Holy Fuckfarts!

It is 2 pm, Dec. 19, 2012, and I have finished reading Modernist Cuisine.  Cover to cover.  I am a badass.  Where yat Boo?

Notes from Modernist Cuisine, Volume 5

A divergent opinion on sous-vide steak:

I know the word of God (or in this case, Thomas Keller, in his book Under Pressure) is that cooking tender cuts of beef en sous vide for an excessively long time will break it down in a bad way and degrade the meat. Nate certainly believes this, and it's what I've always been taught.  However, on page 50 of MC5, there is a method for cooking flatiron at 55 C for 72(!!!!) hours.  They say it increases tenderness.  (If you haven't worked with flat iron, they are pretty tender on their own.  I cook mine for 4 minutes, 15 seconds, but then I don't have a sous vide machine.)

Isn't that interesting...  No one but NO ONE disagrees with Thomas Keller, but here we seem to have another method of thinking...  Maybe TK was talking about only the tenderest of cuts.  I'd like to see what happens when you sous-vide a tenderloin, or a lamb rack, or a coulotte that long.  I smell an experiment!


Bonus discussion question:  Have you worked with seabeans before?  Tell me about them.  [I am going somewhere with this, this isn't just random trivia.]

Jesse and D's (Sort-of) Thanksgiving

So D and I had the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off, and we decided to have an awesome dinner.  I didn't want to cook.  So we bought a couple of fun bottles of wine, and had us a garde manger dinner.


(times refer to places on the plate, not hours of consumption)
At 12 o'clock, a crusty baguette from EVO.  I don't know if you know it, but its a pizza place on Daniel Island.  Their pizza is ok, but they have a bread bakery now and its the best bread I've ever had in South Carolina.

At 1 o'clock, a can of D'Augustino Sicilian anchovies.  You know them, you love them.  They are my #3 favorite food behind hot dogs and caviar.

At 4 o'clock, a small wheel of raw milk goat cheese from the Loire valley, in France.  I honestly don't remember the name of it, but it was great.  The Loire valley is the garden of France, home of fantastic, affordable wine, amazing farmhouse cheese, and fresh vegetables.  You need to love the Loire valley.  Its like Northern California but with honest, real food culture.

At 7 o'clock, a piece of rosemary lardo.  It was a free gift from the fine folks at Goat Sheep Cow.  They give me treats sometimes, because I am just that awesome.  It was salty, rich, tender, creamy, and amazing.  D and I at about an ounce each, and were DONE.  That's a lot of pork fat.

At 10 o'clock, a wheel of Delice de Pommard.  Pommard is a village in Burgundy known for rough, harsh, bold red wines (they are my favorite red Burgundies) and mustard.  This cheese is a triple-creme cow's milk cheese that is rolled in cracked mustard seeds.  The mustard seeds permeate every corner of the cheese.   It was creamy, rich, powerful, and decadent.  It took us 3 days to finish a 4 ounce wheel.  Intense.


So that was our Thanksgiving.  I am thankful for friends, food, and Loire valley wines.  And the Chicago Cubs Baseball Club.  And honestly, I'm startin to get used to this MacBook...