Cooking with "Modernist Cuisine" (Part 3)

[Msk]

Successful Pastrami Attempt! Thank goodness because after 10 days of waiting, It could have been quite a letdown. I liked the pastrami (as did my wife and Dad) and the smokiness plays nicely with the sweetness of the brine. I am a long way however, from giving Katz's a run for its money.

Thanks for all the help from those who went before me.

Mike

[EnriqueB]

Hi, I would appreciate some help from those of you that have made the Mushroom Ketchup (6-217). I've already grabbed most ingredients, but really don't get the instructions for the third section (steps 3 to 7). One ingredient is "Mushroom broth, from above", but the previous steps do NOT produce a broth, unless there is some missing "horizontal line" somewhere above. Should all ingredients in section 3 be combined and simmered together, from "Crimini mushrooms, thinly sliced", to "Freeze-dried cofee powder", as the recipe seems to imply (and then where does the "mushroom broth" comes from?)? Or rather the simmering is to be done only with the mushrooms, malt vinegar and the dark ale, to produce the "mushroom broth" than is then blended with the rest of the ingredients?

[Chris Hennes]

When they say "above" in that case, they are referring to a completely separate recipe, for a pressure-cooked mushroom broth. I don't have the book on me at the moment, but the recipe is in there.

[LoftyNotions]

Mushroom broth is on page 5-14.

[EnriqueB]

Thanks, Chris and LoftyNotions. That was my suspicion, but wasn't sure as that breaks their "standard" (whenever they refer to a different recipe they pointing to the corresponding page, and when they say "from above" they rather refer a previous section in the same recipe).

[avaserfi]

I made the tomato confit (5-62;6-179) and then used it to make the brown veal stock (2-300; 6-11).

The tomato confit amounts to an exceptionally good dried tomato. I would certainly make it again, especially if I have access to an overage of tomatoes. I found it was easier to work with fleshier varieties and got a better yield from them as well.

The veal stock was very straight forward and is full of flavor along with being velvety smooth and extremely rich. I need to decide what to do with it (it will be a while before I get to have more veal stock on hand). Does anyone have any suggestions? I haven't seen any recipes that call for veal stock in MC.

[TheDieselboy]

hello

i live in brooklyn but was out of town today until around midnight tonight. i wanted to make the modernist cuisine mac and cheese for the 4th. i have carrageenan iota but didnt have sodium citrate. i googled all morning before my flight from from seattle and couldnt find anywhere in nyc that carried it, tho i did find a reference to "sour salt" which i think i can use in place of the sodium citrate? can anyone shed light on whether or not this is a viable replacement for sodium citrate? dont want to spend $$$$$$ on crazy imported cheese only to super fail the result.

thank you!!!

damian

[Sharif]

i live in brooklyn but was out of town today until around midnight tonight. i wanted to make the modernist cuisine mac and cheese for the 4th. i have carrageenan iota but didnt have sodium citrate. i googled all morning before my flight from from seattle and couldnt find anywhere in nyc that carried it, tho i did find a reference to "sour salt" which i think i can use in place of the sodium citrate? can anyone shed light on whether or not this is a viable replacement for sodium citrate? dont want to spend $$$$$$ on crazy imported cheese only to super fail the result.

The sodium citrate seems pretty important for keeping the emulsion stable (see 4-223 and &roid's disappointing results without it).

As far as I know, sour salt usually refers to citric acid, not sodium citrate (but make sure!). Upthread, I posted a way to make sodium citrate from citric acid but you probably don't need to make it separately/in advance. You should be able to simply substitute 7.45g anhydrous citric acid and 9.77g baking soda in place of the 10g of sodium citrate in the recipe. There will be a fair amount of carbon dioxide that bubbles off when you combine everything, but that's basically the only difference between the two methods.

- Sharif

[lame username]

avaserfi

Freeze your veal stock in icecube (or mini-muffin, etc.) trays, then pop them out and store in a vacuum or zipper-lock bag in the freezer. Depending on your trays, and how you fill them, you'll have 2 or so tablespoons of stock ready to add to soups or sauces which will elevate them above the ordinary.

[lame username]

Silly me; I thought I'd try my first shot at spherification making an amuse-bouche for my July 4th BBQ (family only, good guinea pig time, usually). I thought I'd try the summery take on familiar Insalata Caprese with Tomato Water with Basil Oil served in mozzarella cups. I originally wanted to try to make balsamic caviar for those who wanted a touch of vinegar, but decided that would be too ambitious for a first attempt.

No centrifuge at my house. Luckily found a pointer to McMaster-Carr 100 micron filter bags somewhere in the forums a few weeks ago. The output is not clear as in the centrifuged version, but at least I get to try it.

Tomato water made from by BIL's homegrown tomatoes.

Basil oil.

The day before the party I used Algin and Calcic from the Experimental Kit Texturas for the tomato water and bath, and made the basil oil. I planned to use a 2 1/4 tsp. yeast measuring spoon for the spheres (wanted a bit smaller bite than 1 tablespoon), and molded Ciliegine cut in half and softened in hot water on the back of it to hold the spheres for service.

Mise Tomato water, measuring spoon, small syringe for trial with 18g needle containing basil oil, Calcic bath is out of photo to left, and water rinses to right. Slotted spoon is in my hand as I forgot to put it down to take the photo.

I was afraid the spheres would continue to gel if made too soon; I was just beginning to try to form them when everyone arrived 15 minutes early. Kids and dogs underfoot, someone asking every other minute "where should I put the so-and-so?". I made 4 miserable looking blobs then quietly gave up and quickly put everything away in the refrigerator. My MIL brought 2 unlooked-for appetizers so I just made myself a cocktail and smiled.

On vacation this week, quiet day at home, time to try again.

Not very spherical but the basil inclusion is fairly nice and round.

Much better, though the basil oil is wonky. I almost like it better this way, doesn't look so much like an eyeball.

I'll practice a bit more when my husband gets home this evening so he can try one.

At least the brisket turned out great with Klink's Dry Rub and 17 hours in the smoker.

Edited July 5, 2011 by lame username (log)

[gdenby]

I've been looking at various filter bags and sieves, centrifuges not being in my budget. It looks like the results from the filter bag are pretty good. Did it take "forever" for the basil oil to drain thru?

[avaserfi]

Picture of the tomato confit:

After making the veal stock I had a little of the tomato confit left over, so I made some veal Parmesan. I used reverse spherification on a mozzarella mixture, served with some of the tomato confit and then a little tomato water which was leftovers from the confit.

Edited July 6, 2011 by avaserfi (log)

[lame username]

gdenby

At about 30 min. it looked like 1/2 the basil oil was filtered. Since I could tell it wouldn't be perfectly clear from the get-go; at that point I needed to clear things up for the party the next day and manually squeezed the rest through. The thinner tomato water from earlier in the day did take about 3 hours - not quite "forever" - frustrating, but tolerable. Especially since the filter bags were $4.95 or less each.

[Carlton]

Damian, L'Epicerie in New York carries Sodium Citrate along with a bunch of other stuff you may find handy. I have ordered products from them before but I live in L.A. http://www.lepicerie.com/customer/search.php?substring=sodium+citrate&in_category=

[mkayahara]

To those of you who have done the aerated mango sorbet: Are you all using chamber vacs for it? I just tried it with my Foodsaver (placing the jars in a canister) and couldn't get the sorbet base to expand at all. I'm wondering if the problem is that the Foodsaver doesn't pull a strong enough vacuum, or I didn't whip enough air into the base in the blender... or something else entirely.

[nolnacs]

Has anyone tried making the pregelatinized starch paste on 4.29? After cooking the tapioca and water, I ended up with a hard, not quite translucent rubbery mass. It didn't resemble the picture in the book at all. I tried blending it with the rest of the water in my blendtec which worked to some extent, but now the consistency is closer to a syrup than a paste. Any thoughts about what I did wrong?

[nolnacs]

I tried the starch paste a second time. This time I made sure that the solution was evenly spread out across the bag so that I didn't end up with huge clumps. It ended up looking much clearer that way and but the end result was the same - consistency of thick syrup. Is the 400 grams of water too much? I blended the water with the cooked "paste" in my blendtec - can you over blend the paste?

[LoftyNotions]

To those of you who have done the aerated mango sorbet: Are you all using chamber vacs for it? I just tried it with my Foodsaver (placing the jars in a canister) and couldn't get the sorbet base to expand at all. I'm wondering if the problem is that the Foodsaver doesn't pull a strong enough vacuum, or I didn't whip enough air into the base in the blender... or something else entirely.

I use a chamber sealer for the mango sorbet. I don't think the Foodsaver pulls a strong enough vacuum. While I don't specifically watch the vacuum numbers when I make it, if I remember correctly it ends up in the 95 percent range. Aeration and very cold temperatures also seem to be important. It seems to me that if the sorbet gets to the point that it's boiling when I pull a vacuum that the resulting sorbet falls again.

I've only done it twice, but there seems to be an "art" element in making it. I also had better results when I froze my jars.

Hopefully others will weigh in with their methods. It's really nice when successful.

Larry

[lesliec]

To those of you who have done the aerated mango sorbet: Are you all using chamber vacs for it?

I've tried in my FoodSaver. Complete failure - it just doesn't have the suck, to coin a phrase ...

[mkayahara]

Thanks, Larry and lesliec for confirming my suspicions. Time to open a new savings account for the chamber sealer, I guess!

[Msk]

I haven't had a chance to try my foodsaver, I will next time. I used my chamber vac too. However, I can't seem to get this to work with any other fruit other than mangoes yet.

Mike

[LoftyNotions]

I haven't had a chance to try my foodsaver, I will next time. I used my chamber vac too. However, I can't seem to get this to work with any other fruit other than mangoes yet.

Mike

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that this works with mangoes because of their high pectin content.

Larry

[LoftyNotions]

Larry

ETA: Sorry, MSK I see you were part of that original conversation. I didn't help a bit.

Here are some links for others like me who don't remember it the first time around.

Posts Here, Here, and here.

[FoodMan]

July 4th MC Barbecue

I made pretty much everything from MC for the 4th of July barbecue. I've been smoking ribs, brisket and pulled pork on my smoker/griller for years so I had a good base of comparison. In a nutshell, everything was fantastic. The MC method of smoking for a long time at a low temperature for a long time (7hrs) and then cooking sous vide for a few days (48-72 hours) is an excellent approach. I had tried SV then smoking a while back, both for shorter periods of time than MC and the result was good, but not as great as this time around. The long smoking time infuses tons of smoke flavor into the meat without cooking it. Then the wet SV cooking environment makes for exceptionally moist and juicy bbq. You can certainly see the thick smoke ring on those spare ribs. I would say that this is by far my favorite way of cooking ribs now.

Here's a list of all the recipes I made:

- Spare Ribs

- Pulled Pork

- Lexington BBQ Sauce (the one with a bit of ketchup), for the pulled pork

- Kansas City BBQ Sauce, for the ribs. Everyone loved this peppery tomatoey sauce.

- Pickled red and pearl onions, used mainly in the potato salad

- White Coleslaw. This is so easy, light and refreshing. Adding tart apples to the savoy cabbage works brilliantly with the pulled pork. I did let the cabbage sit in the salt a bit longer than they recommend and then squeezed out excess moisture

- Potato Salad. This is so damn good that I could eat it all by itself. Fingerling and small red potatoes, 65C egg yolks, creme fraiche, pickled onions...seriousl, seriously good. Even our picky neighbor loved it although I am not sure she knew exactly what were those lovely creamy yellow half-orbs she was eating.

The main downside is the capacity of my sous vide tub. The ribs and 4 lbs (in 2 pieces) of pork shoulder do not fit at the same time with enough "wiggle" room. So I had to do the pork first, remove it and then do the ribs. That's a lot of planning ahead effort.

[Anna N]

Can anyone confirm that there is NO LEMON/NO LEMON JUICE/NO LEMON ZEST in Sous-Vide Lemon Curd (p. 304 of Kitchen Manual)? PLEASE?