Mjx

I find creamy, milky substances in savoury contexts retch-inducing. This takes the following off the table: creamy sauces, cream soups, most cheeses; I'm put off by things that even look creamy or have a creamy mouthfeel (e.g. sauces with a lot of nut butter). I find any form of dairy/dairy simulacrum in coffee quite repulsive (ditto, Irish cream and their ilk), and although I'm mostly fine with dairy/dairy-like components in sweets, if I was told that dairy would never pass my lips again, it would not break my heart. I find the texture of cooked eggs off-putting, although I can swallow a raw one with no problem (although what with salmonella and all, I seldom do this). Even the smell of bananas will make me leave a room to avoid messy unpleasantness, although as a child I could eat them if they were green and essentially flavourless. Weirdly, although I could once eat nearly raw steak with no problem, it often puts me off now. No idea why. In case anyone is wondering how I navigate the cream soups, cream sauces, and compound butters that show up on friends' tables when I'm invited over to dinner, I have to admit that I do my best to discreetly determine whether one of the problem items is going to be present; if it is, or I'm not sure, this virtually guarantees that I'll be sitting down to dinner a bit buzzed, since in that state, my food issues recede from gag-inducing to merely 'somewhat unpleasant, but manageable'. At restaurants, I just ask a bit about what's in the various dishes, and choose something that poses no problems. None of this is my parents' fault, by the way; they did their best, but even threats of violence couldn't tame my gag reflexes, and they eventually became tired of my being sick at table, and gave up

@Tri2Cook Back in 2008 you described a delicious-sounding aerated chocolate you made. I realize you're not likely to remember what you did four years back, but on the off-chance that you've made aerated chocolate (using a cream whipper) since, would you mind elaborating a bit on the process? You mention using two kinds of chocolate, but did you add any cream/other fat? At what temperature did you hold the whipper? Aerated chocolate is something I want to attempt with the whipper I recently got my hands on, but I have images of the chocolate quickly turning into a solid mass and having to be melted/scraped out in a lengthy and frustrating process. Thanks! M.

You were perfectly clear As I said, as long as the fact that it will be liquid at temperatures that the traditional version would be solid is not an issue, it seems worth trying, although the grapeseed oil, which is light and has an unobtrusive flavour, probably won't bring much to the mix (olive or walnut oil might be interesting); I'm interested in hearing about the results.

Hm. That range seems too high (based on what pastrygirl, who's a pro, said in another topic). If there aren't any decent kitchen supply shops in your area, what about lab supply shops?

When I can't spend a lot of time of meals, a stir fry is my first choice, and I try to keep roughly two days worth of prepped meat and vegetables handy. Another alternative, when I know a hectic period is looming, is to to make a good sized braise or stew, both of which reheat very well, and don't involve any real work to get on the table. I try to make sure that I've got some easily prepped vegetables (bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, carrots) around, too since eating no fresh produce does not work out well for me. Still, if things land on me all at once with no warning, and no end in site, breakfast/lunch is usually frozen peas/maize (meaning, I don't even bother thawing), tinned beans, possibly some bresola actually earmarked for my boyfriend's lunch, and insane quantities of Wasa and sweets. My boyfriend then comes home, expresses amusement/mild horror at all the empty sweets packets, and makes dinner. I'm lucky.

Where are you located (i.e. nearest city or town), and what's your budget? Given the temperature range involved, a basal thermometer should do the trick, and according to eG member Robert Jueneman, they're reasonably priced and accurate, and they seem to be widely available (e.g Eckerd, Rite Aid, Target).

Clarified butter solidifies, whereas grapeseed oil doesn't; if this isn't an issue, then using grapeseed oil should be an interesting experiment, if nothing else (although unless you have problems with your cholesterol level/some related health condition, butter is not unhealthy, and has the same number of calories/gram as any oil).

I'm not surprised the chef in question initially balked at answering this question, since the two concepts can exist completely independently of one another, really have nothing to do with each other. 'Organic' addresses the level of ingredients, while 'Modernist' refers to techniques and approaches. You can cook organic (and locally sourced, humanely-raised and slaughtered, etc.) beef sous vide (and maybe cut into strips, braided together with some strips of chicken, the whole held together with transglutaminase), and you can also use this technique to cook beef from animals raised under confined conditions, laced with every conceivable chemical used to optimize mass-produced beef: the technique is still regarded as modernist. You could argue that there are underlying philosophies to these concepts that have a broader effect of how a cook or chef chooses ingredients/techniques, but there's still no implicit conflict (or accord).

I've had some extrmely good soft cookies that were made with pumpkin swapped in for apple sauce; would something like that work? You could just skip the sugar in the actual recipe. But even if nothing springs to mind immediately, don't bin it, freeze it!

I've had some extremely good soft cookies that were made with pumpkin swapped in for apple sauce; would something like that work? You could just skip the sugar in the actual recipe. But even if nothing springs to mind immediately, don't bin it, freeze it!

For a really intense flavour, I'd be inclined to go with a fruit powder. There seem to be a quite a few brands of these around (e.g. nutrifuit, powderpure), and powders might also be easier to manage, since they wouldn't be bringing water to the mix to make the cream more liquid.

This is sort of...troubling; I misread 'On the other hand, why would the NYT review what is clearly a tourist trap aimed at patrons who are looking for a hillbilly Applebees with a raging meth habit?' as 'On the other hand, why wouldn't the NYT review what is clearly a tourist trap aimed at patrons who are looking for a hillbilly Applebees with a raging meth habit?', and I found myself thinking that made perfect sense. My perception of the patrons of NYC tourist traps seems to have hit bottom and begun blasting operations to get a bit lower. Mitch, sorry I was unable to help you enrich your medical posse while i was in NYC

Thank you for the extremely comprehensive explanation! I've copied this into my ongoing kitchen notes, since there's a fairish chance that a sous vide setup is in my (admittedly somewhat distant) future. I'm hoping the Thermapen I'm waiting on will do the trick for now (at well over 100 C, the issue of bacterial growth is less of a concern, even if it turns out to not have quite the accuracy I seek), and it has simply got to be a a step up from the cold water test. Thanks; were did you get your scale? I haven't stumbled over anything in NYC these days, although I haven't done what could be described as a proper hunt for this yet, either.

Some foods are actually more poorly digested when they're cooked.

I use it pretty much any time that I might use an anchovy (e.g. beef stews, a lot of braises, to ad a bit of kick to stock). I don't make that many Asian dishes (maybe one a week), but I seem to have got through half a bottle of fish sauce pretty quickly.

Do you mean the What are you reading? topic?

Yes, but you have to calibrate near your intended usage temperature(s) as temperature deviations are usually not (or at least: don't need to be) linear. Calibrating at 37 °C is pretty useless for accuracy at 120 °C. I was wondering about that (part fo the reason I asked).

Heck, to see your review of it, I'll happily stand you a couple of drinks (or a fifth of Jack?) first, to get you suitably primed for the experience!

The ovulation thermometer would only be for calibration purposes (for the Thermapen that's suposed to show up one of these days), since It's apprently precise enough to use for this purpose. But I do wonder whether that is actually more accurate than boling water at sea level. Heck, why not?! I love precise and accurate instruments

Thanks, Robert! Is an ovulation thermometer more accurate for calibration purposes than boiling water (I live at sea level)? Since a sous vide rig of any sort isn't a possibility at this time, my principal use for this thermometer would be testing sugar temperature; I've relied on the cold water test so far, and have had few failures, but I really appreciate accurate, controlled methods of doing things, and it will be nice to not have my heart in my mouth every time I make fondant. I've actually put in my amazon order, and went with a Thermapen, a couple of Silpats, an iSi Gourmet Whip Plus, and several books, including Migoya's The Elements of Dessert.

Have you tried dissolving it in a little liquid of some other sort, then adding that to the coconut milk? If gelatine is a complete bust in coconut milk, konjak should do the trick; it's firmly gelled pretty much everything I've thrown at it.

With a slight change, I think this is good advice: I'd switch jobs first, then show them this thread (or send them the link). You might not get a terrific reference form these guys anyway, but if you show them this before you get another job, they could hurt your chances of getting another job in the industry. Incidentally, if you stay do with these people and they go down in flames, there's a reasonable chance you'll be hurt professionally by having been associated with them, so getting out while the going is good is important.

I agree. If you really want something to accompany it, a nice scoop of whatever style vanilla ice cream you prefer would be my choice as well. I've never had that cake but, looking at the recipe, you're not going to tame it with a little scoop of sorbet... so embrace it. Make it rich, make it decadent, make it too big to finish. Dessert used to be just that. Back before the days of "oh, I don't like dessert to be sweet" ( ) or "a teaspoon of plain water sorbet is the perfect end to a meal" ( ). Eh... I don't know, I think ultra rich cake plus ultra rich ice cream would just leave the diners feeling like they wish they could have had one or the other (unless the servings are very small). I'm speaking as someone who regards a rich dessert or a bunch of Nutella straight from the jar as an entirely adequate and appropriate replacement for more conventional lunch arrays, and whose capacity for sugar consumption awes parents of small children. I definitely have no problem with super rich, intensely sweet desserts, but if I'm eating someplace that serves desserts of this complexity, I want and expect balance, too, and a rich ice cream just seems like it would be stomping on the cake's feet, rather than dancing gracefully with it. I've eaten rich ice cream + rich cake combos, and eating even half left me feeling kind of queasy (erm, all two dozen or so times I've tried this; I didn't say I was a quick learner, just a sugar fiend).

I was thinking about a mandoline, and what you've said makes it sound like it's worth adding to the list. I had a ricer, and it was quite useful, but since I've got a food mill, I'd have to say that I like that even better, although it is signficantly heavier. The whipper may be a little silly, but I really do like the idea of carbonating things. Sort a of a cheer-myself-up kind of thing. The thing is, the size of the kitchen I'm using isn't an issue; it's actually an ordinary size, but it's someone else's kitchen, and the storage space in it already crammed full of stuff. Not to mention, there's the risk of anything I leave in the kitchen being damaged. Anything too big to fit on the shelf next to my books and the booze collection just has to wait a bit... it gives me time to dream

A sorbet sounds good, since it would make a pleasant contrast to the very rich cake, but much as I love chocolate sorbet, I think it would be overkill/a bit lost with all the other chocolate. I recently had a fantastic carrot and sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) sorbert (tart-sweet, complex despite its being so cold, and a gorgeous shade of orange, which contrasted beautifully with the brownie it accompanied) at Brewpub, in Copenhagen. Although sea buckthorn does have novelty value, I think any tart fruit or combination of fruits (or herbs, e.g. lime and basil) would make a terrific foil for all that chocolate.