ChefRobb

I just had an interesting thought. If you dried shrimp, made a stock from the shells and rehdrated them in the stock would the flavor be more pronounced? I think Ill be trying this soon. I will post the results.

Great post. I wish I had something more of value to add to the thread but wanted to let you know I enjoyed it.

I owe you one gfweb, thats a great title. The emphasis will be largely on sous vide, but will include using hyrocolloids. When I began studying modernist techniques I was blown away but then was at a loss as to how to actually impliment them in the restaurant that I worked. Online searches don't produce any results either. So I took it upon myself to develop a list of ways and reasons why to impliment them into commercial kitchens. I do side work as a consultant on this subject as well as helping restaurants develop HACCP plans that are required by most health departments in order to prepare foods sous vide. Since most clients don't want to drasticly change their menus or become avant garde concepts they apply a few things like xanthan gum, agar agar, and one or two water baths for sous vide. Thanks again.

Great topic! And one that is close to my heart. Here are but a few of the things I do to eliminate waste. Canned products- I always save and use the juices from canned products. Canned vegetable juices get bagged up and frozen to be reused later in soups, sauces, to deglaze pans, as a cooking liquid for poaching, boiling (and in some cases steaming). There are a lot of flavors and nutrients in them there waters. Unused vegetables - Ever get left with one carrot, have an onion that is thinking about turning to the darkside? Or even trimmings that are left over after prep? Chuck em in the food dehydrator. During peak growing season I over-buy produce, dehydrate, and use them all year round. I do the same with as much product as I can. I often then run them through a coffee grinder and make powders from them. I use these in soups, sauces, stocks and broths, with spice mixes as dry rubs. And don't forget about berries and fruits. Dried and powdered blackberries work great to bring a little sweetness and/or tartness to a dish. I even use some dried and powdered fruits in place of sugar. Try to think of them as herbs and spices and you will find more ways to use them than product to use. Last note - dried powders are a great way to bump up the nutritional value of meals. The uses for produce over-flow are only limited by your imagination. If you start to think of them as ingredients that can be used in small amount to add balance or accents to a dish you will become increasingly more adept at finding uses. Thanks again for the topic. I'm hoping to find a few new ideas on the subject myself.

Agreed. But they are the end consumers so finding a way to explain it and/or win them over is a challenge that needs to be addressed. I am working on an educational seminar for the next NRA show in Chicago. The topic is how to incorperate modernist techniques, equipment and ingredients into a restaurant. My first challenge was and is, what to call it. It must grab your attention and describe what it is about. So I am tempted to use terms like Molecular Gastronomy and Modernist Cuisine in order to make it less wordy. The problem can be illustrated in mjx's response to my initial post. I used the word modernist to represent Molecular Gastronomy although they are two seperate things. By trying to edit my words down, I put her on the wrong train of thought. So explaining a lot with as few words as possible is challenging and dangerous. Thanks for your input.

Baselerd I hear what you are saying about people's paranoia. That is the reason I started this post. I'm hoping to begin a dialog that can lead to an easy explaination to the uninitiated consumer. During one heated "discussion" I had at a bar, I was told the comment that he doesn't eat what he cant spell. In a moment of weakness I blurted out, "so you eat mostly dog and cat then?" Im looking for a more logical response to these types of arguments. With that in mind...a critique of my initial post would be appreciated. Does it convey the differences plainly, accurately, and convinsingly?

Organic, processed, and modernist foods compared and explained. I recently watched a video lecture givin by a Chef famous for his use of molecular gastronomy (hereafter refered to as modernist) after the lecture a member of the audience asked, "There seem to be two different movements popular now, organic foods and molecular gastronomy. Do you see these as being at odds with one-another?" The Chef balked a little in his answer as many do when asked this sort of question. The purpose of this post is to take a look at each type of food processing and to understand the purpose and values of each. FIrst I would like to point out that the two ends of the spectrum are not organic and modernist. The spectrum is more like: whole food - organic foods - modernist - processed. Whole foods are straight from the ground with minimum or no processing (whole wheat). Organics are foods that use no artificial chemicals during their growing cycle but are otherwise processed into various foods. Modernist foods are those that use ingredients typically used in commercial mass-produced, processed foods in new ways to produce results that cannot be achieved through conventional methods, to improve on conventional results, and/or to create entirely new products. Processed foods are those that use additives to facilitate long term storage, ease of use by the consumer, and consistant predictable outcomes. Whole foods are advantgeous because instead of just drinking apple juice, eating the entire apple also gives texture and more flavor (from the skins). Whole wheat is more nutritious because processing removes a lot of the nutrition and fiber from the end product. Processed foods provide consistant and convenient dishes that also save time. The additives help powdered mixes from clumping together, others boost flavors that are lost during storage, and others replace more perishable ingredients with shelf-stable alternative. Modernist foods take the best from all catagories and use them to create dishes intended for their clients. Just because tapioca maltodextrine is used commercially to stabalize oils in cake mixes or used as a filler doesn't mean that it can't also be used to create powdered caramel that returns to it's original state when placed in the mouth. Modernist cooks don't restrict themselves by convention but strive for the same thing as people from the other camps....to create the best product they can. In my home kitchen and in the commercial kitchens I work at I use ingredients and methods from all these camps. In a perfect world everything would be made from scratch, from products I pull out of the ground myself, and do the absolute minimum amount of processing to produce delicious, healthy foods at an affordable cost. But real world challenges mean weighing priorities and making comprimises to get the best balance of these and to pay the bills at the same time. I realize these are generalization but an exaustive explaination would be....well... exausting. What are your thoughts?

I have been trying to infuse smells into my eggs sous vide. Let me explain. I was taught in school not to store eggs near garlic or other heavy scents as they may get picked up in the eggs. I decided to do this intentionally to see if I could garlic scent eggs. For my first test I cut a few slits on two large cloves of garlic and vacuumed them in a bag with two eggs and left overnight. The shells smelled of garlic but I could not percieve any garlic after frying the egg. My next test (currently in progress) I cut the top off of a head of garlic and placed it, and 4 eggs in the marinade canister of my foodsaver and pulled the vacuum. I am going to leave it in the fridge for at least 4 days. Ill post the results. Has anyone tried anything similar?

As others have said I would check for signs of rancidity but wouldn't have any problems using the meat. I wouldn't use them for a pate personally (or other dishes that rely on high quality for best results). I would use them for stocks (pressure cooked) or other high heat processes to extract their meaty goodness.

Fried spinach and partially dehydrated aged gouda ravioli. Simple, but amazing.

I was over 20 years (off and on) in the food service indusrty before I attended Culinary School. I breezed through the first year and a half. Then the classes became more in depth and I realized there is a ton I didnt (and still dont) know about professional cooking. Yes you can make it in the industry without a degree but the odds are very much stacked against you. Even with a degree you still must pay your dues and work your way up, a process that takes years. School just accelerates the process. It also depends on what you mean by making it. Lets face it, very few Chefs are rich. Some make a very good living at it. But most do it for the love (because the pay sucks). It is a cut-throat business and a very stressful and demanding one. If your goal is simply to cook and you don't require things like insurance, job security, or extra cash then follow your dreams. I appoligize for being blunt but there is a reason why the average turn-around rate for restaurant staff is 250% annually. My best advice to you is work as hard as you can for at least a year. Prove you are dedicated by hanging around after your shift and asking questions. Take on as many tasks as you can handle and let it be known to anyone who will listen that it is your intention to learn to cook. Sooner or later you will be given a chance. Be humble, be respectful, and work your butt off. Practice and study in your off hours. If after a year you still want to continue then you will know what path is right for you. You can learn a lot by working as a cook, but it is usually limited to the dishes and cooking methods used in a specific kitchen. School frees you of this by giving the knowledge and skills to apply to any kitchen. That is why I decided to go to school. I was tired of being told that this is the way it is done because the Chef said so. Now I'm the Chef. Best of luck to you. There has never been a more exciting time to be a professional cook.

For some reason I couldnt attach that to the original post. This was the work in progress.

Allergin alert! DO not attempt if you are allergic to fun or delicious. Asparagus pops 2 1/4 t agar agar 1/4 c water (from cooking asparagus) 1/4 t xanthan gum 1 cup chicken stock 2 c canola oil pinch of taragon (optional) handful of chips, crackers, breadcrumbs, etc fill 1 or two thin and tall glasses with oil and place in freezer until cold but not solid (around 35-40 degrees F) steam peeled asparagus in 1/4c water with a pinch of salt (I use a shallow sautee pan, covered) 1 1/2- 2 minutes shock in icewater for 5 minutes, pat dry and set aside combine 1/4 c water, chicken stock, and agar in saucepan and bring to boil for 2 minuites (stir constantly) Remove from heat and continue stirring for 4-5 minutes. Add xanthan gum when stock has cooled to around 140 F and still until cooled to around 125-130 F. Remove oil from freezer and set next to pot with stock. Alternate dipping asparagus into the stock then into the oil to form and build up layers (the agar stock will set once cooled by the oil). This is like making a candle. Dredge in breadcrumbs (or whatever you have laying around) and deep fry until browned. Srinkle with taragon or your herbs of choice. * This was the first time I attempted this recipe. While it was tasty, next time I will use a consume or an otherwise fortified stock. The chicken flavor was there but it needs to be a bit more pronounced. The texture is a little strange, being that it is a gel but between the asparagus inside and the herbed crunch on the outside the dish somehow works. * The reason for the xanthan gum was to make the stock thicker and hopefully cling to the asparagus better. * I used torilla chips but they didnt provide the amount of coverage I was after. I will use seasoned crackers next time.

The difference is that the bread did not get soggy or fall apart during handling, they did not droop in the middle as they sometimes do, the custard pentrated all the way into the bread without the outsides getting oversaturated, and the custard was cooked to the consistancy I like. I have made equally good FT the traditional way but there are always variables (how dry the bread gets, how well the batter absorbs without becoming soggy, differences in cooking times to get the custard cooked and not under/over cooked). Removing those variables and getting consistant results is always a good thing IMO. And I also like that I can make them ahead and just pull them from the fridge, sautee them and enjoy. My wife also enjoys it because I can cook them all at once instead of one or two at a time so I can actually sit down and eat with her (a luxury I don't always get when making FT or pancakes).

Hello everyone, I would like to share my recent experiment with Sous Vide French Toast. I began by making a pear and black walnut bread. I cut it into thick (Texas toast) sized slices and left them on a rack in my oven overnight. This did not entirely dry them out but I went ahead with it anyway. I made a standard FT custard recipe and poured in into a sandwich sized plastic container. I then placed that into the marinade conatiner that goes with my Foodsaver vac. After placing a piece of toast in the custard base I placed a small glass condiment bowl (monkey dish) on top of the bread to keep it submerged. I ran the Foodsaver in marinade mode and released the pressure. This did a great job of impregnating the custard into the bread. I then put the bread in a ziplock and used the displacement method to remove the air and seal it. I cooked it in a water bath for 40 minutes @ 60 degrees C (140F), then pan fried it in butter until browned. This method produced superior results to others that I have read online. The bread was not smooshed from traditional vac sealing, the inside had custard all the way into the middle in less time, and was perfectly cooked to the doneness I like, the end result was fantastic. I believe not drying the bread completely was also advantagous because it was much easier to handle after being impregnated with the custard. And, by cooking it Sous Vide I am able to keep prepared French Toast in my refridgerator ready for use, only needing to brown and reheat in a pan for service. In a commercial kitchen I would make these ahead in mass, then finish them in a hot oven on preheated and lightly oiled sheet pans (sheet pan sauteing). You can use this method at home to prepare a lot of French Toast at once (for family or brunch). *See end of post for more info. The only downside to this is that you need enough custard batter to completely cover the bread during vacuuming or the custard will not penetrate the bread correctly. This left me with some batter (not enough to use in vacuum but too much to just throw out). So I ended up punching out bread rounds with a biscuit cutter and making a few pieces the traditional way (soak 30 seconds then pan fry). Although I admit it was nice having a snack to eat while the rest of the pieces cooked Sous Vide. * Sheet pan sauteing - Place enough lightly oiled sheet pans in a cold over to accomidate the required amount of servings. Turn oven to 450 degrees F and let pans heat for 20 minutes or so. Pull the oven rack out and place French Toast slices on pans (If they are hot enough you should hear sizzling immediately. If not, let pans get hotter before adding toast.) Leave in oven for 30 seconds or so or until bottoms of toast are browned. CAREFULLY, flip toast and let sit in oven until other side is browned. Remove toast from pans and allow the sheet pans to remain in the oven until they have cooled off. If you remove them and run cold water over them they will warp. This method works well because it not only browns the toast but the heat of the oven will warm the inside of the toast. It is important to get the sheetpans warm enough that browning occurs quickly so that you are not cooking (over-cooking) the inside.