[[Modernist Cuisine] Pistachio Gelato (4•236 and 6•310)]

We've now put the recipe, with a video, tips, and introduction by Nathan, online here!

[Source for exotic spices]

Thanks for the tip, oserhou!

We often go to our local ethnic grocery stores for exotic spices, like Mayuri, a nearby Indian grocery store, which we recently blogged about.

[Ethnic Grocers]

Joe, Sounds like you live in an awesome, multicultural area! We've just blogged about spices at our local Indian grocer.

[[Modernist Cuisine] Garlic Confit]

Hi Daniel,

Yes, the lids should be on, but you want to put the lids on the jars loosely. If they are too tight, the jars could rupture.

[Carrot catastrophe]

pear tart,

Thanks for alerting us. Max has contacted Sur la Table to notify everyone of the mistake. I hope the rest of the evening went well!

Good luck on round two of the carrot soup!

[[Modernist Cuisine] Caramelized Carrot Soup (3•301 and 6•150)]

We've just added the full recipe to our recipe library along with photos, tips, and a video.

[Carrot catastrophe]

Make sure that you also melt the butter and coat the carrots thoroughly before closing the pc. We actually just put this in our recipe library today, with a video!

There's also a pretty good discussion here on our forum, where some people have even decided to add water. While that's not one of our tips, it seems to have worked for them!

What else will you be making for Thanksgiving?

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

Just wanted to drop in to let everyone know that MC is now fully in stock on Amazon UK!

[Ethnic Grocers]

We recently put up a blog post about one of our favorite Asian markets. Do you use ethnic grocery stores? What type of stores are in your area? What items do you get? How often do you go there? Do you ever feel "out of your comfort zone?"

[Sous Vide "Char Siew"]

Both blogs' photos look delicious!

[[Modernist Cuisine] Striped Mushroom Omelet (5•217 and 6•243)]

The recipe and video page is now up for everyone's enjoyment! 

[Modernist Cuisine ebooks or apps?]

heatwave said:

Nathan/Chris/Max,

I am not sure if this has been discussed before, but have you guys ever thought of creating a digital version of the modernist cuisine volume for the Apple iPad? You have all the digital photos (not all have to be in the digital version) and digital notes already at hand.

The books I have is stunning, however if I need to check/discuss articles outside the home, I'd love to be able to carry this library of information with me. The books are big and quite heavy on their own.

I'd be willing to shell out anything <USD200 (and less than 4GB) for the app and you have the option of adding/updating/correcting content along the way. Videos of interviews, techniques or simply discussion on particular food items would be awesome as well. This would probably solve some of the issues with volume printing too.

What do you think?

Hi heatwave,

We've been asked this before and the answer is that right now we don't have any plans for an electronic version of the book. When Nathan first started the book over three years ago, screen technology wasn't what it is now, and even now, we feel that the beauty of the book would be lost.

That being said, it is still a possibility. We'll of course announce it if we ever decide to go that route.

[Pastry Bars (rectangular metal bars pictured in book): Where to get them?]

Were you able to source them in Australia?

[Kitchen Scale Recommendations, 2011–]

Max just blogged about the recent NYT article about the need for kitchen scales:

http://modernistcuisine.com/2011/09/tipping-the-balance/

[Unpacking and Breaking in MC]

MC comes with a lot--and I mean, a lot!--of packaging, in order to keep the acrylic case from breaking beneath the weight of the books. This makes it pretty difficult to unpack.

I have become an expert at packing and unpacking MC. Since starting with the team, my arm strength has significantly increased, too!

I've found that the best thing to do is to:

1. open the main box and take out the four cardboard corners.

2. open the interior box, and take out the kitchen manual and cardboard boards.

3. without taking the interior box out, tip the whole box on it's side.

4. grab ahold of the plastic case and pull.

Chris Long, one of our readers, sent me a link about how to break the books themselves:

If you ever want to know how to repackage the book (I'm not sure why anyone who is not me or someone who is writing a review of MC would ever do this, maybe if you were moving...) let me know. I have that technique down as well.

[Sous Vide "Char Siew"]

FoodCanon said:

Thanks, Andrew. Nice photography and recipe presentation

I will experiment with SV and eventually blog the results if it turns out well.

Link back here when you blog about it. I'd love to see where your experimentations lead you!

[Health Department and cooking technique safety]

Have you read through the eGullet thread on sous vide cooking? Nathan (nathanm on eGullet) has responded on there many, many times.

If you do get a copy of the book, it is covered extensively in the Food Safety Rules chapter. The charts on p. 1-187 and the table on page 193 show that in order to reduce Salmonella bacteria by 6.5 orders of magnitude (the typical FDA standard) in meat roasts at 131 F, food must be held at that temperature for 91 minutes.

You could also try using Google Scholar to look up academic articles.

[[Modernist Cuisine] Mushroom Stock (6•6)]

I can verify that that is the correct recipe!

[Texas Barbecue Joints]

Nathan recently visited a few places in Texas and wrote about them for Bloomberg. He went to Smitty's, Kreuz Market, Black's, and Snow's.

Anybody have any other tips for getting the best barbecue in Texas?

[[Modernist Cuisine] Help us pick 8x10 prints to include with the 3rd printing]

We have a new poll on our blog allowing readers to help us pick four 8x10 prints we'll include with the 3rd printing of MC! Tell us what you think, and if you have any suggestions of prints you'd like to see us include in the future, leave your comments here or on the blog post.

[Smokers]

lachyg said:

There are quite a few recipes out of the book that I'd really love to do, but I lack a smoker. Is there anything I can get that's not to big, and not to expensive? Yet still do the pastrami, ribs, all that stuff?

Lachy

There's a thread on indoor smokers that might interest you.

[[Modernist Cuisine] Pressure Canning Tomatoes]

Hi Pear Tart,

We're working on our photo gallery, but until then, what I've done for pics is to use imgur.com, and then directly put the forum link html into my post.

Judy

[[Modernist Cuisine] Potato Salad]

Yes, you are supposed to vacuum seal them. Optimally, vacuum seal them in one flat layer.

[[Modernist Cuisine] Deep-Fried Brussels Sprouts (3•321 and 6•159)]

Everyone said they were the best Brussels sprouts they ever had. I tossed them only lightly with the sauce/vinaigrette, and let people add more if they wanted to (personally, I found it a bit too spicy, hence only using a little bit).

Not the best photo, but what can I say, I had to snap it before they got eaten up! (You can even see someone grabbing the extra vinaigrette in the top right corner!)

edit: formatting

[[Modernist Cuisine] What are your favorite new recipes from the book - that do not require fancy equipment?]

I LOVE the strawberry gazpacho soup. I use a ziplock bag instead of a vacuum sealer and use a regular sieve I bought from Bed, Bath, & Beyond (I think). I leave out the fructose and use citric acid instead of the malic acid, which I picked up at an Asian grocery store. For the strawberry consomme component, I just puree and strain some strawberries--not very consomme-like, but it gets the job done!

The bbq sauces and curries require no special equipment or ingredients (except for the centrifuged barbecue sauce, of course!).

I also got a great response from my friends when I made the Deep-Fried Brussels Sprouts. There is no better way to eat a Brussels sprout.