Modernist Cuisine: Ingredients & Preparations

MODERN COOKS USE INGREDIENTS IN WAYS EARLIER GENER­ATIONS WOULD NEVER HAVE IMAGINED, and new ingredients such as gelling and thickening agents, emulsifiers, and foams have found their way into every corner of Modernist cuisine. In its 400 pages, Volume 4 goes beyond traditional ingredients to explain thickeners, gels, emulsions, and foams—the real keys to both traditional and Modernist cooking at the highest level.

 

Hundreds of parametric recipes and example recipes—many adapted from the world’s most famous and innovative chefs—illuminate the best options for making classic dishes, such as stocks and sauces, in modern ways and for preparing Modernist creations that go well beyond what classical techniques can produce. Noodles made of gel, feather-light foams, mussles in transpar­ent spheres of their own brine, egg less may on naise ... the chapters in this volume unlock doors and point the way to end less possibilities.

 

In keeping with the highly illustrated approach the authors have taken else­where in the book, each tricky step is not just described but also shown, through thou sands of photographs. Step by step, photo by photo, readers who learned in volume 3 how to make the perfect hamburger patty (it’s all in the grinding) now see how to prepare perfect slices of their favorite cheese to top it. Ever want to infuse liquid smoke into let tuce or noodles? Or cook an egg to the per fect cus tard texture? The instructions are all there. Volume 4 includes para metric formulas, illustrated step-by-step techniques, and example recipes for:

 

1. whole, pick led, and pre served eggs;

2. custards; blended and sep a rated egg gels;

3. tofus and other protein curds;

4. old gels, coating gels, hot gels, and fluid gels;

5. using pre hydrated starches and hydrocolloids to thicken hot and cold liquids;

6. making milks and creams;

7. making edible films;

and many, many more.