Sunday, August 17, 2008

A man on a mission

Well Alton Brown was interesting, though none of his recipes were particularly useful for the home cook.

First, he used a whipped cream canister(uses nitrous oxide and cream to make whipped cream) to make home made aerosol cheese. (semi possible at home)

Second, he made ribs that sounded like it would be possible to make at home, but then he cooked them for 20hrs in an water immersion cooker. (Possible with thousands of dollars of equipment)

Finally, he used liquid nitrogen to make a red bull sorbet. Where in the world am I gonna get liquid nitrogen. (not possible, I have no idea where to get liquid nitrogen)

So what was the point of his presentation beyond looking cool? I am still not sure, but it did get me thinking. Is it possible to make an immersion cooker?

The way I have seen an immersion cooker work, is you put your foods(meats usually) is seasoned and placed into a vacuum sealed bag. The immersion cooker is set at the desired doneness of the meat, and then place the bag into the water. The meat needs to be in there long enough to get to that temperature(hence the 20hr ribs), and it can stay there for a long time without ever getting overdone because it will never go beyond the set temperature.

From what I can tell it has only a few requirements.

1) An insulated water bath area. Insulated to reduce wasted energy from the sides of a container.
2) A good heating element to warm water up to the desired final food temperature.
3) A good thermostat to keep liquid at final food temperature.
4) A way to move the water around the bin.
5) All parts need to stand up to the desired heating temperature(140 degrees minimum for food safety)

Side Note: Food grade equipment isn't completely necessary because of the way food is normally cooked in this item. The water is not in contact with the food. This will however eliminate the ability to use the the cooking vessel without the vacuum bags.

So instead of spending thousands of dollars for an immersion cooker, or waiting a few years until a home model might come out, is it possible to find parts that meet the above requirements while still costing little more than 200.00.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Exciting day..

I get to go to a cooking demonstration done by Alton Brown today. I am really excited.


More to follow....

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

An experimental Recipe.

Well I was wrong, this post falls under the category of experimental recipes. I had some dried cranberries left over and thought I would make muffins. I had a recipe for cranberry muffins that had little nutritional value, and I had some whole wheat flour on hand. I knew it was impossible to just replace all purpose flour with whole wheat flour.

Here is the recipe:
2.1 oz of 100% whole wheat flour
6.4 oz of all purpose flour
2.5 oz of flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 beaten egg
1/4 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup King Arthur Harvest blend grains

mix the dry ingredients together and then mix the wet ingredients together separately. Then pour the wet onto the dry, add the chopped dried cranberries and stir to combine. Pour into a muffin pan and bake in oven preheated to 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes.

Here is the Nutrition(All calculations are approximate):

Calories          178.15
Total Fat          6.8g
Saturated Fat          1.1g
Trans fat          0g
Cholesterol          18.95mg
Sodium          54.64mg
Total Carbohydrates          25.608g
Dietary Fiber          2.34g
Sugars          7.3g
Protein          4.02g

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Welcome.

I started this blog because I wanted to take part in this narcicistic world in which everyone believes that others actually care about what they are thinking. I don't know how often I will post or what topic I will post about. What I do know is that it will probably fall in 1 of 4 categories: Gaming News, Current Events, School and Religion, and my Aquarium.

Hope you come back!