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!

Have you tried brown sugar?

Hi Paul, read the Liquid Nitrogen Primer at Cooking Issues. It will tell you what the best bet is for ordering your LN2. I know where to source LN2 (I am in Melbourne, Australia) … but the real question is what I am going to do with all that stuff. I am a hobby cook, cooking from my home. LN2 is a little bit extravagant. If I had a restaurant, or if I was as rich as Nathan, then perhaps …

Try this thread: http://modernistcuisine.com/cook/forum/countertop-tools/pastry-bars-metal-rectangular-bars-pictured-in-book-where-to-get-them/

Thanks SFG If you attempt this, be warned - it takes 15 minutes to make each omelette! My wife and I had a little production line going, something like this: - Preheat oven to 180C, cut out silpat to line frypan, place frypan cover in oven to preheat - Create lines on silpat, cook for 3 minutes - Pour omelette mixture in, cook for 2 minutes, then check if it is still evenly spread (the mixture is still liquid enough to run when you tilt the pan at this stage), add more egg if necessary. - Cook for 5 minutes until done - Unmold from Silpat, leave lid in oven, wash and dry pan, make next omelette. Make sure there is no water or egg mixture underneath the silpat, or the steam will lift it up and the egg will run off! (Don't ask me how I know). Also note there are two types of silpat - one is a mesh, the other is flat and smooth. You want the flat and smooth one.

Hi lachyg, I am in Australia also - Melbourne here. I used kosher salt and it turned out really well. I have attempted this recipe twice - the first time following the spice mixture recommended in the book exactly, and the second time using my own spice mixture. Served with sous-vide lentils (also in the book). Served with sous-vide carrots and fried veggies. The potato recipe is from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home. Nothing modernist about it - simply delicious. The duck jus was made in a pressure cooker then reduced and thickened naturally.

I have to agree, the Mac and Cheese is delicious Here is one I made earlier. It was a bit annoying sourcing the ingredients (which were horrendously expensive!) but I really "get" the flavour release thing - it is so much better than a roux.

Hi all, just joined the forum. I have been cooking through a number of recipes in MC, and have attempted this one three times. Because I don't own a combi oven, I used the method described by Max in his Youtube video ' a covered frypan with silpat cut to fit in an oven. Here was the first attempt: I was unable to find egg yolk powder, so I substituted whole egg powder in the same quantity. Also, mushroom gills here don't seem to be black enough ' I made the recipe using the exact quantities specified in MC ' and you can see that the stripes are more a dark brown than black. I had trouble getting the stripes to stay on ' every time I added the omelette mixture, some of the stripes would float off. The next attempt was a striped beetroot crepe using the same technique to create the stripes. This time I winged it and made up my own recipe and it worked a real treat! My latest attempt resulted in a stupendously good omelette. This time I used 100% mushroom gills, added concentrated beef stock (Bovril), and truffle paste. I pre-cooked the stripes for 3 minutes before adding the omelette mixture. Result ' stripes stayed on! The texture of the skin was magnificent ' tender with just enough bite, and the mysterious aroma of truffles, mushroom, and beef subtly permeating throughout. It was visually striking as well ' not something you expect to see at a home-cooked dinner party.