Anonymous Modernist 2882

Thank you for your reply, Aaron. Unfortunately I cooked my chicken before I saw your reply! I did indeed follow the recipe by injection brining, then the blanch/chill process three times, and then brushed the skin with the soy sauce and paprika mixture. I varied from the recipe by injecting the chicken with a roast chicken stock instead of the simple brine as recommended in the recipe. The chicken was unbelievably plump after this step. This is what it looked like before it went into the fridge: I air dried it in the fridge for 24 hours and then rotisseried it at 95C to a temperature of 60C, and then gave it a 45 minute rest. I then rotisseried it again at 250C to crisp up the skin. This was what it looked like afterwards: It was a nice looking bird, but the skin didn't crisp up as much as I hoped. I think next time I will closely stick to your recipe and not deviate!

Sam, which method do you think is superior: - the method you described (divide the ingredients in half, then pressure cook the first half, then add ingredients + stock from the first half) - divide the ingredients in half, then make two batches of stock, then reduce by 50% I have been using the second method, because I am fearful that the solutes will reach saturation point and will not strengthen the stock any further. Have you done any experiments to confirm that your suggested method is superior?

Dear team, just a quick question. In MC I recall reading that the best way to cook a chicken was via rotisserie. Yet in MC@Home's recipe for roast chicken, the authors recommend roasting on a rack at 95C, then 45 minute rest, then crank the oven to brown the surfaces, turning the chicken halfway. I have my injection brined roast chicken air drying in the fridge right now. I am thinking of cooking it on a rotisserie at low heat (95C) to the target temperature, and then crank it to the max to brown the skin, also on the rotisserie. Do you think this would be superior to the method described in the book? Thanks in advance.

I think the recipe relies on the low surface tension of the LN2 to get into every microscopic surface possible on the burger to freeze it. Dry ice does not exist in a liquid state, it sublimates directly into a gas - so it would be impossible for dry ice to achieve this effect. Happy to be corrected if MC staff think otherwise.

Vaccum tumbler - super fast marinading of meats.

I couldn't get mine to puff either. However - I had a Zyliss slicer and just bought a de Buyer mandolin a few weeks ago! Might be time to attempt the recipe again.

Without looking at the book, I am guessing that the blanching water is to be discarded. This would be similar to the Chinese method of making stock. When making stock, the Chinese blanch the bones first to purge all the blood and impurities that cloud the stock without necessarily imparting flavour.

I have my bucket of Trisol. I have found that when used with wheat flour in a 1:1 ratio, it really works. I tried some deep fried silverbait and it came out amazingly crispy. I tried making Agedashi Tofu with it, using a 1:1 with katakuriko flour (Japanese potato flour). It failed miserably - it was burnt in places and the result was way inferior compared to 100% katakuriko flour. How does this product work? Why does it work with some types of flour and not others?

About the only hypothesis I can come up with is that pressure cooking leaches out more Calcium and bicarbonate ion from the bones than traditional methods. Adding acid to Calcium will alter the bicarbonate buffer system to favour carbonic acid like this: H+ + HCO3- --> H2CO3 ... which will then react with free Calcium ion to form insoluble Calcium Carbonate: CO3 2- + Ca2+ --> CaCO3

nullptr, I speak English, Malay, Chinese, and have enough understanding of German, Italian, and French to get by. Spanish is about the only international language I can't speak. Do you have any suggestions? pnfloyd, thanks for that ... I will look for it on my iPad!

I thought I would post this question here, rather than some of the other food forums I am a member of I suspect that the people around here are more serious about food. The problem I find with most food magazines is that they are too housewife focused. Many still give measurements in volume rather than weight. Or my pet hate - "a stick of butter". I am not interested in countless recipes on how to make trifle, or roast a chicken, or bake a potato. None of these magazines will ever mention sous-vide or even discuss the place of cutting edge technology in the kitchen. The only magazine I subscribe to on my iPad is "Saveur", but even then it uses imperial measurements and does not cover any modernist technique. I like Saveur because of the outstanding food journalism and the great photography. So - what magazines do you really rate, and why?

Hugo Lin said: Maillard reactions (the caramelizing effect) occur more quickly under alkaline conditions. Acid conditions inhibit Maillard reactions.

I have tried this. You would think that it would produce a superior product, with Maillard flavours penetrating deeper into the meat. Not so! You need to sear it again when it comes out of the SV bag, otherwise the meat will look and taste like stew.

Judy and LFMichaud ... thanks for the links. They look amazing. I have never thought of serving anything but the whole bird, but looking at those recipes has me thinking ... why not? SFG now that you mention it, your method seems pretty obvious! Me, I was planning to smoke a whole turkey for the holiday season. I cool down the breast with ice before it goes into the BBQ, so that it cooks the same time as the legs. But I might do something different this year and make one of the above recipes.

Hi SFG, I am curious how you are going to bathe your turkey The dark meat and white meat need to be cooked to different temps. How are you going to manage that? And what are you going to do to crisp up the skin afterwards? I normally practice turkey cooking methods on chicken first A turkey is a showpiece ... I can't afford to stuff it up in front of so many guests!