Cooking with "Modernist Cuisine at Home" (Part 1)

[Volition]

substitution question - Spicy cucumber pickles baumgardner brand

I'm in Australia & am not too familiar with Spicy cucumber pickles baumgardner brand required for the special MC sauce. As I don't think its here. I looked at Leo's supermarket & could not find anything obvious

.

There were polish style but not knowing the original product I'm unsure.

any suggestions?

[Doodad]

Any idea if calcium citrate can be subbed for sodium?

Also, where does one find that rigid vacuum container shown for infusing items?

[slkinsey]

I also tried something interesting with the sous vide vegetable stock, of which I made a quadruple recipe. Once I strained out the stock I looked at the huge pile of vegetables and thought, "surely there has to be some more flavor in there." So I bunged it into the pressure cooker, barely covered it with water and pressure cooked it for 30 minutes at 15 PSI. Kind of like a vegetable remouillage. The resulting "second stock" wasn't as deeply flavored or delicate as the first stock, but it was pretty damn good.

Very interesting - so did you actually use the second stock "as is" or are saving it use with/in addition to water for your next batch. I also made a quadruple batch of the vegetable stock and should last me a while. But next time, I think I'll do as you did and then reserve the second stock to add as water or in addition to water next time. Todd in Chicago

I haven't used it yet, actually, but I did drink a cup of it with a little salt when there was too much to fit into my storage container. It was delicious and perfectly able to stand on its own as a broth.

In other news, I made a turkey version of the jus gras last night for Thanksgiving dinner. Wow. Amazing. The turkey jus was already incredible, and emulsifying in some roasted turkey fat blew the doors right off.

[HowardLi]

I also tried something interesting with the sous vide vegetable stock, of which I made a quadruple recipe. Once I strained out the stock I looked at the huge pile of vegetables and thought, "surely there has to be some more flavor in there." So I bunged it into the pressure cooker, barely covered it with water and pressure cooked it for 30 minutes at 15 PSI. Kind of like a vegetable remouillage. The resulting "second stock" wasn't as deeply flavored or delicate as the first stock, but it was pretty damn good.

Very interesting - so did you actually use the second stock "as is" or are saving it use with/in addition to water for your next batch. I also made a quadruple batch of the vegetable stock and should last me a while. But next time, I think I'll do as you did and then reserve the second stock to add as water or in addition to water next time. Todd in Chicago

I haven't used it yet, actually, but I did drink a cup of it with a little salt when there was too much to fit into my storage container. It was delicious and perfectly able to stand on its own as a broth.

In other news, I made a turkey version of the jus gras last night for Thanksgiving dinner. Wow. Amazing. The turkey jus was already incredible, and emulsifying in some roasted turkey fat blew the doors right off.

That would be teh full-fledged multi-recipe jus gras and not just the thickened drippings, correct?

[slkinsey]

Exactly. I made MCAH-style pressure cooked brown turkey stock with the bones and scrap from a large turkey (I cook the white and dark meat separately and with different treatments). Then I had bought some turkey drumsticks and a ton of turkey neck pieces very cheaply. These I ran through my grinder, aggressively browned and pressure cooked with turkey stock, shallot and thyme per the MCAH recipe. Reduced that down and got around a quart of turkey jus. For service, I heated some rendered turkey fat and liquid lecithin together and emulsified it into some warm turkey jus using a stick blender.

[rotuts]

were the bones you initially used raw, or from a cooked turkey?

I bone out a turkey and then bag the white and dark and then used to chop of the carcass and roast it then simmer that with veg for a stock.

Id like to move all this to the PC but would have to brown the carcass mass first I guess if I wanted 'brown' turkey stock.

brilliant idea to go back to the store the Day After to get necks/wings on sale for further treatment!

[slkinsey]

Bones were raw. I took all the meat off the bones of an 18 pound turkey. Cured the dark meat and meat-glued it into a terrine with rosemary and chestnuts. Brined and meat-glued the white meat into a cylinder with a center of mushroom and turkey liver mousse. Cooked the above at different temps sous vide. I roasted the bones separately.

To be clear, I had bought the neck bones, etc. a week or two before Thanksgiving, ground them up, browned them and chucked it all in a bag in the freezer for later use in making jus. In fact, I highly recommend this if you have the freezer space. Then you can make jus "to order" very easily whenever you might want some (probably more versatile to do with chicken than turkey, but you would have to use wings or something similarly collagen-rich instead of necks).

Edited November 23, 2012 by slkinsey (log)

[pbear]

So I should be OK to refrigerate up until the fold-in-mascarpone step? Thanks

Sorry, forgot about the mascarpone. I'd say you can break the recipe in either place, but I'd go ahead and prep it through Step 9. It's the Comté that I think won't take being melted and reheated well. As mentioned, there are two ways to do that. Either will work.

[Crouton]

Does anyone think there is a particular, culinary, reason why the buffalo wings are shallow fried? Would the result be the same if deep frying were substituted for that step? I'm making them tonight and my deep frying setup is already there....

Just a guess here but Cooks Illustrated's "chicken fried steak" recipe's big "secret" was when they switched from deep frying to shallow frying, that shallow frying let more steam escape which allowed for a much crispier texture that stayed crispy far longer, even when topped with gravy.

[Doodad]

Carrot soup is done. Chicken wings are in the brine and the carotene butter is in the fridge. Working on kimchee now for the pressure cooked brisket tacos.

[HowardLi]

Does anyone think there is a particular, culinary, reason why the buffalo wings are shallow fried? Would the result be the same if deep frying were substituted for that step? I'm making them tonight and my deep frying setup is already there....

Just a guess here but Cooks Illustrated's "chicken fried steak" recipe's big "secret" was when they switched from deep frying to shallow frying, that shallow frying let more steam escape which allowed for a much crispier texture that stayed crispy far longer, even when topped with gravy.

Because the greater hydrostatic pressure from the deeper oil kept more water from boiling?

[mayland]

I made the sunchoke variation of the pressure caramelized vegetable soup, and it was delicious (fresh baking soda this time). For the liquid, I used PC brown chicken stock I'd made with an ad hoc collection of roasted chicken carcass, meat and skin scraps, vegetables and aromatics. Stock itself was excellent, then infused it for another 20 minutes under pressure with the sunchoke peels before using it in the soup. This made a surprisingly flavorful artichoke stock; I'd be happy enough to stop there and just have that as a soup. Pureed with the browned sunchokes, it was over the top: great mouthfeel from the gelatinous stock, very artichokey, and deep, savory flavor (didn't need to add any butter at the end). I'll watch the salt next time, and not sure what I'd like to garnish it with. This + dutch oven bread, cheeses, cured meats, and fresh pomegranate was a fun weekend project and felt like a feast.

Edited November 25, 2012 by mayland (log)

[mayland]

I also tried the microwave fried herbs technique, but the plastic wrap started melting almost immediately. Used Saran Wrap, which explicitly states that it's microwave safe (with the proviso that it should not be in contact with hot fats, as is the case here), and from background reading appears not to be the PVC type. I wonder what type specifically the MC folks use that works. Also will try this just on a plate. Not sure why the plastic wrap should even be necessary, and it's not explained in the book.

[FoodMan]

Tried the egg pasta dough recipe to use up leftover turkey and made some delicious tortellini in brodo. The dough worked great and had the perfect texture for working with and eating. This might be my favorite pasta dough recipe yet. The broth is pressure cooked with some turkey carcass, skin, a few short rib bones and aromatics. Filling included some stuffing, bacon and parmesan cheese.

I know I'm late to the party with this epiphany, but yesterday was the first time I've tried SV cooked burgers. I ground them with a little frozen butter from all chuck beef. Cooked them per the instructions to rare and then seared them on cast iron for a few seconds. I cannot believe I've waited this long to try that. Perfect in all respects.

Sent using Tapatalk 2

Edited November 25, 2012 by FoodMan (log)

[rotuts]

WoW. !!! a new thing to think about!

in the distant past, I took the remains of carefully BBQ'd wings and took the meat off and made with chinese wonton wrappers the best 'tortellini' ive ever made

this renews my interest in that subject!

thanks!

[rotuts]

WoW. !!! a new thing to think about!

in the distant past, I took the remains of carefully BBQ'd wings and took the meat off and made with chinese wonton wrappers the best 'tortellini' ive ever made

this renews my interest in that subject!

thanks!

[Todd in Chicago]

Tried the egg pasta dough recipe to use up leftover turkey and made some delicious tortellini in brodo. The dough worked great and had the perfect texture for working with and eating. This might be my favorite pasta dough recipe yet. The broth is pressure cooked with some turkey carcass, skin, a few short rib bones and aromatics. Filling included some stuffing, bacon and parmesan cheese.

I know I'm late to the party with this epiphany, but yesterday was the first time I've tried SV cooked burgers. I ground them with a little frozen butter from all chuck beef. Cooked them per the instructions to rare and then seared them on cast iron for a few seconds. I cannot believe I've waited this long to try that. Perfect in all respects.

Sent using Tapatalk 2

I don't think I've made a non-SousVide hamburger at home in about 2 years!! My wife loves those burgers! Todd in Chicago

[eternal]

Made the pistachio pesto tonight. Meh. I agree with an earlier poster. I'll go back to just throwing pine nuts or walnuts into a blender with raw garlic, cheese and basil.

[Judy Wilson]

Hello!

I have another answer from the team:

I’m finding it very difficult to find Yukon Gold potatoes in Australia. Does anyone know of a substitute available in Australia?

Look for waxy potatoes. If you can find them, La Rattes, Charlottes, Belle de Fontenays, and Maris Pipers are good alternatives.

[slkinsey]

The only MC of MCAH fail I've had thus far has been pressure-cooking grits in a canning jar. With Anson Mills' antebellum coarse white grits, the product is still not tender even after 25 minutes at 15 PSI. I will have to experiment with seeing whether I get a better result by either pre-soaking the grits or longer cooking times. Either way, however, diminishes the utility of using this pressure-cooking method, because I'm not sure what's so great about it other than getting to tender in a significantly shorter timeframe. It's a bit disappointing because I had assumed, probably erroneously, that when the MCAH recipe called for "coarse grits" they were speaking of something like the Anson Mills antebellum coarse grits. Something like Quaker regular grits hardly takes more than 20 minutes without pressure cooking, so surely this can't be what the recipe is designed around. Considering that Anson Mills recommends cooking their antebellum coarse grits 90 minutes (!) if they are not presoaked, I wonder what length of time I should be looking at for MC/MCAH pressure-cooking if I want to cook from dry.

[Yariv]

This might be a silly question. If I don't have a canning jar can I use, for example, an oven bag placed on a trivet in the recepies?

[Yariv]

recipes grrr

[jmolinari]

I had a make another batch of Mac and cheese sauce as i like to have it in the freezer. i decided to try the ratio in MC@H instead of MC (which by the way is written very obtusely, with ratios referencing one of the cheeses as 100%, but not the other, but anyhow....)

I used 93% of cheese weight in beer and water, and it basically made cheese soup. I used a gouda and cheddar. Luckily i had enough gouda to add to the "soup" to make it into a sauce. The final ratio of cheese/liquid i ended up with ? 61%, which is, i think, exactly what the ratio MC calls out.

I now have about 3 quarts of cheese sauce. HAH!

Anyone use 93% liquid for their M&C?

[Chris Hennes]

Farro with Chicken, Artichokes, and Black Olives

This is one of the "risotto" variations in the book: I really enjoyed both the flavors and textures here. I skipped the chicken and served this as a completely vegetarian dish.

[bhsimon]

Farro with Chicken, Artichokes, and Black Olives

This is one of the "risotto" variations in the book: I really enjoyed both the flavors and textures here. I skipped the chicken and served this as a completely vegetarian dish.

Awesome, Chris. You've inspired me to give Modernist Cuisine at Home risotto a try.