Modernist Cuisine, the book - my first impressions

I have been the proud owner of the Modernist Cuisine cookbook for six months. Or books, rather, since it is a five volume work with an additional Kitchen Manual totalling 2438 pages and weighting 23,7 kg. I have not read it all yet, but I am planning to do so, with a few exceptions (see below). Currently I am well under way in volume three. I know that many people wonder what this is all about, so here are my thoughts so far.

I had read about this piece of culinary literature for some time and was suitably intrigued by what I read, but I really did not understand what it was. From what I gathered, it all revolved around something called modernist cuisine which I at that time did not know anything about other than that it probably was impossible to do by a mere mortal in a normal home kitchen. But as I have been a keen amateur chef most of my life, at times like to venture out into the unknown and also needed something substantial on my wish list for my 50th birthday, I officially wanted it. And I got it.

And, let it be known near and far, I love it, and for several reasons. First of all, I love well made books, almost regardless of the subject, and these books are well made. The binding is solid, the paper is of good quality and the whole thing comes in a plexiglass box. And they all have in-sewn satin bookmarks. I just love books with in-sewn satin bookmarks. The other thing you notice once you start flipping through the pages are the pictures. These books are a veritable art gallery.

The images are just gorgeously fantastic. Some are just inspirational, almost abstract images, others are highly instructional. The most famous of the images are those depicting equipment cut in half showing how they work. These are actually made by physically cutting things in half like a barbecue with meat on it. This is a fully working half barbecue complete with with half burgers and cole burning. The imagery is so good that they are now out in a book of their own. http://modernistcuisine.com/books/the-photography-of-modernist-cuisine/

But what about the actual contents? The first four of the five main volumes are divided into topics. These contain lots of theory about cooking mixed with lots of recipes. Volume five contain recipes for complete plated dishes. The last volume, the Kitchen Manual contains all recipes from the other volumes in a handy, ring bound volume made from splash proof paper that is practical in the kitchen.

So, what is this theory stuff? For any of you who has read Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking, these books are similar, but on steroids. And with more colour, both visually and language wise. In short, in addition to showing recipes, they explain how and why the different aspects of cooking work. As they say on the Modernist Cuisine web site: "The goal here is to break down recipes in such a way that you bet­ter under­stand not just the what (ingre­di­ents) and the how (meth­ods), but also the why." And for someone like me who loves to explore how things work, this is the true value of these books. What happens when you boil something? Why does baking food in the oven work? 

Volume 1, History and Fundamentals

This volume starts off with the history of cooking. This in itself is interesting, but it also places Modernist Cuisine in a broader scope. The largest portion of the volume is dedicated to microbiology, that is all the little creatures, bacteria etc that are in the food and how and why they can spoil the food. This is of course important stuff, especially for professional chefs, but I must admit that I found this chapter and the next where Food Safety is covered based on what we learned from the previous chapter a bit tedious for a keen amateur cook. But they are very important. The book then covers the fundamentals of heat and energy since most cooking is about treating ingredients with heat. The volume ends with a chapter that basically tells you what happens when water boils. And don't be fooled. You don't know, and it is actually quite interesting.

Volume 2, Techniques and Equipment

To me, this volume was very interesting. The first chapter goes through most of the traditional techniques for cooking food and explains how they work and also how to get the most from them. How does a barbecue really work, and how do you find the sweet spot in your barbecue where the food gets the most from the heat? Do you know that baking is all about drying the food? And what we often call roasting (about cooking meat in the oven) actually is baking? This chapter contains a ton of interesting stuff about things that you do every day in the kitchen without really knowing what you were doing. It also shows why traditional techniques rely on tremendous skill and good luck to achieve perfect doneness.

After this is a chapter that talks about modern ovens. I must admit that I skipped most of this as it mostly was about professional ovens that you find i restaurant kitchens and that I probably never will use.

Following this is an in-depth chapter on sous vide. Which I found most interesting. I have a sous vide setup, and this chapter gave me much needed knowledge about how to use optimise that and also gave me ideas of ways to use sous vide that I had not thought about earlier. The volume ends with an overview of equipment used in the modernist kitchen. Much of this will probably never find its way into the kitchens of most people. I skipped some of it, for instance the thorough coverage of the PacoJet, a machine that is too expensive for most home cooks.

Volume 3, Animals and Plants

This is where I am currently at, and I think the beginning of the meat section gives a good indication of what this entire set of books is all about.

The meat section starts with how a muscle works when it is part of a live animal. It then goes through what happens when the animal dies and how that same muscle turns from muscle to meat, how it can be aged and how it should be cut to achieve best results. All along there are highly informative images showing the principles of what is going on. It is thorough, it is well presented and it gives me a ton of background material that may help me to understand why food is the way it is.

And all the way there are recipes giving examples of the techniques and theory. And these are always very detailed and easy to follow. Like how to make the perfect burger on the left here. Recipes are also scalable so it is easier to make a different number of portions than shown in the book.

All in all I feel that Modernist Cuisine is giving me all I need to become a better cook. I do not really know what they learn in culinary school, but I would guess that these volumes should give you most of what you need. What you do not get are the classical recipes since the recipes in the books all follow the modernist approach. But the theory and background are the same for classical and modernist cooking.

Modernist Cuisine, rediculous toys for men?

Before today's serious topic, just a few words about last Sundays's post. As I mentioned there, I am planning to test Heston's Hot and Iced tea. I found out that I can get Gellan F which is needed for that recipe at my local pusher here in Oslo (http://sousvidenorge.no/). But I also need a few other things that I found that they did not have. These are sodium citrate, malic acid and calcium chloride. But I have now found a place on the internet where they seem to have everything one could possibly want. This is the Modernist Pantry, http://www.modernistpantry.com/ and many of you will already know it.

So my Christmas gift from me to me this year is a substantial order from them which is currently making its way here. But to anyone out there living in the Oslo area: Do you know of any other stores here who may stock these things? Nice as the Modernist Pantry is, and as good as they service seems to be, it would have been practical to be able to trot down to a local store to replenish missing items.

So the Hot and Iced is coming.

But now to something different. The other night my wife and I were attending a dinner party. The hostess is a very good cook. She is culinary educated and also a well established food journalist in Norway. Against this backdrop, I thought an inspiring conversation about modernist cuisine would be in order, so I said "Oh, by the way, I have started studying and testing out modernist cuisine lately".

That did not go down well. I felt a cold front sweeping over me. I got a distinct impression that this was not a good thing. "Modernist cuisine is just a toy and mainly for men". "It is just about making things look different than it tastes". The word molecular came up rather quickly. I made a huge social blunder by suggesting that these negative thoughts were brought about by lack of knowledge in the field. Not a good idea.

I said I have a Sous Vide machine. This was met with heavy frowning of eyebrows, so I tried to explain that Sous Vide is nothing else  than a new way of cooking food. The reply was that there is nothing new about it. Slow cooking has been done for ages, and you can do the same by vacuum sealing the food (she has a vacuum sealer) and cooking it on a low temperature in the oven. I really doubt that her oven is that stable and possibly cannot be set to a low enough temp, but I did not say so.

To me, Modernist Cuisine is about re-thinking the old ways and using a bit of science to see if we can take food a step further and perhaps avoid some of the compromises that is inherent in traditional cooking. In addition it opens up for more creativity and even humour in cooking. I decided to skip creativity and humour and played the "taking cooking one step further, purifying tastes and textures"-card. Did not work. She did not totally forbid it from the face of the earth, but told me several times that I should be cautious and keep my feet on the ground. I said "I really do not know what you mean", and she said "Yes, you do". She even warned me that I should be cautious about to who whom I spoke about this.

In the book Modernist Cuisine there is a chapter about the resistance that this trend has experienced, but I have never actually experienced it myself. I was quite blown away with something that I almost conceived a (mild) hatred towards the topic. Why? What is so wrong with it?

We (or they, actually, I was not into cooking then) saw the same thing with nouvelle cuisine in the 60's and 70's. Julia Child was not at all positive to that. That movement moved away from the classic French cuisine that had been codified by Escoffier at the start of the century and started investigated lighter sauces, fresher ingredients, less involved recipes and more simplicity and creativity. Like then, modernist cuisine is in part about not trusting inherited rules, but finding new ones. I think that this may feel threatening to people that are well established in the culinary world. People who's existence rely upon their knowledge of the old ways. I think the resistance is based on a combination of lack of knowledge and a fear for the unknown.

After establishing that modernist cuisine is just a passing whim and a toy for men, she said: "I create food trends in Norway". I found that quite scaring.

I will invite her to dinner in a little while. I will serve her a number of well tasting dishes that will not necessarily look very modern at all. I will keep foams to a minimum (they were snorted at). And then, when she has (hopefully) praised the food, I will tell her: "This, my friend, has been a modernist meal, and you liked it". And then I will write a blog post about it.

Wish me luck!

Gellan from CUISINE INNOVATION - what type is it?

Short, boring and technical post today. Gellan is a gelling agent that you will often find in modernist recipes. My local store,  Sousvide Norge sell a product called Gellangel from Cuisine Innovation her.

But when I read recipes, for instance in the Big Fat Duck Cookbook, there are two different types of gellan. There is Gellan F and there is Gellan LT100. Gellan F is described as a low Acyl gellan, and Gellan LT100 is, you guessed it, high Acyl gellan. The difference is that Gellan F creates hard, brittle, clear gels, while Gellan LT100 creates elastic, non brittle gels.






So what about the Cuisine Innovation product? From a bit of research tonight I have learned that it is Gellan F, which is what I was looking for. That means I can actually try out Heston Blumenthal's Hot and Iced Tea!

Coming soon to a blog post near you.