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Are these products different? I purchased citric acid at William Sonoma but not sure my cheese recipes are turning out quite right. A little too sour. Sould I be buying sodium citrate instead?

To clarify the instructions, does "cook in convection mode at 62C" mean to cook with 0% steam?

Attempted to make scrambled eggs from page 144. We bought a "isi" brand "cream profi whip" .5L in size based on books recommendation. The manual said not to use warm foods in the siphon. We went ahead and put the warm eggs into the siphon and what came out was more "runny/liquidy" than foamy. Wondering if anyone has experienced the same and if there is a work around?

I just made the Raspberry Panna Cotta (from the At Home book), but would love to make some Panna Cotta without the Raspberry flavor. Can I just replace the Raspberry Puree with the same amount of Heavy Cream and keep the rest of the recipe the same? Or will that throw off the amount of other ingredients (specifically the Gelatin) needed?

Only $24.99, guessing that's because they're a little eye-sore. Better than wallet sore for me! http://bit.ly/h6nAyL. We have a store in Seattle and they have them in stock so I didn't even have to pay for shipping.

Has anyone experience with the Sous Vide Supreme water oven?

Some of the posts on Caramelized Carrot Soup mention that amounts seem to be off, and one mentions an errata sheet, unnecessary for the second printing. I just received my copy of MCAH (a Christmas present), and it is the first printing. Where can I find the errata sheet for the first printing? I am eager to try some of the simpler recipes.

I've seen some members are from Seattle, WA as well. I just go the MC set for Christmas and want to stock up on Sodium Citrate, Activia, etc. Anyone here want to go in together for a better on ingredients?

I know that Gluten is the key ingredient to Phyllo Dough. Are there any MC techniques that could help me make a Gluten Free Cream Horn for people with Celiac?

I'm familiar with using Instacure #1/Prague powder #1/pink salt #1 to cure pork belly to make bacon, as the sodium nitrite will act as a preservative and also help with the proper color. And as I understand it, Instacure #2/Prague powder #2/pink salt #2 should not be used for that, as the sodium nitrate added to the sodium nitrite is more for things like salami that cure for a long time. Neither product is sold near where I live, but they are available online. However, Morton Tender Quick is commonly available in stores, and doesn't cost a lot. In the amounts specifically recommended by the company, they market it as being usable essentially for the same things Instacure #1/Prague powder #1/pink salt #1 would be used for, among other things, and Morton specifically says it works fine with pork belly to make bacon. So it seems like it would be great for making homemade bacon. Except that the Tender Quick ingredients list is salt, sugar, sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate, and propylene glycol. In other words, Tender Quick seems a lot like Instacure #2/Prague powder #2/pink salt #2 plus the sugar and salt one would also typically use when curing, and that leaves me wondering about it. Do the science whizzes there have any feel for whether it makes sense to use Tender Quick instead of Instacure #1/Prague powder #1/pink salt #1?

I was using the kitchen manual from mc at home the other day and I forgot to wipe the pages correctly. I was being super careful with seperating them, but the paper had other intentions. Now pages 99,100,101 are either ruined or damaged. Is there a way to replace them other than rebying the book?

Hi-- I just bought a 8qt Fagor pressure cooker (My first), after getting the cookbook yesterday. I tried to make the pork belly adobo, and after 45 minutes it was completely burnt. I used to think I was a pretty good cook. What did I do wrong? My stove is the regular 6 burner gas viking. thanks

Hi all, and thanks for advice/thoughts in advance. I am planning a starter for a New Year Dinner party (each member of the family is contributing a course each). Being proudly resident in Scotland (although not native!) I am planning an unusual take on Haggis and Neeps. I've been practising my haggis gyoza/potstickers and they are turning out quite well. What I would like advice on is my accompaniments - I would like to create a foam based on HP/brown sauce - for non-UK readers this is a fruity/spicy/vinegary sauce which is very similar in consistency to tomato ketchup - maybe slightly thinner. In Edinburgh fast food joints, "sauce" is brown sauce diluted with water and/or vinegar. I want to try and create a foam with this kind of flavour. Has anyone had any experience of creating a foam with e.g. tomato ketchup (which I would expect to behave fairly similarly) or have any thoughts on the need for additives (e.g. lecithin). I have a Mosa cream whipper. Thanks a lot, Richard

We hosted a modernist food event for the members of Sector67 a maker/hacker space in Madison,WI last weekend and it was a great success. I will share more about it along with links to pictures shortly. We made 40 hamburgers in the "perfect hamburger" style with the souse vide and liquid nitrogen, and the deep fryer. We made creme anglaise souse vide (YUM!), and liquid N2 ice cream from souse vide base custard. We did souse vide whole racks of ribs cooked at 175 F for 16 hrs ( a bit too tender, fell apart trying to flip them). We finished them with sauce on the modified charcoal weber grill with the added circular metal reflector/ heat concentrator that MC describes, and did that work well, wow! Other members had home made souse vide cookers cooking salmon, as well as long cooked condensed milk in the souse vide that turned into something like caramel with the texture of flan (a bit weird). One member infused Pom blueberry/pomegranite juice into watermelon chunks using a vacuum chamber. He submerged the chunks then pulled a heavy vacuum and then released the vacuum, this forced the dark juice deep into the fruit, it was dark purple and really good. Also, in the fruit area we also filled a cooler with various fruit and a chunk of dry ice and let it sit overnight, it was amazing! My favorites are blueberries, raspberries and pineapple. But the cuties (tangerines) were great, as were blackberries. I didn't think that the grapes or bananas were as good, but maybe it was just lack of carbonation. We have a follow up even scheduled for February 17th. I will tell more when we get the pictures up on the Sector67 website. But think about doing one of these, we had a great time.-Chris

We are having some family over for the Christmas holidays and we are going to head down to our caravan. My mum asked me if I could sous vide steak for one of the meals. I wanted to use one of the marinade recipes out of MC at home. If I marinaded them for the time said in the book could I wipe of the marinade and then vacume seal it. In the description it said "acids in the marinade also can change food texture, and not always for the better, so don't leave them on for longer than suggested." by wiping off the marinade, would it stop the acids ruining the steak or would it continue to change the meat. As well as the acid ruining the meat, it also said that "Each of these recipes includes a good bit of salt, either directly or in one of the liquid ingredients. As such, these are actually flavored brine's." so would wiping the marinade also stop the brining process and keep the flavor. My other question is whether I can freeze the steak vacume sealed for one week before sous videing it. or would that just ruin the meat. I dont have my own vacume seeler but my butcher can do it for me. so can I marinade meat in advance and wipe of the marinade and then freeze it for a week and then sous vide it? if you dont understand something about this post I can answer your questions thanks in advance and please answer fast. ps I am 14 and love modernist cooking.

I have both MC and MC at Home books. I was doing the math on the ratio of the Coffee Creme Brûlée recipe in MC at Home, page 362. It calls for 53% scaling of egg yolk to liquid. However, the weights are 80g. of egg yolks to 200g of infused cream which works out to 40% scaling. Am I missing something? I made the recipe and it was a bit runny to my liking. Separately, in terms of ease, why not simply seal the entire contents in a single bag, cook sous vide, then distribute to ramekins for cooling and setting? Besides easier sous vide preparation, this would allow the benefit of insuring proper distribution and mixing immediately after cooking. Just a thought.

Hi! I have a question, I cooked sous vide a pice of eye of round, first time I did it, I packed it with a home Food Saver, which does not kmakes much pressure, and I cooked it for about 18 hours at 130 F, was very tender and juicy and pink, just how I like it, the second time I cooked packed it with a professional chamber vacuum machine, for 60 seconds, and I guess was packed under a lot more pressure, cooked it also for about 18 hours, but this time at 135, it came out very tender too, but this time released probably 4 times more liquid, meet was pink, but texture was dry. Can 5 degrees make such difference? Of you think it could be the much higher pressure of the chamber vacuum machine? Thanks!

Has anybody tried making a dark roux in a pressure cooker? Can this be done without scortching do you think? I have made roux in the oven before and started wondering about this topic.

Has anyone made ice cream base in a souse vide? Or creme anglaise? I have a recipe for ice cream that calls for cooking at 82 C. But i want to cook ribs at 80 C. Would 80 C work for the base? Or is that too low?

After cooking several recipes from MC&H (and a few from the big MC) I noticed that the results are a bit more vinegar-y than everyone expects ”” including me. White wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, sherry vinegar ”” it's just too much of vinegar in all the recipes we tried. The only possible explanation that readily jumps to mind is that it is because I live in Russia and use European vinegars which might be more pungent than their American counterparts. For my red and white wine vinegars I use the Kƒ¼hne brand from Germany, my sherry vinegar bottle is Carbonell from Spain. Do my European colleagues feel the same about vinegar? Have anybody tried to figure out proper scaling for European vinegars? Anton.

I apologize if this is a dumb question. I regularly cook pork ribs sous vide for extended periods of time (24 hours @ 150F+), I tend to use a rub that includes a fair amount of sugar (I have tried a few different kinds), but I've noticed that when cooked for that length of time that I lose a lot of (ie. almost all of) the sweetness. The heat (cayenne, various types of chili pepper) tends to mitigate a lot as well, but the pungent spices (pepper, celery seed... especially the damned celery seed) tend to stick around pretty well. Is this a common problem? Is there a particular type of sugar that tends to survive high temperatures for an extended duration or is there a fundamental concept that I'm missing? Thanks.

As we get close to Hanukkah, I can't help but think that there must be a better binder for them than the traditional matzoh meal and egg... something from my modernist pantry that would make the pancakes themselves crispier on the outside AND more well done on the inside. Maybe tapioca starch? I'm still new enough to using the MG techniques that I'm not confident that I can build my own recipe. Does anyone else have one, or have any suggestions?

Does anyone have experience using a laser cutter to cut or modify food? I will be participating in a "food hacking saturday" at the Madison, WI makerspace this weekend. I will be working with sous vides, centrifuges, LN2, dry ice, modified charcoal grilling, ultrasonic baths, etc...all per MC. My question is: Does anyone have ideas for foods that we could cut with our laser cutter. I have heard that cutting rice krispy treats produced less than ideal results, as the edges were burned and blackened. I would think that thinner and colder would be better for the food to cut. Maybe laser etched creme brulee? Also lower energy dense food would likely burn less. What do you think?

Alright so I am thinking about bottling and selling my own hot sauce. The base is butter and whenever it cools it solidifies. It's not that big of a deal, you can just throw it on whatever you're cooking and it melts right over top everything. But, I would really like it to keep in a liquid form. I know if I used clarified butter, that will increase the shelf life and I wouldn't have to refrigerate it. But, is there anything I can add to it to keep it in a liquid form?? Happy Valley Chow

Howdy, Are any MAP-Pro torches available in the market food/kitchen safe? I was browsing at Lowe's and saw the "BernzOmatic TS8000KC Map-Pro Kit", which looks pretty similar to the model that the MC team uses in their books (the cylinder is a different brand). Any comments? This would only be used in the kitchen...