Anonymous Modernist 310

Having the two I would say that about 20% of MC@H is taken directly from MC. The rest is original (Mostly recipe and variations. I have MC and I was happy to have bought MC@H.

I never tried the marinara but for the garlic confit that's normal. Confit is to cook something immersed in fat or sugar. Olive oil should cover your garlic when you cook. Confit is also a way to preserve food as the fat that cover your product protect it from oxygen. So it's normal that your garlic is covered in oil. But keep it after youve finished your garlic because it's very flavorfull and taste great in a salad or even drizzled on meat. Good luck Louis-Frederic

Hello Doug, I had read good things about the service you gave at QualityMatters and I was thinking about buying from you soon but recommending a competitor for me is the best thing for me that a vendor to prove his integrity. I'll be ordering from you next time I go to the States. (Shipping to Canada is $10362.39 for a chamber vacuum!!!!!) Can you tell me the difference between the VP215 and VP215C? Thank you Louis-Frederic

If you cook it to pasteurizing temperature/time it wouldn't change anything since one way or the other it would be safe. If you don't pasteurize it, I wouldn't do it since it would just treat the surface of the meat and you would keep all the bacteria in crevices and folds of the meat and then put them inside the meat with the jaccard. You can always sear it in surface as a more classical way of doing the UV thing...

The Fagor is a venting pressure cooker. Just be careful that you keep the heat at the minimum needed. Don't use the lower setting as you won't get the same temperature and the same browning effects. If you still have the same kind of problems when you monitor the heat closely try adding additional liquid as 9 qt is quite a large PC. Good luck

That look like a great pressure cooker! I've got the 6L model and when it's coming up in pressure there is a period where it start venting air and steam for a couple minutes. After that it stop and when it's at the right pressure you bring the heat down. Are you talking about that hiss and steam? (It's normal) Or later during your cooking? I have some slight hissing on and off when I cook but no steam coming out. If I push up/push down/screw the stem it usually stop but I don't consider that venting.

When you refrigerate it does it become easier to separate from the rest? I never refrigirated after my runs and I'm always taking the top of the containers with a spoon. Going by the change of color and texture.

I never tried the Pectinex with the pea butter but that's a great idea. I just checked that peas are quite high in pectin with ~.6%. We'll see if that improve the yield on the butter. In my centrifuge I have no control over the temperature so the product get quite hot when I run it for a long time. (My fingertips would say about 60C...) When I do a five hours run at about 4000g with 2.5KG of peas I get a not quite full 4oz ziplock container. I never precisely measured the yield. While blending I sometime add a bit of water especially if the peas are frozen so that it's easier to blend at the beginning. Next time I'll be more careful with my yield. Since my three runs were months apart I cannot even compare between them...

Unfortunately you probably will have to throw them out. Also make sure you have good circulation in your bath and ideally your bath should be isolated to help your heater to cope. Using a cooler and addidng boiling water in the bath at the beginning I once did 16 lamb lamb shanks with no problems.

I heard good things about the Modernist Vegetarian ebook that talk exactly about using these techniques for vegetarians. http://www.veggiechef.co.uk/index.html Tell us what you think about it!

Six lamb shoulders seem a lot of meat to put in a bath... I've seen problems like that with overpacked bath, limited circulation or limited heating capacity. 15KG of cold meat in a 56C bath will probably bring parts of your bath under 50C for quite a long time if one of these thing happen. This will let bacteria to grow for some time at the beginning of your cooking and it will smell like garbage when you open the bag 72 hours later.... One way thaat could help you to prevent that is to overheat your bath to semething like 80C. Adjust the temperature to 56C when you put the meat in. Move your meat around the bath at the beginning so that no no bath is stuck between many other cold bags. The warm water will "pasteurize" the surface of the meat while the cold meat quickly bring the temperature of the bath down. Good luck Louis-Frederic

Searing before and after give a very good sear. You can use siploc bags to put it in the bath directly after the sear. Ideally you can lower the temperature a few degrees at the end before going the second sear to prevent overcooking.

Caramelization happen at lower temperature in a basic environment. So by putting baking soda you raise the ph of your product (More basic) and facilitate the caramelization. The pressure cooker also raise the boiling temperature of the water so that you can reach the new lower caramelization temperature. If you want to see the effect clearly. Put three mason jars in your pressure cooker. One with baking soda, one with lemon juice and the third one with nothing. You'll see the difference. Good luck Louis-Frederic

I've got the 6 litres KR and it's a little too small to put a pint mason jar. A single one fit in in the middle with nothing under it.

The problem is that the food is palatable on a much smaller range than what is needed for the color changes...

The best would probably be to do an alcoholic brine but I haven't found any reference for the freezing point of different mix of salt alcohol and water. You can also use sugar but it would probably be messier and sticky. Keep us informed I don't have enough freezer space to try it now! Good luck

That depend on the temperature of your freezer. In a normal freezer that is around -18C (0F) you can use a strong brine and keep it in the freezer. A 23.3wt% will freeze at -21C and is cheap, foodsafe and very efficient. Pure ethanol freeze at -114C but you're better using a mix of alcool and ethanol since it has much more specific heat. An easy to find mix a 40% ethanol (Vodka!) will freeze around -27C. Good luck Louis-Frederic

Bonjour Nicolas, For good price for larger quantities I've got these suggestions http://www.lepicerie.com/Molecular-Gastronomy-Modernist-cuisine-c-289/ http://www.le-sanctuaire.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=ls&Category_Code=Molecular http://www.willpowder.net/products.html Look between them and compare. The prices are often much cheaper than kalis & meszepices and they all ship outside of the USA. Try to find peoples to order with you or you'll be stuck like me more stuff that you can use in your whole life! For a good variety of smaller quantities you can look at http://www.modernistpantry.com/ They're the only ones that I know that repack Activa in smaller quantities Bonne chance Louis-Frederic

The water loss due to freezing is cause in the freezing part. It's when the cells are ruptured by freezing and it's why you're losing liquid. The reason it's traditionally better to unfreeze in the fridge is to prevent part of the meat to spend too much time in the temperature "danger zone". if you're not cooking too large pieces of meat and you don't pack your bath with too much frozen meat there should be no problems with cooking meat directly from the freezer.

In my case after cooking the carrots I had liquid in the PC and I could blend the result to a smooth texture in a regular blender. (even with the initial 50 minutes cook time.) Do you still have liquid at the bottom of your PC when you open it? If not it may be caused by excessive venting.

The only thing that I don't understand is the 5.6oz venting of the KR. I have no idea how they used it to get that results! I had no scorching problems at the bottom but I'm using it over induction not gas.

You put the ice in the bag. It's because you cannot vacuum seal liquid in your bags if you're using a "foodsaver" type machine. So an easy way to solve that problem is to freeze the liquids you want to put sous vide. (Stock, water etc.) Good luck

I haven't used a tamis when I did it with shrimp with still good results. You could try it but don't forget that your paste is setting up. Work fast and keep it cold! The Activa RM is the most general purpose transglutaminase. The other ones will not bond as many type of ingredients or are for more specialized uses.

I would use the "regular" Activa RM and do something like WD50's shrimp noodles. 1% TG with chicken breast in the blender with some salt and spices. Shape the result in some kind of pasta machine and put it in 54C water. (Or stock for macimum taste!) If you don't have a pasta machine you can put some in a sous vide bag and go over it with a rolling pin to do "pasta" sheets that you can cut in linguinis once cooked. Good luck

It's a rich soup, you won't be eating a large bowl as an appetizer! But it shouldn't be that heavy there is ove a litter of soup to put that butter... On my side it's always been a success with everybody.