Caramelized onions are one of my most favorite things. Some nice onions, balsamic vinegar, ruby port, a tiny bit of sugar: there’s nothing terribly exotic in there, but the resulting product is sublime. But the one ingredient that is inescapable is time, around 45 minutes. It takes time for the cell walls to break down [...]
Tools and Techniques
I’ve always been under the impression that lime juice has a very short lifespan and should be squeezed as closely to usage as possible. Maybe that’s not the case. Nice read from Cooking Issues. Image credit: ”Lime Flame” by Egor Kataev (Flickr)
OK, Dave Arnold at Cooking Issues is officially on a roll. I loved the piece about all the crazy meats, but his infusion technique has my mind bubbling . Now, you may be aware that you can carbonate fruit using an ISI foamer with CO2, as the estimable Martin Lersch pointed out a few years [...]
So, most cooks these days know the cold consommé technique as described by Harold McGee. If you aren’t familiar, the technique involves creating a flavorful liquid, straining it, adding some gelatin (no where near enough to make gelatin), freezing it (which will break the gelatin), and finally allowing it to drip while wrapped in cheesecloth [...]
Really interesting piece from Harold McGee in the NY Times about using water to enhance flavor. I’d first learned about this from an amazing scotch tasting a good friend hosted once. A small amount of distilled water poured into scotch, especially a single malt, really exposes the flavors. I had no idea of the additional [...]
Serious Eats always has great stuff. Whether you are new to sous-vide or already dabbling it, their sous-vide steak guide is a great starting point with great website links and overview material. I described one of my home experiments with sous-vide previously here.