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Sauternes "Caviar"


msacuisine

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As part of a celebratory dinner tonight, I am going to take my first stab at spherification. I've been putting it off for a while because, while the technique has become something of a modernist cliché, I've never experienced it before and I want my first time to be special. lol.

So I thought, what would I most like to explode in my mouth, which lead me to the idea of Sauturnes. I have a 2007 Premier Grand Cru that I think will fit the bill nicely.

Though I'm set up for both, I'm think reverse spherification is the way to go here.

Does anyone have any advice on making this work?

Any ideas on what to serve with it either as an accompaniment or a beverage pairing?

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Can't help you on making but it sounds wonderful -- but you're doing it tonight? Not giving yourself much room for error!

I've never had spherical Sauternes, but the wine is delicious with creamy blue cheeses and with foie gras and with ham -- especially with crispy ham fat attached. You could make little mouth poppers of a couple of those with some round wine balls to go with. Or a salad sort of thing with a couple of those elements? For some reason I'm thinking of little American/southern style biscuits with crispy fat ham and Sauternes balls.

Maybe someone else will come along!

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II just got home from work, and I'm afraid that I might have missed this bus already...As a new practitioner of most things "modernist", I was hoping to help out, and maybe learn a thing or two.

If, however, there's still time to help, I'll do what I can!

I'm a lifelong professional chef. If that doesn't explain some of my mental and emotional quirks, maybe you should see a doctor, and have some of yours examined...

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Thanks for the responses!

So due to a beginner's mistake -- I forgot to buy bottled water, and Tucson has some of the hardest water in the country -- I had to forgo the caviar for tonight and postpone it for another day. Fortunately, the rest of the meal came off well. Hope to have my first caviar-making (and consuming) experience in the very near future. Still planning on using the Sauternes as the base. Blue cheese would be a great match, and I'm trying to figure out a way to work that flavor profile in in a way that will work textually with the mouth feel of the subtle membranes of the caviar bursting with a gush of complex, botrytized, honey-lusciousness.

So there's still plenty of time for brainstorming contributions and creative collaborations.

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My biggest piece of advice when it comes to the modernist stuff would be to not wait until the day you need it to try a new technique. There can be variables that cause problems with many of the techniques and, frankly, some of them just aren't as good as they sound and look. Always do a test run with unfamiliar techniques and ingredients or new ideas far enough ahead to be able to make adjustments or come up with another plan. It's a lot of fun and most of it isn't as difficult as it sometimes sounds but there is a learning curve to some of it. Spend some time playing around with the ingredients and techniques just for fun.

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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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