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Good Day I am located in South Africa. I have managed to source suppliers for Texturas and Biozoon TexturePro. The TexturePro stuff seems to be a lot cheaper the the the Textura products. If anyone has had experiance with either of these products could you please update me on whether the Textura brand is worth the almost 3 times the TextturePro price, are they pretty much the same products. Thank you in advance.

Hi All, I made the banana cream pie this weekend and tried to follow the recipe exactly. The crust came out fine, as did the caramelized banana topping. The coffee infused cream came out, but the coffee flavor vastly overpowers the banana purée. The real issue was the pressure cooked banana. My first attempt led to pure charcoal. On the second attempt, I used 28 min and did not even let it get to 15 psi ever. The result was half charcoal, half reddish bananas. I ultimately just cooked them in a pan, but the flavor was still mild enough it was tough to know if it was banana cream pie or coffee cream. The pressure cooked banana failed entirely, just carbonized them in 2 tries, even with low heat and less time. I can cut the coffee beans way back, but what is going wrong with the banana? Thanks, Steve

Hi - I'm trying to make the modernist cuisine recipe for BBQed brisket. I have the sous vide equipment but my smoker is actually a kamodo style cooker and I am unable to stabilize the temperature any lower than 190 degrees. I am going to finish the recipe but I wonder what I might expect in three days? I assume that the meat's color will be greyer than that of the recipe as followed correctly. Is this correct?

I've always felt the most knowledgeable guy on the Internet about Knives is Jay Fisher I love his site and I have purchased some of his knives which I really like. I've also tried ceramic knives they haven't worked out I have a few Japanese knives which are good and a few German ones which are also good. The key seems to be honing them on a regular basis if their sharp they are easy to use and safe. I bought a book recommended by Jay Fisher the razors edge and it's worked out really well. But it's work and others do not treat my knives the way I do which means resharpening and rehoming. I now see a new type of knife called Vmatter I wonder if they really work I'm not qualified to follow the technical end.

I want to get the rational 61 combi oven BUT it seems to be a very difficult task to get it installed. In Arizona I have been told that, since it isn't UL approved for home use, you can't have it installed while a house is being built as the building inspector won't approve it. And, the venting demands as well as the AMPS used etc make it a very problematic addition. Does anyone know what is the best of the home versions? Miele? Gaggenaeu? Any other ideas? thanks

Hello. Cooking a meat in a sous vide supreme for more than 12 hours, when i open the lid a feel an odd smell. Does it make sense? There is no leaking. I taste the water and it was fine. Where does this smell come from? I don't know about the meat because it is still in a cooking process, but i read a lot of comments about this on internet. Thanks.

Anyone fancy spending 5 minutes to advise me on the best restaurant in central London to take my family from this list http://regalawnings.co.uk/best-al-fresco-places-to-eat-in-london Restaurant suggestions that aren't on the list are welcome too. Cheers, Alex

Hi guys. I have a question concerning Crockpot and baking. Are they the same? Both have wet and dry bulb temperature? The low level of a crockpot is about 90 Celsius. If I put the same piece of meat in the oven with the same temperature, would I get the same result? The only difference I can see is the internal volume much smaller in the crockpot which can have more humidity. Many thanks.

I've been making ice cream using Dry Ice since it's producing much better results than my cuisinart ice cream maker and fairly easily available. What I'm wondering is if Liquid Nitrogen would be more cost effective. Dry Ice can be found in a minimum of 10 lb blocks which cost about $1 per lb (sometimes a little less). And since it melts we usually make a couple different ice cream bases ahead of time and go a buy the stuff and then make it. So while I enjoy making ice cream this way, it adds about $5 to the cost. Would liquid nitrogen cost more up front? How much do you need per batch of ice cream? How fast does it dissipate? Lots of questions but I'm just trying to figure out which method makes more sense. The results of dry ice ice cream are great so it's not really important to me if liquid nitrogen is superior results if it's more expensive. Thanks!

Home cook: went to use vac tonight and it won't seal. Anybody got an idea for a troubleshoot?

HI everyone. Is there any way I could get a print of the heat equation photo which is at the beginning of chapter five of MC? The one whith the flames and so. In my opinion, it is one of the best in the book, and I would really like to have it in my kitchen!

After trying in vain to convince an unnamed large chemistry supply company that I was planning to use some Czapek-Dox agar for making koji for sake (well, for propagating A. oryzae for making koji and M. purpureus for red koji), and after being flagged in Texas for purchasing a Soxhlet extractor (incidentally made and shipped from New York, which as far as I know is not in Texas) to try to concentrate extractable compounds from mint and peppers (maybe catnip for the kitties if they behave), I was wondering if anyone out there has found sources for lab equipment for culinary use where the proprietors do not immediately assume that a shipment of lab equipment to a residence is for a clandestine psychogenic substance laboratory? Yes, I ferment mind-altering wine and sake, in full compliance with 27 CFR 24.75, 27 CFR 25.205, and state law. I can imagine that for the authors it was much easier to get what they wanted to play with since they were shipping to a business, but for those of us who are playing with food at home it is unfortunately a different story. Modernist cooking is hard enough when people give you odd looks for using something called "transglutaminase" or "sodium citrate" in their food, but that is nothing compared to the interrogation one gets regarding purchasing a small heating mantle or standard taper round bottom flask.

Hi Modernists, Dairy including butter (even lactose-free) make my stomach turn upside down. However, using casein and lactose-free clarified butter doesn't. Can butter be substituted with clarified butter in the recipes (e.g. caramelized carrot soup) or does it have to be butter? Cheers, Juho

Hi chaps I've just bought a JML (I'm in UK) sealer, in the hope that I could blanch veg from the allotment and then keep it in the fridge for longer than in tupperware, the instructions even mentions soup but when I have tried sealing some blanched runner beans (that I'd squeezed dry) but when the vacume operates it sucks water as well as air and this gets between the two sides of the plastic bag and stops it sealing ... am I missing something please ? Roger

Hi guys. I tried to pull this off a little while ago without success and was hoping to have the experts chime in. I cubed some flank steak, dumped it in a canister, covered with stock, froze for 24 hours, then tried to Pacotize with the blade that came in the coup set. The machine couldn't get the blade into the meatsicle and stopped itself, displaying 'EE' on the LEDs, which freaked me out (I don't want to break my baby). Upon inspection of the canister, I could see that it looked like the blade just spun around on top of the icy meat block, then stopped. What may've gone wrong here? Wrong blade? Frozen too solid? Too much liquid? I hesitate to try again in case I break the thing.

was wondering if anyone knew how to use this product ?

Hey all, A few days ago I received my PolyScience Creative series immersion circulator and an Ary VP112 chamber vacuum. It's been awesome getting creative and freeing up time in the kitchen by cooking sous vide. However, I've had some significant difficulties when attempting to cook custards sous vide, particularly those that are meant to set and become firm enough to hold a shape, but light enough to be easily eaten with say, a spoon. Some examples would be creme brulee and lemon curd to be used as a filling for a lemon tart. When I attempted creme brulee the other day (using a modified recipe from the Modernist Cuisine book for coffee creme brulee), I sealed it in a bag and cooked it sous vide at 176 F for 30 minutes. Afterwards, I poured the custard into ramekins and put them in the fridge to set. They never did; my custards tasted wonderful and were certainly cooked, but they remained liquidy and never solidified in the way one would expect creme brulee to set. I put the ramekins into a water bath and baked them in my oven until the temperatures of the custards once again reached 176 F. It eventually set perfectly. Thinking my problem was temperature and time, I had made a lemon curd (http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/heston-blumenthal/lemon-tart-recipe, which by the way is absolutely fantastic tasting). I sealed the custard and cooked it sous vide at 179.6 F for 40 minutes, making sure to agitate the contents of the bag several times throughout the cooking process. Afterwards, I poured it into my blind-baked crust and let it cool to room temperature. Again, like the creme brulee, the custard was delicious and was at least this time, thicker and more viscous, but it was in no way a solid curd fit for a lemon tart. And again, like the creme brulee, I then proceeded to put it into an oven until the custard reached temperature. It set beautifully. What exactly is going on? Is there some sort of physics involved in a hot oven that produces results that can't be replicated sous vide? Should I reserve sous vide for custards meant to remain liquid (e.g. creme anglaise and ice cream bases) while traditionally baking more firm custards (e.g. creme brulee and fruit tarts)? Or am I simply not cooking the custard sous vide long enough?

I just buy a termocouple from sper scientific that i saw in your book modernist , but it came not with the right probe ! , the people at sper csientific they said they don't no which probe is good for souvide and if its resist to the heat of the oven??? , so i made my research my self , and i find the model 800064, type K of sper scientific, but i am still not sure if its the right probe i should have for souvide or if its resist inside a 400 F oven, because the wire of the probe seem to be in plastic ! , like the one in modernist at home page 67 can you help me tank you.

Traditional Sour Pickle recipes using salt brine. The brine helps to keep pathogenic bacteria at bay while encouraging the growth of beneficial bacteria which metabolize the vegetable‚’s natural sugars and produce lactic and acetic acids as a by product. I'm thinking I could speed up the process by using a Lactic Acid 80% Liquid Solution and a Whipping Siphon. Would this work and does anyone have a recipe?

Sorry, first post, so forgive me if I stumble through this a little. I'm in a bit of a pickle! I've managed to get my hands on a second hand, ex-laboratory, Grant immersion circulator and am very keen to set it up for Sous Vide. However, I've been reading conflicting advice on whether I should use it for the purpose I intend. On the one hand, there's advice to say that it absolutely should not be used for food prep - the risk of contamination from carcinogens/pathogens is too high. http://www.ebay.com/gds/Immersion-Thermal-Circulators-for-Sous-Vide/10000000006157618/g.html On the other, that if I give it a clean with household bleach, then vinegar and then 70% alcohol (I presume surgical spirit would do the trick) then it should be fine. http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html I've cleaned the unit with the above - using an old toothbrush to get into the crevices with the various cleaning agents as much as possible. However, even the best cleaning is unlikely to reach every single part. Does anyone have any advice on how paranoid I should be? How should I go about giving the unit a thorough clean? Any authoratitive view would be hugely appreciated. As I say, I'm in a bit of a pickle. Thanks!

Hello, I am a concessionaire at the State Fair of Texas. Every year we have a fried food competition and coming up with new ideas is getting more difficult. I just wanted to ask all of you if you have any fried food ideas that are not common and would be fairly easy to mass produce. (Our fair is 24 days long and if you win the fried food competition, I would expect to serve around 15,000-20,000 servings. Any suggestions would be awesome. (If you have ideas that are not fried but perhaps cryo-poached in Liquid Nitrogen, that if fine as well.) It just needs to be something different and taste good. Some of my previous entries have made national and world news.

Hi, I've been having problems with one step in this recipe: fried egg foam (volume 5 page 212) I can make the egg white mixture. I'm not sure about step 5: "blend in fried egg whites". Does that mean mix it in or actually put the whole mixture in a blender. I blended mine and the problem comes when I transfer the mixture to my siphon; it refuses to be dispersed. I think it's all the small chunks that get stuck at the tip. Any other ideas? Maybe get a new isi cream whipper?

I stopped by the coolest Asian market yesterday and came home with some really great stuff. And for the first time I found fresh black chickens! I know they can dry out pretty quick if you are not careful (its a lean bird). So anyone have tips or techniques to allow this ingredient to really shine? Thanks, B

The improvised wet bulb thermometer on 1-322 is described as having the thermometer probe wrapped in cheesecloth, but the picture on the bottom right of the page seems to show the probe inserted in a blue sponge. Does anyone have experience with using an improvised wet bulb thermometer? Did you use cheesecloth or a sponge? Thank you.

In the recipe for omelettes in MCAH, p. 147, the shown pan seems to have a plastic or rubber handle. Does anyone know what model this pan is? I've found it a bit hard to find oven-safe pans with that sort of handle.