Where my fellow cooks at???

[dodint]

Also, tomorrow I'm going to give this Apple and Horseradish-Glazed Salmon recipe a shot. It's not technically hard by any stretch but it's the first time I'm making it and I really hope it turns out well. Going to enjoy it with a home made tomato soup my wife left for me in the freezer.

[Shyster]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ViwSeuWVfE[/youtube]

[columbia]

Scientists have figured out what makes Indian food so delicious
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/won ... delicious/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[eddysnake]

Thank you Shyster

[tifosi77]

Scientists have figured out what makes Indian food so delicious
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/won ... delicious/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In a related vein...... 'flavor bouncing'

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvhjbYXDdu4[/youtube]

When I'm coming up with a recipe, this is basically how I do it. (If only my results were as successful) Except I use a graph-type approach to make a matrix. And I'm not Grant Achatz. (But I do have all of my tongue, so I got that him...)

[shmenguin]

so simple...as long as you know every ingredient that goes with every ingredient

[count2infinity]

Hmm... pineapple works well in a grid with rice, chicken, pork, and tomato. I suppose it'll work well in paella.

[columbia]

[tifosi77]

so simple...as long as you know every ingredient that goes with every ingredient

Like anything, you get better with practice. I'm certainly not flavor bounce level: Achatz, but I'm better than I was 10 years ago.

For example, you don't see me talking about putting pineapple into paella. That's my experience at work.

[Shyster]

You could buy this:
The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs
" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This book is essentially a compendium of flavor matrices. I bought it a couple years ago. The authors polled professional chefs on hundreds of ingredients, spices, herbs, etc. and asked them to list what other ingredients are complimentary with each. The entry for tomatoes will provide a list of what ingredients the chefs said go well with tomatoes, for example. It also ranks the survey results. Plain text means a couple chefs mentioned that ingredient. Bold means more chefs mentioned it. All caps means most of the chefs mentioned it. And all caps with an asterisk means that virtually everyone's survey response included it.

I have used this book to reproduce the method depicted in that video, namely, I pick two ingredients and then look for additional ingredients that are listed as being compatible with the first two and with each other.

[tifosi77]

Second the recommendation for The Flavor Bible.



You will notice it's there in my 'reference library' with the other go-to books.

[viva la ben]

You don't have a copy of Larousse Gastronomique?

[columbia]

Speaking of cookbooks, I recently inherited my grandmother's first edition (1953) copy of the South Carolina Cookbook. It was published by something called the SC Council of Farm Women.
It seems to thoroughly cover country cooking and was still published as recently as 1997:
https://www.sc.edu/uscpress/books/1997/3112.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[tifosi77]

You don't have a copy of Larousse Gastronomique?

For the same reason I don't have any other French cookbooks.

[Shyster]

Second the recommendation for The Flavor Bible.
You will notice it's there in my 'reference library' with the other go-to books.

Are you aware of any other books like it? I find regular cookbooks peeving because most of them don't really provide any explanation of how or why the particular ingredients were selected or why they go together. It's usually just "Here, make this." I don't need whole-cloth receipes; I'm looking for ideas.

[viva la ben]

I scored a big haul of bacon slab ends at giant eagle this afternoon. They were marked $1 a piece. The slabs were all at least 1lb, and I bought all of them for the deep freeze.

[columbia]

Speaking of which, has anyone baked bacon?

[viva la ben]

400° on parchment paper for about 10-15 minutes depending on the thickness and how crispy you like it.

[viva la ben]

Add a sprinkle of brown sugar to each slice to make candied bacon....so good

[tifosi77]

Second the recommendation for The Flavor Bible.
You will notice it's there in my 'reference library' with the other go-to books.

Are you aware of any other books like it? I find regular cookbooks peeving because most of them don't really provide any explanation of how or why the particular ingredients were selected or why they go together. It's usually just "Here, make this." I don't need whole-cloth receipes; I'm looking for ideas.

The core of books like The Flavor Bible is really understanding the science behind the pairings. Why, exactly, is pineapple a bad idea for paella? Most of my recommendations are going to skew wonkish.

Modernist Cuisine is really the only one single purchase you need to make. But it's still selling for over $500 new, so.......

The Flavor Thesaurus

The Science of Good Cooking

Ratio

The final third of The Fat Duck Cookbook was written by Chris Young, who went on to co-author Modernist Cuisine and found ChefSteps (my favorite culinary website). In fact, before MC was published, this book was pretty much the only resource out there for many of the more modern methods that were at the vanguard of contemporary gastronomy. Before that, the only way you could really learn some of these advances techniques was to work at one of the dozen or so restaurants at the time that were cooking in this way.

Seek out anything Harold McGee has ever been involved with. On Food And Cooking, Keys To Good Cooking, any YouTube videos, etc.

A couple years ago, Harvard University had a lecture series called 'Science & Cooking', that's available on YouTube now. I've watched probably 14 or 15 of the lectures, and they're fascinating. Harold McGee, Dave Arnold, José Andrés, Ferran Adrià, Wylie Dufresne..... some outstanding guest speakers.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9av8-lh ... 9EA2399DAB[/youtube]

[columbia]

And that's why if (you can), you go to a college like Harvard instead of say....Pitt.

[Shyster]

Most of my recommendations are going to skew wonkish.

I think you've interacted with me enough no know that not only do I skew wonkish, I skew wonkish so hard that I ran off the road, plowed through a field of nerd, and crashed into a boulder labeled "borderline autistic."

Off to do some book shopping.

[tifosi77]

If the full Modernist Cuisine is a bit much, try Modernist Cuisine At Home. It's pared down (only one volume instead of five), and written with the home cook in mind.

[BigMcK]

Just got done traveling with a co-worker who revealed a food phobia that I am not sure if anyone shares.

We go into a seafood / Italian restaurant with the kitchen area very open by design. The grills, pasta water stove tops and salamander heaters all are along the back wall, but the cooks prepare the final product facing toward the tables. You get to hear clanking dishes and the cooks talking to each other, kind of like a family kitchen. He doesn't mention anything was wrong, but I sense there was an issue by his facial expressions while looking at the kitchen.

The next day, we venture to a Barbeque place with a similar style kitchen (smoker door on the back wall facing outward, salad station and warmers along the back wall, with a prep area including the cutting board that faces outward toward the tables. There was a half wall separating the kitchen from the tables. This time, he speaks up and says he has a real hard time eating at a place that has food preparation out in the public area where "who knows what germs are flying though the air onto my food." In reality, the patrons are probably at a minimum 10 feet from any actual prep, and the way the kitchen exhaust fans are placed, chances are slight that germs are swirling around the food.

At this point, I figured we would skip the family table at Buca Di Beppo and all sushi tables in the area.

The people that post here probably do not share this phobia, (I am sure most everyone here would love to join the kitchen crew and lend a hand cooking) but I do understand the concern that people may have with an open kitchen concept and wonder if it hurts business because of the concern over germs flying through the cooking area.

Open kitchen design restaurants. Good or bad?

[tifosi77]

That's almost as batty as saying that atheists are antisemitic by default. Think about it: he's sitting in the dining room amongst all the guests, and he's worried that their cooties are going to first travel into the kitchen before infecting him?

I generally do not like the open kitchen concept, but for aesthetic reasons. I hate them in home designs, but can understand why some people would want them.