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Volition

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Posts posted by Volition

  1. As stated above. I too add oils to the packaging for sous vide, I was under the impression it was to aid thermal transfer. Any small air gaps are taken up by the oil. In doing a long slow sous vide with beef I add coconut oil for a Thai style/flavoured dish. In addition I think when searing post cook, it means I have an oil coating on the meat to also help searing. I match the oil to what I'm making. I've never heard that the oil is added to help moisture retention. Very minimal amounts are added.

    Time to experiment with it. Parameters to test will have to be purely based on which I prefer in a blind test. I'll have to test one bag with and one bag without. Using a strong flavoured oil and test a neutral flavoured oil. On long cook and short cook. So another blind test to add to the list.

  2. Well you are doing the right things. My understanding of humidity in the process is limited. I do know that humidity plays a massive part in baking and ovens. MC shows this well with wet bulb temperatures. There are bound to be some real eggheads (excuse the pun) on the physics occurring in baking and how that relates to your shells and humidity.

    I have an idea. To establish a method to ascertain firstly if humidity is the culprit. Keep your batter exactly the same. And record the humidity every time you bake. You could get a cheap hydrometer( I think that's what they're called) from an electric shop. Like a Tandy or Dick Smith in Australia. They normally are a thermometer as well. Might be interesting to record the temperature as well.

    Keep a log of the temp, humidity and the outcome of you shells. You should start to see a correlation hopefully. If your hunch is correct. You might have a few dud shells in the process as you can' taller your recipe to work it out at first. Once you work out what ranges effect what. You can start to try and play with the mix to adapt to the temp/humidity. There should definitely be some resources out there.

    Easy for me to talk as you'll be doing the work if you could be bothered. Other options are a more resilient batter. E.g. Tapioca suggestion, or a humidity controlled oven. But from what you describe the dry batter is before it enters the oven.

    So if it is dry and not spreading out for the foot. That means you are getting evaporation somewhere or losing moisture at some point in the process. Could the almond be more absorbent. Very interesting. For your hypothesis of humidity to be the problem it means that it has to be low humidity that causes the problem I suspect. To allow for more evaporation. Or higher temperatures in your environment.

    Ah well enough rambling, none of this solves your problem. Just gives you more work and more reasons why it happened. Sorry about that.

    Personally my macaron shells are pretty consistent, unless I stuff up.

    300 g almond meal

    300 g pure icing (confectioners') sugar

    110 g egg whites, at room temperature

    300 g caster (superfine) sugar

    75 g water

    Food colouring

    2 g powdered egg white

    110 g egg whites, extra, at room temperature

    From adriano zumbo

    See how that goes.

  3. Two questions about macarons.

    1. what is the best way to store macarons?

    2. How can i imprint logo or a text on a macaron?

    Some bakeries do a different coloured dot or dots in their shells to identify that it is their macarons. You need to make a second colour shell batter and pipe a small dot into the main macaron she'll. if the goal is to have an identifiable macaron as from your bakery. In Melbourne their is a guy who has a red dot on all of his macarons.

  4. I suspect your batter is drier then previously used. Do you use digital scales to measure out your ingredients. If yes, are they accurate? How did you measure ingredients previously? The answer to these questions will help. If you were using egg whites and measuring by no of eggs. The egg supplier might have changed and maybe not enough white in the mix as previously. Any thoughts?

  5. Americas test kitchen in their book cooks illustrated. Said that the oven method for ripening does not work. Yes it browns the peel. But the essential conversion of starch to sugars does not speed up. They to recommend ripening with an already ripe ethylene producing fruit.

    I've not time to read the whole thread so I could be repeating.

    Other methods I've not seen notes on, e.g. Sous vide

  6. I'm loving a mixture of both. I love the ability to search on my ipad through cookbooks. I suppose I get more reference type cookbooks on the ipad.

    Since my discovery of 'eat my books'website the paper based versions are now more useful then ever too.

    If I love the book I'd rather have paper based for example Stephanie Alexander's tome 'the cooks companion' I have the paper book and I have the app. I prefer the paper but love searching the app when I'm out as a reference.

    There is room for both.

  7. Well sounds like your after something by eye. I have no solutions to offer. Just some feedback on some measuring cups I do have. The Pyrex ones are good I love the shape and the way it works in a microwave. The cons are that they are hard to stack away conveniently because of the handles. I find they drip too much as well. Good mixing bowls for a digital scaler. And would be good for your purposes.ni have the 500ml and 1l. The 1l is the perfect size for batters, ice cream bases. The 500ml gravy (don't mind the drip).

  8. If you are after convenience. The digital scale cannot be beaten. Just set the scale to zero after each ingredient. So no measuring cups to wash at all. Once you go digital you don't go back. It's worth it. There are plenty of sites and resources that convert volumetric measurements into mass.

    Measuring cups are not more convenient at all. In saying that most recipes are volumetric. If you sit down for 2 minutes before cooking and write in pencil the mass measurements. Then that recipe is converted. Use a pencil in the kitchen as ink can run if it gets wet.

    • Like 2
  9. I suppose you could try hydro colloids? Carrageenan, gelatin. Not a true custard. Have a search around I think you'll find some ideas if you wanted to go that route.

    Other then that modernist cuisine has a table for you. Do you have this book(s)

    Not sure what the copyright rules are for these forums for me posting that.

  10. Right e o then. I've got two photos here to help.

    The cover that comes of has two clips a plastic one and a metal one.

    Hover the cover over the back perpendicular to machine. The metal clip will drop into the recess between the grill and metal clip recess (in the photo with the screw.)

    Then the cover slides back up the unit do up the sliding lock. And voila,

    Once you get it it's fine and you'll be able to do it from that point on without a trouble.

    If the clips won't fit you need to look at adjusting perhaps. I don't know. But that could be your problem. Hope that helps.

    Vol.

    ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1393929080.957524.jpg

    ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1393929093.898260.jpg

  11. I had the same problem with clipping back on the rear assembly. It took me a while. Then I worked it out.

    I have the unit at home but from memory there was on both sides a place to first put in the assembly near some screws I think. I'll have a look when I get home and post a photo. Once you have the unit sitting properly it will slide in place easily.

    Have a closer look and I'll post something for future reference.

    Btw, loving my sansaire. With my polyscience pro. Having a bath for veg and protein

    Or 72 hour cook and for dinners it is great. Having 2 baths is fantastic. Now all I can think about is how much I need a third. Perhaps for custards and desserts. I mean really how many water baths is too many.

    Did I get it right? If the sansaire loses power it will not continue when the power comes back on?

  12. Looks like I'm of to costco and spring street this weekend to have a look.

    Thanks for all the feedback. Yes I've looked at the Herbies website and they look good. But whenever I need spices I haven't got I need them that day so I never am organised enough to order them online.

    Just to clarify the vanilla bean question at SJ's . I'm sure I only pay about $7 for about 4 or 5 beans. So I'm not sure about the $18 ones in question.

    Purely out of interest I'd be really interested to triangle test a lot of these so called luxury products. Do they really provide value?

    To test paprika I could cook a goulash of course.

    Vanilla an ice cream or custard

    Hmmm, truffle products. Probably as they are.

    Also really interested in people's opinions on;

    Balsamic

    White wine and red wine vinegars

    Olive oils

    I'm using the essential ingredient balsamic, the SJ's wine vinegars. And cobram estate olive oil.

    Also does anyone have any "stand out" products they love.

    Thanks for all the feedback so far.

  13. Wow, Chris states to stay clear of the truffle / vanilla / texturas stuff. I find that I buy some of that stuff thinking that I was getting a good deal, maybe not. Where is the spring Street store?

    I'm in Melbourne and would love to start a conversation / information sharing discussion. I'm not trying to hijack the thread but think it's relevant. Often for me as I'm not a rich man it's a balance between quality and value.

    I get my high end products mainly from SJ's or Essential Ingredient - it looks like they're are better options. Would love some feedback on these products I stock regularly;

    From SJ 's I get ;

    SJ brand white truffle oil - ~$25 for 250 ml - I really like this oil it's good and it has real truffle.

    SJ brand truffle honey - ~$23 for 100 g - I really like this on "roaring forties blue cheese" by King island dairy(bought at the supermarket). I noticed that it has 'truffle aroma' as the truffle ingredient. Isn't that the artificial flavouring?

    SJ brand Chardonnay vinegar - can't remember the price - it's ok.

    Vanilla beans - can't remember the price but I know they are cheaper than the supermarket variety. These are good they are from the PNG I believe

    La Chinita paprika - ~$25 for 200g - this is good too, I've also bought the Spanish paprika from essential ingredient but I can't remember the name. They are both much better than the supermarket stuff, much, much better.

    From essential ingredient I got the balsamic vinegar which I really like too.

    Essential Ingredient duck fat - this is good stuff.

    Has anyone tried the Nielsen Massey Vanilla Bean Paste or the extract are they any good. Or has anyone tried the Essential Ingredient brand paste and extract. Maybe someone else could recommend something ?

    Where do people think in australia/melbourne is the best place for herbs and spices ? Is the Graeme Watson stuff any good ?

    Really need to triangle test these products!

    Can I recommend to all Australians and especially melbournians looking for modernist ingredients a store on Lygon st called Melbourne food depot. They have nearly everything and not in industrial sizes. Good website as well for online orders. Probably better for kiwis too.

    Anyone else recommend some great products worth getting? Love to start a providore in Melbourne thread perhaps.

    Await your responses with anticipation.

  14. Wow, a great response from everybody. Thanks.

    We are in Australia so does anybody have any Oz recomendations. Looking for you Skippys out there. She loves Sheperds Pie, all pies, Curried Sausages, Silverside, Meat and Veg, Rice Pudding, Pavlovas all the standard Aussie Fare Though Teaching her how to convert from US recipes to Metric ones will be a good skill. Nice to also getting her cooking some Vegies.

    America's Kitchen videos is a good idea as I have a few of them hadn't thought of that.

    As she has an iPad - I've asked her to install evernote to record her recipes. she could even take photos of recipes as she does them. We can share some of my recipes that way.

    It seems that 'Joy of cooking' seems popular I wonder if there is an Australian equivalent. We have a ton of cookbooks at home from classics like Stephanie alexanders Cooks Companion through to Modernist Cuisine. So once we can teach her how to read a recipe and what each term means she should be OK. Maybe I could put together some Pictures and notes for all the steps myself.

    Thanks for your suggestions and keep them coming. The thread that was pointed to early in the thread still assumes people no the difference between a simmer and a boil. Between Medium Heat and High Heat when frying etc. I think what she needs is something simpler. And I will take some time this weekend to look up your suggestions.

    Kindest regards and thankyou EG community,

    Vol

  15. Hi Everyone,

    My 16 year old daughter is wanting to learn how to cook. I teach her myself and so does her mum. But she is not the the best at retaining info and like a lot of teenagers wants rich tasty food that is simple to cook. She is good at following recipes but isnt sure what some of the cooking terms mean.A book that will explain and/or show the difference between a simmer, boil, rapid boil, etc.What is Baking, roasting, grilling frying, etc.

    Does anyone know if a good book for her requirements. She has an iPad so it could be an ebook or app too.

    Any Assistance would be greatly appreciatted,

    Vol

  16. Hi everybody,

    Well I have the baking steel now for about 2 months. I have cooked pizzas on it twice and they were great. Good charring, I liked the puffy blisters as well.

    Guests said it was the best pizza they'd had. Obviously don't eat much pizza.

    Another trick I used the steel for was to help keep some dough chilled while rolling it out. I had some really short dough for a lemon tart. And placed it between 2 sheets of baking paper I rolled it out. This was really helpful as it helped keep the dough elastic but not brittle as the butter didn't melt from all the work. I did flip the pastry every 2 or 3 minutes of rolling. I had the steel in the fridge for about an hour before I used. Not the freezer but fridge.

    I like the idea before of using it to create chocolate decorations perhaps. I'll have to give that a go. Now to find the liquid nitrogen.

  17. Well after spending nearly as much on courier for it as the steel itself. It took 5 days to arrive and that included the weekend. Ordered on a Friday and delivered on Tuesday. I have a pizza peel and wheat gluten and will try the MC@home version this weekend also with a new knife for my birthday which hopefully will arrive tomorrow. Thanks to my beautiful darling.

    Once again would love to hear about all the uses people have.

    Planning on trying out the steel on the portable induction cooktop for pancakes from my whipping siphon. Don't know about how to get it into my freezer for cold applications. Too scared it will break shelves in the freezer, this thing is heavy. Wait till I feel more confident.

    Retry with the supplier, I really had no issues at all and was grateful for the speed of delivery though I paid for it. As usual In Australia it costs a fortune to get anything over here.

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