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Cooking with "Modernist Cuisine at Home" (Part 2)

Erik Shear

By Erik Shear
in Cooking

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Steve Hiller

Steve Hiller

Posted
Posted

It's been a while since I've cooked from MC@H, but with dinner tonight I decided to make the @H version of the potato purée, in particular the one where you infuse the skins in cream. I made a number of modifications to the recipe: I used red-skinned potatoes of some kind rather than Yukon Gold, I cut the amount of butter in half, and I infused the cream sous vide at the same time I was retrograding the potatoes rather than doing it in a separate step. The result was fantastic: still rich, though not quite as in-your-face as the full-butter version, and with a really terrific potato flavor.

 

Have any of you had problems with the texture of the purée being almost grainy? I haven't been sending it though a tamis because I don't have one but I find it to have a grainy mouthfeel. It's probably because I'm skipping that step but thought I would bounce it off all of you.

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Okanagancook

Okanagancook

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Is there a problem with the pork belly brine in the pork belly BLT recipe? The brine is made up of 1 L water,  70 g salt, 30 g sugar, and 30 g insta cure #1. I don't have a lot of experience with insta cure, but that amount is way more than other recipes that I've seen call for.

I have not made that recipe but it does sound like a lot of instacure.  In "The Art of Charcuterie" by the CIA They say 113 g of instacure #1 to cure 45.36 Kg of meat.  This is only 2.49g/Kg meat.  The recipe calls for 1.5 Kg meat which would be 3.74 g instacure.  Could be a typo and meant to be 3 grams.  Hope that helps.

cheers

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Dave W

Dave W

Posted
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2.5 kg meat plus water

30 g insta cure=1.875g nitrite(at nominal .0625)

1.8g65/2500g=750ppm

USDA recs 200ppm max so this should be closer to 7g pink salt

This will also bring the total salt closer to a bacony 3% instead of a salt bomb 4%. It could go even lower.

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Okanagancook

Okanagancook

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Plus the belly is brined for 72 hours after being sealed so would be a bit salty I would think also at 4%.  Wouldn't you want an equilibrium brine at the lower end....like 2%??

The pork belly is cooked at 149F/65C for 36 hours in the water bath so I think they are trying to get the texture firm and colour to be reddish like bacon for the B in BLT.  

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Dave W

Dave W

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I haven't tried this recipe but on paper it seems wrong even considering that as a goal as appropriate levels of nitrate or any smoke really will be plenty red.

It seems kinda lame to lean on bacon mayonnaise with real bacon in it for bacon flavor if you're bothering to cure some pork already. I think 2 hours of hot or 8 of cold smoke before the SV bath would e way better tasting AND more in theme with the idea of this sandwich.

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Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

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Is there a problem with the pork belly brine in the pork belly BLT recipe? The brine is made up of 1 L water,  70 g salt, 30 g sugar, and 30 g insta cure #1. I don't have a lot of experience with insta cure, but that amount is way more than other recipes that I've seen call for.

 

 

There's no problem with it from a safety standpoint.

 

If one follows USA regulations for an immersion cure as a guide, up to 2 pounds of sodium nitrite per 100 gallons of water is permitted for a 10% pick-up level (200ppm nitrite)

 

So, up to 5 ounces of Insta-Cure #1 per gallon of water or 38 grams of Insta-Cure #1 per liter of water.

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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  • 9 months later...
BadRabbit

BadRabbit

Posted
Posted

Went back to this book this weekend after a year or so since trying anything (I use the big brother MC books much more often). 

 

Pork Adobo:

 

 

I made the recipe as written only I used pork shoulder instead of belly. I served with Momofuku buns with Chang's Ginger Scallion Sauce, Quick Pickles and some bottled Hoisin. I also had some kimchi that some guests put on their buns. They were absolutely spectacular and I'm not sure I'll ever make Chang's pork for this purpose again. 

 

Few notes:

  • 45 Minutes was too long for shoulder and it was falling apart. I'll cut down to 35 next time.
  • Hoisin was completely unnecessary. The pork already had tons of "dark" flavors like those in hoisin and didn't need more.
  • The ginger scallion sauce and quick pickles were excellent at cutting through the rich adobo.
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  • 5 months later...
Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

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Quote

Unlike a similar recipe in Modernist Cuisine, this jus gras emulsion isn’t stable when reheated because it doesn’t use the same emulsifiers.

 

I use sunflower lecithin softgels in lieu of liquid soy lecithin.

It reheats nice and smooth.

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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  • 3 months later...
Shelby

Shelby

Posted
Posted
On July 16, 2016 at 10:37 AM, Okanagancook said:

Shelby, you may like this site to help with an introduction to your new arrival. Also, I always visit the threads here before making a recipe just in case there are issues like the pork belly above.

http://modernistcuisine.com/mc-recipes/

 

 

Thank you!!!  I am about half-way through the book.  I have marked countless recipes I want to try.  I can't wait!

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First eG Blog-Winter 2011

 

Second eG Blog-Summer 2015

 

Third eG Blog-Hunting season Birds and Deer 2016, 2017,2018,2019, 2021, 2022

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  • 5 months later...
haresfur

haresfur

Posted
Posted

I have a question on the MCaH Crustacean Butter. They instruct to remove eyes and gills then only use the shells. I was interested in trying it with prawn heads and shells but removing  inner bits of the heads seems like a pain and a waste of flavour. Everyone seems to use whole heads for stock. Are there some off-flavours that are extracted when you use fat rather than  water? Why the difference? Anyone tried making prawn butter using their method?

 

I went ahead and made stock this time, but maybe next time. Or maybe I'll try a liquid-liquid extraction to concentrate the stock taste into butter.

It's almost never bad to feed someone.

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