Holidays Archives - Modernist Cuisine

Good Eating in An Exoskeleton

Posted on December 17, 2015 at 10:20 am.

Written by Caren

The winter holidays are often celebrated with glorious roasts. But there’s another staple of Christmas and New Year’s fare: crustaceans. From country to country and coast to coast, it’s all about seafood.

In Australia, barbecued or steamed prawns (referred to as shrimp in the US), Australian crayfish, and marron take center stage on the table for Christmas dinner, a trend that is being echoed in the United Kingdom, where more and more families are replacing traditional turkey with large lobsters. Seafood is staple Christmas Eve fare, but most notably in Italy where the night is known as la Vigilia. Also referred to as the Eve of Seven Fishes in the United States, the night culminates around the kitchen table, which is set with course after course of dishes laden with a variety of fresh fish and crustaceans. Lobster, in particular, has become a Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve tradition (despite some cultural superstitions) for many families throughout the world and, along with crab and prawn, is a staple of Réveillon, celebrated in France, Belgium, Brazil, Portugal, Quebec, New Orleans, and other areas with French or Portuguese influence. The food at réveillons, long dinner parties preceding both Christmas and New Year’s Day, is luxurious, extravagant, and comforting—a mix that is well suited for delectable crustaceans.

Selecting crustaceans

Although cooking crustaceans isn’t terribly complex, picking the right ones for the pot can be a challenge. You’ll do better armed with the knowledge that when crustaceans grow, they periodically shed their exoskeletons; that is, they molt. Many cooks know to avoid crustaceans that are getting ready to molt, but you may not know when to chase after those that have already molted.

Timing is important here because prior to molting, lobsters and crabs shed a large amount of muscle mass. They literally shrink inside their shells. After the exoskeleton weakens, they break out of it, living briefly without any protective covering at all. Just after molting, they pump up, adding 50%–100% to their body weight by absorbing water. You don’t generally want to eat a crustacean that is about to molt or that has just molted and is taking on a lot of ballast. The exception is soft-shelled crab, which is cooked just after having molted.

Once their new shells begin to harden, crustaceans are perhaps at their best for the table. Many say that a lobster with a new exoskeleton is exceptionally sweet and firm. Likely, this is because the creature ate voraciously after molting to replenish its protein and energy stores in order to rebuild its protective armor.

What to look for

1. Look at shell color and firmness:

When crustaceans are at their prime for eating, their topsides will be deeply colored, and their bellies will take on a stained or dirty look. The shell should be firm to the touch. Crustaceans are primed for cooking when their shells will have become very hard.

2. Compare size to weight:

Crustaceans will feel heavy for their size because they are filled with dense muscle tissue, not tissue that is bloated with absorbed water. Crustaceans that are about to molt feel the lightest because their shells are partly empty.

3. The shell will also give you clues that tell you when it’s better to pass on a particular animal:

Recently molted crabs and lobsters have shells with a grayish-to-green cast on their topsides and a lustrous white abdomen. That’s because the pigmentation of the shell comes from the animal’s diet, and they haven’t yet eaten enough to color the shells more richly.

Sometimes you will see a pinkish tinge, commonly referred to as rust, on the bottom of the crabs, which can indicate that they are getting close to molting. Before they do, they will reabsorb calcium from the shell, softening it. A telltale sign is that the shell will begin to appear slightly green again. They will bloat with water to loosen the shell and then will shed muscle mass to become small enough to squeeze out of it. Such crabs do not make for good eating.

So pick it right, and you’ll enjoy the aroma of cooked crustaceans, which is unique. The chemistry responsible for this redolence turns out to be the Maillard reaction, which normally requires a very high cooking temperature. But because the flesh of crustaceans contains a lot of sugars and amino acids (such as glycine, which tastes sweet) to counteract the salinity of seawater, the Maillard reaction occurs at an unusually low temperature. After you’re done feasting, save your crustacean shells. Collect them in the freezer until you have enough to make Pressure-Cooked Crustacean Stock. If you don’t have any shells, use whole shrimp (with heads on), which are relatively inexpensive and easy to find.

Our Annual Holiday Giveaway is Back!

Posted on December 3, 2015 at 12:51 pm.

Written by Caren

We’re celebrating holidays the best way we could think of: by giving away some of our favorite things. That’s right—Modernist cooking for everyone.

This year we’ve partnered with Artspace, Baking Steel, Modernist Pantry, Phaidon, Sansaire, and ThermoWorks to help spread our love of food, art, and Modernist gear. With 10 different prize packages, you can enter to win anything from ThermoWorks gear to art from our new limited-edition series of Artspace prints. Is Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking still on your list? We’ll be giving another copy away this year—the shipping is on us too.

How it works:

Starting December 7 visit modernistcuisine.com each morning to discover a newly featured prize. Enter to win one of the prize packages once a day before 11:59 p.m. (PST) through December 16. The winners will be selected and notified via e-mail on December 17th.

After entering, we hope you’ll stick around for even more holiday cheer. The hidden beauty of food constantly sparks our child-like wonder and curiosity. This year we want to share the same whimsical magic, so we’ve turned some of our favorite images from The Photography of Modernist Cuisine into coloring pages for you to download, share, print, and color. Once they’re colored, we hope you’ll take a photo and share it with us (@modcuisine) on Instagram using #MCincolor.

Above all, we sincerely hope you have a wonderful holiday season.

—the Modernist Cuisine team

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Why is the Turkey Still Pink?

Posted on November 24, 2015 at 11:54 am.

Written by Caren

You’ve covered your bases— the turkey was in the oven with a digital probe, or separated into white and dark meat, and then cooked to the perfect internal temperature. But when you begin carving your bird, you notice the devastating color that is sure to break the hearts of hunger-mad guests moments before Thanksgiving dinner is served: pink. No need to panic. If you’ve carefully cooked your bird, there are other reasons why you might see that hue.

Several phenomena can cause discoloration in cooked meat. By far the most common, and to some people the most off-putting, is the pink discoloration that frequently occurs in poultry and pork that have been over cooked to temperatures above 80 °C / 175 °F or so. This pink tint makes some people think that the meat is still slightly raw—a common complaint with Thanksgiving and Christmas birds. In pork, the pink hue may even lead diners to suspect that a sneaky cook has injected nitrites into the meat.

In fact, a pigment known as cytochrome is to blame. Cytochrome helps living cells to burn fat. At high temperatures, it loses its ability to bind oxygen and turns pink. Over time, the pigment does regain its ability to bind oxygen, and the pink tinge fades. That is why the leftover meat in the refrigerator rarely seems to have this unseemly blush the next day.

Pink discoloration can also come in other forms, such as spots and speckles. Nearly all of these blotches are the result of the unusual way that various protein fragments and thermally altered pigment molecules bind oxygen. None of them indicate that the meat is still raw or that it will make you ill. Nor do they implicate a sneaky cook.

-Adapted from Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking

Bastille Day

Posted on July 14, 2015 at 8:32 am.

Written by Caren

Although our kitchen is stocked with top-of-the-line equipment that allows us to create fantastic dishes, all in-house, there’s one tool that we don’t have: a 3D food printer.

Last year we collaborated with 3D Systems Culinary to create 3D-printed sugar sculptures, shaped like the colorful chimneys atop the Güell Palace, designed by Antoni Gaudí. The sculptures were used as “sugar cubes” during the absinthe service for our dinner honoring chef Ferran Adrià. We watched the sugar chimneys dissolve through a 3D-printed slotted spoon, designed to cradle it perfectly, as the absinthe was poured—a striking way to end the 50-course meal.

Those sugar chimneys fueled our fascination with reproducing architectural marvels and our continuing partnership with 3D Systems Culinary.

3D Food

When 3D food printers are discussed, comparisons are frequently made to the technologies and gadgets that are depicted in science fiction. It’s hard to avoid, after all. Many of us remember the replicator from Star Trek that could instantly prepare a single martini or a full meal by rearranging subatomic particles. It was perfect for voyages into deep space and seemed especially appealing after a long day at work when a materialized drink or warm meal would hit the spot.

3D food printing doesn’t work like a replicator, though. 3D printers work to create foods in different ways, but the process starts with a digital design. The design can be original, made with software, or scanned using a 3D scanner. Before the design is uploaded to the printer, a program slices it into thin, horizontal layers that the printer can read. To create the sugar chimneys, 3D Systems Culinary used the ChefJet Pro, the first professional-grade culinary 3D printer. The ChefJet Pro works a lot like making frosting in a bowl; it adds the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, just very, very precisely, layer by layer. It can incorporate food dyes into each layer, to produce photographic-quality color pieces. When the print is complete, compressed air is used to remove excess dry ingredients, revealing the finished sculpture.

3D food printing is still novel to most of us, although foods like frozen pancakes are made in a similar way. Some of the applications of 3D food printing are similar to its science fiction counterpart. NASA is investigating how 3D printers can feed astronauts on long missions. 3D food printing already has practical, terrestrial applications—some German nursing homes use it to create softer foods for patients with dysphagia, a difficulty in swallowing. 3D printing has created a new world of pastry applications, expanding what we can create with sugar and chocolate. We can create shapes and designs that would be impossible by hand, including elaborate architectural structures.

Let Them Eat Brioche

When 3D Systems Culinary reached out to us about a new collaboration, we were just on the heels of constructing Casa Batlló in gingerbread. A 3D-printed structure made out of sugar was the perfect way to highlight what 3D Systems Culinary can do. We also happened to be deep into the development of our brioche recipe, so we had the buttery bread on our minds. We connected the dots, from an ornate building to a sumptuous French bread, and found ourselves transported to the opulence of Versailles.

Bread is irrevocably woven into the history of Versailles. If Marie Antoinette said anything to the hungry peasants and sans-culottes it was to advise them to eat brioche instead of cake. Brioche was incredibly expensive, a luxury for the rich, and a far cry from the crusty whole-grain loaves that were eaten by the poor. Although the famous quote most likely belonged to a princess who lived 100 years before the revolution, bread still plays an important role in the history of the château. By October 5, 1789, the undercurrents of the French Revolution were already in motion, and flour and bread had been scarce for some time. Louis XVI and his family remained blissfully, and purposefully, ignorant at Versailles, a symbol of the disparity between the immense wealth of few and the poverty of the masses. Prices were high, tensions had escalated, and a crowd of angry working-class women was close to rioting at the market. The crowd grew into a mob of thousands that then began the long march to Versailles, armed with pitchforks and whatever they could find. Their siege forced Louis and his family to leave the picturesque castle to return to the realities of Paris. On July 14, 1789, less than a year later, a crowd of revolutionaries laid siege on the Bastille, signaling the beginning of the French Revolution.

Brioche Versailles

Our sugar Versailles began with a sketch by head chef Francisco Migoya, which 3D Systems Culinary transformed into a 3D digital model that could then be printed in sugar. The design of the enormous château was simplified because of the scale.

The structure had to fit around a brioche, even if the brioche was somewhat larger than normal. The 3D structure captures the incredible detail of the architect Louis Le Vau’s work and grandiose Baroque architecture—the repetition and symmetry of the windows and gates as well as the detailed moldings of filigree and foliage. Back at The Cooking Lab we designed an acrylic foundation, which we laser cut to resemble the grounds of the château.

Once the 3D printed sugar structure was delivered by the 3D Systems Culinary team, head chef Migoya baked an incredibly rich brioche. True to the project, it’s totally decadent—eggy, buttery, subtly sweet, and utterly delicious. He began construction by coating the brioche in a glaze of pectin and water, then topped it with gold leaf as a nod to the façade of Versailles. Gold leaf is safe to eat and has been consumed throughout history; ancient Egyptian royalty mixed gold in with their food, even incorporating it into breads.

Next, he painted a glaze on the base and covered it with grass (panko) to incorporate even more bread, mixed with Chlorella for color. The panko was patted down to fix it to the foundation, the brioche was centered, and, finally, the 3D-printed detail was placed over the loaf. Meringue rosebushes were added to the garden as a final flourish.

We served the brioche as it would have been eaten in 18th-century France—with a fat dollop of whipped cream (because everything is better with whipped cream), and then we added farm-fresh raspberries for a bright pop of color.

We hope you enjoy our latest collaboration with 3D Systems Culinary, and we look forward to our next sweet construction project!

A Confection Dissection: Love and Tonka Beans

Posted on February 12, 2015 at 10:57 am.

Written by Caren

Love is a particularly difficult emotion to define. If you ask 10 people what love is and how it makes them feel, you’re likely to get 10 different answers. It’s an abstract concept that wraps up any number of emotions we feel because of another person. We soar and then fall. We gain wisdom and then lose ourselves momentarily.

It’s no surprise then that Valentine’s Day elicits a motley crew of reactions. On February 14, some of us celebrate the people we love, while others celebrate their interpersonal independence. We mourn, we embrace, we cry, we reflect, we ignore, and we laugh at what Valentine’s Day has become. What we can all agree on, however, is that it’s a day to enjoy chocolate.

This year we wanted to create something that would appeal to everyone, from die-hard romantics to cynics, and capture the complexity of the holiday. Of course we wanted to do it with a twist. Our literal interpretation of a chocolate heart is a dark wink to all of the heart-shaped confections out there.

We’re incredibly lucky—head chef Migoya knows a thing or two about chocolate, which makes it easy to turn our sweet ideas into a reality. “Let’s make a chocolate model of an anatomical heart,” we joked. And then it happened. The proof of his incredible skill is in the pictures.

The discussion then turned to ingredients and what we could incorporate to continue the literal nature of our theme. Enter the idea of dehydrated red velvet cake for texture. Why? Because red, of course. New questions emerged. What ingredients could we add to play on the duality of the day? What could we do for the bleeding hearts out there? “We should add tonka beans,” chef Migoya suggested. And we did.

Tonka Beans

If Jack and the Beanstalk has any basis in fact, his beans must have been tonka beans. Tonka beans are flat legumes that are roughly the length of a shelled Brazil nut. When cracked, the wrinkled black shell reveals a dense brown fruit. Although these beans will not cause skyward beanstalk growth, their aroma is intoxicating. It’s often referenced as a vanilla substitute; however, this is a bit misleading. Tonka has a beautifully complex scent—spicy with notes of vanilla, tobacco, and smoke, plus a hint of cinnamon. Tonka beans have been used as a tobacco additive, to create perfumes such as Guerlain’s iconic scent Shalimar, and as an aphrodisiac in some cultures. It’s rumored to have mystical properties, used in some traditions as a “love-wishing bean,” in addition to summoning courage and incurring money.

Tonka beans pop up every now and then on menus stateside, but by far it’s not an ingredient you often encounter. It has a rather nefarious reputation, despite its incredible flavor profile.

Tonka beans are the seeds of Dipteryx odorata (commonly called cumaru), a large tree that grows in the rainforests of Central and South America. The seeds contain a chemical compound called coumarin, which we have to thank for the beans’ distinctive aroma and bitter taste. Coumarin was first isolated in tonka beans; however, it naturally occurs in many plants, including cassia cinnamon, vanilla grass, sweet clover, sweet woodruff, strawberries, cherries, lavender, licorice, and even apricots. It’s the source of the sweet aroma of freshly cut grass.

At high enough concentrations, coumarin can be moderately toxic to the liver and kidneys. Tonka beans have relatively higher amounts of the compound, which is why their consumption is regulated. In 1954, the FDA restricted the use of tonka beans as a food additive after a study found that coumarin was hepatotoxic in rats at high doses. More recent studies have not been able to replicate the results in other rodents, such as hamsters, and some researchers have noted that other species of rodents and mammals, including humans, likely metabolize coumarin differently than rats.

Like nutmeg, a little bit of tonka bean goes a long way. Single beans are typically shaved or grated into food, and because small amounts make a big impact, it’s unlikely an individual would consume enough in one sitting to cause medical concern or an adverse reaction. Its use as a food additive is legal in many countries, including Britain and France; however, many have created guidelines for how much coumarin should be consumed each day, though many note that short-term elevated intake is not harmful.

Here’s where the bleeding heart comes in. A common, and persistent, misconception is that coumarin is also an anticoagulant that causes hemorrhaging when high concentrations are consumed. It’s a bit of a culinary myth, but the association is not far off. Coumarin can be transformed into a natural blood thinner, but it takes certain molds and fungi to make that transformation happen. When these organisms feed on plants containing coumarin, it is converted into a chemical substance called dicumarol, an anticoagulant. Dicumarol is the toxin responsible for sweet clover poisoning, which occurs when animals hemorrhage after eating toxic quantities of spoiled sweet-clover hay. The phenomenon was somewhat of a mystery until dicumarol was isolated by biochemist Karl Paul Link and his team. The compound was used as a pharmaceutical to treat and prevent blood clots until it was replaced by synthetic derivatives, such as warfarin and coumadin.

Anatomical Chocolate

Back to our heart. We have a lot of unconventional tools at our lab, such as the fishing-lure molds we use for our Olive Oil Gummy Worms, but no human-heart-shaped mold. So we created one using food-grade liquid silicone. Food-grade liquid silicone actually consists of a base and catalyst that are mixed together just before you’re ready to cast the mold. Mix ratios vary depending on the brand you use—we used CopyFlex, which has a 1:1 ratio. You’ll need a standard kitchen scale to ensure you’re measuring the base and catalyst equally. To start, estimate the smallest amount of silicone needed. You can easily mix and add more if you underestimate; however, you don’t want to be stuck with superfluous silicone. We used a spare can—you don’t need a special container to make the mold in, instead use something that you can discard and recycle afterward.

We wanted the shape to be as realistic as possible, so we found a life-sized teaching model, intended for anatomy classes. To cast the mold, Chef Migoya submerged the model in food-grade liquid silicone and then allowed it to set for 12 hours. Once the mold was ready, it was sanitized with very hot water, and then placed in baking soda to sit overnight so that the chocolate wouldn’t absorb the flavor of the silicone.

For the chocolate, he combined milk chocolate, cocoa butter, oil, tonka bean shavings, and the ground, dehydrated red velvet cake, which he baked the previous day and allowed to dry uncovered overnight in a dehydrator. The fats from the cocoa butter, oil, and milk chocolate make it easy to slice through the finished chocolate and surround the crumbs without rehydrating the cake, keeping the crisp texture intact. The result is a satisfyingly delicate crunch.

We used milk chocolate to complement the flavors of the tonka bean and red velvet cake. We found that milk chocolate was the best conduit for these ingredients—the finished product is pleasantly complex with hints of spiced vanilla, tobacco, cinnamon, and cocoa. To finish, the set heart was coated with a vibrant red cocoa butter and, for effect, plated it with splatters of pomegranate juice that we thickened with xanthan gum.

We think the result is a rather stunning tribute to Valentine’s Day and evidence that the world needs more chocolate offal.

Sweet Tips to Melt Their Heart and Your Chocolate

Posted on February 10, 2015 at 9:32 am.

Written by Caren

Spending time with your sweetheart is lovely, but the best part of Valentine’s Day is the chocolate. At least, it can be. Working with chocolate can be tricky, so we’ve compiled a few tips (and an easy step-by-step recipe) from head chef Francisco Migoya that will make creating homemade chocolates a little easier—no tempering necessary.

Add a little bit of oil, such as olive or canola, to melted chocolate. This will prevent the chocolate from developing unsightly streaks if you’re not tempering it. The fat from the oil will destabilize the polymorphous fat crystals found in cocoa butter, preventing the crystals from arranging themselves. It’s the same principle used in chocolate-dipped ice cream cones, where the chocolate is mixed with coconut oil, and works beautifully to make chocolate-dipped strawberries.

Water and chocolate are not friends, however a tiny bit of water can be a huge boon to manipulating chocolate to work in your favor. Sugar is hygroscopic, meaning it is attracted to moisture and easily binds to water molecules. The sugars in chocolate are no different. When a few drops of water are added to the chocolate, the sugar will want to bind to the water, no matter how little is added. The reaction causes the chocolate to thicken, making it pipe-able.

You need only a small amount of water (think drops, not teaspoons) to thicken chocolate, and this technique works with any type of chocolate. The amount of water you add will vary depending on the viscosity of the chocolate you’re using, so it’s best to start by mixing just one or two drops into the melted chocolate, and then adjust to the desired thickness. To demonstrate, chef Migoya created dark-chocolate pops, covered in dehydrated strawberries.

First, assemble the pop sticks on a flat surface, such as clear plexiglass or a sheet pan, that is lined with an acetate sheet or parchment paper.

Next, add a few drops of water to the melted dark chocolate.

Transfer the thickened chocolate to a pastry bag. We used a round pastry tip, though any shape could be used to create desired effects.

Pipe the chocolate from one end of the stick to the other, overlapping to create a free-form chocolate latticework.

Once all of the chocolate is piped onto the sticks, add a topping for extra flavor and a punch of color. We used dehydrated strawberries, inspired by the classic combination. Immediately transfer the finished chocolate pops to a refrigerator until you’re ready to serve them. Refrigerating your chocolate will prevent sugar bloom, which creates a white powdery look on the surface of the chocolate.

If you’re still craving more, chef Migoya shared more sweet tips with chef Jamie Gwen. Stay tuned to our blog for even more heartbreakingly good chocolate later this week.

A Gingerbread Tribute to Antoni Gaudí

Posted on December 18, 2014 at 9:08 am.

Written by Caren

The idea was simple enough—build a gingerbread house for the holidays. Less than a month later, our house transformed into a gingerbread homage to Spanish Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí and Casa Batlló, his kaleidoscopic masterpiece in Barcelona, Spain.

Everything about the structure is edible, from the luster on each chimney and spire to the blanket of snow dusting the roof and ground. After creating a blueprint, we used a laser cutter to replicate the organic, serpentine curves of Casa Batlló in gingerbread and to etch the delicate, bonelike details of the balconies in fondant.

Jolly Rancher glass covers each window, created by crushing the candies with a meat cleaver, placing the shards in each window of the gingerbread facade, and then baking it on a Baking Steel, topped with a Silpat, in our bread oven. The radiant heat from the top of the oven melts the Jolly Ranchers without burning the bottom of the gingerbread

Decorative touches were carefully added: tiles made from Jolly Ranchers, prismatic scaled shingles of icing, edible gold luster dust, rice paper snowflakes, and finally, a powdering of tapioca maltodextrin.

We hope you enjoy watching our tribute to Antoni Gaudí come to life. And, above all, wish you a wonderful holiday season.

– The Modernist Cuisine Team

Gift Guide 2014: White Christmas Edition

Posted on December 11, 2014 at 11:49 am.

Written by Caren

It’s that time of year: gift-guide season has arrived and there’s no shortage of ideas for cooks—we all love indispensable kitchen tools, after all. In previous years, our gift guides encompassed our favorite equipment and tools, including suggestions for photographers. This year, however, we decided to take some of our favorite seasonal songs literally. We’re having a white Christmas and letting it snow by dedicating our gift guide to the powdery wonderland of Modernist ingredients.

Modernist chefs adore ingredients that make the culinary impossible possible, by transforming starches into sugars, stabilizing emulsions, gelling liquids, and creating cloud-like foams. Unfortunately, misinformation about Modernist ingredients is abundant, especially online. Because these substances are able to transform foods somewhat magically, they are often misidentified as being the byproducts of misguided science experiments. In reality, most are derived from naturally-occurring ingredients and processes, and many have been in use for decades.

The usefulness of these ingredients has made them staples in many contemporary kitchens. This guide features background information and ingredients (in no particular order of importance) deemed essential to Modernist techniques—it also serves as a foundation of a well-stocked pantry. We think they make fantastic gifts or stocking stuffers for anyone interested in Modernist cuisine, from seasoned professionals to adventurous home cooks. Create gift sets of different ingredients or provide helpful tools like digital scales, rapid caviar makers, or even a label maker, which comes in handy when you have a pantry full of identically-colored spices.

Gift Guide

1. Xanthan gum is the “sliced bread” of Modernist ingredients. It’s an easy-to-use, tasteless, and flexible additive, made by fermenting bacteria, just like vinegar. It’s an incredibly useful thickener and stabilizer because it is effective under a wide range of viscosities, temperatures, and pH levels. Use it to create salad dressings, sauces, pestos, soups, gelatos and baked goods, including gluten free recipes.

2. Tapioca starch is a traditional thickener made from ground cassava roots. Also known as tapioca flour, it thickens gently, without modifying flavors, making it a great choice for broths, jus, gravy, fruit fillings, and our at-home version of dairy-free gelatos. Additionally, many Modernist chefs make use of modified starches, such as Ultra-Sperse and Ultra-Tex, that are derived from tapioca. These specialty starches are specifically formulated for different thickening tasks and are a great addition to any chef’s arsenal.

3. Transglutaminase is a family of enzymes that form chemical cross-links between muscle proteins so that they bind to one another. These enzymes are found in animal, plant, and microbial cells and play many roles in many functions, such as blood clotting. Despite the nickname “meat glue,” it is a naturally occurring ingredient commercially manufactured via bacterial fermentation, making it no more or less artificial than yeast-leavened bread, vinegar, or fermented sausage. It can be used to raise the melting point of gelatins and increase overall gel strength; in Modernist cooking, however, it’s most commonly used to glue meats or seafoods together. One brand of transglutaminase, called Activa, comes in various grades, each one optimized for a different use. We use Activa as a binder in our recipes for coarse-ground sausages and to create a show-stopping chessboard of bonded tuna and escolar.

4. Soy lecithin, as the name implies, is derived from soy beans. It’s a naturally occurring phospholipid used to emulsify or create foams. Often found in chocolate, this ingredient is commonly used to make salad dressings and sauces, like our Modernist Vinaigrette or Home Jus Gras.

5-6. Sodium alginate is a natural thickener and hydrocolloid derived from brown algae. It’s an ingredient that is commonly associated with spherification. This technique was made popular (and named) by Ferran Adrià—it is now one of the hallmarks of Modernist cooking. When alginate (a sugar) comes into contact with a calcium ion coagulant, gelling occurs—the secret to spherification is to delay the reaction by creating a gel mixture that cannot set. In the original spherification technique, sodium alginate is used to create a gel mixture that contains no free-floating calcium. When the liquid is dropped into a calcium bath, such as calcium chloride, a shell forms on the surface, enveloping the liquid inside. Spheres of juice add bursts of flavor to drinks and can transform familiar ingredients like olive oil into surprising pops of texture.

7. Guar gum, of no relation to the band Gwar, is a thickener and stabilizing agent extracted from the seeds of guar beans, which are indigenous to India and Pakistan. This hydrocolloid can thicken both hot and cold liquids, stabilize emulsions and foams, and help prevent syneresis (the tendency of gels to weep liquid). Guar gum is used to create constructed broths and coating sauces as well as cold cream sauces, constructed creams, and ice-cream bases.

8. Agar is derived from seaweed and has been used in Japanese cooking for centuries. It’s a clear, tasteless gelling agent that also works as an effective thickener and stabilizer. Although it’s available at Asian markets, specialty retailers sell agar powders, graded by gelling strength, that perform more consistently. We use agar to create fluid gels, like our Vegetarian Panna Cotta and Onion Fluid Gel. When making foams with a whipping siphon, the addition of a small amount of agar will give thin liquids enough body for foaming.

9. Sodium citrate is the salt of citric acid, which is a natural component of citrus fruits. With a slightly sour taste, it is sometimes used to add flavor (think of club soda), although we most often use it in cheeses as an emulsifier in order to keep droplets of water and fat from separating. A tiny amount will give your favorite cheeses a silky smooth texture when melted, allowing you to develop new spins on cheese-based dishes.

Looking to try out these Modernist ingredients? Our recipe library is full of wonderful options for cooks of all skill levels.

Eight Days of Modernist Cuisine Sweepstakes

Posted on December 4, 2014 at 4:29 pm.

Written by Caren

This holiday season, we’re sharing the love—of Modernist Cuisine, that is. Mark your calendars and set your alarms: starting December 8^th, we’re giving away a different Modernist Cuisine gift every day for eight days. We’ll offer a new item each morning at 12:01 A.M. (PST), so check our website daily to see what we’re giving away that day. Enter to win just about anything Modernist Cuisine, from our Special Edition Baking Steel to the 50-pound Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking. Be sure to enter before 11:59 P.M. (PST) each day.

After entering, we hope you’ll stick around to double down on the holiday cheer. Let someone know you’ve been nice this year by using our interactive wish list of Modernist Cuisine books and gear. E-mail your customized list to loved ones, or let the world know on Facebook and Twitter. Above all, we sincerely hope you have a wonderful holiday season.

—The Modernist Cuisine Team

See official rules and details

Building a Better Turkey

Posted on November 19, 2014 at 9:03 am.

Written by Caren

When it comes to turkey, there are many different theories about the best way to prepare a bird. The topic can get downright philosophical with every side presenting evidence on behalf of a particular technique, leaving you to exit the fray with over a dozen methods, each one somehow better than the last. While some methods yield far better results than others, the only true loser is your dried-out bird. Here’s our guide, backed by science, for making a truly succulent turkey.

The Mechanics of Dark and White Meat

Structural differences between white and dark meat make succulence a particularly challenging goal. Meat gets its color from an oxygen-carrying protein called myoglobin, which naturally binds and shuttles oxygen throughout an organism’s body. Dark meat is comprised of slow-twitch muscles that are built for endurance and found primarily in the legs and thighs. These aerobic muscles require large quantities of oxygen-friendly myoglobin to help sustain prolonged use—such as long-distance running—hence their dark coloring. They also burn fat for fuel, so the meat ends up richer in flavor.

In contrast, if you were to look at a turkey breast under a microscope, you would see many light-colored, fast-twitch muscle fibers, geared for intense bursts of activity such as fluttering or scrambling across a road. These fibers work anaerobically and don’t burn fat, so few myoglobin proteins are present, resulting in a white, lean meat.

With different compositions and purposes, muscles cook at different temperatures—dark meat, for instance, requires higher cooking temperatures than white meat. That’s why preparing a turkey can get tricky. A Modernist approach is to cook each separately. For Thanksgiving, we like to create a confit of dark meat, brine the breast meat, and cook both sous vide at their respective times and temperatures. Cooking sous vide provides a precision-based strategy for maximizing juiciness, and it has an additional bonus: it frees up precious oven space for other dishes on your menu.

The Whole Turkey

It can be hard to imagine a Thanksgiving meal without an iconic, whole-roasted turkey. Maybe it’s a deep‑seeded, primal instinct based on millennia of roasting meats over a fire. Or perhaps it’s the nostalgia from that special moment when everyone in the kitchen holds their breath in unison to take in the aroma, the color of the skin, and the site of the steaming turkey as it emerges from the oven.

Whatever the reason, there are two issues that make roasting a whole turkey tricky. First, white and dark meat have to be baked together. Second, a crisp, golden skin requires temperatures that will leave the meat underneath undesirably dry. Suddenly, roasting a turkey becomes a juggling act between crispy skin and succulent meat, a task akin to an algebraic formula: if a turkey leaves the station in St. Louis at 15 mph, how long will it take to arrive in Denver with crispy skin and tender meat? Is there a definitive solution for roasting a whole turkey? Likely not. But we’d like to think that injection brining comes pretty close.

How Brines Work

On a fundamental level, brines modify meat proteins. When dissolved, salt dissociates into positively charged sodium ions and negatively charged chloride ions, which are the atoms that actually diffuse throughout your foods. Salinity is a measure of the concentration of these two ions, which equates to a specific ratio of salt to water. Ions flow from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration, but, due to a shallow gradient in muscle tissues, the diffusion of dissolved salt tends to be quite slow, which is why it can take months to properly cure a ham.

Brining technically does not work via osmosis, as popular opinion suggests. If osmosis alone were at play, water would be drawn out of the meat, but brining works by pulling water into muscles. Chloride ions from dissolved salt diffuse into muscle fibers and accumulate along the surfaces of protein filaments. As these ions increase in number, they generate a negative charge that loosens and pushes neighboring filaments apart. This newly created channel provides enough space for water to enter the muscle, causing it to swell from the influx of ambient water. Ions further modify muscle proteins by causing them to bind tightly to water and resist shrinking as the meat cooks. Muscle will continue to swell until the salinity reaches 6%—after that, it shrinks and begins to lose water.

Brining is a slow process; salt diffuses through muscle roughly 100 to 1,000 times slower than heat conduction. As such, traditional brining can take days—the thicker the cut of meat, the longer it will take to brine. Protein is also found in skin, thus water molecules are bound and trapped there as well. As a result, the skin of brined meat can easily get soggy because of the time it takes for the brining process to work. Excess water can, then, lead to soggy skin and a rubbery texture. Enter injection brining.

Injection Brining

Injection brining speeds up the process, turning a multiday event into an overnight task. This technique will give you more control over where your brine diffuses, allowing you to expose only the bird’s muscles to the brining solution.

The day before Thanksgiving, create a brine of 6% salt by turkey weight—a reasonable rule of thumb is to use at least as much water by weight as you have meat. Pull back the skin so that you only pierce the meat. Then, using a brining syringe, slowly inject the legs, breasts, and thighs. Inject the muscles evenly over the surface, leaving about an inch between injection sites. Turkeys can be large, so this may require dozens of injections. After your turkey is brimming with brine, let it rest overnight in your refrigerator. When you’re ready to roast the turkey, put it on a roasting rack over a drip pan. The rack allows air to circulate around the turkey, which helps amplify flavors and promote even browning of the skin.

Crispy Skin

Skin has an incredibly high moisture content—it’s about 70–80% water by weight. The science behind golden skin is simple: dry it out by removing moisture. For particularly thick skin, however, we like to add an extra step before cooking—don’t cover your brined turkey when you refrigerate it overnight. Instead, leave it uncovered until it’s time to put it in the oven. By doing so, you’re allowing the turkey’s skin to dry out so that it crisps better in the oven.

Crispy skin is also dependent on knowing the internal temperature of your turkey, so we like to combine the drying step with another equally simple step: tracking the oven’s temperature. Cover your turkey with aluminum foil, which will help prevent the skin from getting too dark, and then place it in the oven. Depending on your oven, bake the covered turkey between 191-204 °C / 375-400 °F. Once the turkey reaches an internal temperature of 68 °C / 155 °F, take the foil off, and crank your oven up to 232 °C / 450 °F in order to brown the skin. When the internal temperature reaches 71–72 °C / 160–162 °F, take the bird out of the oven. The turkey will continue to cook from residual heat to an internal, safe temperature of 73 °C / 163 °F. Note that for the most accurate temperature readings, you should insert your digital probe into the thickest parts of the bird, such as the turkey’s breast.

Patience is a Virtue

Once your turkey is out of the oven, it may be hard to avoid a display of turkey worship, but try to resist the urge to immediately carve your bird. Letting the meat rest can be one of the most difficult steps of the entire process, but it makes a considerable difference in flavor and texture. Ripe with brine, your finished turkey will be juicy. If you carve into it too soon, all of those glorious juices will end up on the cutting board instead of in the meat.

Why do we need to let it rest? Some popular theories suggest that the delay allows moisture, forced toward the meat’s interior during cooking, to travel back to the surface. But the slow diffusion rate of water actually prevents moisture from migrating during cooking and resting. In truth, degraded and dissolved proteins slightly thicken the natural juices as the turkey cools. The thickened liquid then escapes slower when the meat is sliced.

We recommend letting your turkey rest for 20 minutes. Use that time wisely by reheating vegetables made earlier in the day. Five minutes before service, gently warm your turkey in the oven.

One Final Debate: Stuffing

The subject of stuffing also happens to be fodder for debate. In one corner, there are devotees of cooking stuffing inside the turkey. In the other corner are those who insist that stuffing must be prepared separately.

If you want Thanksgiving to be memorable for all of the right reasons, make your stuffing in separate cookware, like a cast-iron skillet. Cooking stuffing inside of your turkey introduces food-safety issues—because turkeys are so thick, your stuffing will never reach a safe internal temperature, meaning you must contend with contamination issues from uncooked turkey drippings. Plus, you’ll miss out on the best part of stuffing: the crispy bits on the surface.

Ready for pie and leftovers? We have a recipe and more tips coming your way.