Caren, Author at Modernist Cuisine

Improve that red wine with just a push of a button

Posted on December 30, 2013 at 9:52 am.

Written by Caren

BY W. WAYT GIBBS
Associated Press

Something about fine wine invites mystique, ritual—and more than a little pretension.

If you have ever ordered an old and expensive bottle of red from a master sommelier, you may have seen the ostentatious production that goes into decanting the stuff. The wine steward rolls out a gueridon (a little table) on which the bottle is cradled gently in a cloth-lined basket. A lit candle flickers nearby. The sommelier tips the neck of the bottle over the candle while pouring the wine with the delicacy of a surgeon into a broad-bottomed decanter so as not to disturb the sediment that has fallen out of the wine during years of aging and character development.

Thus aerated, the wine is then allowed to “breathe” for a while before it is served. Oenophiles—even those back in Roman times—have observed that wine of many vintages and varieties improves perceptibly when aerated for as little as a few minutes or for as long as a day. Oenologists have debated the chemistry that might account for this shift in flavor. Do the tannins change in ways that soften their distinctive flavors? Or does aeration simply allow stinky sulfides enough time to evaporate away?

Whatever the science behind it, the traditional ritual makes for a fine show. But when you’re at home pouring wine for yourself or guests, you can save time and generate entertainment of a different kind by taking a shortcut: dump the bottle in a blender, and frappe it into a froth. (Sediment is less common in wines today than it used to be, but if you are concerned about that, pour the wine very slowly into the blender, and stop before you get to the last couple ounces.)

Less than a minute of hyperdecanting, as we at The Cooking Lab have taken to calling this modern method, exposes the wine to as much air as it would see in an hour or more of traditional decanting, and does so far more uniformly. Wine aficionados may recoil in fear that such a violent treatment will “break” the wine, but the proof is in the tasting.

In carefully controlled, double-blind taste tests conducted at our lab, we presented 14 experienced wine tasters—seven sommeliers, three vintners, two oenologists and two wine writers—with unlabeled samples of hyperdecanted wine. The tasters also received samples taken from the same bottles but decanted the old-fashioned way. The order of presentation was varied from one trial to the next.

When we asked them which samples they preferred, only two of the 14 judges were able to distinguish a difference repeatedly, and both of those tasters consistently preferred the wine that had gone through the blender.

So the next time you uncork a well-muscled syrah or even a rambunctious riesling for your connoisseur friends, bring a blender to the table, and have a camera ready. The foam will subside within seconds. But you’ll cherish that memory of the look on their faces for the rest of your days.

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Photo credit: Ryan Matthew Smith/ Modernist Cuisine, LLC

Gift Guide 2013: Gifts for Modernist Cooks

Posted on December 17, 2013 at 10:54 am.

Written by Caren

Whether you’re purchasing one of our books for a loved one or buying gifts for someone who has already added one of our volumes to their personal library, this year we devoted our gift guide to items that pair perfectly with Modernist Cuisine and Modernist Cuisine at Home. From stocking stuffers to larger gear, we have you covered. We even selected a few ingredients to help you launch your own journey into Modernist cooking.

Modernist Cuisine

Water Bath: This year, give the gift of sous vide. We suggested gifting sous vide setups in previous years with good reason: a water bath is an essential tool for many of the recipes we created for Modernist Cuisine and Modernist Cuisine at Home. While there are ways to improvise, this is the best tool for regularly cooking sous vide or for any cooking task requiring precise temperature control. Water baths are also the perfect way to heat up holiday leftovers. The SousVide Supreme ($329 and up) is sufficient for most home uses, but the PolyScience Sous Vide Professional immersion circulator (Creative series, $399), paired with a polycarbonate tank ($33 for a 10 L tank), provides more uniform heat distribution.

Blowtorch: From caramelizing crème brûlée to searing sous vide meat, there are many practical (and impractical) reasons to keep a blowtorch handy in the kitchen. A blowtorch is an inexpensive gift (we like the Bernzomatic TS4000 Trigger Start Torch, $34) that’s great for recipes that call for high temperatures unattainable in conventional ovens. It’s also an impressive tool to pull out during holiday gatherings and dinner parties.

Modernist Cuisine™ Gel Noodle and Spherification Kits: 130 pages of Modernist Cuisine are devoted to the science of gels because creating gels is a fundamental technique of Modernist (and even conventional) cooking. The Gel Noodle and Spherification kit ($40 and $50) are a fantastic introduction to the art of creating these magical treats in your kitchen. Each kit comes with some essential tools to get you started as well as enough ingredients to create 20 batches of gelled noodles or spheres. And the kits just happen to be stocking size.

Borosilicate Flasks and Beakers: Flasks and beakers aren’t necessarily a Modernist must, but these lab tools are incredibly handy to have in the kitchen. If you need to measure volume, beakers and flasks are highly accurate and have greater heat resistance than conventional Pyrex. Plus they double as a very nerd-chic container for cocktails. This SEOH 5-pack of beakers ($14) is a great starter set, but there are many, many options available online.

Modernist Cuisine at Home

Digital Scale: Begin applying more precision to your measurements with a reliable, digital gram scale. These scales are easy to find at cooking stores, and basic models are inexpensive. You should really own two: a general-purpose scale that accurately measures weights from one to 1,000 grams and an even more precise scale accurate to a tenth or hundredth of a gram. A 0.1 g scale is a must-have for measuring hydrocolloid thickening and gelling agents. We recommend the Digital Bench Scale ($49) for extra-large batches and the Extreme‑Precision Digital Ingredient Scale ($27) for its compact portability.

Thermometer: The pockets of chef jackets have one thing in common: thermometers—and for good reason. Thermometers are indispensable kitchen tools. Small changes in temperature can make all the difference in cooking, so thermometers are essential. A good digital thermometer can even take the place of a fancy sous vide cooker. Our favorite is the Taylor Professional Thermocouple Thermometer ($78), which is extremely accurate and allows you to measure food temperatures in both water baths and ovens. Even an inexpensive instant-read thermometer will give you excellent range and speed, and it’s useful for almost any application.

The Modernist Cuisine™ Special Edition Baking Steel: Andris Lagsdin, a pizza enthusiast who works at a family-owned steel company, was inspired to produce Baking Steels after reading Modernist Cuisine. We worked with Andris to develop the Modernist Cuisine edition, a preseasoned, shatterproof ⅜ in thick steel plate. Based on our own research, we designed it to be an optimal combination of performance and usability. It’s the perfect tool to help create any of the pizzas from Chapter 18 of Modernist Cuisine at Home, and it’s easy to use: simply slide it into a conventional oven for perfect pizzas or place it on top of a burner to use as a griddle. You can even use it as an anti-griddle to make ice cream.

Sodium Citrate: If your loved one is a cheese lover, a packet of sodium citrate ($7 for 50 g, $15 for 400 g) is an inexpensive, world-changing gift. Essentially the combination of salt and citric acid from citrus fruits, a tiny bit yields silky smooth Mac and Cheese or wonderfully melty cheese for dips and sandwiches. Appearing in over 20 cheese-based recipes in Modernist Cuisine at Home, sodium citrate is a staple ingredient.

Cooking Under Pressure: Pressure Caramelized Sweet Potato Soup

Posted on December 12, 2013 at 11:07 am.

Written by Caren

Just in time for winter, we decided to develop a new seasonal variation of one of our Modernist Cuisine traditions: Pressure Caramelized Sweet Potato Soup. The recipe for this magical soup incorporates black peppercorns to give it a nice zip, and hints of sweet onion and Makrud leaves complement the caramelized sweet potato stock.

The charm of this soup is twofold: the elevated temperature of pressure-cooking coupled with an alkaline environment ensure that caramelization reactions will flourish.

Vegetables are made up of cells with strong walls that soften at higher temperatures than the cells in meat do. Vegetables are composed mostly of water, however, and their temperature normally won’t exceed the boiling point of water (100˚C/212˚F) until they are dried out. Vegetables in a fully pressurized cooker don’t dry out as they quickly become tender under higher temperatures (120˚C/250˚F). And because the air is sealed in, you don’t need to add much water, so juices are extracted without becoming diluted.

Add to this a pinch of baking soda to bring the soup to a more alkaline pH of about 7.5 and you have ideal conditions for Maillard reactions to commence. The result is a gorgeously colored soup that is the concentrated essence of caramelized sweet potato.

We like to finish our soup with purple sweet potato confit, roasted chestnuts, and toasted marshmallows. The purple sweet potatoes add a brilliant dash of color, and toasted marshmallows add a touch of tradition and whimsy. This soup is the perfect way to begin special dinners this holiday season.

Gift Guide 2013: Gifts for Food Photographers

Posted on December 5, 2013 at 10:01 am.

Written by Caren

Searching for the perfect gift for the photographer in your life? Look no further than the pages of The Photography of Modernist Cuisine for inspiration. Taking cues from some of our favorite photos in the book, we’ve put together a list of must-have gifts for the holiday season. Whether your loved one is new to the world of photography or a seasoned vet, we hope this gift guide will be an invaluable resource for you.

The Basics

Our favorite cameras are professional DSLRs from Canon. These cameras are indispensable tools, even for passionate amateur photographers. And for those who are serious, it is worth investing in a high-quality DSLR camera body. The Canon EOS-1D X (5253B002, $6,799) has the ability to capture sharp, accurate, and high‑quality images. It is also incredibly water resistant and has a durable frame, making it useable in a variety of conditions.

In truth, lenses are almost always more crucial to the quality of the photo than the camera body. The Canon 24–105 mm f/4L zoom lens (0344B002, $1,149) is an all‑purpose, versatile lens that allows you to quickly shoot a range of frame widths. It’s a great option for situations in which you can only take one lens with you.

Believe it or not, a good monitor goes a long way when it comes to photography, which is why it makes a great gift. You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on a nice monitor that will display 99% Adobe RGB with 1.07 billion colors. That’s right, billions of beautiful colors with the bonus of smooth gradations. Try out Dell’s UltraSharp 24 in (U2412M, $267 and up) or 27 in (U2713H, $599 and up) PremierColor LED-lit Monitors.

Macro Shots

To capture truly gorgeous macro shots, we recommend the Canon 100 mm f/2.8L macro lens (3554B002, $1,050). If you’re on a smaller budget, the non-L version (4657A006, $600) will provide you with similarly impressive results.

Improving image quality starts by improving a camera’s flash. Off-camera flashes allow photographers to create better lighting angles. The Canon Speedlite 600EX‑RT (5296B002, $549) or 430EX II (2805B002, $299) are great choices for any photographer using a Canon DSLR. The Canon Off-Camera Shoe Cord OC-E3 ($70) allows you to hold the flash up to 2 feet away from the camera and still maintain all E‑TTL II functionality; at $70, it’s a wise investment.

Micro Shots

In food photography, mid-range laboratory microscopes are useful for imaging the cellular structure of plant tissue or details such as the fat-covered bubbles in whipped cream. Microscopy is a different art form from photography in many ways because the light-scattering properties of matter change at the microscopic scale. A good‑quality microscope typically comes equipped with five or more objective lenses, ranging in magnification from 10:1 to 100:1. We use the Nikon E800 microscope ($6,999) with Nikon CFI objective lenses; however the newest incarnation of the model is the Nikon Eclipse Ni-U (price varies depending on configuration).

Polarizing filters, like this Hoya 77 mm Evo Circular Polarizer ($89), help to enhance picture quality by blocking harmful reflected light. It can be used to reduce light reflections from glass and liquid surfaces or to improve color saturation. An example of this effect can be seen in this image from The Photography of Modernist Cuisine called “Kaleidoscopic Vitamin C,” where the use of a polarized filter helped create an explosion of colors.

High Speed Images

Remote triggers serve as the communication link between a camera and its flash. The trigger, which is usually mounted on the hot shoe, uses radio signals to synchronize flashes so that they fire at the exact moment when the shutter opens. We suggest the PocketWizard MultiMAX ($249 and up).

The Phantom V12.1 is something of a dream gift for any photographer (or director, for that matter). It’s akin to asking your parents for a pony for the holidays. Because our reflexes often aren’t quick enough to capture a fleeting moment of action, our studio uses high-speed video cameras like the Phantom V12.1, which can shoot up to a million frames per second. This allows us to capture moments that otherwise wouldn’t be seen by the naked eye.

Cutaways

Some of the contents of our cutaway shots were literally held together by pins and needles. Add sewing pins to your gift list; they’re an essential tool for capturing the momentary (and fleeting) precision of a cutaway. Sewing needles are easy to hide from view or remove during editing when they can’t be fully hidden.

For a serious photographer, color is incredibly important. To achieve truly brilliant colors like those in our vegetable garden cutaway, we used the X-Rite ColorChecker Passport ($89). By taking a picture with the ColorChecker in the frame, you can easily white-balance your images during post processing. This great tool also helps photographers create custom color profiles for individual scenarios.

On The Go

A pocket-sized tripod, like the GorillaPod ($14 and up), is an incredible gift for budding food photographers who like chronicling their meals and adventures on the go. When you don’t have much control over the lighting in your environment, a tripod can help eliminate some of the blur that you experience when taking photos in ambient lighting. Compact and portable, these small tripods connect to digital cameras of all sizes, even cell phones, making them an easy tool to carry around for impromptu shoots or to catch fleeting magical moments.

Another simple lighting gift for photographers is a portable reflector, like this 32″ Impact 5-in-1 Collapsible Disc ($38). Portable reflectors help diffuse tricky lighting in the field or in the studio. The disc itself helps soften lighting, and the removable slipcover can be used to reflect light for shadowing effects.

A Very Sous Vide Thanksgiving with Modernist Cuisine

Posted on November 21, 2013 at 1:27 pm.

Written by Caren

This Thanksgiving we are exploring the diverse bounty that cooking sous vide can produce. Call it a bit of a challenge for Modernist diehards, or a joyful homage to a technique we are truly thankful for, but make no mistake: it’s a very sous vide Thanksgiving at Modernist Cuisine.

Modernist chefs have embraced sous vide cooking because of the unparalleled control it provides over the textures of cooked food. Sous vide is actually perfect for a preparation-heavy, feast like Thanksgiving—by removing the chef as the role of human thermostat, you can yield perfectly-cooked food without any of the babysitting required by traditional roasting. Preparing dishes sous vide will also help to alleviate the competition for space (and correct temperature) in your oven on Thanksgiving Day. Make dishes like our potato puree ahead of time, and then store and reheat them in your water bath. They won’t overcook, and they’ll never dry out!

Planning a Thanksgiving dinner with the help of sous vide will require a water bath and a little organization, but those who plan ahead will be rewarded by the most delicious, stress-free family feast ever. To help you succeed, we’ve selected some professional tips, organized our recipes according to order of preparation, and included a few extra recipes that highlight our sous vide favorites. For juicy, evenly cooked meat, tender vegetables, and smooth potatoes, make all of these recipes, or just choose your favorites.

Improvising a Water Bath

If you have one or more sous vide baths, you’re ready to start cooking! But if you don’t yet have a sous vide setup (or if you want an extra), there are a few ways you can improvise. All you need is a digital thermometer.

One of the simplest ways to improvise sous vide cooking is with a pot on the stove. Clip bags of food along with your digital thermometer to a wire cooling rack, and hang it on the rim of the pot, arranging bags carefully so that the pot isn’t overcrowded. Dial in a burner setting that maintains the desired water temperature. Keep the pot covered to retain heat, uncovering only to check on the temperature.

Placing a pan filled with water into your oven will also work, but we recommend using an oven probe to be sure the temperature of your water remains stable.

When in need, you can convert a clean kitchen sink into a water bath. Fill the basin with water that has been heated to the desired cooking temperature, adding 1–2 °C / 2–4 °F. Add bagged food to the water, refreshing it with hot water as needed. Use silverware to hold down floating bags.

If your kitchen sink (or bathtub) is occupied, a cooler can make an excellent water bath.

Don’t fret if you don’t have a circulating bath. Although these baths are preferred by professional kitchens, keeping your portions in each bag small and well separated will help convective currents flow around them easily.
Our last suggestion doubles as a party trick: believe it or not, a hot tub will work as a (giant) water bath (but only if you’re lightly cooking salmon). If only we had a photo.

Prep

Now that your water bath(s) are all ready to go, it’s time to start cooking sous vide.

1. Start your preparation by making the potato puree. This can be made two days ahead of time and then reheated just before you’re ready to serve your meal. This is not your standard mashed potatoes recipe—instead, you’ll produce velvety-smooth potatoes without a hint of gumminess or grit! Dairy-free? We also have you covered.

2. Don’t save dessert for last when it comes to sous vide. Make our Vanilla-Cinnamon Cream Pie two days ahead of time and refrigerate it. The brown butter crust and apple foam add a seasonal twist to this Modernist favorite.

3. Next, it’s time for vegetables. Chop seasonal vegetables as desired and then vacuum seal them separately. All of your vegetables can cook at the same temperature (see table), and bagging them separately will allow you to pull individual bags from your water bath when they reach the desired tenderness. Make sure you don’t overcrowd your tank; leave enough room for the water to circulate. Prior to serving your food, reheat it and dress it with our Modernist Vinaigrette.

If you prefer the traditional aesthetic of roasted veggies, feel free to make those ahead of time; then seal them in a bag with a little butter or olive oil. An hour or so before you’re ready to eat, pop the bag in your sous vide bath and your veggies will stay at a perfect serving temperature.

4. Classical approaches to roasting a bird whole can compromise your results: perfectly cooked breasts hide the undercooked dark meat of the thighs or else swap flavorful dark meat for dry, overcooked white meat. A Modernist approach is to cook each part of the bird separately. We devoted an entire chapter in Modernist Cuisine at Home to the art of roasting chicken and poultry. For Thanksgiving, we suggest a confit for the dark meat and sous vide turkey breast. Top your turkey with your favorite gravy recipe or dip bites into our recipe for Cranberry-Apple Sauce.

5. Infuse your meal with some family favorites—these might be the best dishes to pair with your sous vide creations.

On Thanksgiving Day, heat your water bath to a serving temperature that’s still below the lowest cooking temperature of the foods you’ll load into it—in this case, 55 °C / 131 °F. Then add your prebagged foods at least two hours before you plan to eat. That’ll give everything enough time to get nice and warm. If your guests arrive late—not to worry—your food won’t suffer at all because of the delay.

We’re very thankful for sous vide Thanksgiving. Very thankful, indeed!

Modernist Cuisine and Modernist Pantry Partner for Online Store and Cooking Kits

Posted on November 7, 2013 at 9:53 am.

Written by Caren

Finding Modernist ingredients and tools just got easier. The Modernist Cuisine™ Online Store, powered by Modernist Pantry, provides a wide selection of unusual ingredients, packaged and priced for both home and professional use.

Since the release of Modernist Cuisine, our readers have frequently asked us for help locating ingredients and equipment. While some Modernist ingredients are sold at grocery, health, brewing, and other specialty stores, the shopping experience can be frustrating—ingredients are commonly labeled with different names, and the properties of some ingredients vary widely between brands. In response, we have partnered with Modernist Pantry, an online retailer dedicated to Modernist cooking, to streamline the shopping process. Ingredients are easy to find, and the descriptions provide contextual links to our Modernist Cuisine books.

If you are new to Modernist cooking and want to experiment with some of the most iconic Modernist techniques, we have you covered. The Modernist Cuisine™ Gel Noodle Kit and the Modernist Cuisine™ Spherification Kit include all of the tools and Modernist ingredients needed to learn the techniques of gelling. Each kit also includes a full-color recipe booklet with all the features you have come to expect from Modernist Cuisine: recipes with scaling percentages, step-by-step photos, recipe variations, troubleshooting steps, and detailed information about each ingredient. Each kit contains enough Modernist ingredients to make 20 batches.

Although we think a tank of liquid nitrogen would make a great stocking stuffer, these gelling kits are a little easier to gift wrap. Designed for ages eight and older, they are also great projects to tackle with your kids!

We encourage you to share your creations and variations with us on Facebook and Twitter. You can learn more and buy the gel noodle kit here or the spherification kit here.

– The Modernist Cuisine Team

Remembering Charlie Trotter

Posted on November 5, 2013 at 8:08 pm.

Written by Caren

This morning, the world lost a culinary legend with the passing of Charlie Trotter, chef and owner of the world-famous Charlie Trotter’s restaurant Chicago. Charlie left a lasting legacy. He was a pioneer in the world of fine dining, and was one of the first American chefs to create a model for haute cuisine that wasn’t just an import of European food, but instead was intrinsically based on the cuisine of the United States. He was also one of the first American celebrity chefs. Charlie emphasized dining as an emotional and intellectual experience, and considered classic dishes as a starting point for improvisation, rather than rule. He was a passionate advocate for perfection and excellence, to the degree that he wrote several management books about how to take those values from high end food to other disciplines. A host of innovative chefs like Homaro Cantu, Graham Elliot, and Grant Achatz passed through his kitchen and went to create an exciting set of Chicago restaurants. For me, Chicago is one of the most exciting cities in the world to go to dinner, and that is part of Charlie’s legacy.

I was fortunate to be one of the chefs passing through his kitchen – albeit for a single dinner. My team and I had the rare privilege to cook alongside Charlie to celebrate his restaurant’s 25^th anniversary, shortly before its closing last year. We spent several days with Charlie and his staff, and we experienced his gregarious (and sometimes outrageous) personality and incomparable hospitality first-hand. From the moment of our arrival, it was clear that Charlie knew just how to make a guest feel welcome. When our car pulled up to the entrance of Trotter’s, his entire staff – chefs, servers, hosts and all – lined the sidewalk in military formation, as if prepared for the arrival of a foreign dignitary. Once inside, Charlie was quick to put everyone at ease. He enjoyed singling out his chefs and servers, one by one, by interrupting their task at hand and inquiring, for all to hear, “If you were on a desert island and could only bring one book to read, which would it be?” Newer employees answered nervously, realizing the question was a test, and having clearly been put on the spot for Charlie’s amusement. Experienced Trotter’s team members responded with the correct answer, “Yours, Chef!” It was his way of breaking the invisible tension that divides the diners and service team in traditional fine dining, putting the whole room at ease.

Charlie’s memory will live on in the hundreds and thousands who dined at his restaurant, read his books, or knew him from television. He made an immeasurable impact on the world of fine dining, and we will miss him deeply.

-Nathan

Revisiting a Halloween favorite: Glowing gummy worms

Posted on October 31, 2013 at 10:20 am.

Written by Caren

By: W. WAYT GIBBS

When I was 10 years old, I took a bet from a fellow sixth grader and, in front of the whole class, choked down a panfried earthworm. Of all the weird foods I’ve eaten—and there have been quite a few—that was by far the creepiest.

With a little advance planning, you can make a treat for this Halloween that gives your guests the willies but actually tastes great. Imagine their reaction when you uncover a serving tray piled high with cookie-crumb “dirt” filled with wiggling gummy night crawlers. Then turn out the light, switch on a black light, and enjoy the gasps as the edible worms emit an eerie blue glow, thanks to a tasty fluorescent liquid that you might already have in your pantry.

These treats are fairly easy to make once you have all the needed supplies. And kids will enjoy helping with the preparation, if you don’t mind spoiling the surprise. To make worm-shaped gummy candies, our research chefs use night crawler fishing-lure molds purchased from a sporting goods store. But other mold shapes will work as well; this time of year, it’s easy to find candy molds for skulls, spiders, rats, eyeballs—whatever sends a shiver down your spine. Shallow molds work best.

Two special ingredients combine to yield that smooth, stretchy, yet tender texture you want in a gummy candy. The first is gelatin, which comes in various strengths measured by a unit called Bloom (after Oscar Bloom, who invented the gelometer, a device that measures jelly strength). The recipe works best with 200 Bloom gelatin, sometimes called gold gelatin. If you can’t find it, you can substitute Knox-brand powdered gelatin, which has a Bloom strength of 225. Just reduce the amount used from 20 grams to 18 grams.

The second unusual ingredient is gum arabic, which is made from the hardened sap of acacia trees. The gum gives the candies a smooth, shiny surface while remaining pliable. It’s fairly pricey stuff, but you only need a little bit. Look for it online in powdered form.

And that secret ingredient that glows under black light? Quinine, which is used to flavor tonic water. This medicinal chemical, originally isolated from the bark of a South American tree, is so highly fluorescent that it sends out about 55 photons of visible blue light for every 100 photons of ultraviolet light (also known as black light) that it absorbs. If you don’t already have a black light, get the kind that uses fluorescent tubes: they emit a wider range of wavelengths than LED lights do and will make the quinine in the candies glow more vibrantly.

To obtain the right texture for these candies, it is crucial to use the correct proportions of ingredients.

Glowing Gummy Worms Recipe

The Photography of Modernist Cuisine

Posted on October 22, 2013 at 9:23 am.

Written by Caren

When we wrote Modernist Cuisine, we wanted to capture our readers’ attention and engage their curiosity, exposing them to scientific principles and modern culinary techniques. We knew a text‑heavy book might be intimidating, so we added a second goal: make the book beautiful by filling it with stunning photography.

After wrapping up the production of Modernist Cuisine at Home, we decided the photos deserved to be showcased on their own. This book will allow you to see images of food in a whole new way, at a scale that the previous books didn’t allow.

Over the course of Modernist Cuisine and Modernist Cuisine at Home, we shot over 212,000 images. From that library, we selected 405 photos for this book. Of those, 145 of our most-captivating images span the entire 26-inch-wide opened book, uninterrupted by text. Two-thirds of the photos have never before been published, and, of those, 126 images were created just for this book.

At almost 13 pounds and with pages almost 60% larger than its predecessors, The Photography of Modernist Cuisine is a massive photo book. In addition to the images themselves, we also provide a glimpse into the story behind each photograph. Some stories describe the daily cooking experiments in our lab, while others chronicle unusual foods we’ve encountered from all corners of the globe. Others, still, illuminate scientific insig hts through a view of food you’re unlikely to find elsewhere. We included these descriptions in the back of the book and also take you behind the scenes to impart how the photographs were taken and edited.

If you love food or appreciate beauty, or if you’ve ever looked at our photography and wondered how we did it, we hope The Photography of Modernist Cuisine will immerse you in a view of food that is familiar, yet profoundly new.

We hope you find a spot for The Photography of Modernist Cuisine in your home (you may have to clear off your coffee table) and enjoy the stories we share.

— The Modernist Cuisine Team

A triple-almond pie with cherries on top

Posted on October 8, 2013 at 9:18 am.

Written by Caren

BY W. WAYT GIBBS
Associated Press

By late summer, the fruits hanging from vast groves of Prunus amygdalus trees in California have withered and split. Through cracks in their leathery rinds, you can see glimpses of the pale teardrop-shaped seeds they protect: almonds, ready for harvest.

By early autumn, fresh almonds are pouring into markets by the ton. It’s the perfect time of year to make this recipe for almond cherry cream pie, which works the subtle and complex flavor of almonds into all three layers: a crispy crust, a custard filling, and a sweet, crunchy topping.

The chefs in our research kitchen tested more than 40 versions of sweet and tart crusts to find the combination that, thanks to a bit of almond flour and powdered sugar, produces a container for the pie that has just the right balance of sweetness, strength, and buttery give. A thin coat of cocoa butter holds the cream filling away from the crust, so it stays crisp from the first bite to the last. And a dash of almond extract enhances the flavor of the almond flour.

The pie is filled with a simple pastry cream flavored by amaretto, the almond-flavored liqueur. Cooking the custard in a temperature-controlled pot of water ensures that the texture turns out right every time.

You can top the pie with caramelized almonds, which are easy to prepare and make an addictive snack on their own. And for a splash of color and a dash of tartness, we add canned Amarena cherries. Fresh cherries are even better, but hard to come by this time of year. Slices of fresh fig also work well as a topping.

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The crust, filling, and caramelized almond topping for this pie can each be made separately and stored until you are ready to assemble the pie. The crust will keep for up to three months if you vacuum seal it and then freeze it before it is baked. The pastry cream filling will keep for up to two days in the refrigerator. The caramelized almonds will keep for up to a week when stored in an airtight container. If you are making the pie all at once, you can save time by making the pastry cream and caramelized almonds while the dough for the crust rests in the refrigerator.

TRIPLE-ALMOND CHERRY PIE

Start to finish: 3 hours, including 2 hours of unattended cooking, to make the crust, filling, and topping, and to assemble the pie

Makes one 12 inch pie

12-inch Double Almond Pie Crust, baked

4 cups (1 kg) Amaretto Pastry Cream

½ cup (60 g) Caramelized Almonds

12 Amarena cherries or fresh cherries, halved

2 Tbsp cocoa butter

Melt the cocoa butter over low heat or in the microwave, and brush a thin coat of the oil onto the interior of the baked pie crust. Allow the fat to solidify at room temperature, and then fill the crust with cold pastry cream. Smooth the surface of the filling with a spatula, and refrigerate the pie until it becomes firm, at least one hour. Top the pie with the crumbled caramelized almonds and cherry halves. Serve it cold.

DOUBLE ALMOND PIE CRUST

3-1/2 tablespoons (50 g) blended egg yolks (from 3 to 4 eggs)

1-1/2 cups (200 g) all-pupose flour

¾ cup (165 g) unsalted butter, very cold

¾ cup (80 g) powdered sugar

3/8 cup (30 g) almond flour

1 tsp (4 g) salt

¾ tsp (2.5 g) almond extract

½ tsp (2 g) baking powder

baking beads or dry beans, as needed

Fill a large stock pot with hot water, and preheat it to 153 F. Clip a digital thermometer to the rim of the pot, with the tip well submerged, to monitor the temperature. Place the blended egg yolks in a zip-closure bag, and slowly lower the open bag into the preheated water until the top is nearly at the surface of the water, and then seal it. The goal is to use the water pressure to squeeze as much air as possible out of the bag. Once sealed, the bag should sink.

Submerge the bag of yolks, and let them cook in the 153 F water for 45 minutes. Keep an eye on the thermometer and adjust the heat as needed to keep the temperature at or near 153 F.

While the yolks cook, dice the chilled butter, and combine it in a food processor with the flours, powdered sugar, salt, and baking powder. Pulse the food processor until the mixture takes on the texture of cornmeal.

Add the almond extract and cooked egg yolks gradually, while continuing to pulse the food processor. Continue processing until the dough starts to bind. Although it may look quite dry, it will cohere eventually.

Shape the dough into a ball, flatten it into a thick disk, and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap. Put the wrapped dough into the refrigerator and let it rest for an hour. As it rests, the butter in the dough will harden and the gluten will grow more elastic. While the dough rests, you can make the pastry cream and caramelized almonds from the recipes below.

Preheat an oven to 375 F. Roll the rested dough into a circle that is about 1/8 inch think and about 2 inches larger in diameter than the pie pan. If you find that the dough is too sticky to roll, either chill it again or place it between two pieces of plastic wrap or parchment, and then roll it.

Line a 12 inch pie pan with the dough; do not trim off the excess. Instead, let the edges drape over the sides of the pan. Press the dough firmly into the pan interior. If you don’t need to use the crust right away, cover the unbaked crust in plastic wrap and store it in the refrigerator. For longer-term storage, vacuum seal it, and stick it in the freezer.

To prepare the crust for baking, prick it with a fork all over, and then press parchment paper over top to protect it during baking. The fill the pan with baking beads or dry beans, and press them against the walls so that the dough doesn’t droop while it is in the oven.

Put the pie pan on a baking sheet, and bake it in the preheated oven until it turns golden brown, about 12 minutes. Midway through the baking, rotate the pie pan a half turn so that it browns evenly.

Carefully remove the beans and parchment paper. If the crust still looks a little wet, return it to the over for another 2 to 3 minutes.

Cool the crust to room temperature, and then use a knife or vegetable peeler to trim any excess crust from the edges of the pan.

AMARETTO PASTRY CREAM

¾ cup (200 g) egg yolks, blended (11 to 12 yolks)

½ cup (110 mL) heavy cream

½ cup (100 mL) whole milk

¼ cup (50 g) unsalted butter, softened

5 tablespoons (64 g) sugar

1¼ tsp (6 mL) amaretto liqueur

pinch of salt

Fill a large stock pot with hot water, and preheat it to 176 F. Use a thermometer clipped to the pot to monitor the water temperature.

In a saucepan, combine the cream, milk, sugar, and salt. Whisk the mixture over medium-low heat until the sugar and salt have completely dissolved.

Strain the blended egg yolks into a zip-closure bag. Remove the air from the bag by slowly lowering it into the stock pot until the surface of the water almost reaches the seal, and then close it. The bag should sink into the water. Allow the egg yolks to cook in the water bath for 35 minutes; adjust the heat as needed to keep the temperature at or near 176 F.

The yolks should now be firm and fully set. Transfer them immediately from the bag into a blender, and puree them at low speed. Do not allow the yolks to cool before blending, or the pastry cream will become grainy.

While the blender is running, gradually add the amaretto and the warm cream mixture.

Increase the blender speed to high, and gradually add the softened butter. Blend until the mixture becomes smooth and creamy.

If you will not be using the pastry cream right away, press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the custard to prevent a skin from forming, and store it in the refrigerator.

CARAMELIZED ALMONDS

½ cup (50 g) sliced almonds

2-1/2 tablespoons (25 g) sugar

2-1/2 teaspoons (10 g) egg white, blended

pinch of salt

Preheat an oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix the almonds, sugar, egg white, and salt well, and then spread them evenly across the paper.

Bake until golden brown, about six minutes. The color of the almonds can change quickly, so keep an eye on them.

Cool the almonds to room temperature, and then crumble them into large pieces. If you will not be using them immediately, store the almonds in an airtight container.

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Photo credit: Melissa Lehuta, Modernist Cuisine, LLC