Anonymous Modernist 4342

Does anyone have a good recommendation for a probe set-up to use to monitor sous vide cooking? I would like to try to avoid spending as much as the MC recommended ones are, anyone know of a good budget deal?

Yes, the dry aging process really is that simple. If you want to do it at home to an extended period of time I think your best bet is to buy a small wine refrigerator that keeps humidity as well as temperature constant. It is always better to have a controlled environment when dry aging. These wine refrigerators can be had for pretty cheap (sub $100). If you are not going to dry age for an extended period of time 2 - 3 days in your refrigerator should be able right. Just salt your steaks, put them on a cooling rack on a sheet pan and wait.

Ha! Sounds like the back of a truck somewhere...

I have been pretty busy lately and have really only gotten to use the 112 for one meal that I prepared this week. When it first came I had some trouble getting the chamber to pull a vacuum, but it turned out that the lid just needs a little pressure to get going and once it catches it is fine. On your concern on the chamber being too small versus the 210, I think that the chamber on the 112 actually has a little bit more vertical clearance than the 210 but a slightly smaller chamber width wise. I think it will be fine for my needs. As on the strength of the vacuum, I haven't gotten to experiment with it much but it is not really clear at what bar the chamber pressure is at. I think it will be strong enough to do some infusion stuff but maybe not compression... I will try to do some experiments this weekend and report back. Over all I think it is going to fit my needs just fine.

You should check out David Chang's new quarterly Lucky Peach. The recipes can be all over the place from a host of different chefs. It is a great read, not everything will involve Sous Vide if that is what you are looking for, but I have been reading the first two issues and have been very pleased with them.

I actually just bought a VP 112 last week but unfortunately haven't gotten the chance to use it. I actually plan on cooking and using it tonight for the first time. I actually got mine through Webstaurant.com which sells the VP112 for $589.00 plus shipping. I think when all was said and done it cost me right around $640. I can't actually attest to the quality yet, but all the reviews I had read were very positive and I believe it even has the same motor that the VP210 has. Plus I plan on actually moving mine from various places so the "portability" of it was important to me. I'll report back as to the quality, but it seems if price is an issue, the 112 can be had for much cheaper.

So I have been wanting to serve some savory pop rocks for a little while and was wondering if anyone here has had any experience with flavoring them. More specifically I am talking about these http://www.modernistpantry.com.....candy.html . It says on modernist pantry that they can be flavored with any fat based substance. The flavors I want to do would be Bacon, Chicken 'N' Waffles, Foie Gras, and White Truffle. My thought is to take some N-Zorbit and make a powder from these substances and simply toss the unflavored popping candy in my flavoring powder. Am I way off? Any different way to do this?

This looks very intriguing. I'm anxious to hear if someone has tried this circulator or if anyone knows a little bit more about it. At around $580 US it would be very appealing, but I'm not sure if they make a 120V version or not...

Yup, that is pretty much exactly what I was looking for. I should have looked a little harder. This is an excellent resource! Thanks Scott.

I want to try and start taking some great food photos as I document what I cook (especially out of Modernist Cuisine). I was wondering if anyone have some good advice on what to buy and how to set up and light shots against a plain black and plain white background? I think that shots that Scott takes over at Seattlefoodgeek.com are excellent. Maybe someone can speculate on his set-up?

Today I tried my first recipe out of MC. I did the melon caviar and topped it on a crispy prosciutto round. I sourced the alginate and calcium chloride from willpowder. Overall the melon caviar was pretty time consuming but yielded a great looking product. Unfortunately the caviar was way over powdered by the prosciutto (my fault), and the caviar didn't have much flavor itself. However, I don't think the melon I was using was too great to begin with, so shame on me for using bad product. Overall the dish ended up looking a lot better than it tasted. For the round I just cut out my shapes using a ring mold, put them on a baking sheet lined with a slip mat, and baked them in my convection oven at 200F for about an hour. (I don't have a dehydrator)