Category tips & tricks

Book review: Cooking for geeks

Jeff working on a recipe in his kitchen. (Photo by Shimon Rura. © 2009 Atof Inc.) For a book about food this is a rather unusual book. The author states in the preface that the goal of the book is…

Perfect egg yolks

Maybe I have a hangup on soft boiled eggs, but I’m deeply fascinated by how something simple as an egg can be transformed into such a wide range of textures. I’m talking about pure eggs – no other ingredients added.…

The Flemish Primitives 2011

It’s soon time for the third edition of The Flemish Primitives and registration has now opened. The Flemish Primitives wants to challenge Belgian gastronomy and bring together chefs from all over the world to meet and exchange ideas built on…

Wonders of extraction: Pressure

Cream chargers containing 8 g of nitrous oxide each (N2O) to be used with an iSi whipper for whipping cream, making foams/espumas or pressurized infusions. A little more than a week ago Dave Arnold posted a great, new technique: “Infusion…

Norwegian egg coffee

Egg coffee – a mild and refreshing drink that can be served warm as well as cold I recently stumbled over “Norwegian egg coffee”. At first I thought it was a joke, but it turned out that this is indeed…

Update: Texture version 2.3

An updated version of “Texture – A hydrocolloid recipe collection” is now available for download (version 2.3). The longer I work on this, the more I realize that it will never really “finish” – there’s always more to add. And…

A pinch of salt for your coffee, Sir?

A small sprinkle of salt will suppress bitterness – and in some cases it can benefit the overall coffee flavor. I’ve tried it with an espresso and somehow it works, but it’s difficult to describe the flavor. I prefer my…

Superfast scrambled eggs

Miss Silvia is full of surprises! She’s been around the house for a year, but only now did she reveal one of her hidden capabilities. Did you know that you can make scrambled eggs with the steam wand of your…

Cooking by ratios – new book by Ruhlman

One of the more curious cookbooks I own is a German one entitled “Kochen und Backen nach Grundrezepten” (Cooking and Baking with Base recipes). It was first written in 1932 and has been updated regularily ever since. Each section typically…