Mjx

Do you find a definite difference when you soak the fruit more for an extended period, as oppose to a week or less? since the fruit can absorb liquid for only so long until it is saturated, I'm guessing it's a question of aging..? That's about twice the size of the one I've got maturing, but you should be fine; I steamed mine for 8 hours, by the way. The only place I've been able to source suet in Denmark is the slaughterhouse. This can be a bit overwhelming, since their attitude is 'Take lots! We've got plenty more!', and they hand over a warm, bloody, several-kilo bag you hope won't leak, and is a bit of a project to render in one go. Still, you'll have very attractively-priced suet for ages (I keep it in the freezer), and a certain sense of accomplishment.

Are you making a large one or a bunch of small ones? I always use the recipe from this site, http://pudding.denyer.net/ I've found it really flexible, and it's reliably given great results, regardless of whatever experiments I may try.

I've concluded that 'Some of these look kind of dingy, but that's liquorice powder, seriously, they're tasty, and the black things are liquorice granules, not dirt' is way too long and unpretentious sounding, so in honour of the city that spawned me, I present 'Homage to NYC Snows' <cough>: Incidentally, pictures (and a few patches of sticky residue on the kitchen counters) are all that remain of these, since they were consumed at a speed that was astonishing. This is one damn good, super-reliable recipe (i.e. thank you, David Lebowitz).

This (6th image from the bottom, here: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/138044-my-last-and-anyones-best-shot-at-elbulli/?p=1804527): http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/monthly_04_2011/post-1-0-74185800-1302345749.jpg There is something absolutely perfect-looking about that, and I'm dying to have a go at making it myself.

What Quesmoy said. I'm fairly certain that using whatever marshmallow recipe you usually use (I love David Lebovitz's recipe), and reducing the length of the final beating/mixing (i.e. when all the components have been combined) would do the trick. I'm basing this on the fact that the first time I made marshmallow, I underbeat, and it never really set up firmly, and whenever I overbeat, the marshmallow sets up much more quickly.

In the spirit of upholding the apparently transcultural, overarching, winter holiday tradition of making more sweets than anyone can reasonably eat, I made a bunch of marshmallows. No food colour, BUT it turned out to be semi-irrelevant, because I didn't use that 'powder'. At least, not as I'd intended. I pulled up a recipe that I'd tried previously and liked, and set to work. I'd decided to not use the liquorice powder in the marshmallows, but on them, and flavoured the marshmallow itself with some anise extract and a tiny bit of vanilla powder. Mixing went smoothly, if stickily, and after covering half the bottom of the pan with half powdered sugar/rice starch, I reached for the liquorice powder, to cover the other half. At this point, I discovered that the liquorice powder is not powder, but...granules..? Black (which I like), and sort of crunchy, coarser than powder. Can't possibly use that, texture is just wrong, damndamndamn. Right. I have some other liquorice powder, which I know to BE powder (from shaking the still unopened can). This takes about ten minutes to find. A surreptitious swipe at the marshmallow indicates that it's setting up surprisingly fast. In the bowl. So. The liquorice powder is YELLOW. Ochre, if we're being precise. Whatever. I dust it over the unpowdered half the pan, and begin to scoop the surprisingly firm proto-marshmallow into the pan. At this point, the spatula breaks. Of course I have no other spatula, I have a laughably over-curated selection of kitchen utensils, and this single, simple, elegant double-ended spatula is all I ever deemed necessary (I'm fairly certain I hear kitchen gods giggling at my hubris, and calling their friends over to watch). Undaunted, I grab the nearest flat-surfaced tool, and scoop the now semi-solidified glop into the pan in chunky blobs. I didn't want to not use the liquorice granules, so I sprinkled them over half the marshmallows. It looks kind of like dirt. Because I'm a complete idiot To satisfy my 'scientitific curiosity' (the same curiosity that prompted me to investigate a 220V electrical outlet with a hairpin when I was about 2), I scrape a few blobs of marshmallow directly into some naked (i.e. no powdered sugar/cornstarch/liquorice powder, no cooking spray, nothing) silicone moulds, just to see what will happen (I'm predicting that they'll need to be scraped out of the wells with an espresso spoon). Setbacks notwithstanding, this stuff tastes amazingly good, and is extremely worth making.

Thanks: I tried rolling, but the marzipan stuck to the silicone paper, and the foil, and the cling wrap, and would not sit/stay in wells. I even tried using the rigid clear plastic sheet stuck to the back of of the mould, in case that was what it was for, and the marzipan stuck to that. To make things worse, this spectacularly non-stick mould deforms more easily than marzipan or fondant that is firm enough to hold that level of detail. Regarding the temperature, what you say makes a lot of sense (plenty of silicone withstands really high temperatures). Going to have to try some poured pieces.

All things being equal, would you prefer to make the syrup, or buy it? If you prefer to buy, and the DK Starbucks don't sell it, Torani makes a product that has a virtually identical ingredient profile (i.e. condensed milk+sugar syrup+flavours [most likely cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt]), and of course, you can get either of these on Amazon.

I was thinking of piped or moulded marshmallows (I'm in luck, I have the blood pressure of a hibernating tortoise), since I noticed that I have a lot of eggwhite sitting about. I'm wondering whether there's any way to really work that dingy brown you get, though.

Anyone have tips for using soft, solid silicone moulds, like this one? It's very soft and flexible: I got it because I loved the idea of being able to make decorative leaves from marzipan or fondant, but despite the fact that the 'instructions' (which merely note that the mould is suitable for marzipan, rolled fondant, and all cold moulding) indicate that this is exactly what it is for, I've had no luck getting anything into the moulds: it sticks to my fingers/spatula, but not even a little bit to the mould. Since pouring anything warm into these is apparently contraindicated, I can't imagine how the hell to use these, and I can't find any instructions or discussion of this online (I checked in both English and German, since this is made by a German company, Städer). Suggestions? Anyone have any luck with these?

Use the rule of three, and you can figure it out in a couple of minutes

I'd say 'no', but that's probably unfair of me, since it's a matter of personal taste (and I grew up in a country where coffee is generally frowned upon if it is anything other than coffee-flavoured). Somehow, though, pumpkin in coffee sounds like a regrettable idea, although I can get behind adding spices. Just to establish a baseline, Iød say it's worth the drive to Århus (yeh, I know, I know) and try Starbucks' actual offering: there are two Starbucks, one in Salling and one In Storcenter Nord, and as far as I know both are open 7 days a week at this time of year, if making it on a weekday is an impossiblilty (but park at the harbour, if you go to Salling, their parking garage is a nightmare these days). ETA Supposedly, the pumpkin sauce Starbucks sells on its own is the same stuff they use in their coffee drinks, Fontana pumpkin sauce.

As far as I can make out, 'Napoleon' has no legal significance when applied to brandy. I may be wrong; my conclusion is based on a brief online search (aka 'Google') for "Napoleon brandy". My search mostly revealed that fine chains such as Aldi sell the stuff, so I think it's safe to conclude that they put the 'Napoleon' on the bottle because the head of marketing said she didn't care how damn ironic the art department guys are feeling, they can't use 'Fancy pants' on the label, and that's final.

Are there any traditional Chinese holidays that fall in December? On the Danish front, my boyfriend and I actually do have a tradition, which involves paying a visit to Den Gamle By at this time of year, primarily to eat a sausage: and a fiskedelle: Naturally, we bagan devouring the food before I thought to take pictures, hence the slightly mauled appearance.

You're welcome, I hope you'll discuss/post some pictures of your results!

Deryn, that sounds delicious, and the sense of a long tradition is something that's always fascinated me; I'm looking forward to your pictures! Planning at my end is still at the 'Erm...food...?' stage. I boiled the pudding a couple of weeks back (nothing much to see, since the only workable basin was a stainless steel bowl): However, today, prising open the little chamber in the Advent calendar yielded this: Raw liquorice powder! There's a recipe suggestion, too, but much as I like liquorice, this is not going to happen:

For many, December involves something other than Christmas at home. So, for those of you who fall into this camp, where and what are you celebrating, and with what food? Are you celebrating as a local or an expat? Celebrating multiple traditions, or a single, long-cherished and carefully preserved tradition? I've spent most of my life as a foreigner in a variety of different countries, but have usually been hauled into the centre of things, so I've never really been an outsider, even when my suggestions for holiday festivities involve boiling something for 8 hours, then setting it on fire. At this time, I'm in Denmark, celebrating, well, December, generally: I've made a plum pudding (which, as usual when I make it, has no plums), am looking forward to making latkes and, if I'm feeling ambitious, sufganiot/Berliner/whatever you feel like calling fried, filled donuts, and enjoying an Advent calendar (think I got the name right, not exactly part of my upbringing) that might, in the US, be greeted with horror/a phone call to child protection services for its disturbing content: liquorice, every day (if you like liquorice, it's amazing; also, crazy popular: it's sold out). What will you be up to, through the end of the year? Post pictures (and don't apologize for bad ones)!

I coarsely chopped the cranberries, and cooked them with the vodka (about a tablespoon/bag) and salt, then when they'd reduced to nearly dry, I whirred through them with an immersion blender, to make the pieces smaller and more uniformly sized. Citrus oils don't have any acidity, since they're extracted from the peels, and although I added lemon juice the first time, the second time (and after) I tried this, I added a tiny bit of citric acid to the berries instead, because even in small quantities, lemon tends to be quite assertive (however, you may want a definite lemon presence/I may have had an unusually fragrant lemon). I've no idea how much citric acid I added, (this was before I had my jeweller's scale), but I added a few crystals at a time, until I was satisfied with the berries' acidity. The very first time I experimented with cranberries in fondant, I simply chopped up a whole lot of dried ones, added a little vodka and salt, and let that sit overnight, before adding it to the fondant, which works really well, too: their texture contrasts with that of the fondant more than so cooked, fresh berries.

But...the pepper is what makes them 'pfeffernüssen' (pfeffer=pepper)! A dacquoise is an excellent holiday option: looks and tastes special, is surprisingly simple to make (pipe the merinque, instead of going mad trying to spread it evenly), and has the advantage of being gluten-free, should that be an issue for any family members or friends.

I've never experimented with a compote, but have made cranberry fondant with minced cranberries. A tiny pinch of salt and a little vodka in the cooked cranberries helped bring out the flavour, which was very distinct.

Does it need to be electric, and does the shop need to be a US shop? You can find lots of these things on Italian websites, although many are not electric, but if being electric and not a huge pain to find are important, it might be worth considering a waffle iron.

Manager note: Back in 2004, when this topic was first started, there wasn't much discussion of cooking sous vide, and it made sense to have all the discussions of this topic under one, easily found heading. Now, however, cooking sous vide is a frequent discussion topic, and the discussions tend to be very specific and detailed; merging them under one overarching discussion is no longer helpful, and would often be counterproductive. For this reason, we're locking this general discussion, which will still be available to browse. An index to much of this discussion may be found here: Sous Vide Index ETA: Daily discussion of cooking sous vide continues, in a form that better reflects the extent and the general level of experience among the eGullet community: What Are You Cooking Sous Vide Today?

How about adding some bison or wild boar, or, for that matter, whatever other odds and ends of mince you happen to have? Also, a panade/some added fat, or it's going to be more like sawdust loaf.

Thanks, Jim! General note: To keep this topic relevant and useful, please stick to the discussion of ganache recipes. If you have technical questions related to the link as such/downloads/etc., please do this via the PM system, instead.

The popularity and enthusiasm over Thai food is probably due to a combination of intense flavour and execution. You can certainly get dreadful Thai food, but you're more likely to come across (perhaps even regularly consume) dreadful Chinese food, simply because there are more Chinese than Thai restaurants, even today. Also, many Chinese restaurants are better known for their low prices than the quality of their food, and there's a good chance that many (most?) people haven't ever had good Chinese food, even where it is available. Japanese food is often very good, but many find it a bit bland, whereas Thai food tends to be more intensely flavoured (and is more likely to be spicy).