Mjx

There are people who still believe that menstruating women prevent sauces from thickening. I don't hold much credence in personal observation unless backed by at least some degree of rigorousness. For a long time, many people assumed that the "stall" observed in BBQ cooking was due to collagen conversion. While collagen conversion does occur and does take some amount of energy, the observed amounts were orders of magnitude too low to account for stall. It wasn't until Mhyrvold and a couple of other scientists decided to test it that we finally figured out it was almost entirely due to evaporation. Quite a jump there, from 'observation' to 'statement', since no one can accurately say they've 'observed' that the presence of menstruating women has any effect on food whatsoever; that sort of statement is a 'belief' (if you want to be charitable; 'a lie', 'imbecilic notion', or 'indication of insanity', if you're not feeling charitable), and has no basis in observation, scientific or otherwise. If I say 'I've observed that the flavour of stews alters overnight', that is an actual observation. if I say, 'I've observed diffusion/oxidation in stews', you'd be completely justified in saying that unless I've correctly used a variety of pieces of equipment to observe and document this, I'm a liar/idiot with no grasp of English. I could say that I've read in a reliable source that this takes place, but frankly, I don't believe that I have read about this occuring in stews, specifically. On the other hand, I have observed diffusion in various substances (using dyes and so on on) in chemistry classes, and it seems reasonable to extrapolate the laws of chemistry from the classroom to the kitchen.

Actually, if you're describing something as being based on your experience, peer review is by no means required. I'm picky as hell about accuracy (I make my living nitpicking), but these days, even less-than-attentive school children are aware of the phenomena of diffusion and oxidation.

For you guys, this is actually the winter solstice, isn't it (and, happy birthday )? If you happen to take pictures of the festivities, I hope you'll post them here!

I now have Modernist Cuisine (actually, was given this ten days ago, but was too stunned until now to think of mentioning it here). I'm amazed by how big the volumes are, never expected them to be this imposing. Brilliant. :smile:

I feel uncomfortable about returning bad food items, period. I've had nice-lookng fish that turned out to be writhing with parasites inside, bulbs of fennel that looked gorgeous but were rotten within, some mangosteens whose interiors had moved beyond rotten, to actual dust (first-time purchase, they looked sound, but I had no idea of how firm they were supposed to feel), a long list, but didn't return one. I think it may have to do with the feeling that food in bad condition should be disposed of immediately, and returning to the shop at the moment you discover something is wrong often isn't practical. The blouse with wonky seam you can return the next day, or the day after, and it seems normal, but it feels odd to have someting sitting about deteriorating for a day or so, until you can return it (I think I also dread the question, 'Why didn't you return it immediately?', even if my perfectly good 'You're 11 kilometres from where I live, and I had dinner to make' is perfectly reasonable').

The alginate bath may have been a little too thick, then. But it seems clear that a sense of the correct consistencies involved in sperification takes a little experience to develop (yesterday's effort was my first).

Looked at that site, and, WHAAAAAT?! They're messing with us. I buy the reasons that have been suggested upthread, here – workplace regulations thing, the ouch-I've-trashed-the-outside-of-my-lips thing – but the reasons this website suggests on the home page are kind of implausible sounding: 'Spill stopper'?! They've got to be kidding. I'm the sort of person who can frequently be seen falling upstairs, and even I manage to get coffee from my cup to my mouth without dousing myself; on those occasions that I'm not coordinated enough to accomplish this, a straw isn't really going to help. And, unless the coffee shoots straight down your throat, bypassing your mouth entirely, it's still going to come in contact with your teeth. Also, I've never found coffee to stain that persistently (tea is much worse), and the 'sugar eroding the tooth enamel' thing sounds kind of nuts, because I don't know anyone whose only source of sugar is their coffee (and again, even when using a straw, the coffee is going to swish about your mouth a bit). Is this just the solution to a 'problem' they've invented themselves, or what?

How long have you found that it takes for the xanthan to hydrate? The water here is rock hard, but since I wasn't sure how much free calcium would be a problem, I used tap water to make up the first alginate bath, which attained the consistency of phlegm in a few minutes. I tried again with filtered water, which seemed okay, unless the consistency is supposed to be essentially that of water, in which case I need to try a different source of water; it was thicker than plain water.

The muscat + xanthan mix did look awfully thin, but since the (not over-detailed instructions) said to let the mixture sit 24 hours to allow the xanthan to fully hydrate, it seems like it could take quite a few days to determine how much to use, at least if the xanthan is being added in small increments, to avoid over-thickening. Is there some way of calculating the ratio of xanthan to liquid, to achieve a given consistency?

Do you celebrate midsummer/the summer solstice where you live, and if so, how important is the food aspect, and what sorts of things do you eat? Most of my life I've lived in places where the summer solstice is just one more hot, sticky summer day (and there isn't that marked a split between the amount of light you get diring the winter and summer), and pretty much comes and goes unnoticed by most. However, during the past few years I've been spending a fair amount of time in Denmark, where during the winter the land mostly sleeps under a very persistent, murky blanket of soft, grey cloud, and the summer is full of light. So, midsummer's eve, celebrated here as 'Sankt Hans', is a big celebration: bonfires are lit, especially along the beach, and a lot of food and booze are consumed (partly to keep one's mind off the fact that for the next six months, the days are only going to get progressively shorter). As far as I've been able to discover, there are no traditional foods associated with the holiday, here, so I'll be putting together a beach picnic of empanadas and things for wraps, to be consumed while we watch people somehow manage to not set themselves on fire as they fling lighter fluid at the bonfires while drinking/singing. But I'd love to hear what's going on, foodwise, in other places that celebrate midsummer: What have you got?

I was thinking it probable that some combination of sugar and corn syrup is used (and not with the original intention of making something less sweet, but of going with a cheaper alternative).

As far as I recall, plain corn syrup (not the HFCS) is both very cheap (cheaper than sugar) and weakly sweet.

I generally put the liquid into my thermomix put on a speed where the vortex in the centre does not reach the rotor (if it does it can end up clumping round the top of the rotor) and sprinkle in through the top once in turn up to top speed then down again. Have also done similar with a liquidiser or stick mixer. Then depending on application, leave in the fridge for any bubbles to disperse or if you've a sealer put it in a canister and put under vaccum. Thanks! I'm using a hand-held mixer (the only mixing device I have, and am likely to have for the near future, given budgetary restraints, although I have my eye on a Bamix), and have no vacuum sealer (again, budgetary restraints), but actually, this seemed to have worked out sort of okay: After two hours, the bath was homogeneous, the small clumps apparently having absorbed water and fully dissolved. The actual spherification didn't exactly go with a bang: what I ended up with were mostly slug-shaped blobs. And, regardless of whether the mixture was gently lowered into the bath, injected below the surface, or droppd from some height (I figured it couldn't hurt to see what wold happen) some of the mix inevitably dispersed at the surface of the bath, making for a floating membrane; unless I poked it about a bit, the 'sphere' remained open at the top. However, even when prodded closed, if the portions of the mixture were too close to one another, the floating membranes merged, making for what kind of looked like a jellyfish after an encounter with an outboard motor.

Please, how do you all mix your alginate baths? 'Disperse' (MC, pp. 4.129, 4.186) is really vague, and I'm getting clumps that the mixer simply will not break down, so I'm going after them with a spoon, but that seems less than optimal. Is this just normal? I've tried sifting it over the surface of the water, mixing it with a little water first, to make a paste (HAH!), and just mixing it in. I'm using the Texturas Algin.

This really depends on the recipe you use; I tried a couple that yielded such poor results, I almost didn't try what has become my go-to recipe for stock.

I'm afraid it's a very simple thing: adding butter adds a buttery flavour (in the US, where the butters have a milder flavour, I don't notice this effect so much), which sometimes seems appropriate. I don't think I'd ever add butter to ganache I was going to use for truffles, but cakes that are very buttery often seem nicely complemented by a slightly buttery ganache icing (I use them in place of buttercream icings, which I don't care for). I often brown the butter slightly.

I've made both kinds of ganache many times, and although I've never tried them side by side, I would characterize both as 'extremely smooth'; my decision to make one or the other has to do with the flavour profile I'm seeking. So, I'd say your scepticism is warranted.

If by 'bugs' you mean the pathogens that end up on people's hands when they take a rushed bathroom break, and think 'fuck hand washing', well, YES, you can at least significantly minimize their number with really simple, safe practices. Working in the kitchen involves the routine use of many chemicals. Salt is a chemical, baking soda and baking powder are chemicals, alcohols are chemicals, and obviously, so is vinegar. But presumaby, you do at least occasionally use vinegar, and CI/ATK found that a 1:3 (by volume) vinegar:water solution 'reduced 98% of surface bacteria' (CI, January & February 2010). The fewer bacteria, the more likely you immune system+luck will make it possible for your body to handle the outliers that aren't destroyed/removed. Yep. Apparently, plenty of people think hand washing is something the grownups make kids do just to show who's boss (as opposed to acknowledging the fact that pathogens are a primary source of food-borne disease, rather than unbalanced humours/the wrath of a diety), and pass on it every chance they get. So, even if they manage to keep their own fecal matter off their hands, their hands can still easily pick up all sorts of fun bacteria, since the flush knob/button/lever (among other things) tends to be contaminated.

I give purchased fruit a vinegar soak and rinse. Can't remember the precise ratio of vinegar to water (1 to 3, I think?), but CI tested it, and found it quite effective. Wild fruit I've usually eaten right off the plant, no washing, unless the hands that picked it were unwashed.

Fresh dill is really good with fish. In Denmark, when I've been served cured salmon in people's homes, a bunch of dill and a pair of scissors are passed around the table, and it's snipped directly onto the salmon you've arranged on your sandwich.

Actually, I've found that legumes seem to hold up quite nicely.

Has anyone tried rousong, aka 'pork floss'? I've seen packets of it in the pan-Asian shop in the centre of town, and am intrigued, although it does look a bit like fibreglass insulating material. Not so sure the packet version is all that the stuff might be.

Well, no. Liquids and semi-liquids are frequently measured by volume (litres, millillitres, etc.) And let's add Modernist Cuisine to this list.

I think you left out an important one: Sit down to dinner and eat, if the scheduled meal time came and went half an hour ago. In this day of ubiquitous mobile technology, not letting someone know you're running behind schedule isn't really excusable, unless some emergency has cropped up (and if someone is on their way to the emergency room or something, they're probably not going to put in an appearance anyway). ETA, if I'm running late owing to an emergency, I'm not going to feel less stressed realizing that the dinner host and other guests are probably sitting about, becoming testier by the minute because I haven't put in an appearance or contacted them, as I'm strapped to a stretcher/trapped in a lift/stuck in subway. I'd want them to get on with dinner!

Physics and chemistry are at work here, not just psychology! I recall reading in one of the ATK publications that flavour-bearing molecules migrate about in food, so (for example) that browning the crust of a loaf of bread will impact the flavour of the interior; oxidising and other chemical processes also alter flavour. I usually make two days' worth of stews and such, because although it's good on the first day, on the second day, the flavour tends to be better balanced, more seamless.