Today should be a rather easy cooking day. I planned well enough that I have 4 different elements that all need to be cooked sous vide at around the same temperature for about the same amount of time. Once I get everything prepped and in its bag, I’ll be left to work on the carrot soup and clarify some butter. Shouldn’t be a bad day.
I’m continuing to change my bone marrow water every 8 hours or so and it’s finally looking like all the bad stuff has leeched out. I should be able to just change the water once a day now until NYE.
Today I’m cooking several things sous vide at a temperature of 185°F. I’m using a rather large tub for this so it always takes time and a few pots of boiling water to get the temperature up that high. Covering the tub with foil speeds up the process and ensures heat isn’t lost through the opening.
As the water is coming to temperature, I’m getting the cranberries (for the carbonated cranberries) ready by placing them in a mixture of cranberry juice (store bought…shameful I know) and isomalt; the onions (for the lobster) ready by combining them with butter, sugar, salt, and water; and the bone marrow (for the sauce) into it’s bag. All these go into the water for varying amounts of time which leaves me free to move onto the next project.
The Caramelized Carrot Soup is said to be one of the best and easiest recipes in the Modernist Cuisine tomes. I tried it once and failed somehow burning the carrots. This is my second attempt and can’t go wrong because I simply won’t have time to redo it. It’s another recipe that is simple in principle, but time consuming in actuality. The driver of time here is the coring of the carrots. The center round root of all carrots is a woody part which is tougher and less sweet than the rest of the carrot. Now I could just leave it in and hope for the best, but since it’s NYE, I’m spending an hour coring several pounds of carrots.
This time when I open the pressure cooker I know I’ve got a winning proposition. The carrots are golden brown and smell of warm nutty buttery goodness. I add the carrot juice and more butter (can there every be too much?) and steal a spoonful before putting it in the fridge.
OK – on to the edible wrappers! My petrie dishes have been patiently sitting on the dining room table under their parchment paper dust cover awaiting me. I pick up the first dish and look at it intently. Hmmm…these must be incredibly thin because I can’t see a thing. I gently scrape my fingernail around the edge…nothing. I scrape my fingernail through the center…nothing. I try this with a few more only to realize that my wrappers are gone. Evaporated into thin air.
Maybe it was too hot? Maybe the carefully weighed out 5g wasn’t enough? I’ll give it one more try. I again make the edible wrapper mixture of gelatin, water, and glycerine and this time weight out 7g per petrie dish. Another 24h wait to see if this time is different.
Today was the first set back of the week before New Year’s prep which isn’t too bad. And worst case scenario if the wrappers don’t work I can always use the traditional wax paper.
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