Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking

modernistcuisine.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 143 posts

Re: Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking

#71

Post by foobarian »

tptacek wrote: post #56
scarby2 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sous vide is still used quietly because it's a very practical technique with good results for certain protein preparations, and there are plenty of other useful bits of craft through the book. Similarly I guess mayo didn't exactly disappear from american cooking. I was reading the first part of your response and my mind was immediately going "but sous-vide is everywhere" It's one of those things that's just really…

Circulator eggs never made a whole lot of sense, because you already have a reference temperature to work from and so cooking any number of them is just a matter of setting a timer (do what the Ideas in Food people do and steam them). I can't remember the last time I circulated a steak. But we did a rib roast for Christmas, and I did that in the circulator, in advance, "for insurance purposes", and then cooked it off…

> I can't remember the last time I circulated a steak

I find the results gross. The fat does not render away completely at the sous-vide temps, and since the cooking time is so much shorter you end up with raw fat under the surface layer.

Re: Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking

#73

Post by cwizou »

hellotheretoday wrote: post #58
fn-mote wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The site has been bought by Breville At $69/year I’d say it’s pretty clear the direction the site is going.

Chefsteps has been in that direction for a very long time. I was in their community early on, like 2013 or so, and the content they put out then was truly excellent. A paywall was reasonable really; the classes were well researched and informative and I am sure their operation is quite expensive. But over time they became a bit less focused on interesting stuff and more focused on stuff that would play to social medi…

Also followed them pretty much from the start, bought all their classes, pass, but ended up not renewing this year (and probably shouldn't have last year either).

They tried to make money with their own sous vide circulator (joule) which had some good pros (very compact and works in tiny depth of water) but at least for me, infuriating cons (no screen/buttons to adjust on the fly, check remaining time, etc, must use their app for all that and with dirty hands in the kitchen, it's really not great). Mine failed early too which didn't help my impression.

Content started pivoting post joule release and now you can't even sort the recipes to see the latest they posted, if they post any. But still worth a look for the free, older content.

Re: Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking

#74

Post by linsomniac »

Shadowmist wrote: post #39
balfirevic wrote: post #27

One of the authors, Chris Young, has a great Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisYoungCooks/videos

He also has combustion.inc which is a thermometer for nerds.

This is the real sleeper in this thread. I love my Thermapen, but combustion.inc looks pretty awesome for grilling/smoking. In particular, it could be a game changer with the SafeCook time+temp food safety calculations. And bellows that take into account the internal, food ambient, and grill lid temp could be bonkers. The ($125) sensor probe has 8 sensors in it to read temps at different depths and the ambient.

Re: Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking

#75

Post by cwizou »

statnamara wrote: post #61
charlie0 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never had tripple cooked fries. What do they taste like?

They taste pretty much the same as any other fries, but the texture is really great. Crispy outside, fluffy inside.

And it works a lot better with a thick cut (1.2+ cm), the contrast between a super glassy, not oily outside and fluffy, airy inside all throughout is really good.

For the same reason I would say, don't bother with thin cut with his air fryer version. Go thick or don't bother.

Re: Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking

#76

Post by kjs3 »

Wistar wrote: post #50
kjs3 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah...what a weird derail. My sous vide has a small maybe 3"x0.5" plastic cap at the end and rest is stainless steel. I could have gotten a different one without the plastic I'm sure (maybe more expensive?), but I can read the science and be reasonably sure I'm not going to die horribly from that much exposure. Stainless steel or aluminum[1] pot and you're blissfully plastic-death free. [1] I shouldn't have said tha…

It’s not the SV circulator but the plastic vacuum bags folks are most worried about.

Which you don't have to use either, but that makes more sense.

Re: Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking

#77

Post by amluto »

tptacek wrote: post #53
amluto wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forget ChefSteps. As far as I’m concerned, this is the reference: https://douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html

Ehhhh. I've had lots of issues with it, and I can't cite chapter and verse but I think Dave Arnold has some critiques of it too. Really, for what the Baldwin guide is trying to do, you can just Google stuff off Serious Eats for.

What issues?

I’m not in love with Douglas Baldwin’s recipes, but his time/temperature tables for pasteurization are quite useful.

Re: Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking

#78

Post by AlanYx »

azinman2 wrote: post #22
dluan wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and founder of the largest patent troll "Intellectual Ventures". both efforts now feel dated and cringey.

I don’t hear about it anymore. What happened to it?

They're still around. They spawned a whole minor industry of patent licensing entities.

Re: Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking

#79

Post by bbatha »

mattmaroon wrote: post #67
tptacek wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Circulator eggs never made a whole lot of sense, because you already have a reference temperature to work from and so cooking any number of them is just a matter of setting a timer (do what the Ideas in Food people do and steam them). I can't remember the last time I circulated a steak. But we did a rib roast for Christmas, and I did that in the circulator, in advance, "for insurance purposes", and then cooked it off…

I still poach eggs in the shell in my Anova Precision Oven often. The 13 minute egg is pretty unbeatable. I think the decline in sous vide use in commercial kitchens is largely just because befuddled health regulators pushed everyone toward CVAPs, which do the same thing without the plastic. Now that I’ve got the APO, I cook nearly everything in it. I wish I could get a regular oven-sized version.

Miele makes wall combi ovens that are standard sized. Well they lose some cooking volume for the steam components.

Re: Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking

#80

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

mattmaroon wrote: post #67
tptacek wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Circulator eggs never made a whole lot of sense, because you already have a reference temperature to work from and so cooking any number of them is just a matter of setting a timer (do what the Ideas in Food people do and steam them). I can't remember the last time I circulated a steak. But we did a rib roast for Christmas, and I did that in the circulator, in advance, "for insurance purposes", and then cooked it off…

I still poach eggs in the shell in my Anova Precision Oven often. The 13 minute egg is pretty unbeatable. I think the decline in sous vide use in commercial kitchens is largely just because befuddled health regulators pushed everyone toward CVAPs, which do the same thing without the plastic. Now that I’ve got the APO, I cook nearly everything in it. I wish I could get a regular oven-sized version.

The APO is new to me. Looks interesting. Can it really “sous vide” a steak? Does it brown it too?
Post reply on HN