Sourcing Supplies & Ingredients in Montreal

[fedelst]

As far as I am concerned, my Mettler P163N is just perfect for weighing anything to the milligram. You know when nano cuisine takes off, you are sure going to regret only being able to weight to the 1/10th of a gram.

Seriously, It may be a lab scale, but it is more reliable than most of the junque out there.

Here is the one that I like.  Available online in Canada from the site that Gabriel Lewis linked to upthread.  They ship quickly.  I like it so much that I actually bought a bunch for resale in my chocolate classes. 

The beauty of this unit is that is doesn't shut itself off in the middle of weighing things, if you set it in grams it stays in grams until you reset to ounces.  The one I used to have would shut itself off after a minute or so, always half way through weighing something, and when you turned it back on it defaulted to ounces, so you had to reset it every time.  It weighs up to 7 kg, so you can put your pot on it, add your sugar, tare, add your glucose, tare again...

←

[Kerry Beal]

As far as I am concerned, my Mettler P163N is just perfect for weighing anything to the milligram. You know when nano cuisine takes off, you are sure going to regret only being able to weight to the 1/10th of a gram.

Seriously, It may be a lab scale, but it is more reliable than most of the junque out there. 

Here is the one that I like.  Available online in Canada from the site that Gabriel Lewis linked to upthread.  They ship quickly.  I like it so much that I actually bought a bunch for resale in my chocolate classes. 

The beauty of this unit is that is doesn't shut itself off in the middle of weighing things, if you set it in grams it stays in grams until you reset to ounces.  The one I used to have would shut itself off after a minute or so, always half way through weighing something, and when you turned it back on it defaulted to ounces, so you had to reset it every time.  It weighs up to 7 kg, so you can put your pot on it, add your sugar, tare, add your glucose, tare again...

←

←

It weighs to one gram only, not to 1/10 gram. It's a nice reliable work horse scale, nothing fancy, not particularly expensive. (it's the 7001X that I linked to right?)

I do have a gram scale that measures in parts of grams, useful for measuring alginate, diamonds etc, but you can't put a pot on it.

[Simon Patrice]

Thanks for the links and suggestions!

I finally decided to order the Myweigh KD-7000 on digitalscales.com

I'll let you know if it was worth it.

[Simon Patrice]

I'm looking for veal based gelatin or at least a gelatin that wouldn't contain pork product. Any idea where I could find something like that?

Thanks!

[fedelst]

If what you are looking for is swine free product, you might try a kosher or halal grocer. If you want animal free, you might want to try agar agar. Although the Agar agar does not have the same consistency as an animal based gelatin. It all depends upon what you plan on doing with your gelatin.

I'm looking for veal based gelatin or at least a gelatin that wouldn't contain pork product.  Any idea where I could find something like that?

Thanks!

←

[rubyred]

Does anyone know where I can get (moulded) chocolate making supplies in Montreal?

It's all a grand experiment and I'm starting from scratch, so any pointers will help!

Thanks!

[Kerry Beal]

Does anyone know where I can get (moulded) chocolate making supplies in Montreal?

It's all a grand experiment and I'm starting from scratch, so any pointers will help!

Thanks!

←

Chocolat-chocolat is in Montreal, you can order from them online, but they are not open to the general public. A phone call to them might get you around this issue.

Design and Realization is also in Montreal, they have molds etc as well. There is one other place, but the name escapes me, I'll try to find it when I'm home this evening.

[DominicBruys]

I have seen the smoked mackerel at the Gaspesie store at JTM. Have NOT tasted them though.

They were fillets and encrusted with pepper(?!), so questionable from a Swedish standpoint. I have purchased whole smoked mackerel at Loblaws of all places - ok, but not anything to write home about.  It would be interesting to taste the O'Thyme verision to see if its anywere near Scandinavian quality.  Frankly, over many years I have yet to find a North American source that rivals Scandinavian Smoked fish.  It's either influenced by British  or Continental Jewish tastes, both of course inferior.

I would also like to know where I can get the very best quality eggs. I got a flat last Sunday from the old guy at JTM that also sells honey and wraps the flats in newspaper.  They were  good.

←

For a first post, i apologise for taking this kind of off topic. But I have to say non-scandinavian smoked salmon can kick ass. Granted i haven't had any this good in North America, but I was in Edinburgh last year at this time and there's a little market that shows up every sunday (so this would have been exactly one year ago last week to the day) right by the castle where there were all sorts of things, and there was this local who smokes his own salmon in Edinburgh handing out the most dreadfully generous samples of this candy like, pink, soft, ohhhh. It was good I tell you; I felt like i was stealing. If i can find the pamphlet i picked up I'll post something in the UK forum. I'm a little sad I don't have a picture.

Back on topic, Bilboquet will be opening for the season in less than a week, and it looks like they'll have a similar selection to Havre au Glaces. Including cassis, which i know some found an interesting flavour at HaG.

[rubyred]

Does anyone know where I can find Kosher gelatine in Montreal? Or failing that, vegetatian gelatine?

Thanks!

[Gabriel Lewis]

Anyone know where I might find whole anchovies packed in salt for sale by weight? Or failing that high quality anchovies packed in oil? I'm thinking little italy, and I plan to do some scouring soon, but this is really outside my area of expertise and i'm not even sure where to start.

Also looking for oil cured olives, any ideas?

[Ms Neato]

Anyone know where I might find whole anchovies packed in salt for sale by weight? Or failing that high quality anchovies packed in oil? I'm thinking little italy, and I plan to do some scouring soon, but this is really outside my area of expertise and i'm not even sure where to start.

Also looking for oil cured olives, any ideas?

←

I'm not sure if they are what you're looking for; but at Capitol at Jean Talon Market, there are anchovies of some description hanging out in a refrigerated unit. I don't really dig on anchovies, so I didn't pay too much attention to what they were.

(Capitol has so many delicious things. You should go there any way. You walk in, and it smells overwhelmingly of amazing.)

Having helped, I'm looking for something, myself. I'm after some aromatic bitters; but I'd like something a little more exotic than the standard Angostura Bitters. Any ideas?

[Gabriel Lewis]

Well I found some nice oil packed anchovies at capitol (pricey though!), so thanks for that. I'm still wondering if anyone knows where I can get whole ones packed in salt, or a good source for buying large quanitities.

As for aromatic bitters, I don't have anything specific off the top of my head but I'll ask some people I know. You could try making your own, theres a thread with details in the cocktail forums. Failing that, I would ask the staff at La Depense at the JTM, they might be able to give you a nod in the right direction.

Anyone know where I might find whole anchovies packed in salt for sale by weight? Or failing that high quality anchovies packed in oil? I'm thinking little italy, and I plan to do some scouring soon, but this is really outside my area of expertise and i'm not even sure where to start.

Also looking for oil cured olives, any ideas?

←

I'm not sure if they are what you're looking for; but at Capitol at Jean Talon Market, there are anchovies of some description hanging out in a refrigerated unit. I don't really dig on anchovies, so I didn't pay too much attention to what they were.

(Capitol has so many delicious things. You should go there any way. You walk in, and it smells overwhelmingly of amazing.)

Having helped, I'm looking for something, myself. I'm after some aromatic bitters; but I'd like something a little more exotic than the standard Angostura Bitters. Any ideas?

←

[cinnamonshops]

Having helped,  I'm looking for something, myself.  I'm after some aromatic bitters;  but I'd like something a little more exotic than the standard Angostura Bitters.  Any ideas?

←

You can mailorder from Fee Brothers, last I heard.

Or do think about making your own. Easy and fun. There should be lots of information if you dig around in the Egullet cocktail forum.

[rubyred]

If what you are looking for is swine free product, you might try a kosher or halal grocer. If you want animal free, you might want to try agar agar. Although the Agar agar does not have the same consistency as an animal based gelatin. It all depends upon what you plan on doing with your gelatin.

I'm looking for veal based gelatin or at least a gelatin that wouldn't contain pork product.  Any idea where I could find something like that?

Thanks!

←

←

Does anyone know where I can find agar agar in Montreal?

While I'm at it, I'm going to throw a whole bunch of other stuff out there for you guys. I got the Alinea book for Christmas and I'm dying to have a crack at some of the recipes! I'm trying to source some of the harder to find ingredients so I can come up with a game plan. There's a LOT of weird and random stuff coming up - we ARE talking about Alinea, after all! Try to put up with me? lol! I'm sure I'll be able to find most of this stuff online, but it would obviously be better if I could source them locally.

I'm in the process of making a spreadsheet of the specialty ingredients, so I'll probably add to this post at some point. If anyone is interested in splitting some of these ingredients, please message me!

Young Coconut - I'm thinking Chinatown / Marche Hawaii?

Green almonds - When they are in season, of course! I've never see these in Montreal...

Lime oil

Eucalyptus oil

Hazelnut oil

Sassafras extract

Root beer extract

Dry licorice extract

Freeze-dried chicory extract

Akudjura

Freeze-dried blueberries

Freeze-dried apricots

Freeze-dried pineapple

Evaporated cane juice

Barry/Callebaut MyCro cocoa powder

Cocoa butter

Trimoline

Glucose powder

Agar Agar

Tapioca maltodextrin

Isomalt powder

Citric acid

Soy lecithin

Tapioca flour

Xanthan gum

Calcium lactate

Sodium alginate

Spray-dried cream powder

Glycerin

Iota carageenan

High-acyl gellan gum

Liquid nitrogen

Dry ice

[rubyred]

I've seen a lot of recipes that call for frozen cherries. Does anyone know where to find them in Montreal?

[divya]

ruby red

found agaréagar and tapoica powder in china town, in plastic packs

[DominicBruys]

Pandan aka Pandanus leaves at Kim Hour they're decent, as in they're the closest thing i've found in montreal to the actual fresh leaf where it's indigenous.

All the other places i've found it's either bad turnover or frozen.

[DominicBruys]

I can also help with the young coconut. I haven't come across much, but Fu Tai in Cote des Neiges mall has, and at a price not far from the dried brown kind everyone is used to here.

Was quite happy to find that! note, their stock isn't always perfect, so do make sure you look closely at the bottom.