Anonymous Modernist 288

I have been making comparisons in my numerous cookbooks regarding vegetable stock. I have noticed that some Spanish books use chickpeas in the vegetable stock. Are they used to remove unwanted sediments and off flavours as well?

An alternate way is to use a DryAge steak bag to age the meat. Look them up on the net. As long as you have the vacuum machine and refrigerator space you are in business. I found that 28 days was perfect.

All of the thickeners are available online through the following in Australia: http://www.chefsarmoury.com.au http://www.melbournefooddepot.com

In the recipe for the marinated pork loin in volume 5 you marinate for 48 hours. If i was to use a vacuum marinator (which i purchased after reading MC) how long will i need to put it in for? The vacuum marinator that i purchased uses the Grovac process (salt and citric acid) to remove bacteria from the food as well. Can you recommend the quantity of salt and honey powder marinade to add to this machine. Normally i buy marinades already made up from Creative Culinary Solutions. I hope you can help.

Hi, generally laboratory grade and food grade are the same. With Sigma they supply for research purposes and are very expensive. Food grade has a low heavy metal content (no lead or arsenic etc). You can order a sample kit of these thickeners on line from Amazon. The cost was about US$50 plus postage for 11 items. In Australia you can get these from Chef's Armoury in Sydney or Paddymelon in Melbourne. I hope that this helps.