Baselerd

Maybe a bit less adventurous, but I like to glue chicken skin around all sides of a chicken breast for a nice crispy exterior on all sides

Dehydrate them at 135 F overnight,then grind into a powder using a spice grinder. This can be used as seasoning, garnish, or a flavor booster in broths and sauces.

From the Uchi Cookbook: Mascarpone Cream Spheres, Mint-Pea Sorbet, Pea Shortbread Crumble, Mint Crisps, Cured Strawberry:

Not sure about gelatin, although I have done similar things with carageenan - which tends to have a creamier texture.

Found a good reply at this site. It seems it not as straightforward as burning veggies - you have to heat it up to 560-600+ F in a vented, sealed container.

My significant other isn't a huge fan of seafood. Thus, when I cook fish on the off occasion, I usually am cooking only for myself. I usually prepare side components in advance, and then pick up a fresh filet for the night on my way home from work. That way I cut down on waste and get a fresh/different fish each night. For example, I recently had cooked some poached fish with citrus beurre blanc, pickled daikon, dehydrated citrus, and daikon vinaigrette (Eleven Madison Park Cookbook). I prepared the pickles, vinaigrette, buerre blanc, and dehydrated citrus a day or two in advance, then each night would just cook a new filet sous vide and serve with the sides (and fresh scallions & tarragon). Obviously more work than simply reheating previously cooked fish, but much better too.

I would add an essential oil or tincture to the chocolate. I've never heard of infusing the chocolate straight up - maybe someone else could answer that...

I want to eat at your place for Christmas...

There's a few topics around about this, but: " I believe that the correct technique for aerated chocolate is 1 lb chocolate + 6 Tbsp neutral oil (grapeseed). Melt it all in a pot and homogenize, then let liquid cool to about 85 F. Next, pressurize in an ISI whip with 2-3 canisters of N2O. Dispense it into a vacuum container (example) and pull a vacuum, placing it in the freezer until set. If you don't have the vacuum container, you can still try but the result will be a lot denser - although still less dense than the chocolate alone. This is the best technique I have tried, uses a lot of inspiration from the Eleven Madison Park cookbook." If you don't have a vacuum container make sure the container you dispense into is already frozen, and get it into the freezer as quickly as possible. The foam will start collapsing as soon as its dispensed. If you want to make it orange flavored then I would use any of the standard techniques of infusing the oil or chocolate. Another option would be to add spray dried orange powder.

You would probably have better luck getting one meant for kitchen use, they're a lot more affordable (and usually use thermistors instead of thermocouples). $50 is pretty standard for a lab grade thermocouple. I got this and it works fine.

Another way to do this is to remove the dispensing piece (usually the red plastic part with threads on one end) and then press your thumb firmly against the spring valve. This will push the valve mechanism in further than the trigger will, allowing for pressure release. I've actually used this trick to dispense grainy batters that were clogging the valve.

I've used the method that was alluded to in the Modernist Cuisine. Similar approach - blanch the skin, dehydrate, and deep fry. Worked great, and super crunchy.

I like to place the plates in my oven for ~10 minutes at 200 F.

A small amount of water in the dripping pan is what you need.

Smoked creme fraiche is always a good addition to a dessert.

There are already acceptable contamination levels set by the FDA, called "Food Defect Action Levels" if I recall. Basically - regardless of any pasteurization or irradiation processes used - there is a limit set for food contaminants (insects, insect larvae, rodent hair, fungi, mammal feces, etc) below which is deemed safe. As long as the amount of poop in the package is below this limit the FDA allows the sale of those products. These contaminants are not only from insects on produce during harvest, or residual feces left in butchered animals, but also from pests within the food packaging environments. In light of that, I would argue it is better to irradiate the food if you're concerned about eating un-sterilized animal feces.

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend. I agree completely with you regarding ultra-pasteurized cream - that technique has an obvious effect on the quality of the cream. However, GMO and gamma irradiation processes do not reduce the quality of the product, or alter it in any detrimental way. Gamma irradiation would actually be a good alternative to heat-based pasteurization of raw milk, providing you with a milk or cream with all of the textural properties of raw milk but the safety and long shelf life of pasteurized cream. There is no logical reason, or any reason founded in science, that would support the resistance against these processes. So I have concluded the only thing standing between us and progress is the paranoia of people who are uneducated in the matter. Not to offend, but there just isn't a defensible position that I see on the other side...

A gross oversimplification of the issue. GMO are generally designed to have superior disease resistance, better tolerance to weather conditions, or provide higher yield. Nothing unhealthy about it - the only problem people have with it is getting over their discomfort with ideas they don't fully comprehend imo. All a microwave does is heat water in your food. Once again, nothing unnatural about that - although admittedly the microwave isn't the best tool for preparing most foods. Once again people need be better educated on what irradiated food is. It is not radioactive food. It is simply a mechanism for killing most spoilage mechanisms in food, and unlike standard mechanisms of pasteurization, it does not appreciably heat the food. It has been postulated that following the widespread adoption of these techniques fresh global food products (produce) will be vastly more available. It will also dramatically decrease food waste, which is an obvious major contribution to sustaining the exploding human population. The industry is already changing the name of the technique to "electronic pasteurization so that the paranoia of the word "irradiated" by the uneducated masses can be averted.

As far as non microbrews go, I've been enjoying Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA recently...

Very true. Evidence of formation of certain compounds is hardly a definitive answer on the health impact. Smoking meat, or any cooking method that causes smoke technically exposes your food to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (carcinogenic). Yet the levels are so low most people don't worry about it. I suspect the same with gamma irradiated food. Just to give an idea, this is the same technique that is used to sterilize medical implants, pharmaceutical packaging, and many other commonplace things. My take is a lot of people don't like any word that includes "radiation". I believe it was this same paranoia that caused the healthcare industry to drop the "nuclear" from nuclear magnetic resonance imaging - giving us the MRI.

A little heirloom tomato salad with mozzarella ice cream, Provencal granola, and confit cherry tomatoes (recipe from Eleven Madison Park Cookbook):

I think between 110-120F should be good, 120F obviously being firmer and more flakey. When cooking tender fish, you usually just want to heat to a core temp, not hold. Usually this means no more than 30 minutes or so. But remember to only serve it this way if you would serve it uncooked.

Fear mongering from a news agency, who'd have thought?

The Eleven Madison Park Cookbook is a treasure trove of game bird recipes. It has recipes for Quail, Guinea Fowl, Poussin, Duck, and Squab (and plenty of Chicken and Foi gras). My favorite that I have prepared thus far was Quail, cooked rare Sous Vide and then seared and glazed on the stovetop:

Not a complete answer to your question, but I know that the vacuum packaging used for the meat you buy at the store has stacked laminates, each with different purposes. Some of these materials are employed due to their extremely low gas permeability, which enables the long shelf life. A lot of these materials are unsafe to heat however, and thus are not used in the Sous Vide safe bags.