Justin Pinkney

Thanks for all the advice! Seems like the best thing is just to keep making tons of macarons, whatever ingredients I have to hand. I thinks that's something I will be very happy to do!

I've been trying to achieve a lovely shiny crust on macarons and one of the recommendations I read is to use icing/powdered sugar that only contains sugar, with no anti caking agents such as cornstarch or tricalcium phosphate. Does anyone know any shops I can get some of this from in the UK? Or at least a good online retailer?

These all look fantastic! The brioche recipe in 'the modern cafe' has been tempting me for a long time. There is also a recipe for laminated brioche, i. e. Brioche dough laminated with butter in case there wasn't already enough fat in there for you, sounds amazing though! Also there are some crazy Danish recipes in that book which I am trying to muster the courage to try, would be very interested to know if anyone here has made any of them.

One that's cropped up on my twitter feed and looks interesting is Modernist Vegetarian by Eddie Shepherd, kind of cashing in on the current 'Modernist' craze but looks interesting, and if it was available on anything other than itunes then I would get a copy.

Strangely I've never particularly liked Warburton's crumpets myself, somehow they're too bready. I prefer a cheap supermarket own brand for some reason. I've tried Fearnley Whittingstall's crumpet recipe before, but never found it to be quite satisfactory. I'm not sure you can make a crumpet at home that can hold more than it's own weight in butter, like any good industrial crumpet can.

Just think how happy you made another passenger or air steward though! Wow the prices for issue 1 are ridiculous, Will this happen to subsequent ones? Worth stocking up now for future massive profits?

I concur! Miso flavoured butter sounds like the best of east and west put together.

I'd heard of injecting water as a crafty way of bulking out meat, but also wondered if, as a side effect, it results in a moister (and therefore tastier) cooked product in the end?

Definitely pork scratching for a classic british pub snack, just a shame when you get a hairy one...

That looks incredibly fun, have to try immediately!

Sure, but over what timescale (and temperature) does this occur? Are there significantly more fat soluble molecules dissolved in the fats after overnight resting, and what about the same for the water component? If it really is the reason for improved flavour then can the effect be reproduced by simmering for longer? At what point do you reach equilibrium?

I like this answer. Some time ago on twitter I remember reading someone speculating that maybe it tastes better because you have to put less effort in to get something tasty. Clearly the stew left for 24 hours will have undergone some changes, and it sure seems to me that often the flavour improves. Still, it's probably hard to pin down to a particular effect, and to show that it really is a genuine effect probably requires more stew, time and willing participants than most people have access to.

Do people own/have any good recommendations for cookbooks which have been self-published (or at least from small independent publishers)? Not that I think that there is anything inherently better about indie/self-publishing, but knowing people who have self-published (but not cookbooks) I know the problems of promotion and getting your work out there. So I though having such a wide ranging and knowledgeable community as eGullet (sycophantic I know!) collect and recommend some independent cookbooks would be useful for everyone!

I'm continuously hoping that the UK will give me good enough weather to warrant ice tea, not much luck so far though.

Thanks for all the replies, I guess it works for some. But even if you know the sound of done bread, surely this varies hugely between different types of loaf, e.g. ciabatta vs white sandwich loaf? Maybe someone should make a CD of example bread sounds. Having to be the flat bottom makes sense though. But I think I'll stick to crust colour/temperature, I don't mind a discreet little hole from a temperature probe after all.

Can you elaborate? Sure, the first time I made it I only had access to a pressure cooker that went to 12PSI, I extended the cooking time 50% to try and compensate but there wasn't a great deal of browning going on. Still tasted nice, and also had a great texture, but not what I was hoping for. Next time I was able to cook at 15 PSI and that time the soup came out in all its caramel, browned, savoury glory. What a difference 10 degrees C makes.

The classic 'tell tale' sign that bread is ready is having a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom, almost every bread baking recipe happily recommends this as a fool proof way of telling bread is done. But, quite apart from figuring out just what a 'hollow sound' is, how reliable is this method? It would seem to make sense that as excess moisture is driven out and the crumb is set that it should sound more hollow. But I have certainly had breads that sounded hollow, but were under done, or even had a core of unbaked dough in the centre. Clearly temperature is the most reliable indicator, but is tapping a decent substitute (or are there any others?), and why always the bottom?

Like most who get a pressure cooker I tried the MC caramelised carrot soup a couple of times, Once in a 12 PSI cooker, and once with a proper 15 PSI model, and the difference was pretty astounding. I also tried a variation with cauliflower thinking 'roast cauliflower tastes really good', but, although nicely browned, it was positively revolting to eat. Shame. At the moment I'm mostly using it for stock for the convenience, and how incredibly sweet it makes onions taste. Also tried the pressure cooked egg mentioned by Dave Arnold (bring egg to boil, simmer 2 mins, place on lid, bring to pressure 45-60 mins) unfortunately it had sort of exploded, but by 50 mins the white was starting to brown nicely.