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Judy Wilson

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Posts posted by Judy Wilson

    Geoduck -- Vacuum molded

    in Cooking

    Posted

    Hi jaka,

    I asked one of our research chefs, Sam Fahey-Burke, about this. Here's his reply:

    "We seal the geoduck in the vacuum bags and then pound it into thin sheets. Doing this in a tightly sealed bag allows us to get it very thin and even. It also keeps the clam in the bag while you‚’re working with it which is nice for hygiene purposes."

    Does that answer everything?

    Judy

    [Modernist Cuisine] Garlic Confit

    in Cooking

    Posted

    Peter,

    I looked at our manual, and it says, in response to the question "At which temperature do I cook most foods?":

    "Most foods can be cooked at the higher pressure (second red ring) or 15 pounds per square inch..." It's possible you have a different model though.

    rock0052,

    We don't actually recommend using a pressure cooker for canning, because most don't have a gauge or calibrated weight to seal the cooker. The confit can be stored for up to six months in the refrigerator though!

    Judy

    [Modernist Cuisine] Mac and Cheese (3•387 and 6•192)

    in Cooking

    Ingredients. Magic Powders

    in Cooking

    Posted

    Hi guys,

    When we changed up our website, we had problems converting the search feature. We WILL be getting that back up, hopefully soon.

    In the mean time, you might want to check out the "Glossary of Cooking Terms" in the back of volume 5 (it starts on page V). While this won't give you page numbers, it will give you an idea of all of the different Modernist ingredients used.

    Judy

    10 day trip to Seattle in July

    in Pacific Northwest & Alaska: Dining

    Posted

    Well, I can't speak for the rest of the MC team, but I can give you some personal recommendations:

    If you've already tried Lunchbox, try Red Mill for burgers. Tom Douglas just did a post for Serious Eats about his favorite burger joints in town (http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2012/04/burger-city-guides-tom-douglas-five-favorite-burgers-in-seattle-wa.html) but many places use his buns, so he might be biased. ;)

    I second Ivar's just because it is so very, very kid friendly.

    If you like pho' the best in town is at Pho' Ba (cash only) in the International District, right across from Jade Garden, which has the best Dim Sum in town (but get there early as it can be a wait otherwise). For family-style Chinese, go to Kau Kau.

    For more breakfasts, get crumpets at The Crumpet Shop (on 1st & Pike right by the market); try 5 Spot in Queen Anne, which has a different menu theme every couple of months as well as their stand-bys; and if you want to splurge on brunch, go to Salty's on Alki on West Seattle for basically all-you-can-eat seafood.

    Top Pot is great, but you might try switching it up and going to Mighty O instead. They are vegan donuts and you can't tell the difference (at least I can't). It's close to the part of Green Lake where there's a big playground, so that's another plus.

    I haven't been to Canlis since they've become more Modernist, but hear it's worthwhile if you want a fancy, no-kids kind of restaurant. I also just had the tasting menu at Spur, which was a lot of fun. On the much cheaper side for a nice romantic dinner is Machiavelli.

    For cocktails, go to ZigZag, or, where the former head bartender of ZigZag now is, Canon. If you go to Canon, get the cocktail where basically you just tell them the liquor you want and they make you something fantastic. Actually, you can do that at ZigZag, too, it's just not featured on the menu.

    One of our R&D chefs used to be the executive chef at Monsoon, and back in the 90's NathanM staged at Rover's. Off the top of my head, we've had chefs stage with us for our Lab Dinner events from Crush and Zoe.

    If you are interested in farmers' markets besides the obvious Pike Place, we get quite a bit of our produce from the one in the U District, which is held every Saturday until 1 PM.

    I hope that gives you a few ideas!

    "Modernist Cuisine" by Myhrvold, Young & Bilet (Part 3)

    in Cookbooks & References

    Posted

    Hi everyone,

    Thank you for pointing out that we hadn't updated the errata pdf. We last updated the errata on the web page on March 12th. Unfortunately, the pdf was too big to upload.

    Our question to you guys is, what would you like us to do? Should we make separate pdfs for each volume? Should we take out any errata that is not from a recipe?

    How can we make this page more usable for you?

    Common Food Mispronunciations and Misnomers

    in Food Traditions & Culture

    Posted

    Hi Everyone!

    I'm mostly a lurker around here, but I've been enjoying this thread so immensely, I couldn't stand it and had to chime in. I'm a total linguistic nerd.

    I grew up in Southeast Michigan, where we add an "s" to most words. I might say, "anyways, where does your dad work?" and get a reply "he works at Fords." We shop at Nordstrom's and Kroger's. Now, I'm half Polish (my Mom's side)and so the pierogi question comes up a lot. My Grandma was born in Detroit in 1915. She went to a Catholic school where they spoke Polish in the morning and English in the afternoon (I may have that backwards) but my Mom and her siblings never spoke Polish and though she could pronounce things, she and my Grandfather had pretty much lost the language by the time I was a kid. So I did once ask her, knowing that peirogi is plural, though we always say pierogies, what the singular is in Polish. She shrugged and said she didn't know because nobody ever eats just one. (for the record, it's pierog).

    I pronounce it per-oh-gee (with a hard "g"), and so do most of my relatives, but she pronounced it more like pee-ro-gee, with a bit of softer "r" sound. We also say "kuh-ba-sa" whereas she would say "kee-ba-sa" so that follows the general trend of the vowel shift. Actually though, we mostly call it Polish Sausage (probably at least 75% of the time). Side note, my Grandmother's step-mother worked at a hotel in Detroit as a cook and therefore mostly used the English terms for words at home, so that may be why.

    O.K., but now for what I want to really lay out: My culturo-linguistico-geographic theory on Pączkis (again, with a superfluous "s" on the end).

    I love pączkis (jelly doughnut eaten on Fat Tuesday) because I took Polish dance lessons when I was a kid. The first week of Lent or the week before, someone would bring in pączkis for the class. However, my Mom says it is all marketing and that they never ate them when she was a kid. Don't get me wrong, she didn't grow up eating only American food, but none of her aunts made or bought them.

    I've concluded that pączkis are a regional Polish treat. Here is why:

    1. My family comes from Southern Poland, not very far east of Krakow.

    2. My Grandparents grew up in Southwest Detroit (specifically, the St. Hedwig's Parish--and yes, St. Hedwig's and not Swa. Jadwiga's).

    3. Everyone in their neighborhood/Parish was from the same area of Poland. I know this because:

    a. I once asked my Grandma why she didn't know anyone from Hamtramck and she said that all of their people lived in Southwest Detroit. When asked why she said probably because people came at different times from different areas to different areas.

    b. This makes sense because before WWI Poland was not a country and was divided up and ruled by three different nations.

    c. I did a paper on St. Hedwig's in college and there is a story that they ran the first priest assigned there off because they claimed they couldn't understand his Prussian-Polish accent (that is to say, he spoke a Prussian dialect of Polish). Whether this was the reason they didn't like him is anyone's guess, but that's the reason they gave. Ergo, no Prussian Poles in that neighborhood.

    4. Hamtramck is what everyone thinks of when they think of Polish people in Detroit, but clearly there were many different Polish neighborhoods.

    5. My mother said that nobody in her family ever ate pączkis.

    6. My Grandmother's maiden name is Swiatek (pronounced Swy-teck) or Swiątek (pronounced Svyunh-teck, with both the y and the n having a very light sound).

    7. Pączki is pronounced Poonch-kee.

    8. The vowel "ą" is pronounced differently by pączki-eating Poles than by Poles from Southwest Detroit who come from the Krakow area, or just 30 or 40 miles East of there.

    9. Therefore, pączkis are a regional dish. Probably the part of Poland from which the Hamtramck Poles came from.

    So sorry that was so long. I don't get to tell my theory often! I've never actually looked into the validity of it though.

    "Modernist Cuisine" by Myhrvold, Young & Bilet (Part 3)

    in Cookbooks & References

    Posted

    Got mine from Amazon yesterday, and am both amazed and disappointed. Amazed, well all of the praise is pretty much true, so no need to repeat it. Here is why I am disappointed:

    • As the title, and reputation, states, this is cutting edge cuisine. Sous vide, high tech equipment, etc. but guess what? All that food has to be cut, and there is nothing on kitchen knives. Nada. Unusual, with the focus on other equipment. There is some interesting new technology in knives as well...
    • After a while I thought they were channeling cook's illustrated. You know, the shocking " the least expensive pan is the best pan," etc. The knock on copper pans, for example, neglected to mention the benefit of rapid temperature response in making pan sauces, etc.
    • Volume 2 of my edition has several ink smears and an uncut folio page...

    Still a great effort, but I like Ducasse' Encyclopedia better. Another example of a big and expensive book, and one from which I do not cook the specific recipes, but from which I learn and can apply much to my every day cuisine...

    designdog, I'm so sorry to hear about the damage to your vol. 2. Please send some photos to info@modernistcuisine.com and we will most likely be able to send you a new copy.

    New Zealand

    in Australia & New Zealand: Dining

    Posted

    I'm taking a vacation to New Zealand next month and was wondering if anyone has any restaurant recommendations. I was thinking of trying The White House when in Wellington, as they do some Modernist things and have Heston's Mock Turtle Soup as well as Sous Vide Duck on their tasting menu.

    Anybody else have any suggestions? I'm looking forward to going to a hangi and eating some seafood as well.

    Unpacking and Breaking in MC

    in Cookbooks & References

    Posted

    Ah, I have been away for the holidays, so hopefully this comes in time for you.

    There are a couple of different things that you can do. The best is to never take the inner cardboard box out at all.

    If you have done that, however, I find that there's two ways to easily get it back in without discarding the cardboard corners all together. The first is to put the inner cardboard box (taped up) inside the the outer box without the corners in the bottom (yet). Then put the top corners in, and tape it up. Then flip the box upside down, open up the bottom, stick in the corners and tape it back up. You could also turn the (again, taped up) inner box upside down, stick the corners on the box, and fit the outer box over it. then turn it upside down and stick the top corners on.

    As for the inner box, first put in the large cardboard piece. This is actually kind of hard to get out of the box at all, so it might already be in there. Then, and I think that this is the hardest part, put the set in the box so that either the front cover of vol. 5 or back cover of vol. 1 faces up (Note: if, however, you are not shipping it and just taking it in the car, I think it's perfectly fine to set it in the box the other way, so that the opening of the plastic case faces up. You will not be able to use all of the packaging material though, which is why I don't like to ship it that way). Then put in the four rectangular pieces of cardboard around the sides of the case. Next, put the kitchen manual (in it's box) on top. Put the strips of cardboard around it and put the large piece of cardboard on top. Tape it up and proceed to the above paragraph.

    Hope that helps!

    [Modernist Cuisine] Mac and Cheese (3•387 and 6•192)

    in Cooking

    Posted

    robnbill said:

    Tried this using Gouda, aged cheddar, and comte. Used white wine for the liquid in place of the ale. Very tasty. The cheese remained pretty soft when chilled. I froze some and plan on using it to make a hot cheese salsa for New Year's eve. Will let everyone know how it turns out once I thaw it.

    So, how did the hot salsa go?

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