BoldBaker

Awhile back (like November) I bought a Viante pasta extruder at a ridiculously low price, and I've been pretty satisfied. However, I feel envy every time I see the folks at Ideas in Food post about their fancy pasta extruder. Without overheating or causing damage to the machine, can I produce something similar to say...their smoked masa pasta? Or maybe something out of modernist cuisine?

If I wasn't eating lamb, I think I'd "settle" for a little smoked pork parts and southern cooking any time Blues. How do you make crispy cabbage?

We had easter dinner on Saturday at my place: Cooked for 10 Alinea's Pork Belly, pickled vegetables, BBQ sugar, polenta Celery, Date, Pecan, Ricotta Salata Salad Roasted Baby Carrots and Fennel Boned, Dry Rubbed, Jaccarded, Meat Glued Leg of Lamb: hot smoked over a bed of leeks and potatoes Roasted Asparagus with Lemon Juice and Pecorino Cannoli(s?), Ricotta Tart (made the ricotta myself) Thank goodness I'm too young to drink, otherwise things might have turned out a little differently.

Lisa, I had some Levain cookies last night. I do not live in New York, nor can I ship them down by the dozen. Does your recipe really come close? I NEED the cookies, and your pictures look awful darn close to what came in the box for Christmas.

Figured I'd make this a direct reply: you really hit it right on the head. From Modernist Cuisine, "We developed this recipe to make a culinary classic more convenient. The meringue can be kept warm in the siphon at 60C/140F for an extended period and the used to create instant meringue to order." Procedure is basically Beat 100 g egg whites into 100 g sugar. Vacuum seal and cook sous vide at 74C/165F for 30 minutes. Transfer to a 1 l siphon and charge with 4 cartridges. Dispense. To set, 150C/300F for 1.5 hr.

I think MC suggests cooking equal(?) parts salt and egg white cooked sous vide at 60C(?). Then whipped using the iSi whipper and baked. I'll get back on the official stuff. But it is indeed possible.

Alright, boosting off a recently posted topic on an iSi meringue and a page from modernist cuisine I've got a question that I might lose my head over (it's a bold idea). MC says you can make a Swiss meringue in a whipper after cooking the whites with sugar at 60C(?). So now I've got two questions- can I do those whites sous vide and whip 'em up in a stand mixer for a buttercream? Now get ready, I've done some googling on a Swiss meringue macaron and all I've come up with is a Swiss bakery making macaron: can you make Swiss meringue macarons??? Can use my iSi to make a macaron??? Can you make a French meringue with an iSi whip??? Go ahead- truss me up, roast me, quarter me up!

Paul, I agree. I wanted to be sure though so I ran a couple tests:a method posted on this site (wrapping the bowl in an ice-filled plastic bag) didn't work. The alcohol bath, didn't work- and got alcohol in my ice cream (not so happy about that one), and dumping straight dry ice (started with carbonation, again interesting but not desired in this application) but somebody mentioned the creation of carbonic acid and I think that's the funny flavor I kept tasting. On the upside, it didn't take that much dry ice. I retreat to the freezer bowls with ice cream scoop between my legs unless somebody knows of a N2 distributor in SoFla

Co2 ice cream is interesting, just not what one might want to eat with everything all the time. The cold bath seems like where it's at and would be much easier for me (the home cook) as dry ice is a trip to the super market down the street as opposed to renting a dewar etc. How long does the base take to freeze this way? And did the alcohol bubble of completely?

Hi, I'm only a high school student- but you might want to stick to alcohol. According to some quick calculations (from what I remember from last year's chem class) with some margin built in- it'd take over a kilo of salt in a kilo of water; i don't remember water's solubility curve- but I'm pretty sure you can't do a 50-50 solution. C02 is more readily available to me than N2 but carbonated ice cream is pretty darn far from desirable in most of my applications. I'm open to cheap double boiler ideas. I've got a copper/glass one, but superchilled glass doesn't sound like a super idea to me. What would be really awesome would be container that could move from a super chilled bath to freezer and be agitated via mechanical means. Any ideas???

I'm sixteen, and my parents take me to the liquor store all the time! I cook with it, sneak a sip or two, but I'm not really partial to it. Both my parents drink, my dad more than most. But, whatever.

Not for dessert, but this morning was Flour's sticky sticky buns. Happy mother's day!

I agree, they seem to be 'hip' and 'trendy' with the foodie crowd as of late... Easier than having to scoop, etc

Recently, I have taken an interest in the making of a gastrique. After consulting my cookbooks and the internet, I have tossed the idea of a tomato gastrique around. However, there seems to be some discrepancy between proportions, and I have a few other questions. Some people recommend a 1:2 ratio of sugar to vinegar, others a 2:3, and others a 1:1. Is this just a matter of taste? Also, some recipes call for the caramelization of sugar, others advocate just throwing everything in one pot and reducing until the desired consistency is reached. What is most proper and yields the best flavor? Finally: as I am considering a tomato gastrique, and I want the result to be smooth I question the source of tomato flavor. Whole tomatoes peeled, cooked, pureed, and passed through a chinois? Cutting the tomato in half and squeezing the juice through a chinois to catch the juices? What do you think would be best? Also what vinegar would be the best to use? I plan to use this with a fattier piece of beef.

Sorry about the time it took to reply, but dinner was delicious. I ended up braising the lamb shanks with rosemary, red wine, thyme, rosemary, and stock. The fall off meat and juices were absorbed graciously by the lightly flavored truffled potatoes. It was nice, because the truffle flavor didn't overwhelm the dish, but were terrifically subtle. I managed to soak up the extra juices with hot sourdough country bread, I know it's against the rules, but watching the butter melt on the bread is so tantalizing. Anyway, thanks! PS- my dad asked for mint jelly, I almost...