Anonymous Modernist 310

Hello David, Welcome on the board. From what I know they never offered that print but you may be lucky since they're starting the Modernist Cuisine photo exhibition. http://modernistcuisine.com/exhibit/ And often with these exhibits they offer a lot of prints. Try to take a look at it Louis-Frederic Michaud

If you put it in 60C water, didn't overpack the bath and have circulation it's probably just one of the rack that wasn't well packed. You should have no problem with food safety. If it's bacterial fermentation that cause that problem you will know as soon as you open the bag. It will CLEARLY smell like garbage. Good luck Louis-Frederic

I'm in Canada and I never had any problem with the Centrifuge, vacuum pumps, scales, thermometers and various unidentified powders. I would love to see your kitchen! Good luck Louis Frederic Michaud P.S. What's the impact for you of being flagged in Texas?

It depends what you want to do with your centrifuge. In my opinion the first thing you need to look is the capacity followed by the number of Gs. Refrigeration is a nice bonus but I managed to get around not having it. The capacity is in liters or ml. The useful one are usually 3l. Don't forget that this capacity is splitted between many smaller containers. (Four and up) Splitting what you want to spin in 500ml bottles is easy. Trying to work with 15ml tubes is much harder! The higher G you can get the better. I manage to do mostly everything with a 3000G centrifuge but it's sometime longer or a little bit less clear. You cannot clarify lime juice without special techniques but you can do most of the things that you may want. It's also possible to find a small cheap centrifuge if you want to experiement a bit but don't expect to serve a group... http://www.cookingissues.com/2012/08/19/spin-cycle-homestyle-centrifuge/ Good luck! Louis-Frederic

There shouldn't be any problem. It won't taste the same but it should still be great. Don't forget that butter is 15-20% water and that you need that water to build up pressure in the pressure cooker. There's not much extra water in the soup recipe so add a little bit of liquid if you change the fat. Good luck Louis-Frederic

Since the JML are the same type of sealers than the Foodsavers in the US they have the same kind of limitations. Ideally you want to seal cold and dry things. If you want to freeze things like soup ideally you have to freeze them. You can always manage to seal wet food but you must be careful to stop the vacuum as soon as liquid is coming up. Get larger bag to give you more time and be ready to make many seals on the end of the bag. Good luck Louis-Frederic

Thanks for the update Mike, Good to see some interesting posts on this forum. Show us some pictures of your baby once you're finished! Louis-Frederic

Unfortunately I never used a PacoJet. But from what I read in the different manuals it seem that you're not using the right blade. According to page 9 of the manual http://www.pacojet.com/en/downloads/Pacojet_Manual_2012_EN_v20121203_bogen.pdf The Pacojet Coupe Set is designed exclusively for chopping, mixing and beating fresh, non-frozen foods with a Pacojet machine. So you're probably just using the wrong blade. Try to do a cycle with an empty container. If that work correctly with no EE code you probably didn't break anything. (Maybe the blade itself...) If you were using the right blade it may be frozen too hard or it thawed a bit and can move in the container. Good luck with your toy! Louis-Frederic

Thank you for the update Mike, Keep us informed how it work out. I'll contnue to dream about my next oven! ;-)

Hello Kenneth, Welcome to this forum. You were on the right track with your theories. I'll take all your points and try to clarify them. 1) You can put less liquid in a larger syphon and it will work. The only problem is that you need to use more cartridges than if you had a syphon of the right size or a fuller syphon. 2) It's always a good idea to shake your syphon between the charges and before using it. 3) It's probably the main reason for your problem. For an espuma you usually need from .5% to 1.5% gelatin in your liquid. Supposing your sheets are 2g each you are really on the high side. Especially since the Monin syrup seem to be 2:1 sugar/water so it's already quite thick. So start with a single sheet and adjust from there. 4) It's not supposed to change anything. I store my syphons in the fridge standing up to take less space. It may give you some foam or it may block your syphon if your gel is too thick... You'll get better gas absorbtion in colder liquid so you can cool it lower than room temperature. As long as it doesn't get firm. The gaz get into your mix because you said the top part of your gel had foamed when you opened the syphon so you're on the right track. Good luck Louis-Frederic

What kind of pressure cooker do you use?

First thing you should do os try to find which kind of laboratory this equipment is coming from. That should give you a better idea of the kind of washing you'll have to do. I've no problem using ex-laboratory immersion circulator and centrifuges. I do everything I can to clean/sterilize it. Bleach, vinegar, autoclave, brushing and I never put the food directly in contact. For me these precautions are enough but that's a personal choice. Good luck Louis-Frederic

The only thing I can see is try to blend the eggs with a good blender before incorporating to the cream. Also did you work the mix through a fine sieve before putting it in the syphon? Good luck

Unfortunately I don't know any restaurant that go all-out modernist like WD50 or Alinea. The most modernist menu I had was a few years ago at Laurie Raphael Montreal where I could see direct influence from El Bulli and Celler Can Roca on the menu but their menu seem more traditional now. I would be happy to hear about other places in Montreal that I don't know.

Personally I use some kind of collander like that http://www.kingdametal.com/Filter-Screen/Stainless-steel-cooking-wire-mesh-colander-231-1.htm It's fine enough for the syphon. You can also use a Chinois or superbag depending on what you have and the type of liquid. Good luck