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"Heston Blumenthal at Home"

dougal

By dougal
in Cookbooks & References

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Rob Babcock

Rob Babcock

Posted
Posted

If the US and UK versions are the same I think I'll have to pick this one up! I hate to get myself a gift this close to Xmas, though! :raz::rolleyes:

  • 1 month later...
Toufas

Toufas

Posted
Posted

The pork belly was really good. Not melt in the mouth tender, but it had its own character and it was miles better than anything else I have tried apart from confit. I will try other recipes next that call for longer cooking times.

I had it in a 5% brine with some ras el hanout and the first slices accompanied my "blt" today.

qQXan.jpg

  • 6 months later...
jfrater

jfrater

Posted
Posted

Toufas: I know it isn't sous vide or even highly technical cooking - but if you want to eat the most tender pork belly you have ever had (including melt in the mouth skin!) try making vietnamese thit kho heo trung.

Here is the recipe I use (with a few mods from my Vietnamese boyfriend's mother) with a video to show you how to make it. It is probably the first food I have ever cooked that I have craved for regularly after one taste. It is astounding.

http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipe/28/Braised-pork-with-egg-and-coconut-juice-(thit-heo-kho)/

Here is one I cooked.

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Broken English

Broken English

Posted
Posted

I think that there is little Xanthan gum because Heston doesn't much care for it, due to the gummy texture it can have used in too large textures, or so he says in the Fat Duck book.

This is a great book, though I think the "At Home" title is a bit of a misnomer.

James.

  • 3 weeks later...
Jon Tseng

Jon Tseng

Posted
Posted

Thought people here might find this interesting.

I was a bit bored yesterday and so I started indexing all of Heston's articles in the Guardian (a UK newspaper) from 2001-03. These cover the period when the duck was a ** restaurant, and a lot of dishes like egg and bacon ice cream, nitro green tea sour etc were being developed. I've always thought these articles were one of the great troves of Heston's material which no-one ever uses because they are buried away in various bits of the Guardian website. Like the Heston at Home stuff they sit probably a bit between normal everyday cookery and restaurant cooking in terms of complexity.

Anyhow to cut a long story short it took a bit longer than I thought but I whacked up the full index on my blog this morning - both article index and index by individual recipe (nearly 200 of 'em).

Hope you enjoy!

J

More Cookbooks than Sense - my new Cookbook blog!
adey73

adey73

Posted
Posted

Ah now I get you!

Well done, I have the orginals stuck in a book somewhere.

I know I am not the only one who learnt to cook following these some years ago.

  • 2 months later...
gingerpeachy

gingerpeachy

Posted
Posted

Am planning to make the slow roast rib of beef for Christmas dinner, and confused on timing. The Guardian printed a recipe that called for 5 hours cooking and one hour rest, but I see elsewhere 20 hours of cooking called for.

Is it the case that cooking the beef at such a low temperature means that once it's reached a certain point, it can be held in the oven almost indefinitely?

It would be so much easier to stick in the oven on Xmas eve, as that way we could eat at something approximating lunch time.

Also, for those who have tried this, any tips on serving? I have some concern about plate temperature vs meat temperature. Many thanks.

ChrisTaylor

ChrisTaylor

Posted
Posted (edited)

20 hours? It takes between 3 and 5 hours to hit the specified temperature. Go by temperature, not time. That 3-5 hour thing? That's a guide. It will not take 20 hours. After 20 hours you'll be a fair way towards biltong. If I was serving it for lunch I'd put it in the oven, after the sear, at about 8am.

Edited by ChrisTaylor (log)

Chris Taylor

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gingerpeachy

gingerpeachy

Posted
Posted

Thanks - would have been awful to ruin a great piece of meat. My timing issue was really about having it up to room temp before putting in oven. Maybe I'll leave a not for Santa :)

inductioncook

inductioncook

Posted
Posted

20 hours? It takes between 3 and 5 hours to hit the specified temperature. Go by temperature, not time. That 3-5 hour thing? That's a guide. It will not take 20 hours. After 20 hours you'll be a fair way towards biltong. If I was serving it for lunch I'd put it in the oven, after the sear, at about 8am.

What temperature are you aiming for and what temperature are you cooking at? With multihour cooking, you should be able to adjust the time to begin from a cold state if that's better for you.

inductioncook

inductioncook

Posted
Posted

If you have an iPad, there is a nimble calculator/timer for low temperature cooking app by Polyscience that would help you calculate time based on both room temperature and refrigerator temperature.

jmolinari

jmolinari

Posted
Posted (edited)

If you have an iPad, there is a nimble calculator/timer for low temperature cooking app by Polyscience that would help you calculate time based on both room temperature and refrigerator temperature.

Wont help. The software is based on a product immersed in water which has a very different heat transfer rate than air in an oven.

Edited by jmolinari (log)

See what I'm cooking on Instagram  |  Curedmeats.blogspot.com  

 

inductioncook

inductioncook

Posted
Posted

"Wont help. The software is based on a product immersed in water which has a very different heat transfer rate than air in an oven."

True, but it will give an approximation and an idea of the asymptotic curves involved. And if it's a steam oven the results, over a long time, will be very close, and over many hours in a conventional oven that will develop high humidity the results should not be so far off. And since it's also a timer, one could check the temperature as it goes along and adjust based on the difference between what it projects and what has actually happening.

gingerpeachy

gingerpeachy

Posted
Posted

Argh! Just went to calibrate my meat thermometer and discovered that my lowest oven setting is 170F, when I needed to put the beef in at 140F (60C).

From reading around, I understand this may mean I can't achieve the Blumenthal result. Anyone have any ideas?

Keith_W

Keith_W

Posted
Posted

Yes, get an oven thermometer. Prop the door of your oven open. Adjust the heat of your oven until the oven thermometer gives the desired reading. Note that there may still be hot and cold spots in your oven.

There is no love more sincere than the love of food - George Bernard Shaw
gingerpeachy

gingerpeachy

Posted
Posted

Yes, get an oven thermometer. Prop the door of your oven open. Adjust the heat of your oven until the oven thermometer gives the desired reading. Note that there may still be hot and cold spots in your oven.

OK. And keep the door propped open for the whole cooking time?

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