Anonymous Modernist 18279

fresh bamboo shoots are wonderful. i would parboil them first to get the texture right. i don't think they can possibly contain sufficient cyanide to affect a human. Another alternative is frozen whole bamboo shoots, which have already been parboiled. Either is outrageously superior to canned, which requires soaking and rinsing to eliminate the taste of tin and sodium citrate.

Using frozen meat sous vide should work. You do have to adjust the cooking times accordingly. If you use the excellent iPad app called SousVideDash, you can enter the starting temperature and select the sort of meat you are cooking and it will provide you with necessary information.

to add to interesting trivia. aluminum foil is shiny on one side and dull on the other because of the manufacturing techniques. In fact, it makes no difference which side is up or down.

i've had good luck doing the garlic confit just using a leftover jar (ortiz tuna to be precise). i just put the lid on loosely without screwing it down. the main purpose of the lid is to keep water from splashing or dripping into the confit. I've used the same set up for pressured cooked fats (beef/chicken).

The sauce in this recipe must have a typo. The reduction was fine, but after adding the xantham gum (0.5 g), it turned into a mauve colored mess of goo. The taste was very acidic. it took about 1/4c water to make it pourable, but the taste and color were not good. Is there a way to keep the color as in the picture? Also, the fish recipe had cooking instructions of 102F for 20 min. I assumed this may be 120F for 20 min, which worked fine.

cool... thanks louis-frederic. i do wish they had an index for the kitchen manual....

Not all essential oils are food grade. A reasonable source for a small selection (e.g., lemon, orange, lime and a few others) is sur la table. (www.surlatable.com)

I could cope with the fish rare, i guess, though it seemed odd for this recipe. the main thing i couldn't handle was the sauce, which must have an error in it.

I got mine from the modernist website. it works great for cooking pizza. that said, it is a sheet of steel. it is preseasoned, but doesn't appear to have any coating on it. what looks like a coating is likely the seasoning on fresh steel. they say it gets dark when you use it. it does. it turns essentially black the first time you use it. not a problem, but it destroys the illusion of a coating.

The nice spiral bound kitchen guide seems great for cooking, but how on earth do you find anything in it? there is a table of contents that is not alphabetized, nor it is it organized like the 5 volumes. There is no index. I cannot find out how i'm supposed to find anything it as it is not referenced from the 5 volumes. Somewhat annoyingly, it references recipes within the 5 volumes rather than within itself. Any hints?

on p. 3-104, the recipe for escolar reads 'cook sous vide in 39C/102F bath to core temp of 38C for about 20 minutes." Can this possibly be correct? 102 degree fish is basically warm raw fish. one may as well put on one's head. should this read 49C/120F?