lstrelau

Thanks for the confirmation of the cleaning method - pretty much what I figured (and did). I just thawed them completely, cleaned them and drained them between paper towels for a while. One time I just fried them in hot butter & oil til crispy, the next time I used egg dip and bread crumbs and that was better. The outsides got crispy and insides stayed moist. Bacon fat would have been a great addition (everything tastes better with bacon! Not as good of course as fresh crab but have never seen fresh ones (that I would trust) in my landlocked city!

How much cleaning of frozen ( or fresh for that matter) is required? Just removing the gills (dead mans fingers) or us there more you need to remove?

What about Feran Adria's Texturas product that is already dehydrated honey? Not surewhat youcan do with it only read about it on the Texturas website

Just checked my shipment stataus with UPS - shows it in transit as of April 7 and weighing 47.4 pounds so looks like everything is there. Won't know for sure til I get home next week by which time I hope it is waiting at my office for me

Not only is my copy in transit but thanks to the strength of the Canadian dollar I just got an email telling me that I saved money: Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking Price on order date: CDN$ 395.29 Price charged at shipping: CDN$ 390.17 Lowest price before release date: CDN$ 390.17 Quantity: 1 Total Savings: CDN$ 5.12 That 5 bucks should buy me some transglutimate or some other ingredient that I can't live without once I get to delve into MC!!

Folded corners usually happen during manufacture of the book rather than being caused by shipping but I feel your pain starting with a 'bruised' copy of any book, let alone one that is this dear to our hearts. Llyn

Steven, how are you going to stop yourself from bringing all sorts of wonderful things back from your trip to Barcelons? The Bouqueria alone (to say nothing of Ferran's retail offerings) will get your pantry off to a good start! But, having said that, only you can tell us what your cooking style is and therefore what staples you would need in your new pantry to facilitate future meals without running out for supplies at the last minute. Give us some clues. Llyn (still incredibly jealous of your next few days and looking forward to the reports)

I have had foams that were a great addition to the dish they were served with (El Celler de Can Roca, Alinea, Trotter) but also where they were just there for effect. The funniest experience was a small, very obscure and in-the-middle-of-where-rural-Germany restaurant that we went to with good friends west of Frankfurt. The chef must have JUST purchased a siphon and I think at least half of the items on the chef's tasting menu included foam. This was probably 10 years ago when foams were very new so when we had the first course including it we were suitably impressed/surprised to have this 'new' thing. But then as the menu continued, foam followed foam and by the 3rd or 4th iteration we just started laughing as the courses were delivered. To be honest, they all tasted good - no firm recollection of indivitual dishes at this remove but it did show that any culinary technique can become boring/trite/useless if it is over done. In the right context, with a properly flavour-concentrated application foams can be the perfect finishing touch to a dish. Llyn

When I have been presented with a whole duck I go back to a recipe from Julia Child (in either "Company" or "More Company" though it might be in her other books as well) where she: 1. Roasts whole bird at a high temperature for a relatively short timejust to get it partially cooked. 2. Dismember said bird - remove breasts, legs/thighs, all the skin, reserve carcass and wings & tips for stock 3. Coat legs & thighs with dijon mustard and roll in fresh bread crumbs and continue to roast til done to your taste 4. Cut the skin into 1/2 inch wide strips and roast in pan along with legs until it turns into yummy crackling. 5. At service, slice the breasts on the angle and poach briefly in port and (I think) swirl in some butter to finish the sauce - I can't remmeber the precise rest of the details here. 6. Serve the now perfectly cooked parts of the bird = slices of breast, a succulent crusted leg/thigh and some crispy, tasty crackling. You have the carcass for stock and should be rendered fat for another use. (or make duck soup! Sorry, this is somewhat vague since I am on a road trip and don't have cookbooks with me but, as Julia says, this is a great way to have all of the duck cooked properly (as oppossed to just trying to roast it whole) and there is no last minute fussing with trying to carve a bird for service, the messy stuff is done ahead of time. She recommends (and I fully concur) serving this with a green vegetable and a silky smooth puree of parsnips - great combo. Nothing wrong with confit of duck as the previous posters have suggested (use sous vide if you have it - much less fat required) Llyn

You are going to have an amazing couple of days!! Look forward to the reports. Can Roca is great. We had a five hour lunch last October that I will remember a long time. Also great lunch at Comerç 24. El Bulli will just be over the top fantastic. Think of all of us.

While I can see where some sort of metallic heat sink could help speed up the cooking process wouldn't you have to have a number of probes inserted to have significant effect on the process and then when you slice the meat you would have all these funny holes in it? Tinned copper is perhaps better than straight copper, though wonder if there would be any taste residue. You could probably find some surgical steel implements (there are canulas and other medical instruments that would be perfect for your purpose (google something called a urethral sound) Once you get over cringing at the thought of these things used for their intended medical purpose they could work as heat sinks with no risk of metal contamination of food. Though I realize stainless steel isn't as good a conductor as copper. With SV there are still people (like my good friends who are staunch foodies but traditionalists) who find cooking in plastic bags suspect enough (their concern about leaching of nasty stuff). I can only imagine their reaction to copper pipes cooked with their roast What about butterflying the roast and then meat gluing it together again (or just have smaller slices?

I havent' had an email notification, I just checked my list of orders online after reading the last few posts here and lo and behold my ship date was updated. Maybe they don't send out emails til later in the day or in middle of the night - I had a couple of notices about another order that showed up that way.

Yee Hah!! my shipping date just moved up from the 14th to tomorrow the 5th or the next day!! Guess my copy was on that slow train from Vancouver. Yaaay!

Would you REALLY want to put copper (assuming that these heat pipes are pure copper rather than some other alloy) into direct contact with food? Possibly if there was absolutely no acidic component in the food but even then I expect you would get a chemical reaction between the copper and the meat (yummy - green corrosion stains in my steak!!). Aside from copper being toxic and the colour unfortunate, the taste would be dreadful too. Copper plumbing pipe is one thing but not combined with food and heat and moisture. Maybe stainless steel rods (albeit not such a good conductor) or maybe annodized aluminum but frankly doesn't sound worth it to me.

Happy to join in here - since I bought my Thermomix I have been doing a lot of converting of my favourite recipes (those that can be made in the machine as well as simply using the scale function on its own) to use in the T-mix since it is so convenient with the built in scale. The scale isn't dead accurate for small amounts unfortunately but as Chris said, sometiems a hybrid method is simple easier. I can use my jewellers gram scale for confirmation of things like spices/b. powder etc.

Steven (aka F. Guy), While I will never join you in your passion for fruit bombs I am glad YOU like them and therefore leaving more of the more elegant, even austere 'old' world wines (and their old world style 'new' world friends for me to enjoy!! Thank you for that!! I have enjoyed several heavy duty Zins (I still can't really hack over-the-top oaked Chards and for some reason my palate does not appreciate Cab Sauvignon that much - something about black currants I think) but for the most part I can't for the life of me imagine what I would eat with them. Wine for me is so wrapped up in how it combines with the food I eat that it is difficult for me to enjoy wines that are virtually a meal in bottle. BBQ with sweet glaze/sauce and Zin surely works but what do you eat with all these massive fruit-driven alcholic wines? On the other hand, there are some lovely 'new' world wines that are not over-oaked fruit cake. Oregon (and some CA) Pinots (as well as those from BC and Ontario for that matter), wonderful crisp Rieslings even other cool climate reds. Frankly too many wines and not nearly enough time (as hard as I try to try them all!)

Vengroff, can't wait til this shows up on iTunes for my iPhone!

I have 9 or 10 more or less complete sets of china plus a full set of Armetale 'peweter' and then an inordinate number of sets of 8 or 12 plates/bowls/cups in individual patterns that are great for creative plating. And then there is the cutlery...mostly sterling (except for the everyday stainless) 12 place settings of 19 implements in one antique set, plus another fish set and a couple of other antique sets of knives/forks for various purposes (dessert, pastry). And then the Reidel crystal - whether or not one believes that a different glass for every grape is really necessary (whether it is or not, I like using them) makes another 8 or 10 of about 15 different stems. Sheesh when I start trying to catalogue it I do sound a bit obsessive... but we do use all of it - not at once of course (except for my annual birthday dinner when I serve 8 people 12-15 courses and use as many of the pieces as I can find use for). As long as I don't have to move into a smaller house I'm okay for now but it will be one hell of an estate sale or garage sale when I go!

Glad I wasn't tempted to change my order from free shipping - I was tempted to try for faster shipping but didn't try thank goodness. I ordered Dec 9th, 2010 and so far, at least my ship date remains at April 14th. Don't want to jinx anything at this point. If changing your shipping method dumps you to the bottom of the list that isn't very good service. Although if, according to Nathan, there were only 250 copies of the book on the slow train from Vancouver to wherever Amazon.ca ships from it could get dicey. It would be good to know how many copies were ordered from amazon.ca. Llyn

I am constantly amazed (and saddened) when shopping in local supermarkets. Our basket is full of FOOD that we will take home and prepare. Many of my fellow shoppers mostly have prepared foods from the rotisserie chicken to frozen entrees (to say nothing of the bags and cans of snack food). Even our farmer's markets do a booming business in prepared foods to take home and serve. Costco is full of frozen meat products that are pre-seasoned...and even better butcher shops have pre-made stuffed and marinated items. There must be an immense market for these products or the shops wouldn't carry them although the more 'convenience' foods that are available the more people who don't/can't cook will take advantage of them. Do any schools still have Home-economics classes as part of their curiculum? We noticed the same thing when visiting London recently with the exception that at least there, the prepared foods contained only food and virtually no preservatives. The Use By date really means something in the UK - unlike similar products in Canada (at least - probably same in USA) that will remain looking edible (moot point!) for a week or more. Of course living in central London often means a very small flat with a minimalist kitchen. Llyn

I have used them many ways, cooked as one would use their larger brethern but usually I cut them in half and stuff them. They are perfect size for appetizers, small plates etc. Very pretty on the plate too. Cheese and herbs are good raw, also used labnah (Lebanese thick youghurt mixed with some green tomato chutney). Cheese, crumbs,ground meat and all the normal stuffing things are good when broiled or baked. Llyn

Just received my modernist ingredient kit from Cusine r_evolution: http://www.molecule-r.com/Cost $58.95 Canadian plus shipping. I bought through Amazon.ca but you can order direct too. Here is a lilnk to a you-tube video with excerpts from the DVD - Recommend muting your speakers - the 'sound-track' is pretty horrible: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRpEpQPULNI Certainly more expensive than purchasing the ingredients separately but it is great for first experiments. Includes a 50 recipe DVD with blow by blow techniques. It would have been useful to have printed recipes as well but that is not included. A VERY irritating 'muzak' sound track (that you can turn off - there is no verbal instructions), but very clear methods shown. Bit disappointing use of volume measures rather than weights but would be easy to convert to weights. 10 pre-measured sachets of the following items: Agar-agar, Calcium Lactate, Sodium Alginate, Soy Lethecin, Xantam gum. Obviously more expensive than bulk purchase but foil sachets fo should be shelf stable for long time. Then, in addition to the DVD there is a food safe syringe and a length of tubing (for making agar-based 'spagetti' (looks very cool in the recipe demos) - (really looking forward to trying this technique), pipettes for making 'caviar' and rounded measuring spoons for spherification and finally a spoon with holes for transferring spheres. Since the larger Modernist ingredient kit mentioned in other threads can't be shipped to Canada this was a good alternative. I am really looking forward to playing with these. Having the demonstration videos is a big benifit for a newbie of these arts. Can't wait for my copy of MC to come to use in conjuction with my new kit. BTW, most of the ingredients are available from the Gourmet Warehouse on East Hastings in Vancouver. Don't know if they ship. Recipe Categories include: Spherification Recipes Gelification Emulsification Thickening Some of the recipes include: Port , or Honey Caviar Parmesan or Arugula or Fruit Spagetti Balsamic Sheets Beet or Chives or Garlic Foams Curry Wind Quick and Easy Bechamel or Vinaigrette Mojito Bubbles Daiguiri Bites Popping Chocolate (edited for to move to related thread) Llyn

French toast sounds great - I usually soak the bread in custard overnight (or at least a few hours) in the fridge to get similar effect but the more spontaneous version with vacuum makes sense. Did the first batch that you thought was over-compressed still puff up when you cooked it? Llyn

Ate my compressed watermelon last night for an appetizer. The one with tequila and some hot Aleppo pepper was actually really good (albeit spicy). The other one with orange juice was great too. Just topped small wedges with pieces of goat feta. Meant to drizzle some balsamico on top but forgot in the rush to get the food out though. Texture was fairly meaty and flavours definitely infused the melon. Look forward to doing this when melon is actually in season and truly ripe. Peaches, plums, apricots, all sorts of fruits would be great candidates for this treatment. Llyn

Cover is at least 3 mm thick, don't think they tell you what material but Lexan would be my choice - you should be able to get thicker material. There is also Lexan that is made up of molded squared tubes that is incredibly strong (used it in our greenhouse and it has withstood golf ball size hail with no damage). You should be able to get off cuts from a plastic supplier too for not much money. Lexan is probably available in 5-6 mil thickness to. The molded shape of the VP112 beind 'domed' and the cross ribs give it a lot of strength by virtue of shape. Some plastics suppliers can do vacuum formed shapes or you could maybe find pre-fab domes that were made for other purposes (small skylights?? that would have the requisite strength. Llyn edited to add these links - bet you could find a dome like this that would work - they have a range of thicknesses too and the dome shape would be very strong. http://www.globalplastics.ca/skylights.htm http://www.globalplastics.ca/domes.htm