percival

The only thing searing does is add color and flavor. You can also read more about it in books like What Einstein Told His Cook, written by a nuclear chemist with a passion for food. You can't waterproof a piece of paper by browning it. And no one said to sear a 1" cube for 30 secs at 800 degrees for all sides. You'd obviously end up with a charcoal briquette. If you think the best way to brown a piece of meat is to deep fry it, why does the rest of the world sear their steaks, stew meats, roasts... No science here required, just experience.

It's surprising and telling that the ability to cook has nothing to do with how much money you can make. And this show is up to now all about the money. Noms has never won a truck stop -- they can't cook, period -- but they will sell 2-3-4 times the others. Why? Their cost is the lowest. A tortilla costs a penny. A bun costs 50 cents. Half a pound of chuck/brisket costs far more than 3-4 oz. of pork shoulder. And above that, Nom has superior marketing. Onlyin this last hicktown did the marketing engine fail -- and the gap shrunk down from 100+% to only 15%. And looking at their menu for 30 seconds would tell you Nom's food isn't that good, or authentic. They buy their bread from the supermarket......

Actually, all the scientific experiments to date have shown that there is no "sealing" effect to browning, frying, etc. And 375 degrees is nothing compared to a 600-800 degree cast iron skillet. When I put color on a steak, I can do it in 30 seconds, without oil. Oil can't get that hot -- 475 at best -- without burning, and burn isn't brown. 375 on all sides will cook the meat. The goal is to get the Maillard reaction to happen -- browning -- on the surface, while not dehydrating the interior. You indeed get more heat to the meat by deep frying, but that is the opposite of what you want. You want to get the least amount of heat to the meat, while browning the outside. Other than that, yes, it's the too short cooking time that's the reason for the toughness. I'm surprised no one's called out Mark Bittman's 30-60 minute recommendation. I don't know of any cut of stew meat that will be tender in that amount of time. Maybe if I diced them into 1cm squares...

Hawaii's end of the tourist rush, cheap deals? We stayed on the Big Island. Never knew about Hawaii's long tradition of grass fed cattle. Read what you do ScottyBoy -- must be hectic trying to work in a new kitchen all the time, especially with wonky ovens and ranges. After watching the Paris eps, made Dover sole meunière... I must say, I definitely prefer just a simple brown butter over the lemon. Why is lemon always served with fish, anyway? To hide bad fish? I had fish 2-3 times a day everyday for a week in Hawaii, and never tasted lemon once.

Surprised no one has mentioned my fav ways to serve broccoli: good 'ole cream of broccoli soup, and tempura. As opposed to root vegetables, broccoli nubs turn a nice brown and have a different flavor than just "warm vegetable in crispy batter" like sliced carrots or potatoes. Not as nummy as onion tempura but still good.

Sounds like chuck. You shouldn't be deep frying to brown. That would definitely toughen the meat. Flouring will help browning. High heat, just a few minutes per side. Remove and use the wine to scrape the fond. Simmer and check every 30 or so, turning and adding liquid if needed. And if it's too tough, keep cooking. If you're not sure how long you're going, do the vegetables separately or they'll turn to mush. For a pot roast, I can easily go 5-6 hours. If you've got 2" cubes, try simmering for 2 hours and check. Keep adding 30 mins till you like the texture.

Just came back from Hawaii and watched 100 on the DVR. Great eps purely about the food. It was really Paris through the eyes/mouth of Ripert. Ripert is on TV all the time now, and I must say, I've never seen him so happy or humbled. I mean, he raved about the food, the fish especially. If you watch Ripert on TV, you know the worst thing you could ever do is serve Eric Ripert fish. But here, in his homeland, there is a difference. I'm sure the food from Le Bernardin has felt the impact of this last visit home.

Quick and cheap: salt and ice bath.

For 16 how about paella or boullabaise. Easier plating. No temp sensitive cream sauces and no worry about having to portion 16 equal fillets.

I don't think books for certain types of cooking are that rare. Soups, bbq, crock pot, baking, sushi, ceviche, etc. Food and Wine mag just came out with a feature article on sous vide with recipes. Features the Sous Vide Supreme. I've got Cooking For Geeks. Not really a cook book, for sous vide or any other type of cooking. Just pop science.

A butt is a cask. As for Boston butt, probably how they were cut and stored back in the day. Say, salted and put in a cask to ship about the colonies. All are the same: shoulder cuts.

I think people aren't realizing that Bourdain and Ripert are old friends. And Angelo is indeed nutso. When has that stopped Anyone from being a chef? What's more interesting in this last episode: the two intentional mentions of jesus christ.

Never heard of Goop, but thanks for the heads up. It seems like a perfectly harmless lifestyle blog from a celebrity who could be doing far less productive things with her time. Post-partem dipression, where to eat and stay at in SF... Perfectly normal blogger material. As for the cook book: ridiculous. She's a vegetarian, no? Two pizza ovens, yet she claims that gluten is bad for you? Even though Buddhist monks, with much longer life spans than Americans, have lived off the stuff for centuries? And yet adores french fries, which have been proven to contain carcinogens? The typical whims of the bourgois. Will she sell? Sure. Will it matter? Not really.

Most people in today's societies are specialists. The difference with cooking versus the rest is that no one can reasonably make their own clothes, cars, or furniture. Leather upholstery, airbags, and raw denim are not available at the local Costco. I do think that most people cook to some extent, even if it is just dried pasta + a can of Prego + cheese in a can once a week. I started cooking in college, because I didn't have anyone cooking for me anymore, and I got tired of eating Taco Hell. Now I spend 20+ hours a week in the kitchen, partially out of love and partially out of necessity. And facing the facts: there's a lot more Americans at home in the kitchen, because they can't afford to eat out five times a week like a decade ago. Cook books I think are unique compared to self-help and reference books in that one does not have to follow recipes to benefit from the book. Some people indeed follow the recipes to the letter, but there are many, I imagine, who use the books as general rules, or for inspiration. If someone is going to drop $40 on a book that only has 1/4 to 1/2 photos per recipe, I doubt they're buying the book merely for food porn. I think the forecast for cook books is good, because home cooking interest is growing. There really is a surge of popular interest in cooking, with the success of the Food Network, an Emmy for a cooking show, and cooking competitions on the big networks. More men are cooking, even though less women are cooking, and advertisers like this, because they know that men spend lots and lots of money on their boy toys. Grills were big. Ten years from now: Cuisinart sous vide machines and Betty Crocker Slow Pressure Classics. As for the immediate state of cook books, I think if Modernist Cuisine actually sells decently, you're going to see a push from publishers for bigger sticker prices. Think of star chefs as the next big brand. Also of note: the push to digital distribution and the fact that Kindle sales, which make of the overwhelming majority of electronic book sales -- are overwhelmingly for fiction titles. Sales in that format are quickly replacing traditional print sales, and digital books have a smaller margin for publishers. The cook book sector is resistant to technofication -- you'll find PDFs (and torrents) available for of virtually every book on the NYT lists, but you'll rarely if ever find a digital version of a cook book for sale. People want to see their food, and barring the iPad, full color hasn't come to the electronic book medium yet. I think you're going to see more cook books -- more for everyday cooking by home cooks, as well as higher end celebrichef fare -- at higher prices. At least, until they truly go mainstream, which I don't foresee happening any time soon. Men like to cook, but they will always like eating and drinking and watching TV better.

How did the chat go from a tech perspective? I know there are tons of ways you can get a high volume chat room up and running. This episode was better than the last few. Curious: how does one go about freeze drying anything in the first place? And can you really freeze dry and reconstitute emulsions, like a coconut curry? I find it doubtful. I've had freeze dried ice cream, but it's definitely not cream -- it's more like Styrofoam that melts in your mouth. And if you can freeze dry ice cream, why would freeze drying sugar be an issue. I think fruit freeze dries very well, too... After watching eps 1, my vote was for Mr. Michelin Star to win. And now that they're going to Singapore, I think it's an easy win. Angelo's the only one with any sort of Asian exposure. Of course I could be wrong. Stefan sweeped season 5, only to get dismissed in the finale because of supposedly plebeian ice cream lollipops...

I was thinking about this thread and authenticity versus traditional and authenticity's requirement of authorship. My dad was a cook for many years, being a ship cook in the Navy before becoming a captain, and then much later in the States, a chef/owner of a few Vietnamese restaurants. Did he cook anything that was "authentic" by this prerequisite of authorship? And it struck me that by that definition, pretty much any "authentic" dish is in fact, at its inception, counter-intuitively a brand new dish with no history. An original, non-traditional dish. He has a particular authentic dish: baked salmon rolls, served almost like Vietnamese shrimp-and-pork summer rolls, but with only salmon -- definitely not a Vietnamese fish -- and scallion oil. I'm the only one, however, who cooks the authentic dish anymore. The restaurant isn't around anymore. No restaurant serves this delicious dish. There is nothing close in Vietnamese cuisine, no baked salmon rice paper rolls. And incredibly, my father doesn't serve it anymore. He changed the dish, and my siblings followed: instead of baking the salmon in scallions and serving with scallion oil, he's replaced the flavor profile entirely, baking with a thick layer of sliced onions, olive oil, and seasoned heavily with black pepper. Is my dish the authentic dish? Is his new dish the authentic dish? Is it a completely new and different authentic dish? I think it really ends up just being a silly argument over semantics.

Chicken schmaltz should be refrigerated. Per 100g, it's 30g saturated, 45g monounsaturated, 21g polyunsaturated. The unsaturated fatty acids will go rancid and release carcinogens if not kept cool, airtight, and away from sunlight.

I eat how I grew up: Vietnamese style. French baguette, grilled sirloin medium rare sliced thinly, eggs sunny side up, black pepper and Maggi. When I'm not being fancy, baguette and scallion omelette, black pepper and Maggi. And when it's 2am and there's nothing but sliced white bread: toasted open face sunny side up, pepper n Maggi. Fried hard yolks? No thanks.

My vote's for dried shiitake. Essential in every pantry, lasts forever, and so packed with flavor. Nothing beats a shiitake risotto in taste:ease to make ratio.

Authenticity is like a gun. By my putting it on a table, it allows me to say that I am right, that you are wrong, so you best nod your head quietly and eat your food. Well let me just raise your gun and bring my own authentic gun to the table... The real sin in claiming authenticity is the common fallacy that authentic equals good, better, or best. Let's be clear: I do not think one could find a more authentic hamburger than one from McDonald's. However... I think the real issue is expectations. There is a difference between presenting a variation on a classic and intentionally misleading the customers. Using spaghetti instead of rice noodles or pork broth instead of beef broth, and calling it Vietnamese pho is being misleading, not being creative. I would say an easy litmus test is this: does this variation seem like a shortcut by the chef? Less time or less money? If so, then any claim of authenticity should be thrown out the window. Beans in Texas chili, for example. I know that big chefs feel the need to stamp their ego into every dish they serve. It's expected of them by their clientele. At the same time, the clientele expects a certain level of authenticity. Unless one were going to a molecular gastrohaus, Surf and Turf should generally resemble a grilled slab of beef and some kind of expensive piece of inoffensive seafood. If the plate arrived at the table with a shaking beef salad with uni dressing and parmegiano monkfish shavings, most people would consider that inauthentic. It might sound good. It might taste good. It is indeed ocean creature plus land creature. It may be "surf and turf", but it's not Surf and Turf. Call a chicken a chicken, not a duck, and no one's expectations will be ruffled.

I weighted the bag with a small ceramic bowl. It was horizontal -- the cut is too wide to sit vertically. The probe rested adjacent to the meat, tied to a ceramic spoon. From what I've read, it only takes about an hour for the convection currents to get to work in a covered and insulated rice cooker. And the meat was center, allowing currents to circulate on all sides. If it was a piece of fish going in for 30 minutes, I would have aerated the bath. In a 24 hour soak, cold/warm spots aren't an issue, especially since I didn't put the meat in until the water was nearly (130+) up to temperature. The only technical issue I found was actually condensation from the outside of the rice cooker pooling onto the counter. A towel solved the problem. And the line on the pot goes to 4.5L, but there's room for more -- probably closer to the 5L side. As for the quality of meat: standard supermarket USDA Choice. A higher grade I don't think makes a difference on a 7-bone cut -- or even exists. I wanted to try first with a cheaper cut and see the effects. I'm going to try flap steak next -- I want to see what happens with a leaner cut that doesn't have large fat deposits throughout the meat.

Hi, new to this thread and to sous vide cooking. Picked up a SousVide Magic 1500D and wanted to contribute. For anyone interested in the device, I put together a quick video demo of a typical setup. A breakdown on costs: SVM controller: $160 Black & Decker 4.5L rice cooker: $50 Reynolds Handi-Vac: $10 Handi-Vac bags: $0.50 per A super cheap setup. After some experimenting, I'd suggest getting a taller rice cooker so you can vertically float multiple steaks. The thing is, the price jumps drastically up. If you're going past $150, you might as well get FreshMealsSolution's heated water aerator, which you can use in any container, albeit less efficiently. On my first real cooking attempt, I made a 146 degree egg. Worked perfectly. On my second, I made a 7-bone chuck blade steak. 1.9 lbs., about 3/4" thick, 135 degrees Fahrenheit for 24 hours. I bought a super marbled piece and wanted to see what would happen. No marinade, no seasoning. The meat came out of the bag smelling like prime rib. I measured about a cup of liquid that came out of the steak. I noticed right off that there was very little fat in the liquid -- a bad sign. Tried reducing it to make a gravy, but the texture and flavor were not pleasant. The meat itself was very blotchy, as the cut of meat was uneven, with bones poking out here and there. Protein coated parts of the steak, leaving them very unpleasantly gray. I let the meat rest a little to dry off the surface, then seared it on a crazy hot All-Clad pan for 45 seconds per side. I tried 30 seconds initially but the steak was not very flat and didn't brown well. Some areas were untouched, while others were burnt. Note to self: buy a torch next. Upon cutting, the meat was definitely medium as opposed to my goal of medium rare. During the cooking process, the SVM definitely kept the temp at 135.0. In the initial temperature rise, I noted that the temp did go briefly above 135.0, but never more than 136.0. Cutting into the steak, it released no liquid. The texture was firm, a bit chewy, as if I had grilled it. The real problem was that though the meat was heavily marbled, there were also large junks of fat scattered throughout the meat, not just along the edges, and none of the fat had rendered away, leaving grainy, chewy pieces every other bite. The taste was definitely beefy, non-metallic, though with an almost boiled odor. I don't think 7-bone cuts would work for steak. For starters, it's just not a very pretty cut of meat. But more importantly, I believe the large islands of beef fat won't really begin to render until around 140 degrees, and by that time, your meat would be completely overcooked. Lowering the temp to 131.0 and doubling the cooking time, I don't think that would really help, either. More time would help the texture of the meat, but it wouldn't do anything about the fat. I'm worried that I might come across this same problem if I were to cook prime rib, which I often find with large islands of fat spread along the interior of cuts at times. Other concerns I have are with the proteins coming to the surface, and the smell. Do I need to briefly brine the steaks to leech out the water soluble proteins prior to bagging? Or brush off the non-Maillard reaction proteins that have clung to the surface of the steak? And has anyone else thought about the almost boiled smell of the meat soaking in its juices? Has anyone tried debagging the meat to drain out the liquid and dissolved proteins, then rebagging to finish? I imagine I can bag with aromatics, but I'm afraid that would just change the boiled smell to boiled plus aromatics smell.

Have watched all the eps and it's very clear that what separates the wheat from the chaff is business savvy. Nom Nom is a group of biz school grads. And it is not their first venture, either. Grill seems to have a decent cook, but horrible business sense. Same with Spenser. It's a good show for Food Network, because it's an approachable food competition, and it's not about the food as much as their other shows. And though food judges' tastes are subjective, sales are not. They're the proof in the pudding. And anyone hoping to run a business selling only banana pudding? Lollerskates...!

Top Chef won an Emmy. Be prepared for more cooking competitions from everyone.

Rick -- iPad's have no fans. They don't even get hot. My cellphone gets hotter.