paulpegg

Here is a shot of Sous Vide Venison Loin with Sweet Potato gratin and roasted Brussels Sprouts that I did on Monday. The New Zealand venison loin was from D'Artagnan on New Jersey. It was cooked sous vide for 1 hour at 58C and then seared for 1 minute on each side, simply sliced and served with a demi glace-juniper berry sauce. The venison was absolutely great, nice and rare and almost fork tender.

You're right. On page 3-96 there is a note about cooking in a higher than core temperature bath to prevent mushiness in tender game and on 3-98 there is a recipe for venison loin that has you cook a four bone section in a 65C bath to a core temperature of 56C in about 25 minutes. The photo looks extremely rare to me.

Thanks. I appreciate your advice.

Sous Vide Venison Loin I will be preparing pan seared venison loin for 25 people and will have three 5-1/2 pound whole loins to work with. I am planning on prepping them sous vide and would appreciate any thoughts. Should I sous vide them whole or slice them first? I have seen slices at 55C for 20 minutes but that would take a lot of bags to keep them in a single layer. I expect them to be about 2-1/2"-3" thick which would take 3-4 hours. Any suggestions? It will be served with an aquavit-juniper berry demi glace. Thanks.

It looks like a Shun to me also. I tried the Shun santoku knife but found it was way too butt heavy for me. It was all handle and no blade. I went to Korin's store in NYC and they helped me pick out Togiharu Hammered Texture Damascus Santoku It is a relatively inexpensive knife that will last a lifetime. I also bought a two-sided sharpening stone and a stone fixer. I watched their tutorial on how to sharpen a knife and learned a lot. A visit to their site is worthwhile if you can't make it to their store. I have no relationship with Korin and am simply a satisfied customer passing along my experience.

The reason I did 25 foot lengths is that you really need 4 sections if you are going to serve this to a few people so you can get some efficiency in the process. It would be a real pain to make one 6' piece at a time! I also found that it is nice to have three different sizes on hand for those times when you want to serve less material but still have a decent length on the plate.

I have packed these kits up and put them on ebay. Search for Modernist Cuisine and you will find them. The listing will remain until all three are sold. Thanks, Paul

Tygon Tubing Kits I pur­chased sev­eral hun­dred feet of Saint-Gobain food grade tygon tub­ing to make the Parmesan Spaghetto’s on 4–143 and KM-262. I bought three sizes, 1/4″ dia, 3/16″ dia and 1/8″ dia. Six foot lengths of these hold roughly 60 ml, 30 ml and 15 ml respec­tively. (Sorry for the mixed units.) The basic recipe pro­vides 300 ml of the gel which is enough to fill four 1/4″ tubes allow­ing for spillage etc. I decided to try the smaller diam­e­ters to see how much I could get out of the recipe and how the spaghetto held up. All the sizes made very nice spaghetto’s and they held up well. I used a small air com­pres­sor set at no more than 15 psi to blow them out. I now have an extra 75′ of each size and will break them down into three kits con­tain­ing 25′ of each size. I will put them on ebay when­ever one of you indi­cate they would like to buy one. The title will be “Modernist Cuisine Tubing”. There are only three kits and I will not be doing this again unless there is a huge demand. The cost will be $36/kit includ­ing Priority Mail ship­ping in the US. I will have to get a quote for ship­ping out­side the US. Send me an email at paulpegg “at” optonline.net if you are interested. My goal is not to make money but only to share with my fel­low members

I have made the carrot soup several times without a pressure cooker or centrifuge and it now on my wife's top modernist things I have made to date. I caramelized the carrots in butter in a large stock pot, stirring often and adding a little water about half way through to keep them from drying out. I juiced the remaining carrots, boiled the juice and ran it through my chinois a few times. I found the ajwain seeds in a local Indian market and fresh ginger at a large asian market. I realize that I have not gotten a complete Maillard reaction but it is still a great preparation. The last time I did it I used the Coconut Foam that is suggested in the recipe on the Modernist Cuisine website Caramelized Carrot Soup.. The Foam described in the recipe was too firm for my taste so I did it with xanthum gum instead. At first it was very loose but after a few hours in the refirgerator it became a soft and smooth foam that suited the silky texture of the soup just fine.

Your dinner and breakfast sound fantastic, and "rich". I am not into karate but have been working out at the local gym for the last 25 years and know that the heavy lifters in this crowd would not be too thrilled to be served such food, especially three meals in a row. Most of them are on low fat diets with protein supplements. They will eat a huge salad and then slug down a protein drink. I would guess that a karate instructor might be equally fat averse. Perhaps he did not want you to go to the work you enjoyed so much if he was not going to eat much of it. McD's does serve simple salads. Did you ask him if he had any food preferences?

A few good uses for Hickory Nuts A few weeks ago my wife and I stumbled upon a giant hickory tree that was dropping nuts like crazy. This is the season and you might still find some on the ground. The squirrels are able to catch them on the way down, but if you can get there first, here are a few ideas. These nuts are really tough to open. I cut one end out of a large cardboard box and placed a brick in the open end. I held each nut on the brick and gave them a sharp smack with a 16 oz hammer. They fly apart like shrapnel but the other three sides of the box keep them under control. The meats are really hard to get out of the fractured shells so I used the shards to make hickory ice cream and hickory infused butter. For the ice cream I placed a few cups of nut shards in the milk of a standard base, brought it to a simmer for about 10 minutes and then let it sit overnight. The next morning I strained it, finished the mix and processed it as usual. The first gallon disappeared very quickly. For the butter I simply clarified a pound of unsalted butter and then added about 1-1/2 cups of nut shards and kept it warm for a few hours. Strain out the nuts and mold the butter anyway you wish. This is great on mashed potatoes or just plain bread as a spread. Saturday I made a potato/celery root puree (2:1 ratio) and placed a tablespoon of the butter in the center of each serving. There were a few confused looks until I explained what it was they were eating. It was another hit after the carrot soup with coconut chutney foam. I probably could have made this more complicated by extracting the flavor sous vide, but this was quick and simple. Now I am looking for more things to do with these nuts. I have about 25 pounds of them drying in the garage and will crack them open in a few weeks. I will use the spent shells in the smoker for sure. Any ideas will be appreciated. Thanks, Paul

I made the Momofuku short ribs for dinner last night. They were bagged on Wednesday with 1/2 cup of the marinade and went in to the sous vide cooker thursday morning for 48 hours at 55C. Saturday noon I shocked them and held in the refrigerator until service. About 3 minutes in the fryer and they came out nicely crisp and medium rare inside. I always make a double batch of the marinade and reduce the balance to about 25% until it is very thick. This is used to smear the plate and finish plating. They always come out great with many compliments. Sorry, no pictures. I buy boneless short ribs at Restaurant Depot.

I found a recipe for eggless ice cream that calls for mono- and di-glycerides. I have searched but can't find a source. Does anyone know of a source for small quantities of these, or substitutes that will work?

Thanks, I'll give it a try. It would probably get a little thicker if I added a small amount of coconut cream to it.

After reading Seattlefoodgeeks article I built my own. I didn't care for all the electrics to be on top of the water bath so I put them in a remote box. I used a 1000 watt bucket heater and can put the heater, thermocouple and circulator in either a large stock pot or a beer cooler. I have cooked multiple courses for up to 150 people in this setup. It has been in constant use for a year and works great. Here is a link to an article I wrote about it. I really like the flexibility of changing to any size container I wish and also keeping the controls away from the water. I could add a second heater and probably cook in a bathtub!

I think there is something missing in the recipe for Coconut Foam. The herbs total 14 grams and we are to save 10 grams of the puree but the recipe says to use 20 grams of it after straining. I tried this recipe as written but it was a green failure. I guess it should have us puree the herbs with maybe 30-50 grams of water and use the resulting filtrate. The foam I did get was much too firm to put in the very silky soup. I will try it with 160 bloom. Any thoughts? Thanks, Paul

Coconut Chutney Foam I tried the Coconut Chutney Foam on 6-325 using the exact ingredients. The foam was quite green and set hard at serving temperature. I expected it to be an off white soft foam when served as a garnish with the carrot soup as found on the Modernist Cooks Site. Any suggestions on how to modify the recipe? I don't have a lot of time to experiment right now so would appreciate some guidance. Thanks for any advice you can offer.

If you are writing a food blog you must know some chef's in town who shop at RD. Ask around. You are bound to find someone who would get it for you.

When I using an aluminum pot, it create problems to leave it in there (pitting in the aluminum). With my cooler, I left it in there all the time (until the valve in the cooler started to fail....). I also left it in stainless steel for a few months... I glued the drain valve on my cooler with waterproof silicon glue and have had no problems. I change the water every few months. I change the water in the stainless steel stock pot about once a month but have never had it discolor or smell so I am just being cautious I guess.

Huh. How hard is it to BS entry? I write for a UW food rag - technically a nonprofit group... Also, can anyone recommend a particular Callebaut formulation useful for general-purpose chocolate making? Something useful both for covering and ganache would be nice, particularly if it wasn't too bitter. Also, does anyone know about lecithin concentrations? I love how the TJs stuff is nigh impossible to de-emulsify unless you scald it. I'm not sure as to the level in commercial chocolate, and it's cheap enough at Whole Foods that adding it myself if definitely an option. (Besides, lecithin - a natural extract of soybeans - is much healthier than the rest of what I put in truffles.) I use the Callebaut dark in a chocolate truffle ice cream with great success. I also use it for shavings on desserts etc. I consider it an all purpose chocolate and suggest you try it. I pay less than $40 for the 8 lb block here in NJ. If your non-profit group has a business license, certificate of incorporation or tax exempt certificate you can apply. Here is the link Restaurant Depot Membership.. you also need to show that you are authorized to purchase for the group. My mistake. The Callebaut Dark Chocolate is an 11 pound block selling for $36.50.

Huh. How hard is it to BS entry? I write for a UW food rag - technically a nonprofit group... Also, can anyone recommend a particular Callebaut formulation useful for general-purpose chocolate making? Something useful both for covering and ganache would be nice, particularly if it wasn't too bitter. Also, does anyone know about lecithin concentrations? I love how the TJs stuff is nigh impossible to de-emulsify unless you scald it. I'm not sure as to the level in commercial chocolate, and it's cheap enough at Whole Foods that adding it myself if definitely an option. (Besides, lecithin - a natural extract of soybeans - is much healthier than the rest of what I put in truffles.) I use the Callebaut dark in a chocolate truffle ice cream with great success. I also use it for shavings on desserts etc. I consider it an all purpose chocolate and suggest you try it. I pay less than $40 for the 8 lb block here in NJ. If your non-profit group has a business license, certificate of incorporation or tax exempt certificate you can apply. Here is the link Restaurant Depot Membership.. you also need to show that you are authorized to purchase for the group.

motifmike said: I ordered a lot of ingredients from Modernist Pantry and am very happy with them. They filled the order overnight and everything is nicely packaged in resealable bags and uniformly labeled. I was able to create my own "starter kit" to get me going in gels and spherification.

That looks great Keith. Thanks for the tips, I will give it a try now.

I have been using these bags in my Foodsaver 2460 with excellent results. They have a mesh strip down the middle which helps control liquid migration to the pump and they are almost half the cost of the Weston's and 1/3 the cost of Foodsaver bags. I have used them up to 85C with not a single failure. I ordered some of these bags a couple months ago to try them out since they are cheaper than the regular FS bags. Unfortunately I cannot say I love them and I am sure I won't be ordering them again. It is possible that they work better with different FS models, but I am not sure (I have the FoodSaver Professional III) The material they are made of is a bit odd and causes them to wrinkle easily. This means I have to be extra careful when folding them back to add any items to them. Wrinkles = problems seasling. My biggest problem with them though is that they just do not seal as well, especially in the area where the "VacStrip" is located even if the bag is totally dry. I basically have to triple or quadruple seal every bag before dropping it in the SV tub. Sure enough usually the frist 2 seals are breached after the item is done cooking. Using a regular FS bag is far more efficient IMHO. On the plus side, the VacStrip is a little better at handling items with liquids included. I think maybe the 2460's clamp is better at making a good seal. I have never had one fail in hundreds of bags. At first I double sealed but after none failed I just seal once.

I couldn't agree more! I just received my copy of "The Family Meal - Home Cooking with Feran Adria" which I had on pre-order with Book Depository UK for several months. Imagine my annoyance to find that a book by one of the worlds most famous chef's based in Spain has only the silly US measurements Bob mentions. It doesn't show grams or degrees Centigrade at all. I've written to Phaidon Press complaining about this and have cited MC as an example of where even recent US cook books are seeing the light. The "home cooking" referred to in the title is really "staff meals" from El Bulli. Apart from the measurements the book seems to be very approachable compared to anything else I've seen written by Ferran. I received my copy of Feran's book and am disappointed to say the least. It is almost a comic book with scant recipes and too many pages of pictures. There is little of the Feran Adria I had hoped to learn from. The lack of metric measurements is just plain wrong and some of the scaling seems to be erratic and defies a logical progression.