gsquared

And if Mark says: "It does most of what the literature that comes with it says: it makes wine taste as if it has been breathing for 30 minutes", does your scepticism extend to that statement?

What happened to Alex's tests?

It is worth recording that I offered to reimburse Dennis his postage to South Africa. Noted just because he keeps on mentioning the cost.

I fully agree, FG. My point was prompted by a desire to allow leeway for the effect of the mind on a subjective experience and in no way diminishes my appetite for the truth. In any even, given Mark's results, it all seems moot - the bloody thing seems to work!

I think, FG, that you miss the point. It is not illusory to me, but only objectively illusory. I am an the side of the sceptics, but in the case of a harmless illusion, I have no problem if someone happily forks over money for something which he firmly believes enhances his wine drinking experience. It is the very fact that of that belief that makes it irrelevant to that user whether, scientifically speaking, it works. Does this apply to all "paranormal" claims like coral calcium? No, not when the sell is based on exploiting an illusion of curing ills - it is no longer harmless. Below that level, I am inclined to stand back and smile at the foibles of the gullible, rather than wave my arms at its scientific inaccuracy.

Slated for an eGCI class by Varmint in November!

I think it depends on what the test attempts to prove. Maybe a subjective and anecdotal positive test of the clip is actually more than sufficient to validate its efficacy - in a subjective sense. If I perceive a difference in my subjective experience of the taste of wine when using the clip, does it really matter an iota whether that perception is, scientifically speaking, illusory?

Thanks for the link. I have decided to wait with further experimentation until the eGCI class on foams in November.....

FG, you have given me the courage to come out of the closet. I am also an ISI idiot. My first attempt at producing simple whipped cream was good and that induced a smugness that I came to regret. Since then I have had mixed results. I am still finding the odd splodge of tomato juice from last weekend's attempt in odd crevices around the kitchen. "Load with two cartidges" some of the instructions say. Hah! If the thing acts like a fire extinguisher with one, I dread to see what it will do with two! "Hold upside down and shake 10 times." I assume this is to disperse the gas in the liguid. Why 10 times? Are 5 vigorous shakes = 10 normal shakes. I do not know. I think my ISI has a mind of its own- there is no predicting what it will do. One day it will meekly produce a perfect stream of foam, the next it will spout like Old Faithful. I will follow this thread with intense interest.......

Msk, PM me and we can make arrangements for hosting your pics.

Nope - they will get either 2 non-clipped or 1 clipped and 1 non-clipped. The testers will be told this, so they will not expect to have a clipped one. Of course at least one tester will have to get at least one clipped. Gad - I sound like a Rabbi discussing the upcoming Bris!

Not so. A proper double blind test would mean that, a tester given two glasses will be told that both may be exactly the same, or one glass may contain the test substance. There would therefore be no expectation of difference.

We always do, Dennis

Paula, Have you since writing Mediterranean Cooking, observed shifts in the cuisine you described in 1976? Does regional cooking have an inertia that renders it relatively immune to what may be current (or fashionable) in the rest of the world?

Fine plan, Craig. The guy deserves an objective test - I look forward to the reports.

Look here.

Hang on there, guys. I think that this is a perfectly reasonable offer. I agree that this seems like hokum, but, given the offer, it should be easy to prove or disprove the claim. Come on, Mark, let the man send you a sample, test it and let us know the result.

The idea of oil poaching is to cook the shrimp in oil at a low temp (63ºC) to prevent the short "done/overdone" window when for example, frying them. Something akin to Keller's butter poached lobster.

Great class! Congrats! What are your personal experiences with brining shrimp? I have 2Kg of 20-30 prawns - that is prawns that run 20-30 per Kg, intended for dinner tomorrow and have, since reading your course, been debating whether or not to brine them. Intended cooking method is poaching in olive oil.

I also cannot see how carrot juice can be used to produce a stable emulsion. Unless the juice contains dissolved substances that can act as emulsifiers. I could not find a reliable source for the chemical composition of carrots or carrot juice, but did come across a mention that carrots contain a small quantity of lecithin.......

I worked on a 20g yolk, and used 14g egg white (for the protein and the water), 2g lecithin. and 5g fat.

I repeated the mayo experiment yesterday - still no luck. The mixture emulsified beautifully, but would not thicken. Looking at McG again - "The large protein molecules, together with even larger yolk particles, composed of both fat and proteins, obstruct the movement of water molecules in the liquid, and so make the liquid yolk itself seem thick and viscous. It's this inherent thickness of the yolk that is largely responsible for the thickness of the yolk-based sauces." So - the lecithin on its own will do the emulsification, but not produce a thick sauce. Oh well...

According to McGee, the composition of an egg is: 50% water, 16% protein, 10% lecithin, 22% fat by weight, 2% cholesterol. Should it not be possible to simply take an egg white, add in the correct proportions of lecithin and fat and use that to make an yolk-less emulsion sauce such as mayo? I remember trying this some time ago, with soya lecitin, but could not succeed in getting the concoction to thicken.

Cannot see how you classify Italy under "non-Gewurz growing regions". Tramin is where it all started, after all... Dangerous to generalise, IMHO.

Thanks for all the info. Ask and ye shall learn.....