jmacnaughtan

You make your own lemon curd in both. Oddly, the second one asks you to incorporate shop-bought lemon curd as well - I can't see the benefit of that over just making more lemon curd. I find it interesting that neither use gelatin. They must be very, very soft-set... What I like to do is make a good lemon curd (1:1:1:1, pretty much), and incorporate 1% gelatin and 3% cocoa butter. Let it set, then whip it for 15 minutes. You get a better lemon flavour.

Your meat may be leaking a lot of liquid into the sauce. Let it rest properly first, then slice and serve. You probably need to season it more too. Pork loin can be bland, so you need to compensate for it. Or maybe you just don't like cream sauces.

I made a carrot cake a while ago: It goes very well with squash and orange

I wouldn't think that would be a problem, considering that there would just be a small amount mixed with all the moisture and other ingredients in the dough.

Beeswax is perfectly edible. Comb honey on good bread with salted butter is one of the greatest breakfasts. Beeswax is also traditionally used to grease cannelé moulds. Not sure about putting it in a doughnut though. But then again, I've never heard of any sort of honey being put into a doughnut.

Does anyone use the Nigel Slater method of cooking sausages? i.e. putting them in a cold pan on the lowest possible heat with no fat and just... going back to bed for half an hour to an hour. It works surprisingly well. Always juicy and never burst Though it does help to turn them over once.

Just don't forget to do them in white chocolate, too

Wow. Those bring back memories. Can you even still buy them?

Excellent! It's a good thing to do with poussins too, and a way to make one bird feed two people (or one hungrier person). I've tried it with a duck, with poor results. This could, however, have been due to my incompetence. I'd love to try it with a turkey...

Me too After watching that video, I did cook a lot of chicken... The technique is a very good one, and much easier than other, knife-heavy ones I've seen. It doesn't take more than 10 minutes or so to do.

Ginger curd is a good thing to make. Failing that, just stir some through a lemon curd. It would be easy enough to make a ginger mousse with it too - use 60% purée, 40% whipped cream, with 1% gelatin to set it.

OK, here goes: There are more, but these are the first that spring to mind

Interesting technique. I like how he keeps the butter just on the edge of burning - I wonder what kind of heat he's got under that pan? However, I'd be upset if I only got one small slice of that beef. Tasting menu or no, a steak should be a steak.

Heh. Never thought of that... And while you do that, it's a good opportunity for more basting

Lids are excellent tools. I use them all the time - for most vegetables, I cook them à l'étuvée, just in oil and covered until done. They're also useful as shields when you need to manipulate things that have a tendency to splash hot fat at you

I've started using lard to sear beef. You get a similar level of browning, it tastes good (especially if using guanciale fat) and it can handle the heat a lot better. Personally, I like the sear + oven technique. It takes more skill to get right than sous vide, but the results are excellent. Just let it rest for a decent amount of time.

Inspired by the snacking while egulleting thread... Prune, walnut and chocolate tart Chocolate pâte sucrée Chocolate, prune and walnut croustillant Boozy prune Chocolate mousse Chocolate glaze Roasted walnuts To finish the Valentine's weekend dinner. Because nothing says romance like a boozy prune. Nothing.

Try nougatine - it's pretty easy to work with, and you can coat it with cocoa butter to keep moisture getting to it. ETA: Thinking about it, you could just save yourself a lot of time and effort by incorporating a touch of bitter almond extract into tempered white chocolate and use that.

I generally use them as a seasoning. I've never used the salted ones either, and I enjoy the sharp tang of those in vinegar. If I'm doing a slow-cooked meat dish, I sometimes combine chopped capers, chopped Greek-style black olives and lemon zest and stir it through the sauce at the last minute.

A really good technique. Take a vet's glove that goes all the way up your arm and fasten it with a rubber band around your bicep. Then taking a large bowl scraper in the begloved hand, your arm becomes an enormous mixing tool (and there's no risk of getting arm hairs in the mix). It's the best way I've found for mixing large quantities of stuff, especially when you need to be delicate.

They should do. Prunes are excellent. I've been nurturing an ambition to open a prune business called "Agen Provocateur".

Teonzo's suggestion would work. I've heard that you can whip mascarpone with double cream for a richer chantilly, so you might want to try that. Failing that, you could try not using the Hobart at all. Put the mascarpone in the bowl, add the sieved sugar and mix by hand, either gently with a large whisk or using a vet's glove and a bowl scraper.

I was served lamb's testicles in a restaurant run by a friend. He gets whole animals in, and it was part of a carte blanche dinner. They were delicious - breadcrumbed, fried and served with a satay type sauce. I'm not sure if I could prepare them at home, though. The idea of having a pair on the chopping board doesn't do it for me. And that's without going into how I'd have to present them to my other half.

It's probably because you're beating it do death. Mascarpone is delicate: be gentle with it.

... have a glass of wine or a cocktail until after all the knifework is completed. I learned this the hard way. ETA: In a similar vein: - Squeezing a lemon with your hands while simultaneously remembering that you just cut yourself - Working with any chilli product at all when you need to wear contact lenses that evening.