature of cooking. Nathan, congratulations. It may not be 100% of the cooking world's cup of tea, but what you have done is incredible, it is beyond worthy of praise. Regardless of any negative reviews, you cannot hope to please an entire population, but had these reviewers read the entire 5 volumes, I am sure their opinions would change. Well done. I seriously cannot wait for what else you decide to publish in the future.

I'm very intrigued by the spherification technique with the carbonated mojito spheres. Can a liquid which is already carbonated be spherified? I ask because I would love to do some sort of gin and tonic spheres. I also contemplated spheres within spheres. Perhaps using hemispheric molds or something. Whereby upon placing the sphere in your mouth, you may sequentially burst two to three spheres containing a sphere within them. My inspiration was a tequila slammer. I wondered if it would be possible to create a sphere of lime juice, freeze it or by some other means trap it inside a sphere of pure tequila, which would then be dusted or sprinkled with some form of salt, and place that onto a tapas/chinese spoon. This would provide the sequence of flavours of salt->tequila->lime. Would those wiser than me consider such techniques possible? If so, please share your wisdom regarding how!

I have a wmf ultra pressure cooker and I think it's pretty great! I got the largest size, which is 8 litres I believe... It can be quite heavy to lug around, and because it has a narrow diameter, it is very tall and can be hard to tip or fill under the sink.

Oh, and with the above measures, how many people can be served? Thanks!

I would like to thank you personally for taking the time to post the recipe, with concise directions, and your own feedback and suggestions. I really appreciate it! Thank you!

could someone please post the ratios or % mass of the ingredients for the macaroni cheese please?

Can the macaroni and cheese be made with dried macaroni? My girlfriend has a packet and keeps pestering me to cook it for her somehow... then I saw all these posts about the modernist mac and cheese and knew this would be the perfect way. I'm pretty sure I have the relevant hydrocolloids to make it. Could somebody post the amounts of cheeses/hydrocolloids and some simple instructions on how to make it? It would seriously make my life a lot better if I could cook this for her! Thanks!

Love the photos and thank you for documenting your attempts!

Group hug?

I just got this email literally 1 minute ago: Hello from Amazon.ca. We wanted to let you know there's a delay with one or more items in the order you placed on December 20 2010 (Order# 702-1172253-9149845). Nathan Myhrvold, et al "Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking" Estimated ship date: April 08 2011 That's a 1 month delay to the original estimated shipping date... how sad

I would like to know what brand of kitchen knives you guys use. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you guys decided to machine your own ones...

The ultrasonic cleaner we use is similar to the one for your wife's jewelry, only bigger. They come in various sizes. You could test the recipe out with a 1-liter ultrasonic bath, but you won't be able to make large quantities that way. I've seen on eBay that you can get ultrasonic cleaners ranging from 0.7L to 27L! Some of them also heat up to 80C. As you would expect, they are not particularly cheap, but the 2L one is about £100, which I guess you could justify if you really love your french fries (chips!).