The Modernist Cuisine team worked with the eGullet Society for Culinary Art and Letters to produce an extensive Q&A feature that includes eight previously unreleased pages excerpted from three different volumes of the book. The feature was published today at egullet.org. We’ll continue answering reader questions on that forum thread throughout this week.
On the section on cooking risottos, the chart shows many different grains that you can par-cook by a few different methods. When using the pressure cooking method for cooking arborio rice(for example), do you let the pressure release naturally or do want speed up the cooling process by running water over the top?
Dear MC:
I am speaking at the World Tea Expo (see link below) on the Art of Chai, and since this involves extracting/steeping tea, spice and/or herb (i.e. herbal tea), I was wondering if you have done researching on any of these topics, particularly extraction of tea (in water of course, steeping). Extraction of herbs would typically be covered as part of soups (e.g., bouquet garnis).
Any chance one of you will be attending the World Tea Expo: bit.ly/fl2XAw ?
Will your book be available in bookstores to browse before ordering?
Thanks for your interest. Currently, none of the Modernist Cuisine team are planning to attend the World Tea Expo, but the book does includes sections on infusing and extracting that cover these techniques in detail, complete with extensive parametric recipes for infusions and extractions.
Modernist Cuisine will be available for bookstores to purchase beginning in March. Our understanding is that Barnes and Nobles plans to carry the book in selected stores, and Kitchen Arts and Letters in New York City has also been taking orders. We will update the buy page on this site with links to other bookstores offering Modernist Cuisine as we become aware of them.
There is a problem on the second of these pages – humid air is LESS dense than dry! I am also not entirely happy with the cooling by blowing page 😉 Blown air is 100% humidity, so just as it is warmer than room air, it is also more humid! The key explanation is breaking down the boundary layer via turbulence. There is a boundary layer for heat and moisture, so the same explanation is good for either cooling mechanism even if evaporation dominates…