Judy Wilson
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Posts posted by Judy Wilson
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The color change is normal.
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zmaster is right that citric acid won't work. Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that it would! But I have heard complaints of sourness when people use citric acid.
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Please email info@modernistcuisine.com and we'll see what we can do.
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Did you use sour salt for the sodium citrate? If so, it may have been citric acid. They are both referred to as sour salt. Otherwise, I'd try again with different cheese. Reducing the amount of sodium citrate will create different texture.
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Great! Post the link when it's up!
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Hi Clem,
I talked with a few members of our team about this, and the consensus seems to be that although the baking steel can stain, it shouldn't affect its performance. Even though darker colors absorb radiant energy faster, any color distortion probably won't be enough to even register on a thermometer. It definitely shouldn't affect its performance as an antigriddle, because that capacity uses conduction, not radiation.
As for cleaning, bakingsteel.com has some great instructions, plus a grill cleaning block that we like. It won't get rid of all stains, but it will get rid of any build up.
Here's a link to the block: : http://bakingsteel.com/shop/grill-stone-cleaning-block/?r=c81e728d9d4c2f636f067f89cc14862c
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Hi Berto,
We actually haven't done much testing on this.
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That's true, but I thought the post was a good starting point--the least I could do!
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Hi Raphael,
Thanks for the link. That's really cool. Unfortunately, we haven't done this ourselves. You'll have to ask the folks at Alinea if they are willing to divulge their secrets!
Judy
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The funny thing is, there's not actually a recipe for that photo, because it's not really one of our dishes. Max had really liked the colors and put them together in the pot to see how they looked. Tyson, one of our photographers, took the photo sort from the top on a bit of a whim. But we all loved the photo so much that it made it in the book.
You might also notice that in that photo there is way too much liquid in the pot. You should never fill up your pressure cooker with that much liquid! But once every so often our artistic side wins out and we include a picture because we like it so much.
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I would agree with LFMichaud. About 80% (or even more) is new content.
In no way would I say that MCAH is a mini version of MC. They are very different books. With a well-stocked kitchen (sous vide bath, pressure cooker, whipping siphon, Modernist ingredients) you can make every recipe in MCAH in a home kitchen. That's not exactly true of MC, though you can still make most of them.
That being said, MC delves much more deeply into the science of cooking. MCAH is still based in science, and every recipe has been rigorously tested. There is a great deal of science sprinkled throughout the book. But it doesn't dedicate a chapter to heat transfer, microbiology, or the chemistry of water like MC does.
Many of our readers have both books. I've never heard of anyone regretting buying MCAH after having purchased MC (or vice versa), but if you only want to start with one, decide which you want more, to be able to start cooking immediately or learn more about the science of cooking. There's no right answer there, just what works for you!
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Hi Madison,
We do cover this in Modernist Cuisine, though not in Modernist Cuisine at Home. We've also posted about it on our blog. You can find a blog post about making your own vacuum-concentrating setup here: http://modernistcuisine.com/2011/11/vacuum-concentrating-part-2/
Hope that helps!
Judy
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When I started experimenting with Modernist cooking, the first things I bought were a digital thermometer, digital scale, and a kit of Modernist ingredients. They are all pretty inexpensive (I bought them all on Amazon, and I'm pretty sure that Amazon.ca has comparable products) and easily fit in my small kitchen.
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Hi, I have a Kuhn Rikon. It came with a manual that indicates which setting is which psi. Did yours come with a manual? If not, I suggest that you contact the manufacturer.
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Is there another setting for 15 psi?
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Hi Maciek,
We've tried making stocks and oil infusions, and of course, our Ultrasonic Fries, but we haven't tried meat.
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We use our iSi interchangeably with Nitrous Oxide and Carbon Dioxide.
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Have you calibrated your oven? You can find out how to do that here: http://modernistcuisine.com/2013/01/how-to-calibrate-your-kitchen/
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One trick the chefs often tell people is to shake the pressure cooker a few times, especially as it comes up to pressure.
Does your pressure cooker indicate psi? All of our pressure cooker recipes use 15 psi.
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The Spinach Butter recipe is a variation of the Carotene Butter on page 121 of MCAH. There are also variations for coffee butter, porcini butter, and bell pepper butter.
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Hi zmaster,
I talked to the chefs about this and I hope to have more for you next week.
Judy
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Hi Henrik,
I think that you are actually talking about an optional second stage, not a first stage. If you have more than one sous vide bath, you can first cook your food for just a few seconds in a very hot bath, and then put the food in a bath just above the desired core temperature of your food. Optionally, you can put the food in a 45-50 C bath in between.
This optional in-between-bath does have some advantages. From page 247 of volume two: "These two enzymes are present in animal muscle. The enzymes break down the protein structures that form parts of the connective tissue within the muscle. In the live animal, their function is part of the natural cell replacement cycle that allows muscles to grow. After slaughter, the enzymatic activity drops, but does not completely stop. Calpains, in particular, continue tenderizing meat, which is why the tenderness of some cuts of beef improve with aging. When these enzymes are activated by the heat of a 45-50C bath, they go to work again, breaking down the connective protein bonds in the muscle, tenderizing it. Note that this is different from converting collagen to gelatin, though both processes have the result of producing more tender meat." You might also want to check out 3·76.
Hope that helps!
Judy
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Hi Rafayet,
I asked some of the chefs about this, and unfortunately they've never done any experimenting with adding baking soda to meat for stocks. It's certainly possible, but we just can't say if it would work or not.
If you do decide to try out it, please report back and let us know what you find!
Judy
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I have been working quite a bit with the "Fat Free" Mac and cheese. Does anyone know how fat free it really is? I know the cheese water does not become solid after refrigeration.
I want to make the more famous version, but this one is so good that, when I want Mac and cheese, I gotta have the FF version..
Tonight I made a Parmesan version and discovered a really nice new fold-in for the mouthfeel: puréed flageolet beans. I'll have to try it again, but I might prefer that to the cauliflower in the original recipe. The beans are richer, earthier, while the cauliflower somehow seems brighter. Tough to explain. But It's amazing how the bean or cauliflower taste simply vanishes in the final dish.
I've even used the general idea of the FF method (with cauliflower and cheese water) to remake tuna casserole. It was better than the original, but I need to make some adjustments.
Has anybody done other fold-ins? I guess the cauliflower one is well-known because I hav found similar applications in several other books.
The only other post I found on this mentions that he cheese crumbles made from the leftover fat solids had no taste. I have done this now a dozen or so times, and I have found the same except for one type of cheese: sharp cheddar. The others are just bland. Tried he Parmesan today, and nada. The sharp cheddar crumbles by themselves don't taste all that great ( little bitter) but on top of the Mac and cheese they taste great and have a nice texture clash. The sharp cheddar crumbles are also great on eggs, guacamole, beans, and probably a lot more.
Hi Ttogull,
I asked Anjana Shanker, the Research and Development Chef who worked on this recipe what she thought, and here's what she said:
"In my opinion, it is fat free. We make the cheese water and skim off the fat. We also use cauliflower water to cook the pasta."
Does that answer your question?
Judy
MC at home... Spanish edition ?
in Cookbooks & References
Posted
Hi Luis,
At this time, we only have Modernist Cuisine at Home available in English. This may very well change, however. Keep checking our blog. We'll announce it there if/when we have any updates.
Judy