DrewUK

I just ordered my gift to myself a Weber Smokey Mountain watch out piggies we going to have some smoked bottom in the new year.

Hello: I need a good recipe for shabu-shabu, but I live in the UK so ingredients might be a bit difficult to get... any ideas

Hi: Your brussel's sound really good, can you post the recipe?

Hi All: I tried to have a Mostly Modernist Thanksgiving and my son loved it, and so did I. I am still trying to get past seeing pink turkey and pink turkey juice without panic, but I checked it with my thermometer and it was cooked. Making your own bread and leaving it out to get stale was a big plus for the stuffing. Spending £10, and 2.5 hours of my time made some Modernist Brown Poultry stock for gravy was great! I think that the cranberry sauce sous vide needed 20% sugar, but other than that it was a close to perfect as I could get. Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving

Fortnum & Mason Harrods Food Hall Beverly Hills Bakery - they do next day delivery, but a signature is required

One thing we used to do when our kids were young is to out for lunch somewhere nice. Normally if you time it right you can get there when they just nod off, and then you have 45 minutes for lunch. When they ask you for drinks be prepared to say that you are ready to order. Skip the starters and pudding go for a main only. Then on the way home in the evening pick a baguette, some cheese and sausage with some pre cut vegies and bottle of wine and have a picnic at night in your apartment. The other good thing is that people who go out for lunch tend to be more child friendly than those at night. My two pence – have a great time. My other thought is to take a day trip on the train out to Bath it is a very interesting Roman town.

Just ordered mine for £15 and on the topic of cups versus weight measurements here is an interesting post from MC

When I lived in the US there was a company called Pizza Pizza that had a double sized pizza box and you would always get two pizzas for the price of one. I used to buy one on Sunday night, and scoff one of them and the other I would take hot and place 1 piece of pizza on top of the other one topping to topping so that there would be crust on the outside. Kind of like a pizza sandwich. Then wrapped in aluminium foil I would have lunch for the week. Nice snack and no mess as you did not have the toppings just crust to hold. The other option is a pizza pastie or Calzone.

Back when I were a young lad, some 30 years ago when fat was not bad for you, I had some wonderful Texas French Toast that was white bread about an inch thick and deep fat fried and dusted with powdered sugar. I was not sure about the egg/dairy preparation as it was a Holiday Inn, but man was that good!!!! Since I now own a deep fat fryer again, after reading Modernist Cuisine I may try coming up with a recipe. I think vanilla would be nice, but nutmeg does it for me. I also think that stale bread may be the key also, but as the Modernist books say stale bread is actually wet so that may not work in a deep fryer. Sunday mornings look out – we are going to start experimenting for the ultimate deep fried French Toast...

Wow that is the most intense French Toast I have every seen, well done

I make pizzas every Friday and it is about ½ price of Pizza Hut delivery. The problem is that I do not have a beautiful wood oven like Raoul Duke :-). So I crank my oven all the way put the shelf to the top setting and use some really dry mozzarella from Costco. I do not make my own sauce but I find that taking a jar of spaghetti sauce and reducing it by half makes a nice sauce. The dough is made in the bread machine. You can see the whole recipe on my blog. It is not Italian pizza but more Chicago. One key thing I have found is the pizza pan, Heartland Bakeware Pizza Pan, which makes perfect pizza every time. I am even in conversation with them about importing into the UK.

Hi All: Cook the Perfect Hamburger Sous Vide (3-86) I did most of this last night. I Sous Vide for 1 hour at 135F and then deep fried at 190C (as that is the hottest my deep fryer would go) for 1 minute. I did not have any liquid nitrogen so missed that out. But the burger was dry and more like medium, not what I was expecting. So what was the biggest mistake? 1. 2 more degrees in the Sous Vide – cannot believe that 2. An hour in the Sous Vide versus ½ hour – could be but time is not supposed to matter 3. Not using liquid nitrogen – hmmm unsure 4. Not having the oil hot enough - 232C must be close to flash point The outside crunch was great and 240g of burger seemed light and tastey (it was my own grind) which was a win. Just a bit dry. You can see a full post with pictures on my blog. I have asked on the MC site what I did wrong and if I get a response I will post here. On a positive side, cooking hamburgers the olde fashioned way in a grill pan I used to only turn once when the meat looked cooked on the side of the burger. But after reading the MC (best to turn often) I turn every 2 minutes x 4, and then cheese and cover for 2 more minutes and it was perfect. Cheers Drew

Hi Sqwertz: This looks awesome! I do not have a smoker but instead have started using a smoker box in my Weber gas grill. What smoker do you have as they look really well smoke with a good colour? Cheers Drew

Here is my foolproof recipe for ribs done in a standard oven for winter; you still need ribs when it is cold! Just follow the link in my signature and then search for ribs you should hit this entry: Ribs and Paper Towels what more do you need in life… I think it is something to do with the beer under the ribs in the roasting tin which kind of steams them slowly and keeps them moist while it cooks slowly transforming the collagen. Kind of like a poor mans combi oven. I have transitioned to the dark side (gas BBQ) and don't want to mess with charcoal for smoking, so what is the best smoker?

I buy in bulk vacuum packed bags from Costco. Some I cut into roasts and wrap the fat around the outside and tie with butcher string. Some gets cut into large roasts for the pressure cooker, nothing like a pot roast in the pressure cooker. The rest I trim out the fat and other bits and then grind for very lean ground beef. Very economical especially if you wait to buy your meat when there is a sale, then be sure to buy the smallest you can find because it is usually a flat reduction not a percentage.