A Modernist Christmas Feast

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Modernist Cuisine culi­nary team!

Allow me intro­duce myself. My name is Maxime Bilet, and I am the head chef of research and devel­op­ment in the culi­nary lab and one of the co-authors of Modernist Cuisine. It has been a very intense three-year jour­ney of cre­ative endeav­ors and accom­plish­ments here in the kitchen. The entire Modernist Cuisine team has shared an amaz­ing learn­ing expe­ri­ence that we are excited to soon share with you. Every dish, recipe, and photo in our book tells a story—of our inspi­ra­tions, the sea­sonal bounty of the Pacific Northwest, the very unique processes that we learned to refine, and most impor­tantly, a culi­nary col­lab­o­ra­tion that we hope will inspire other chefs and bring clar­ity and aware­ness to the great insights of Modernist cooking.

For me, Christmas is both a period of shar­ing and intro­spec­tion. It can be an obser­vance of grat­i­tude, a cel­e­bra­tion of life, and also a time to share with those whom we care deeply for. As chefs, our great­est gift is to cre­ate a feast of abun­dance. Each year, the fla­vors or the inspi­ra­tion may change, but the inten­tion is always to express our love for fam­ily and friends by feed­ing them as best we know how.

As a Frenchman, the Yuletide meal for me means goose, foie gras, chest­nuts, farce, gratin d’Auphinois, roasted pears, and Bûche de Noël. Since I grew up in New York, most of my hol­i­day meals have been a won­der­ful com­bi­na­tion of American tra­di­tion and French flair. This has meant a lit­tle herb but­ter with the turkey, some mus­tard jus with the baked ham, a gratin d’Auphinois made with yams (c’est sac­rilège!), or even hav­ing a praline-flavored Bûche de Noël share the table with apple pie and pecan ice cream. I have come to love baked sweet pota­toes, sage-scented bread stuff­ing, and cran­berry jelly from a can as much as any other Christmas dish.

A few weeks ago, Anjana, Grant, Johnny, Sam, and I got together and dis­cussed what might be a way to share our Modernist inter­pre­ta­tion of a Christmas feast, some­thing that would exem­plify our expe­ri­ences together work­ing on the book, as well as our var­ied cul­tural and life expe­ri­ences. One iconic Christmas image that we all shared was the honey-glazed ham with pineap­ple rings and maraschino cher­ries. Thus, we decided that we would pro­vide our Modernist take on this cher­ished dish.

For our ver­sion of honey-glazed ham, we cure and slowly cook a pork shank. Then we serve it with bright cherry gelée orbs and shaved fresh pineap­ple. Johnny’s sim­ple glaze of fresh pineap­ple juice and honey not only brings bal­ance to the rich and salty pork, but also uni­fies it with the other components.

As for the rest of the feast, we decided that a cab­bage com­po­nent, a sweet potato dish, and a pump­kin pie would round out our ver­sion of a Modernist Christmas meal. So, first, noth­ing is bet­ter than deep-fried Brussels sprouts, period. (Thank you, David Chang!) You can make any­one who hates veg­eta­bles eat Brussels sprouts sim­ply by deep-frying them until deeply golden. They will have an incred­i­bly com­plex and nutty flavor.

Our sweet potato dish con­sists of con­fit in but­ter cooked sous vide and topped with a del­i­cate ver­sion of “whipped marsh­mal­low” made by aer­at­ing a fried sage infu­sion. Finally, Grant worked on an ele­gant ren­di­tion of pump­kin pie that turned out beau­ti­fully. I’d like to think that it turned out as “Frenchie” as pump­kin pie has ever been, but since Grant is a native of the Pacific Northwest, I’ll have to set­tle for Modernist.

We really hope you enjoy these recipes. Happy hol­i­days to you and yours.

Maxime.

---

Deep-Fried Brussels Sprouts

Yields: 4–8 portions

Ingredient	Quantity	Scaling	Procedure
Brussels sprouts	500 g	100%	Peel away outer green leaves off from Brussels sprouts and reserve.
Frying oil	as needed		Cut sprouts in half length­wise and deep-fry in 190 °C / 375 °F oil for approx­i­mately 3–4 min, until deeply caramelized. Drain on paper towels.
Salt	to taste		Season fried Brussels sprouts to taste and reserve warm.
Brussels sprout leaves, from above	as needed		Blanch reserved outer leaves in boil­ing water for 2 min and then shock in ice water.
Unsalted but­ter	50 g	10%	Melt but­ter in pot and warm blanched leaves.
Salt	to taste		Season leaves.
Lime juice	to taste		Garnish the fried sprouts with the sautéed leaves. Season with lime juice.

Christmas Ham Hock with Pineapple and Cherries

Yields: 4–8 portions

Ingredient	Quantity	Scaling	Procedure
Ham hock, fresh, with skin on and bone in	900 g	100%	Set hock aside, com­bine all other com­po­nents for liq­uid cure and dissolve.
Water	2 kg	222%	Submerge hock with cure and vac­uum seal.
Salt	200 g	22%	Cure hock refrig­er­ated for 3 d.
Brown sugar	80 g	8.8%	Remove hock from brine, rinse and vac­uum seal.
Sodium nitrate, optional (for color)	20 g	2.2%	Refrigerate vacuum-sealed hock for 24 h.
Black pep­per­corns	10 g	1.1%	Cook sous vide at 65 °C / 149 °F for 48 h.
Coriander seeds	10 g	1.1%	Remove hock from bag and clean away any excess gelatin.
Cloves	4 g	0.4%	Pat dry and reserve.
Pineapple juice, fresh	320 g	35%	Combine juice and honey in pot.
Clear liq­uid honey	80 g	8.8%	Reduce over medium high heat until syrupy, about 10 min. Reserve warm. Deep-fry cooked pork shank in 200 °C / 390 °F oil until golden brown and slightly puffed, about 3 min. Brush with glaze and slice to desired thick­ness off of bone.
Fresh pineap­ple, peeled	50 g	5.5%	Slice 3 mm / ⅛ in thick and punch out coins with 4 cm / 1½ in diam­e­ter ring mold.
Black cherry juice (from bottled)	100 g	100%	Season cherry juice as desired. It will be a sea­son­ing for the pork, so be gen­er­ous about acid­ity and sweetness.
Fructose	to taste		Blend in cal­cium glu­cono­lac­tate and xan­than gum to fully disperse.
Malic acid	to taste
Calcium glu­cono­lac­tate	1 g	1%	Vacuum seal and refrig­er­ate for 1 h to hydrate.
Xanthan gum	0.15 g	0.15%	Pour into sil­i­cone hemi­sphere molds and freeze.
Water	500 g	100%	Combine and heat to dis­solve to make set­ting bath for cherry spheres.
Sodium algi­nate	2.5 g	0.5%	Heat bath to a sim­mer and remove from heat. Drop frozen cherry spheres into hot sodium algi­nate bath. Allow spheres to set in bath until the cen­ter of each sphere is no longer frozen, about 3 min. Rinse spheres in hot water three times and reserve in fresh warm water until ready to serve. Arrange thinly sliced pork with cherry spheres and pineap­ple. Serve with Brussels sprouts and sweet potato con­fit on side.

Garnet Yam Fondant with Sage Foam

Yields: 4–8 portions

Ingredient	Quantity	Scaling	Procedure
Red gar­net yam, peeled	175 g	175%	Peel and use ring cut­ter to cut out tubes mea­sur­ing 4 cm / 1½ in. in diam­e­ter and 6 cm / 2¼ in thick.
Water	125 g	125%	Combine all and vac­uum seal.
Unsalted clar­i­fied butter	27.5 g	27.5%	Cook sous vide at 90 °C / 194 °F for 1 h 20 min.
Salt	4.5 g	4.5%	Drain and remove from bag. Cool or serve immediately.
For yam chip:
Red gar­net yam	as needed		Slice into 1 mm / 1⁄16  in sheets on man­dolin. Punch out disks that are 3 cm / 1¼ in. in diam­e­ter and reserve.
Isomalt	100 g	100%	Combine all and bring to a boil to make syrup.
Sugar	100 g	100%	Blanch yam disks in the syrup for about 15 s.
Water	100 g	100%	Lay on non­stick tray and dehy­drate at 62 °C / 145 °F for 12 h.
Maple syrup (Grade B)	40 g	40%
For sage foam:
Frying oil	as needed		Fry sage in 190 °C / 375 °F oil for about 10 s.
Sage	40 g	40%	Drain on absorbent paper towels.
Water	300 g	300%	Combine with fried sage leaves and vac­uum seal. Cook sous vide at 90 °C / 194 °F for 30 min. Strain and cool sage infusion.
Sugar	100 g	100%	Add and dis­solve into sage infusion.
Versawhip	3 g	3%	Whip with elec­tric whisk to form stiff peaks.
Xanthan gum	0.45 g	0.45%	Spoon over sweet pota­toes and gar­nish with yam chips.

Pumpkin Pie: Butternut Squash Custard

Yields: 600 g

Ingredient	Quantity	Scaling	Procedure
Butternut squash, peeled and cubed	550 g	110%	Place all ingre­di­ents in pres­sure cooker and cook at full pres­sure (15 psi) for 20 min.
Unsalted but­ter	110 g	22%	Remove lid and reduce until the bot­tom of the pan is barely wet. Remove spices.
Water	100 g	20%	Puree squash mix­ture, and pass through fine sieve.
Maple syrup (Grade B)	50 g	10%	Measure 500 g of puree for recipe.
Salt	2 g	0.40%
Cinnamon stick	0.8 g	0.16%
Clove	0.25 g	0.05%
Mace	0.25 g	0.05%
Squash puree, from above	500 g	100%	Place all in Thermomix and blend for 1 min.
Heavy cream	90 g	18%	Turn on heat and con­tinue blend­ing until 90 °C / 194 °F is reached.
Maple syrup (Grade B)	40 g	8%	Cast onto pas­try table with bars at a thick­ness of 1.5 cm / ½ in until firmly set.
Salt	2 g	0.4%	Refrigerate until use.
Toasted wal­nut oil	10 g	2%
Iota car­regeenan	1.48 g	0.3%
Kappa car­regeenan	1.48 g	0.3%

Pumpkin Pie: Ginger Cream

Yields: 250 g

Ingredient	Quantity	Scaling	Procedure
Heavy cream	200 g	100%	Whip all to medium peaks.
Sugar	40 g	20%	Pipe 1 cm / ⅜ in tip into cylin­ders with sides touch­ing to make sheets.
Ginger juice, raw and fresh	15 g	7.5%	Freeze com­pletely.
Toasted wal­nut oil	7 g	3.5%
Xanthan gum	0.25 g	0.125%

Pumpkin Pie: Caramelized Crust

Yields: 600 g

Ingredient	Quantity	Scaling	Procedure
Pastry flour	350 g	140%	Blend in food proces­sor and reserve.
Unsalted but­ter	250 g	100%
Ice water	105 g	42%	Dissolve sugar and salt into water.
Sugar	15 g	6%	In large bowl, pour flour and but­ter mix­ture over the liq­uid mixture.
Salt	10 g	4%	Mix until just incorporated. Place on sil­i­cone mat and press into layer about 2.5 cm / 1 in thick. Place in refrig­er­a­tor and let rest for 1 h. Remove and roll out 3 mm / ⅛ in thick. Rest in refrig­er­a­tor for 1 h. Bake in 160 °C / 320 °F oven until golden, about 18 min.
Maple syrup (Grade B)	100 g	40%	Heat in pot until just melted and whisk to emulsify.
Unsalted but­ter	50 g	20%	Brush all over the pas­try crust and bake in 190 °C / 375 °F oven until dry, about 10 min.
Salt	2 g	0.8%

Pumpkin Pie: Assembly Yields: 4 portions
Ingredient	Quantity	Scaling	Procedure
Butternut squash cus­tard square	4 squares		Cut crusts to desired dimensions. Cut cus­tard to fit on top of crust, with crust evenly exposed on edges. Cut frozen gin­ger cream into the same dimen­sions as the cus­tard. Be sure to place cream on top while still frozen. Transfer to serv­ing dish. Garnish with orange zest, grated wal­nut, and wal­nut oil.
Ginger cream	4 pieces
Caramelized crust	4 crusts
Orange zest, finely grated	4 shav­ings
Toasted wal­nuts, finely grated	16 wal­nuts
Walnut oil	as needed