paul o' vendange

Fascinating. Is oxidation induced late fermentation, or in the bottle? Any sherry or Madeira qualities?

I know of their slicers but not this knife - flexible, wider blade fillet knife, at Williams for $100. Anyone have any experience?

No specific recommendations, though drooling, but there’s a pretty wonderful book, Great Kitchens: At Home with America’s Top Chefs. Open discussions of noted chefs and their home kitchens with excellent photos and a floor plan for each. The opening chapter is Ken Hom, who at the time of publication maintained homes in Berkeley and Catus, Southern France. Beautiful. The ubiquitous commercial range, island stuffed with tools (he likes to look at them as beautiful unto themselves); wokburner and, interestingly, a commercial Hobart DW (he teaches at his home). Couple dozen homes of chefs and chefs/partners. For me, deepest possible sinks (with overhead stockpot - faucet at the range), commercial 6 burner range, wood fireplace/grill/split (see Jean-Pierre Moulle (sic - no special characters), formerly of Chez Panisse; Mark Miller), brick bread/pizza/roast oven (Alice Waters), extensive kitchen herb and veggie garden (Alice Waters!), open plan kitchen/DR/LR (See John Folse - add in vaulted timber frame, “theater” kitchen!). Ton there. I either drool or cry into my glass. GoFund Me for that beautiful little farmhouse off the Côte D’Or because I’m just a swell, swell guy, pending).

Thanks weinoo, will do on the Beard book. I’d seen it referred to in Jeremiah Tower’s autobio (I think), but for some reason I’d thought he was an Eastern guy. Many thanks!

I’d say all three, though of them, recipes least. A lot of time spent going down a rabbit hole of references to references to ...:: - and a lot of times, inspired, usually in pulling together a menu (home - family and friends, long out of the industry and it literally feels like I’ve forgotten everything I’ve ever known - another story). My heart is in classic French (go to Carême for a kind of comfort in nesting historically, Escoffier dependably), and here the book makes me smile. That said, I’m terribly addicted to books. I prefer great chefs, with little accommodation to home cooking. I want to see inside their mind as directly as possible, and adapt as I can. Not Larousse specifically, but one huge lament: I grew up on the Pacific Ocean coast, surfing, fishing and diving. I now am chained to the MW and try to explain to my family how much it bums me out to buy seafood here. Sea- and fertile-coast/veg-centric (long) seasonal cuisine - e.g. David Kinch and Manresa, French Mediterranean or Brittany - can’t afford to buy Browne Trading regularly and can’t bring my myself to buy what they proffer here in whole fish - bronzini, striped bass, red snapper; forget trout, all shellfish. It’s lucky I was a probably born with a Burgundian heart, love fowl, all game, lamb. But man I miss the produce, and same hour, much less day, much less however many days since our poor specimens swam alive, of all seafood. Man, rant more than a lament, I guess! To bring it back to Larousse, my heart is pretty classically French and the edition I have is beautiful in this way (like yours, I imagine). Brief notes on this latest edition talks of some new techniques, good product coverage, a more global approach, and some looks inside some great kitchens and their approach (ALWAYS a sucker for the latter). So, got a bug for some of it, just not sure it’s a $65 bug when I already have a bible I love. Weight - Advil, 😆. Reps with Larousse, CIA, Kamman, Ferrandi. Who needs a gym? (Do not gush about Ducasse’s massive encyclopedias. I may get in shape, but my wife will kill me.).💪😳

Just hoping to get a comparative sense of the latest (?) 2009 edition, black and white cover, and the 2001 “revised and updated” edition, red cover? I have the 2001 and am very devoted to it but trying to get a sense if it’s worthwhile getting the 2009 edition. Any thoughts? thanks.

I don’t disagree. Bernie’s right and we are talking thermal conductivity in addition to thermal mass. It’s nigh just impossible to replicate the bake from a brick pizza and and home, no matter what we do. So we do what we can. I’ve found steel is just not very good compared to my results obtained using either a stone and an array of saturated linen, or a cast iron cloche as advocated by the Tartine approach. I should note I’m talking about levain only, not pastries. if folks haven’t read it but are interested, the late Alan Scott was a guru behind a resurgent interest in traditional brick ovens. See The Bread Builders. Mud ovens, too, are pretty wonderful. There’s some cultural anthro study out there re the traditional mud ovens of Quebec, 16th century on. Forget it’s name, but it’s somewhere and fascinating. At any rate, this is pretty far off Anova, apologies. Just wanted to share my experience. Will beg off now.

Lol, yep, pretty peppy bit of steam. That steam goes so quickly, but I want to do what I can to keep a humid environment. I forgot to mention I toss a couple of ice cubes at T-15 to also lend to a good start. The sheet of soaked towels goes in right at preheat (I’ve always gone an hour for preheating. Oven may be there but I want to make sure the stone or Dutch oven are fully at temp). The towels perform like champs. See plenty of steam coming up till I pull sheet or the cloche lid, 20 minutes. Even with the fact the oven constantly vents. Ideas aren’t mine. Sort of a hybrid of Hamelman and Tartine.

I am no scientist either but yep, we’re talking thermal mass. Your plate retains heat better than a stone has greater mass still. One benefit, I believe. Is to act as a bit more of a buffer - every time we open the door the temp drops dramatically but it’s less of a problem with bakes on material of higher thermal mass than lower mass. I can’t speak for Anova as I’ve never used one. My oven gets a warmup, with cast iron steel Dutch oven if applicable, or stone itself when doing bakes with barards or any other longer breads like baguettes. In this second case, I set up a cookie sheet with rolled up kitchen towels, heavily soaked prior to being put in the heat oven. Regardless, I have a hotel pan full of lava rocks which hit with water just prior to baking . Anova is a steam oven, right? If so I can’t speak to anything else but f higher or lower higher mass.

Thanks weinoo, really nice. I cannot remember anything about it (what and why....not a whole lot left!), but with respect to ratios, sucree more sugar balanced relative to fat, and the opposite for Sablée, this lends certain properties I can’t recall. (?) I dock sucree for blind baking. Is the advice against it because of more liquid fillings (e.g. curd)?

Douglas, were you in the industry by any chance? My cousin is a CA winemaker, though he left working for the big concerns when consolidation killed any hope of quality (he ran Jekel, until it was bought by bourbon guys and collapsed all capacity into mass-wine). It’s a shame, I love his wine. Pretty crazy, I used to work for a craft brewery (Goose Island, pre-Bud), and during that time my wife and I won a trip to England, dinner with the late Michael Jackson (all things malt writer, not the King of Pop) in London and a tour of breweries throughout England. Pretty cool, after tour of Fuller’s in London, in their adjacent shop, lo and behold I see a small mountain of his wines on display. They gushed, I was and am deeply proud of him.

Excellent post, thanks Jimbo. Never thought of it. Makes perfect sense.

$9.95, 2 day shipping included (prime). About as cheap as it gets, I imagine,

For some reason all I see anymore in terms of Amazon is the domain itself, not a link to the product. Sorry, I see I forgot to name the company in the post (Xximuim - in the title). Here’s a description: Silicone Mold,1PCS Half Sphere Baking Mold Chocolate Candy and Gummy Mold Teacake Bakeware Set for Chocolate, Cake, Jelly, Pudding, Candy Molds Non Stick, BPA Free Silicone Molds (24 Rounds) They all look the same in that they are 4 x 6 rounds, 30 mm: Thanks for any thoughts, guys.

I commend you! I am guilty of being both a technological Luddite, and someone who needs to feel the weight and feel of a book. So I can destroy it with notes and relentless ladle drips and oil slicks.

Inevitably I’ll get it because my cookbook acquisition illness is terminal.😏

I need a half-sphere mold in 30”. I’ve never seen or used this company but their 30mm/ 6 x 4 mold is cheap, and they come with Amazon prime (free, 2 day shipping). All materials are not the same in my experience, even if they are sold as so. Anyone know them?

I searched but unless I missed it, I didn’t find a mention of Modern French Pastry, looks interesting. Anyone? I have more books than I could read and cook through several lifetimes. Still.....always room somewhere for another. I know we’re all similarly afflicted...😍

Thanks Fred. Great note on the enclosure and first turn. I find it much the same with “classic” puff so good to know. Who came up with this iteration of feuilletage, anyone know?

Thanks Heidi, very helpful. I have to laugh as I’m afraid my hands are likely the polar opposites to you. Typing this is excruciatingly cumbersome as my thumb is thick and ungainly and I can’t look at butter without its melting in stark terror. Thanks to an early fever for all things French and thanks to Jacques for lighting a lifelong fire for fundamentals (to a fault), I’ve been able to stumble through well enough as needed on pastry but too keenly aware at my relatively feeble technical and imaginative mastery. C’est la vie. Careme’s spirit will have to wait for the next life, 😏 I really appreciate your post, thanks. What a beautiful place to write from, and helpful to get your perspective.

Thanks Anna. I’ve read wonderful things about it too. It seems more difficult to master, so looking forward to the challenge. I’ve read chilled marble, cold room and hands are almost a necessity, which makes sense. Never worked on marble - outside my actually starting my cooking life going gonzo over La Technique and pastry most especially, been very much on the savory side. Thanks for the info!

In all these years, I’ve never done inverse puff. All I’ve made is classic puff or amended for croissants, etc., but have never used inverse nor have I tasted it. I’ve always just used a good wooden workbench. For inverse, presuming a room temp if 68F - 72F, how necessary does anyone marble is to do a decent inverse?

Thanks so much Shelby, good to be back. Been a bit dodgy medically over the years but wonderful to see you and the others again. thanks on the thread info, will do! 😊❤️

My wife and I both love her. I got the book for her for Christmas and she is loving it. great thread, have some catching up to do!

Oh, not at all. It stands for L'École Supérieure de Cuisine Française, one of the oldest cooking schools in France. Also known as Ferrandi, it’s well respected and personally I love their textbooks. Their main book is only in French but their pastry and chocolate texts are in English. I really like them all.