avaserfi

I will most definitely allow the vessel to vent. In the Cooking Issues primer they recommend against keeping the LN2 in the passanger portion of a car. The trunk is the best I can do, but I can drive carefully and keep the vessel held in place in a larger box to prevent/minimize sloshing. Yeah I saw the dispenser he recommended, but don't know enough about them to know what to order. Do you have any idea on the type they use?

I just found a local welding supply place that sells liquid nitrogen by the pound. I am really excited about starting to work with the substance, but won’t be able to get a dewar since they are too expensive. I called the welding supply and asked for suggestions. They said they have people come in with plastic coolers (although they did point out that the interior plastic does crack), styrofoam coolers and dewars. Given my situation and the fact that I won’t need a lot of liquid nitrogen at a time (cooking for 2) does anyone have any suggestions? It seems a small plastic cooler would be the least expensive option, but might not be safe? Alternatively I was thinking about getting a 1-2 liter thermal carafe and making it (or making sure) it is vented. Would 2 liters be enough to get some experience with the technique or would it sublimate too quickly from a thermal carafe for practical use? I don't have a truck for transport, so at best I can keep it in the trunk on the drive home. Does

I am looking forward to this documentary, it looks pretty interesting. Sadly, I will have to wait for it to get released online or on DVD because I don't have access to HBO.

Hot tea does a good job of this too.

That is the method I was taught eons ago and have continued to use with success. I try for the sausage almost completely cooked as the water has evaporated and then just a quick time in the dry pan to brown them. Same here. I started using this method when I didn't have a grill and haven't stopped since getting a grill. It works so well I prefer it to the grill, most of the time.

I had the same reaction as you. Now that I have a pressure cooker I can't believe I resisted getting one for so long. I use it weekly and it is perfect for last minute meals that normally take an hour or more to make. With the PC you can easily make them in 15-20 minutes, amazing!

The MC caramelized carrot soup utilizes baking soda to increase the carrot's pH and encourage a Maillard reaction. Without the baking soda, you will have soft carrots in a considerable amount of butter.

I made the Quail with Apple-Vinegar Emulsion and Water Chestnuts (p. 3•101), it required some planning, but overall was pretty easy to make. The dish was a hit, the perfect main for our two year anniversary dinner. We planned on taking some pictures, but it looked too good to wait.

Agreed. My recipe goes something like this: 1) Grind fatty pork 2) Mix in lots of salt, pepper and sage 3) Brown I've never had a complaint. The only binding that occurs is when I mix in the spices.

You could probably pick and choose sections of A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking by Douglas Baldwin for the students to read. It is a good introduction and available online free. http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html

In this case it is, although shipping more than doubles the price. It does get frustrating with other ingredients like gellan gums can only be found in larger quantities costing about $50+ per pound when 50-100 grams is sufficient for most home use. Maybe I'm just grumbling because I have no more room in the pantry . But I do hope some of these ingredients do become more accessible as modernist cuisine and techniques become more popular.

Of course, it has to be a pound. I wish we could find some of this stuff in smaller quantities! 4kg of belly only needs a few grams of sodium erythorbate. 50-100 grams would last me forever.

Chris that looks great! I am in the process of sourcing some belly worthy of the MC recipe - although it is unlikely I will find bone on. I have everything else I need, but the sodium erythorbate, which if I understand correctly encourages the curing salts to work more quickly. Does anyone know if the sodium erythorbate changes the final product? I haven't been able to find any.

My current blender is giving out and while I don't really want to spend the money on a high power blender I would rather not keep breaking blenders that do a poor job of blending. I've been looking into this a little and am still having trouble deciding what is best. It seems that a high power blender is worth the money and will pay for itself over the years, but which one? Have there been any updates to the list competitive brands or is it still just Vitamix and Blendtec? How are all the newer owners of the Blendtec (which pitcher are you using the regular or 'wildslide') and Vitamix blenders think about their machines after living with them for a while?

Well, after doing as much research as I could and stretching our budget, I ended up with a reservation at Coi. It seems some people aren't impressed, but for the most part the restaurant does impress. I was hoping to find a restaurant that was more slanted towards modernist styled cuisine, and from what I can tell most say Coi does it best in the area. Thanks for the suggestions.

Update I have 150 grams left.

I plan on doing a more formal write up on my website for each item, starting this Sunday with the soup. Until then, as promised, some pictures. Caramelized carrot soup with carrot top garnish: Caramelized onion puree: The onions were each distinct until I blended them with an immersion blender. I didn't actually test their texture by themselves. I would suspect 50 minutes at 15psi would give the same texture as a traditionally caramelized onion. At 40 minutes they seemed more substantial from what I can remember. Constructed blue cheese: I'm fairly certain you could use any cheese you wanted with these techniques (I have used a variety). They give some good information on how to adjust for different cheeses based on moisture content and goals. A crepe with the constructed blue and a mushroom, ground beef and onion puree filling:

Just an update to stay in line with the Host requirements. I have 50 grams of the Artistre brand iota carrageenan left. The 50 grams is $6 plus whatever shipping and packaging is, which will total about $11 pretty much anywhere in the US. PM me if interested. In the past I have sealed it in a zip top bag and mailed the package in a bubble mailer. This seems to work well, if this is not sufficient we can work something out. I might have more that 50 grams, but won't know until I package some up and see what is left. I will update this thread if I do. PM me if interested. edited for clarification

I've been doing some experiments with MC this past week. I haven't gone through any of the pictures yet, but I made the caramelized carrot soup, constructed blue cheese slices (based on the American cheese slice recipe), rendered pork fat and tried caramelizing onions in the pressure cooker. The caramelized carrot soup was easy and delicious although slightly too sweet for my taste. A perfect amuse bouche, but I don't think I'd want a whole bowl. I did make some changes I used store bought carrot juice, didn't bother coring the carrots, didn't centrifuge anything and I added about 10% carrot juice to the pressure cooker, rather than water as a cautious step to prevent burning. I also made my own garnish, a ginger/serrano infused cream which I mixed into the soup. The constructed blue cheese slices were easy to make and turned out perfectly. I used Rogue Creamery blue and scaled to 85 grams of cheese. I didn't use any salt because I thought the cheese already had enough in it. I also didn't have a good way to slice the final product, so once it was chilled I rolled it out between two pieces of plastic wrap. Not as easy as molding and slicing, but it was all I could do. Rendering the fat was easy enough. I did experiment with it. I had two jars, one was a mixture of fat, water and baking soda blended and the other was chunks of fat with water and soda. Pressure cooked for 4 hours and the blended version had a much better extraction rate. Simple, clean fat much easier than other methods. Lastly, the pressure cooked caramelized onions. I based the technique on the carrot soup recipe, but made some alterations, cutting back on the butter to about 10%. I pressure cooked for 40 minutes at 15 PSI and the onions were well caramelized, but there was a significant amount of onion juice and butter left in the cooker. I decided to puree the mixture and it tastes pretty good. Nice caramelized onion flavor with a buttery richness. I made a brioche with the puree and it turned our great - we ate half the loaf while it was cooling! The rest of the puree went into some crepes with a beef/mushroom filling, served with the constructed blue. I will try to get pictures up sometime this weekend.

I've got a question for those who are familiar with the SF dining scene. My budget will allow me to go out for one nicer, most costly, meal while visiting the area. If you could pick just one restaurant what would it be? I know I can get reservations at Coi, but Quince also looks good. I'm having trouble picking, at the same time if there is somewhere else that I should check out I'm also open to other suggestions.

For the price I paid 50 grams (about 1.75 ounces) for $6 plus whatever shipping and packaging will be, so about $10 shipped within the USA. If there is enough demand for another ingredient I am willing to foot the cost order some - assuming it is an ingredient I can use.

I don't think you're missing anything, though you may be making it more complicated than it is . Pretend you are pressure-canning a fat/water puree. The exact ratio of water isn't that important, you separate it out when the fat is rendered. I basically use enough water to make a barely-pourable puree. Figures. With all that is in Modernist Cuisine it is easy to get lost in the details. I've got a bunch of fat rendering right now.

They plan on releasing a line of breakfastware, lunchware and eventually brunchware because you clearly can't eat any meal but dinner on dinnerware. The term dishes gets around this problem, but then they wouldn't sell as many dishes!

In the name of science I did an experiment tonight. Okay, not really science, more that I wanted to. Earlier in the day, I butchered a pig's head. This pig was put down via the electrical stun method, rather than a captive bolt like the last I had. This means I got pig brains out of the deal. I just had to saw through to get it. Tonight for dessert I scrambled up some eggs with the brain. I sauteed some shallots in pig fat, added the brain and cooked for a minute or so then lowered the heat and added a couple eggs and a little bit of cheese. Slow cooked stirring constantly until ready, served on some rye garnished with chives. This was my first experience eating and cooking with brain and I didn't do any research, just hopped in the kitchen. It turned out pretty well. The eggs were extremely creamy, more so than I am used to, but there was a slight lumpiness from the brains. I'm guessing some of the fat melted causing the extra creaminess. Also, the curds were much smaller than normal for me, slightly larger than black caviar. The brain's flavor was clear similar to sweetbreads in that it tasted very much like it came from an animal (I don't know how else to put it), but creamier. Maybe not the best scrambled egg, but certainly worth trying. Next time I will halve the brain and brown one side then pour the eggs around it. That way the brain will be the star rather than hidden within the eggs.

On 3-145 there is a short discussion of wet rendering fat in a pressure cooker. The authors state one should put the fat in a canning jar with baking soda and pressure cook for four hours. What pressure, 1 bar (15psi)? Also, how does the water come into play? Does it go into the sealed (?) jar (if so, how much?) or is the jar not sealed and set open with water in the cooker? Am I missing a more in depth discussion on the subject?