Cooking with "Modernist Cuisine" (Part 3)

[FoodMan]

Foodman, perhaps your beef is tougher than mine I made a special order from my butcher - requested a dry aged brisket. Mine is from a yearling, grass fed and corn finished, and aged 36 days. I have never cooked brisket before. When I inspected this cut of meat, it did not seem as if it would turn out tough if I were to simply panfry it.

And yes, both the briskets were done at the same temp, at the same time. All 3 pieces of meat were sitting next to each other.

Wow. That is a crazy tender brisket Keith. Well that certainly explains why the MC one was so mushy. You cooked it twice as long as the other one more or less. I would cut the time when cooking this particular brisket if I were you.

[rob1234]

Hi All:

Cook the Perfect Hamburger Sous Vide (3-86)

I did most of this last night. I Sous Vide for 1 hour at 135F and then deep fried at 190C (as that is the hottest my deep fryer would go) for 1 minute. I did not have any liquid nitrogen so missed that out. But the burger was dry and more like medium, not what I was expecting.

So what was the biggest mistake?

1. 2 more degrees in the Sous Vide – cannot believe that

2. An hour in the Sous Vide versus ½ hour – could be but time is not supposed to matter

3. Not using liquid nitrogen – hmmm unsure

4. Not having the oil hot enough - 232C must be close to flash point

The outside crunch was great and 240g of burger seemed light and tastey (it was my own grind) which was a win. Just a bit dry. You can see a full post with pictures on my blog.

I have asked on the MC site what I did wrong and if I get a response I will post here.

On a positive side, cooking hamburgers the olde fashioned way in a grill pan I used to only turn once when the meat looked cooked on the side of the burger. But after reading the MC (best to turn often) I turn every 2 minutes x 4, and then cheese and cover for 2 more minutes and it was perfect.

Cheers

Drew

I've done this recipe a few times now. Instead of using liquid nitrogen I just put it in an ice bath and then in the fridge until ready to eat. When frying them from fridge temp it stays rare and is not dry. Best burgers I've ever made. My fryer only goes to 375F so takes 2-3 minutes vs 1 min at 425F or whatever it is.

[Kerry Beal]

Tried the Aerated Mango Sorbet today - no joy. As soon as the vacuum chamber released it fell right back down. Didn't matter how cold the mixture was.

[LoftyNotions]

Tried the Aerated Mango Sorbet today - no joy. As soon as the vacuum chamber released it fell right back down. Didn't matter how cold the mixture was.

Hi Kerry,

If you do this again, try shutting the vacuum off a little earlier. I think once vacuum is high enough for the product to boil it's all over. There seems to be a very fine line between success and failure.

Larry

[Keith_W]

I will be making 3 recipes from MC this weekend.

The first was the Mac and Cheese. I concur with everybody else - this is simply head and shoulders above anything else I have made. You can really taste the cheese. Cooking the Macaroni in just enough water to set it is also a good idea - the starch in the water contributes to the flavour and the thickening. Downside - despite ignoring the instruction to use high heat and turning the heat down, whilst constantly monitoring and stirring, the bottom still got stuck and burnt. I had an unpleasant scrubbing session with iron wool later. The next time I attempt this recipe, I will probably increase the ratio of cheddar to gouda, or perhaps use a more interesting cheese, like Manchego. I deliberately left off the salt so that I could season at the end, which was a good thing. Perhaps the MC team's cheddar was less salty than the one I bought - because if I used the salt quantity recommended by the recipe, it would have turned out too salty.

The MC team reckons the yield is 4 portions. Fat chance - my wife and I demolished it. She was licking her lips and asking for more!

Like a few others in this thread, I garnished it with breadcrumbs and finished it under the broiler. I think this took away from the dish. It does not need it - simply follow the recipe as detailed in MC, but season to taste. That is all it needs.

The sous-vide duck leg confit is in my SV machine right now. After the curing stage, I took it out and had a sniff. WOW IT IS AMAZING! I am really looking forward to this one!

The last recipe I will be doing will be the sous-vide lentils, to go with the duck leg confit. I will not be doing the foie gras faux-cherry parfait, instead substituting fresh cherries as garnish.

Wish me luck ... photos to follow later.

PS: I love this book!

Edited August 26, 2011 by Keith_W (log)

[FoodMan]

Looking forward to those lentils. I am planning on doing those soon as well.

I recently made a variation on the Grapefruit Cured Salmon and the Caramelized Carrot Soup. Will post on them when I get the photos downloaded.

[Kerry Beal]

Tried the Aerated Mango Sorbet today - no joy. As soon as the vacuum chamber released it fell right back down. Didn't matter how cold the mixture was.

Hi Kerry,

If you do this again, try shutting the vacuum off a little earlier. I think once vacuum is high enough for the product to boil it's all over. There seems to be a very fine line between success and failure.

Larry

Sadly didn't seem to matter when I turned off the vacuum - as soon as the pressure equalized everything dropped.

[Keith_W]

Here are a few pictures.

Modernist Beef Brisket (inverted recipe) - smoke 7 hours then sous-vide 72 hours. As per my comment above, it came out homogenously tender, like canned meat. You can even see it.

Modernist Macaroni and Cheese - using Sodium Citrate and Iota Carageenan as the emulsifying agent instead of bechamel. Utterly awesome.

Not from the MC book - this is what I had with the Mac & Cheese. Herbed field mushrooms with truffle oil. Recipe is very simple - mix 50mL truffle oil with 1 tsp dijon mayonnaise, then season with truffle salt to taste. Brush on field mushroom caps, then broil until done. Sprinkle chopped herbs on top.

The smoked quail was my own recipe - tunnel boned quail filled with mushroom stuffing. The lentils were from the cookbook - but minus the agar agar sherry vinegar, and no foie gras faux cherry parfait. I used real cherry for the lentils, and the guests agreed that it was provided a useful contrast.

[Keith_W]

OK, here is the MC duck confit. The advantages of this recipe over the traditional method are:

1. No need to buy large quantities of expensive duck fat

2. The flavour is sealed in the sous-vide bag.

3. You save money on the power bill. You power a relatively economical sous-vide machine for 48 hours, instead of an oven.

Here is the duck, just out of 48 hours of sous-vide. I saved the juices for the lentils, which were NOT cooked the MC method. I actually quite like my normal method - it is not much inferior to the MC method (detailed above), and it is easier.

Skin is fried to produce a crispy finish. Those who have been paying attention to the book will note that I skipped the step that calls for bonding duck skin to the meat with Transglutaminase.

Plated dish.

Summary: the flavour of this dish is simply incredible. It came out really intensely flavoured - you can really taste the herbs and spices that went into the dish. The texture was fork tender, and so rich. My friends and I were full from eating one rather puny looking duck leg each.

To those thinking of attempting the recipe: DO IT!!!! It is well worth it!

[FoodMan]

Beet-Citrus Cured Salmon

I've seen Jamie Oliver use beets as part of a cure for salmon and it looked really good. So, I used the recipe for the Grapefruit Cured Salmon from MC and omitted the grapefruit. Instead I used one grated beet. The result was great. The beet gave it a lovely wacky color. The flavor of both the citrus and the beets came through as well and complimented each other perfectly. I am glad I stuck with the MC shorter curing time, otherwise I think it would've come out too salty. I served it with a chive yogurt sauce, marinated yellow squash (should've sliced those thinner), red onions, and rye bread.

Caramelized Carrot Soup

A lot has been said about this one already, so I'll summarize by quoting Keith from the duck confit post: "DO IT!!!! It is well worth it!". Both my wife and I loved its deep flavors and beautiful texture. I did juice the carrots, but did not centrifuge them. I also omitted the additional carrot butter (or butter). The soup was delicious and rich already and that would've been overkill IMO. I garnished it with lightly whipped cream flavored with grated fresh ginger, lime juice, ajawan seeds and a little salt. This might be our Turkey Day soup this year instead of our regular pumpkin soup. OR would the same recipe made with pumpkin or butternut squash yield a comparable result? Other than maybe cooking it for a shorter time in the pressure cooker, would any other changes be needed? It might be worth experimenting with...

[jmolinari]

In researching ramen broth I was looking at MC, and noticed that there is a broth recipe in the freeze-dried section of book 2.

It's safe to assume that the recipe for the broth is equally valid if i don't freeze-dry it, correcT?

[FoodMan]

In researching ramen broth I was looking at MC, and noticed that there is a broth recipe in the freeze-dried section of book 2.

It's safe to assume that the recipe for the broth is equally valid if i don't freeze-dry it, correcT?

Sure, I don't see why not.

[jmolinari]

Me either, but i didn't know if there were recipe changes to account for what might happen in the freeze-drying process (flavor changes/losses), as i didn't read that chapter

i'll give it a try

[MarkIsCooking]

I did it. I pulled the trigger and ordered my copy. Amazon says it arrives in about a week. For those of you that have been studying the thousands of pages, can you give me your TOP 3 THINGS to immediately check out when my collection arrives?

Who knows how long it will take me to get through it all. Your top 3 list would be much appreciated. Thanks!!!

---

Edited September 4, 2011 by MarkIsCooking (log)

[Robert Jueneman]

I did it. I pulled the trigger and ordered my copy. Amazon says it arrives in about a week. For those of you that have been studying the thousands of pages, can you give me your TOP 3 THINGS to immediately check out when my collection arrives?

Who knows how long it will take me to get through it all. Your top 3 list would be much appreciated. Thanks!!!

---

Certainly the entire Sous Vide discussion, three times if necessary!

The wine discussion was also very informative.

The fundamentals -- sautéing, braising, roasting, wok cookery, pizza grilling on a super hot oven -- all very useful, and lots of new insights.

Bob

[Chris Hennes]

Mark, just do it. Start at page 1-1. You can sleep when you are dead.

[avaserfi]

Mark, just do it. Start at page 1-1. You can sleep when you are dead.

So true. It seems so many people want to skip to 'the best part', but each volume is loaded with information even when it seems like the information might be common knowledge they MC team tries to go above and beyond, often succeeding.

Start from the beginning and enjoy the entire set.

[Robert Jueneman]

Mark, just do it. Start at page 1-1. You can sleep when you are dead.

So true. It seems so many people want to skip to 'the best part', but each volume is loaded with information even when it seems like the information might be common knowledge they MC team tries to go above and beyond, often succeeding.

Start from the beginning and enjoy the entire set.

Agreed. But try to keep your head from hitting the books after midnight, as you wouldn't want to to get sweat marks on a page! :-)

[mgaretz]

And be sure to have your anti-hernia belt on when you try to lift the box!

[rotuts]

Ive never seen anything packed so well. of course the price covers a custom made box and filler boards which I saved.

and yes it needed a big stamp on the box: may cause back pain

[pep.]

Since Amazon UK has postponed delivery of my MC order to October, can anyone confirm for me that this confit cure mix recipe is an accurate scaling of the MC one (or at least that the salt to meat ratio is correct)?

[paulpegg]

Since Amazon UK has postponed delivery of my MC order to October, can anyone confirm for me that this confit cure mix recipe is an accurate scaling of the MC one (or at least that the salt to meat ratio is correct)?

Yes the scaling is correct for 200 g of salt. There is a typo. There should be 20 grams of coriander seeds, not 20 seeds.

Good luck,

Paul

[pep.]

Since Amazon UK has postponed delivery of my MC order to October, can anyone confirm for me that this confit cure mix recipe is an accurate scaling of the MC one (or at least that the salt to meat ratio is correct)?

Yes the scaling is correct for 200 g of salt. There is a typo. There should be 20 grams of coriander seeds, not 20 seeds.

Good luck,

Paul

Thanks, Paul! I assume the books include a suggested amount of the cure mix per kg of meat? I'm a bit wary because the 41.5 g per duck leg seem to be too precise to be simple per item estimates.

Greetings,

Peter

[avaserfi]

Since Amazon UK has postponed delivery of my MC order to October, can anyone confirm for me that this confit cure mix recipe is an accurate scaling of the MC one (or at least that the salt to meat ratio is correct)?

Yes the scaling is correct for 200 g of salt. There is a typo. There should be 20 grams of coriander seeds, not 20 seeds.

Good luck,

Paul

Thanks, Paul! I assume the books include a suggested amount of the cure mix per kg of meat? I'm a bit wary because the 41.5 g per duck leg seem to be too precise to be simple per item estimates.

Greetings,

Peter

If I recall correctly, the recipe in MC calls for a scaling of 18% cure and 100% duck. So the legs probably weighed about 230.5 grams in the linked post.

[paulpegg]

Since Amazon UK has postponed delivery of my MC order to October, can anyone confirm for me that this confit cure mix recipe is an accurate scaling of the MC one (or at least that the salt to meat ratio is correct)?

Yes the scaling is correct for 200 g of salt. There is a typo. There should be 20 grams of coriander seeds, not 20 seeds.

Good luck,

Paul

Thanks, Paul! I assume the books include a suggested amount of the cure mix per kg of meat? I'm a bit wary because the 41.5 g per duck leg seem to be too precise to be simple per item estimates.

Greetings,

Peter

If I recall correctly, the recipe in MC calls for a scaling of 18% cure and 100% duck. So the legs probably weighed about 230.5 grams in the linked post.

Peter is correct. The MC recipe is for four legs weighing 1.6 kg with 288g of the cure which is 18% of the weight of the duck or 72 grams/leg. From the experience of the person in your link I would guess that you could go down quite a bit and still have a great result.