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Cooking with "Modernist Cuisine" (Part 4)


Twyst

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Yes, you are correct for the short ribs: 3 days refrigerated / 3 months frozen. The dehydrated garlic can be kept in an airtight container overnight, but it will turn soggy if left any longer. Dehydrated beef can be kept shredded in the fridge for a couple of days but is best when fried right before serving.

Sam, I had good luck keeping the garlic for about a week by adding some silica gel packets to an airtight container.

Chris Hennes
Director of Operations
chennes@egullet.org

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hello,

Newbie here! I received the MC for christmas and have been cooking my way through it since. I have been reading attentively your comments and enjoyed thorouly the pictures.

I would like to ask if anyone tried to make the potato beignet (4-174).

I failed miserably at getting a workable dough. It was very liquid and I could not get it shaped as a ball. The end result was horrible. I tried to fry a handful of them and ended up with oil-soaked chips, not the doughy ball shown on the pic. The only thing I can think of is that I was using another brand of methocel as I did not have the Methocel E4M recommended by the recipe. Would that have made a big difference?

Thank you for your feedback!

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  • 3 months later...

How well does the Mac and Cheese keep? I mean, I plan on boiling the pasta and stirring in the sauce at the last minute but that's not to say everyone will eat at the same time. Do people keep leftovers of this or do you do what I've done in the past: that is, cook the pasta to order and stir the cheese sauce in when it's done?

Chris Taylor

Host, eG Forums - ctaylor@egstaff.org

 

I've never met an animal I didn't enjoy with salt and pepper.

Melbourne
Harare, Victoria Falls and some places in between

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How well does the Mac and Cheese keep? I mean, I plan on boiling the pasta and stirring in the sauce at the last minute but that's not to say everyone will eat at the same time. Do people keep leftovers of this or do you do what I've done in the past: that is, cook the pasta to order and stir the cheese sauce in when it's done?

It doesn't keep very well...it sets up fairly quickly. You can loosen it back out with some water, but it's not nearly as good.

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I disagree. I often make a double batch of the sauce & freeze one of those for later. It thaws & remelts well. Think other people have claimed it lasts a week in the fridge or two months in the freezer.

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  • 5 months later...

Has anyone made the potato salad? What did you think of it? Furthermore, how does it stand up to storage -- i.e. being made in the morning, parked in the fridge and then served at lunchtime? If the deep-fried skins would get soggy I guess I could substitute them with some good quality salted potato crisps.

Chris Taylor

Host, eG Forums - ctaylor@egstaff.org

 

I've never met an animal I didn't enjoy with salt and pepper.

Melbourne
Harare, Victoria Falls and some places in between

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Somewhere in MC or maybe MC@H I read about a pressure cooker canning jar method of rendering lard. I can't find it. All I have at hand at the moment is MC@H and MC vol 4.

Could someone share the recipe and tell me where it's shown?

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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Somewhere in MC or maybe MC@H I read about a pressure cooker canning jar method of rendering lard. I can't find it. All I have at hand at the moment is MC@H and MC vol 4.

Could someone share the recipe and tell me where it's shown?

Put your fat in canning jars along with water and the addition of 0.4% (of the weight of the fat) of baking soda. Pressure cook 4 hours and decant off the fat. The aroma will be strong at first, so leave the jar open to cool.

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Somewhere in MC or maybe MC@H I read about a pressure cooker canning jar method of rendering lard. I can't find it. All I have at hand at the moment is MC@H and MC vol 4.

Could someone share the recipe and tell me where it's shown?

Put your fat in canning jars along with water and the addition of 0.4% (of the weight of the fat) of baking soda. Pressure cook 4 hours and decant off the fat. The aroma will be strong at first, so leave the jar open to cool.

Thanks! Which volume is it from?

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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Somewhere in MC or maybe MC@H I read about a pressure cooker canning jar method of rendering lard. I can't find it. All I have at hand at the moment is MC@H and MC vol 4.

Could someone share the recipe and tell me where it's shown?

Put your fat in canning jars along with water and the addition of 0.4% (of the weight of the fat) of baking soda. Pressure cook 4 hours and decant off the fat. The aroma will be strong at first, so leave the jar open to cool.

Thanks! Which volume is it from?

Volume 3, page 144.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have 6 extra whole prime strip loins laying around at the minute that need to be used. I'd like to experiment and make pastrami with a couple of them. Would I significantly reduce the time cooked sous vide to only a couple of hours since this is already a pretty tender cut, or should I just cook it like the book suggests for shortrib/cheek/brisket/whatever?

Edited by Twyst (log)
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FWIW, @Home (p.317) says the perfectly melting cheese slices can be held up to 10 days in the refrigerator or 2 months in the freezer. This recipe is a little different from the MC one, as it includes no iota carrageenan, so the latter might actually hold longer (less available water), but I think you can take the @Home recommendation as a safe minimum. Especially as I generally find the storage notes in the book to be quite conservative.

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I just made a batch of the mushroom ketchup. It's interesting. Quite different to the Blumenthal one. I think I prefer it, although it's hard to fairly review this sort of thing without some meat. The lack of, er, chunky bits is a positive, though.

Chris Taylor

Host, eG Forums - ctaylor@egstaff.org

 

I've never met an animal I didn't enjoy with salt and pepper.

Melbourne
Harare, Victoria Falls and some places in between

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I haven't tried the MC version yet but I like the pieces of pickled mushroom in the Blumenthal version. The thing I didn't like about the Blumenthal version, done exactly as written, was that it was way too salty for me. I'll have to give the MC version a try.

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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  • 4 months later...

Most vegetables I have cooked sous vide have been a disappointment.  Carrots, for example.  However tonight I tried corn on the cob (3-289) 60 deg C for 15 minutes and am now a believer.

 

I trimmed the corn and otherwise left it whole.  Can anyone tell me why MC says to cut the corn to 3 inch lengths?

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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  • 1 year later...

Well, it's been four years since I last posted about the Modernist Cuisine burger bun recipe. I have made them a couple times since, and have finally dialed in the techniques. This time I stayed more carefully with the MC proportions, and I actually have the correct size ring molds now. I also ignored the suggested proofing time and simply let them proof until they filled the ring molds. Man these are good buns. The texture is spot-on perfect. When reheated on the grill they develop a crisp but super-thin shell layer and a fluffy, absorbent interior that yields to a bite immediately with no hint of chewiness. Hard to imagine a better burger bun, in my opinion. The finished burger can be seen in the Cooking with Rick Bayless's More Mexican Everyday topic. Nothing Modernist about the rest of it I'm afraid!

Chris Hennes
Director of Operations
chennes@egullet.org

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  • 9 months later...

Hello guys,

 

Ive been lucky enough to be able to find this forum discussing modernist cuisine book. Its been 4 years since last post in this discussion so I am kinda pessimistic if I get any feedback at all. Past few days Ive been browsing forums, trying to gather anything concerning Mushroom swiss burger - unfortunately, there is not much to find except Chris Henesses take on this recipe which Ive found very helping but he decided to skip all the veges such as sauted maitake mushrooms, compressed heirloom tomato and smoked lettuce.

 

If you guys are interested, I would like to ask you few questions concerning this recipe. Any kind of information is very appreciated. I am looking forward to share the knowledge with you.

 

MUSHROOM SWISS BURGER - QUESTIONS

 

1. Hamburger bun

- it seems to me that if you stick to instructions, it makes a perfect bun (as Chris mentioned). Has anybody had an opportunity to compare this and Heston Blumenthals bun ? If so, which one do you prefere?

 

2. Sautéed Maitake mushroom

- what are your thoughts on this condiment? did you like it in your burger ? is it worth trying ?

- are you supposed to take off the stem or just to take the whole thing and make 1,5cm thick slices which are then just sauteed in beef suet with salt (if so for how long?)

 

3. Compressed tomato

- what do you think about it ? Had anybody done a side by side comparison of compressed and uncompressed tomato ? Does it concentrate the flavor or just helps with texture?

- my thoughts are that the corner stone would be to use seasonal produce (it doesnt make sense to compress bland winter tomato)

- I suppose that chamber vacuum sealer is the only option here, I have this foodsaver V2860, but if its needed, I would ask my friend who has access to chamber sealer to help me with this one

 

4. Smoked lettuce

- did you guys like it ? is it worth the effort?

- Ive seen one of Mr. Nathan Myhrwold's comments that chamber sealer is not mandatory. Ive tried this using my food processor V2860 with this jar attachment but didnt work. Even hot tapped water doesnt "boil" in this jar when the vacuum is applied - I suppose that pump isnt strong enough to do the job. Have anybody tried this using chamber sealer? 

- have you tried to add any additional liquids to marinate lettuce in ? I mean some spicy condiment could be interesting, the lettuce would not only be smoked but also spicy - it could serve as a substitution for using jalapenos in burger itself

 

5. Hamburger patty

- can anybody elaborate on cryofrying vs grilling the pattie ? I mean this seems to be the hardest part and I would like to know if its worth to do all the job with liquid nitrogen

- what blend of meat do you prefer ?

 

6. Milkshake

- has anybody tried to compare the milkshake version from MC at home and MC ? Those are two different approaches. One asks for skimmed milk and the other one for raw milk. MC uses blend of skimmed milk, strawberries and fructoes whereas MC at home uses raw milk with protein isolate and deepfrozen raspberry powder.

 

7. Onion rings

- if anybody tried this one, what do you think ? did you like it?

 

 

This seems to be really long list of questions, but any kind of feedback and info concerning your experience will help me alot. I am 25 year old student who loves to cook and push the limits, but I still have badget in mind, so I cant afford to try an learn all or my own. Therefore I am asking for your help.

 

I am really looking forward to share the knowledge with YOU.

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  • 4 months later...

I few days ago I decided I wanted to try the BBQ Pork sandwich, fried pickles and beans from Vol 5 of MC.

 

It seems I can't get pork shoulder with the skin on here in Minnesota so the butcher suggested I go with a steak on the bone.  Spoiler: It worked just fine!  Here it is all bagged up

20160811_165852.jpg

 

That went into the 150 F water and I pretty much forgot about it for 3 days.

 

The next day I decided to make pork stock for the first time, I've made MC Chicken stock many many many times but this was the first time with pork. 

This is for the beans, and it requests brown stock which we prefer.  Here is the pork and veg before it went into the oven.

20160812_125123.jpg

We have a Thermador oven and it has a roast setting which worked great in browning all this.  It then went into a pressure cooker with tyme and rosemary for 2 hours.

 

The result looks like this after it's been strained:

20160814_160627.jpg

 

 

My wife reduced pomegranate juice for me to make pomegrante sryup, and I forgot to take any pictures of that.  It was funny since the day before she heard Lyun on the splendid table talk about making your own and Alton Brown has a recipe for it in his later years book.  She just reduced juice and wow it's potent!

 

I then realized the beans required Tomato Confit to which my wife joked about needing tomatoes (there were a few kgs of them on the kitchen table waiting to be processed from the latest batch of the garden).

She skinned them all and I prepared them for the oven along with bayleaves, tyme, garlic, light corn syrup, and evoo.

 

20160814_101220.jpg

 

These spent time in the oven, I used the convection setting since I figured that would dry them faster and it sure did.  They were flipped over and dried until they were deep red.  

It was no fun removing the tyme from the tomatoes, I got what I could off and left the rest.  I sieved the oil and vacuum sealed that with the tomatoes:

 

20160814_141259.jpg

 

There is 75g of confit here, I made 1/2 the recipe.  Only 30g was required for the beans but this tastes great by it self so we're going to put it on bread.

 

Then I was ready for the bean sauce, take the stock, minced onions, confit, pomegranate syrup, mustard, scotch instead of bourbon, maple syrup (we only had class A),  and paprika instead of the pepper  combine and reduce.  This is what that looked like this:

20160814_164018.jpg

 

The beans were soaked over night, and pressure cooked for 25 mins.  Once things were cool enough the sauce and beans was combined and seals in a bag.  This was cooked sous vide for 1 hr at 176F and the result looked like this:

20160814_180601.jpg

 

Ok now it was time to make the fried pickles.  I had a heck of a time finding pickling cucumbers but managed to get some on Friday and they went into a bag with the long list of ingredients and spend a few days in the fridge.  They came out this evening and I pulled out 125g or so of them, here they are drying off before they go for a dip in the batter:

 

20160814_173732.jpg

 

The batter is Trisol from Modernist Pantry, water, AP Flour and some yeast - we used dry so for 1/2 a recipe it was 1g.  Note for those that make this if your pickles are small this makes more batter then you need.  125g is 1/2 pickles and 1/2 batter is too much, we'll make 1/3 or 1/4 of the batter next time.

20160814_172656.jpg

 

So the pickles went into the batter and then into the oil.

 

Back to the pork, it came out of the water before the beans went in (I only have 1 immersion calculator, the 2nd one I backed on KS 2 years ago is way way behind on deliveries) but this was all fine:

 

Here is what it looked like after 72 hours:

20160814_165922.jpg

 

It fell right off the bone, and was so easy to pull apart:

20160814_172119.jpg

 

The BBQ sauce was the Kansas City one because my wife picked it.  She doesn't like very acidic BBQ sauces (while I do) but even if this BBQ sauce had ketchup as the main ingredient the 15 other things I added made it amazing!  We used one of our own hot peppers in it which really elevated the taste, interesting it was most spicy when it first came off the heat, it mellowed out as it cooled and then was in the fridge.  Here's the BBQ sauce, it's stupid good just by itself!

 

20160814_172314.jpg

 

 

So I measured the pork and added an equal amount of BBQ sauce.  Mixed away and this was the result:

20160814_172650.jpg

 

And the final plate:

20160814_180716.jpg

 

We forgot the sherry vinegar at first so I wasn't as sure about the beans until I added some of it.  Then the beans became amazing!  The pickles are the best fried pickles we've ever had.  just the right amount of crunch and the zingy pop of the pickle.  My wife says I can make them whenever I want.  The bun is 1/2 because I found in past I need 1/2 bun at a time or the bread gets soggy.  It's a toasted bun and the meat just melts in your mouth.  I HATED pulled pork growing up because it was dry and inedible no matter how much BBQ sauce you put on it.  In Ivan Ramen's book on Ramen he has a recipe for slow roasted pork with fat.  I made that and thought the pulled pork was good but it needed a lot of BBQ sauce (which was from a bottle, albeit a good bottle).  This blows that pork out of the water!

 

I need to find something else to cook for 72 hours :)  I made the Turkey Leg Confit twice for T-Day and practice T-Day a few years ago and that was OMG off the charts good too.  We've had the sous vide set up for a few years now but I mostly have used it to cook chicken.

 

Anyway hopefully this helps anyone else that wants to make this, it's worth it.  If you do the beans don't forget the sherry vinegar. :)

Edited by Raamo
Fixed (log)
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@Raamo  

 

that's the first '7-bone' hunk of pork Ive ever seen !

 

I bet that blade meat  ( lower portion of the meat, tucked under the 'U' bone ) is delicious.

 

ask your butcher to see if there is ever a pork blade roast , then remove that central tendon and then

 

Yum Yum !

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2 hours ago, rotuts said:

@Raamo  

 

that's the first '7-bone' hunk of pork Ive ever seen !

 

I bet that blade meat  ( lower portion of the meat, tucked under the 'U' bone ) is delicious.

 

 

I kind of mixed it all together - it's all delicious :)  I don't cook pork like ever - in the past it was tenderloin or bust.  But I'll have to consider ways to experiment.   The recipe said to discard the excess fat, but there was little to none post cooking, I think most of the excess was rendered. 

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