Anonymous Modernist 6607

to original question, for fillet steak season after, there is no need to season before. and as its fillet, no need to brine. to take advange of excellent storing properties of sous vide, prep and vac pac steak straight away. then pop into waterbath when ready to cook on Thursday. The steak will be kept from oxidising properties of oxygen, and bacteria will be prevented/ slowed from growth. Just keep in fridge. Not vauum packing will just allow bacteria and pathogens to grow in the mean time, and then you seal them all in before cooking. If you vacuum pack the steak then sous vide, there is no need to allow it to come to room temp. Straight from the fridge to the bath. Feel free to add flavours ( (garlic, herbs etc when vacuum packing) salt is a seasoning not just a flavouring), but not salt in the bag. as a note, fillet steak from fridge would need less than one hour to cook med rare. remember quality of meat is a bigger player than timings. You cant make a silk purse out of a pigs ear!

which kind of spheres are you making, straight caviar or reverse? practice is the real answer. if you are making 'snot' i'm guessing you are using a calcic bath and a syringe? snot would be from pushing the syringe too fast. they can be tricky little buggers. practice or, a pippette with the end cut to the size of the caviar you want. if the caviar is not holding it may be down to the strength of the powder. In the UK MSK produce powders but they are very variable in strength. I would recommend 'Texturas' every time, also might need a couple of seconds more in the bath. As for reverse bubbles, we serve them as an aperitif, and again its just practice. If you go on the El Bulli website and watch their videos you can see the technique for real. A good measuring spoon is essentil. i reckon i've made over 5000 spheres and it comes second nature but the early days were horrific until it just 'clicked'. But although the frozen technique is a good one, practice will eliminate the need for it. Unless you are sphereing fats, which wont sink unless frozen, like butter

i cook dozens of steaks sous vide daily on our lunch and evening menus. Process as follows 1. prepare what we call our 'pot of joy'. flavoured clarified butter with garlic, thmye and rosemary 2. prepare a small tray with rapeseed oil ( nutty flavour), sprinkled with smoked Maldon Sea Salt (Essex, Uk) and Umami powder 3. place pan on heat to get real hot 4. remove cooked steak from bag, pat dry, to prevent steam, roll in flavoured OIL and straight into pan. Allow to sear for 30 secs, turn over and add couple of spoonfuls of butter. Baste for 30 seconds to obtain lovely Maillard reaction and cover in flavour, remove and serve!

can i ask what 'Brand' of sodium alginate you are using. I use the el Bulli ' Texturas' brand and regularly heat sheres ( or bubbles) for jus, butter, etc.

I cook steaks sous vide every day, and my local EHO (environmental health in UK) have adopted my HACCP as a blue print for their own). Problem is most EHO dont know enough about sous vide to deal with it, and therefore respond badly. My question would be, why cook steaks for 24 hrs? I serve a pave steak ( centre eye cut of rump) cooked to 54 Celsius, takes approx 25 mins although we hold 30+ steaks for service ready to go and they are delicious when seared for the Maillard reaction. What are you hoping to gain by 24hr cooking?

dont touch the HotMix, have had one for 4 months and it just doesnt have the balls to stand up to the rigours of a kitchen. It constantly overheats, the bowl is very vertical more like a bar blender than a thermomix and so custards constantly catch and its just a bit wussy! sorry!

the only other consideration is that some of the different models have different nozzles. The profi whip is the older model with just 2 nozzles and the o-ring comes out ( which can be a pain when the KP loses it. and the dispense nozzle is also removeable, again loseable). The gourmet whip comes with 3 nozzles, the o-ring and dispense nozzle are fixed and easier to clean. I have appox 20 in the kitchen at any one time, i prefer the added expense of the gourmet whip for ease of use. dont even touch the easy whip! i also have half a dozen soda siphons, loads of fun!

Greetings, have had the MC a couple of weeks now and it is my favourite bedtime read! However, cant seem to find a whole lot of info on the Pacojet. Have read through book 2 section, but wondered if anyone had any pointers about general theory behind. I have all the usual standard recipes but was looking for some guidance on the effects of sugar, fats, temp etc. Ie, an increase in sugar will result in a), or to compensate for a decrease in sugar for a savoury ice cream you need to do (x) because b). Any help would be great!