Pressure cookers are pretty fantastic for stocks and broths. Just make sure you get one big enough as even with the time savings, its still a somewhat time consuming process. Also remember that once they're sealed, you can't look in to gauge how powerful the boil is. This means that if you're concerned about the clarity of the stock, a pressure cooker might not be the tool for the job.

This electric pressure cooker is pretty fantastic.

http://www.amazon.com/Instant-IP-CSG.../dp/B00479OWFO

I crack an egg with another egg. Egg in each hand, strike the broad side of the egg in my left hand with the point of the egg in my right hand, thereby cracking the egg in my left hand. I can crack eggs faster this way than with the flat strike against the counter method, which is also a fine way to crack an egg.

What if you crack both eggs (one in each hand) on the counter at the same time?? Must be faster, but requires off-hand skill.

Not a good idea to read a thread like this 23:00, fml.
Some great stuff itt.

yeah flat surface obv


i use both thumbs to open them though unless im in a hurry or cracking omelets for brunch (aka many people) in which case ill just go 1 handed and whisk with the other hand

I can crack 2 in each hand at the same time.

I worked at a crappy restaurant in Jr. High-High School and it "specialized" in breakfasts. We also had to make a ton of pancake batter from scratch on a daily basis which took 60 eggs in each batch. Sometimes we'd 2-4 batches in a day.

I've cracked a freaking sh*tton of eggs in my life.

Didn't know Cali's child labor laws were so bad.

I don't think I can crack 2 in one hand - I can barely hold 2 in one hand

Yeah this is what i couldn't get my head around in the Heston one, how can you skim or in any way review the stock when its pressure cooking. Seems like it would be super cloudy, and the only time i tried, it definitely was. Was then super skeptical when he made the consumme from his frozen stock filtered through muslin (but am going to try now that i have both a pressure cooker and muslin!)

As I haven't seen the vid, there may be something I'm missing, however a couple things to note.

Skimming occurs for the first 30 minutes to and hour with the pressure lid off. At that point it's just a pot (important to note that it should be a very nice pot with a heavy bottom - I have a slightly different version of this 10 quart Fagor and really like it). So basically you skim for a while until scum stops forming, and then you put the lid on and crank the pressure.

The instructions typically say to build pressure and then turn to low heat to maintain. Now if your ultimate goal is a consomme, this should be fine as stock is just the base, and will ultimately get clarified via raft and skimming techniques. The problem for me came when doing various types of ramen broth, some which I wanted clear.

They also say that pressure cooking can decrease the brightness of flavors, and often times people will season with vinegar post pressure to add some more acidity and brightness.

Again, none of this should deter you from pressure cooking - especially stocks. Short ribs are a pretty good use case as well. While I'm currently doing a 48 hour sous vide short rib (Momofuku) for dinner tomorrow, I've used my kalbi recipe before to do whole shortribs in a pressure cooker and they came out pretty nice.

Cliffs of his technique is

Dust a pack of wings with condensed milk powder then roast (milk powder is to drive home the maillard reaction), deglaze pan with water then add both to pressure cooker along with your chicken carcass (wings are for extra flavouring)
Add carrot, onion, mushrooms
Cook for 2 hours (doesn't mention temp or anything else)
Strain through sieve lined with muslin

Instructions for consomme are basically just allow frozen cubes of stock to thaw through again a sieve lined with muslin, then warm and add a jasmine flower. He mentions how difficult and contrived making a traditional consomme is, i remain skeptical.

I'd actually expect that this would work pretty well. Wings have a good amount of collegen in them, and I'd use them for stock if feet weren't so much cheaper. Wings are expensive. :/

The first part - roasting the wings - is similar to how one makes Tare (the other half of miso broth). For Tare, you roast wing tips until golden, deglaze the pan with sake, then add mirin, sake, and soy and allow to simmer and reduce.

As far as not mentioning temp is concerned, it's really not a big deal in a pressure cooker (which I'm assuming he's using here?). As long as the pressure is maintained, you're good to go as I understand (and practice).

Not sure how muslin compares to cheesecloth, but when making ramen broth, I strain through cheesecloth and a fine mesh strainer, and it comes out pretty clear as long as I haven't used trotters. Chicken stock is even more so.

From the looks of it, seems fine to me. Give it a shot and TR it!

Yeah the wings seem like good advice as anything that brings extra bone/cartlidge/collagen to a stock is bound to be a good thing. I didn't see any benefit from the milk powder though.

Gonna try again this weekend and see how it goes. Have a carcass left over in the freezer that i've been meaning to use anyway.

Also, i think muslin and cheesecloth are the same thing?Could be wrong, but if they are different, its not by much.

I watched all the heston episodes but the chocolate one. I am not really into baking other than bread.

Now, I tried to make the boiled eggs as he did and failed pretty badly.
I didn't rewatch the egg episode section before trying, and after I failed I rewatched that segment. He really lets the eggs boil before putting the pan away from the heat. That is where I made my mistake and just let it begin a slow boil.

My eggs were RUNNY.. too runny. The egg white was mixed with the yolk hah.

they have this at costco.

it's cheap and it's awesome

Snipe,

The key to the straining through muslin to get a clear stock is the stock has to be frozen. I cbf going and finding where in Modernist Cuisine they go through it but the science is basically that as the stock defrosts the gelatin within it stays solid enough to form like a mesh that the liquid then gets microstrained through. The muslin is pretty much there to hold the gelatin mesh off the liquid.

Heston first explains that method on TV in the Alice in Wonderland Feast episode when making the Mock Turtle Soup.

Cool list. Heston is apparently doing something right.

http://www.theworlds50best.com/awards/1-50-winners/

Must be a rough life, compiling this list. Travel the world to its best cities, eat their best food.

+1 on Diamond salt. I use both the Kosher already shown in the thread, as well as both their fine and coarse Sea Salt. Those are the ones with the blue and green labels.

Very happy to see the love for avocados and tomatoes in this thread. El Diablo's early photo of his tomato/avocado salad is one of my favorite photos in here.

+1 on cooking subforum.


No photos at the moment, one simple thing I've been experimenting with lately is avocado stuffed chicken skins. Roast a chicken or chicken parts, remove the crispy skin (seasoned with a little salt and a lot of black pepper). Slice up an avocado, and insert the avocado slices into the pieces of chicken skin. By insert, I mean wrap the skin around the avocado slices. Squeeze just a touch of lime juice over the avocado before inserting, and maybe a touch more black pepper. Can also add some diced tomato.

Very, very easy to make. Next time I make this I'll take some photos, it is unreal good. Probably because both chicken skin and avocados are loaded with fat. If you make these as a party snack or appetizer (easy to stick a toothpick in and serve on a tray), I guarantee you that you will always run out and constantly be asked when you are making them again. Simple to get great cheap skins by purchasing drumsticks or thighs at under $1/lb and roasting them. The meat, bones, and fat get used later in a bunch of other dishes as well.

Stuff I cooked in the past week, excuse my iphone pics

Turkey Burgers w/peppers, jalapenos, and orange zest



Blackened Grilled Catfish with grilled romain hearts



Mushroom and Blue crab risotto



Peach Crumble

solid

Tonights Dinner:



Pics in order of menu:











Shots of the plating process:

Love this thread.

Good stuff YimYam

Charder, that catfish looks awesome and i'm not a fish fan by any means. Honostly, i've never had catfish, but heard it is on the milder side of fish. True? What fish would you guys recommend for people who wished they loved fish but only like the milder ones? If i remember correctly i had monk fish when i was younger and liked it a lot.

Yim yam, awesome! It's people like you that make threads like this amazing! I don't think you gave a backround of the restaurant you work in or how you ended up there. My apologies if you have.

I said it a looong time ago, but +1 to cooking sub-forum. There are so many aspects of cooking that cannot be contained in a thread or two.

catfish is not on the milder side of fish especially if it hasn't had the silver skin properly removed.

if you like only milder fish, go for any white fleshed, big flake style ocean fish like cod, halibut, chilean sea bass (patagonia tooth fish), orange roughy, haddock, monkfish.

Stay away from freshwater fish like catfish, trout.

also stay away from oily flesh fish like the mackerel family.