Workbook

Variation on a Theme

 

 

Saying that presentation comes second, after flavor, of course, makes for great theory, but we really do put it into practice. Sometimes that process of arranging and rearranging is an important part of constructing a finished dish; I find I learn more about the components themselves and how we can further manipulate them. And by trying this and that, new ideas are improvised on the spot.

 

 

 

With the recent discovery of our caramel sheets, I began thinking of riffing on the idea of the familiar caramel-dipped apple. There’s a fascinating contrast at play, notably the soft, rich caramel against the crisp and juicy raw apple. In most plated dessert situations, apples are often cooked, transformed, and laden with spice; we rarely get a glimpse of their formerly snappy tendencies.

Part of the plan in preserving that freshness involved taking a page from the Sam Mason playbook, borrowing his idea of a stewed apple confit set with gellan gum. I’ve always loved how mixing low and high acyl gellan provides a toothsome, poached fruit quality. I simply switched out a slowly cooked apple purée with one of fresh green apple, heated just enough so not to prematurely set once incorporated into the hydrated gellan.

 

 

 

So, with a fresh tray of our caramel film and the green apple gelée- set into various shapes- I could then play around with plate presentations, and just how these two components worked in tandem. Interestingly, I kept finding myself increasing the proportion of caramel to apple for balance, or figuring out a way to wrap or layer the apple in such a way, that there was sufficient caramel in each bite. What follows are various exercises toward a pre-dessert or full plated dish. Some themes that inspired me include terrines, mille feuilles, maki rolls, and of course, the classic caramel-apple on a stick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was all just the result of just an hour of messing around, so we’re not quite there yet. The components themselves are in a state of flux as well, but I’ve included the latest versions of them here:

 

Download: Caramel Film- Workbook 25.10.2010

Download: Green Apple Gelee- Workbook 25.10.2010

 

 

 

Spaghetti Day

 

I recently dusted off the 'spaghetti kit' I got from Koerner way back. Basically, the kit consists of coiled surgical tubing, a squeeze bottle, and an attachment for the iSi canister allowing removal of the noodle with a blast of gas.

Of course, I'm rarely, if ever a first-adopter: it's been a solid decade since El Bulli shocked the world with its consomme noodles, rendered heat stable with the use of agar agar. My pal Johnny Iuzzini even went light years further with the idea, running carrageenan-gelled mixtures through a peristalic pump to ramp-up production. And one of my favorite pastry chefs, Patrice Demers of Montreal's Newtown, featured a composed dish incorporating a clementine noodle in his last book. I'd been thinking about it a long time, too, but despite others being able to pull it off well, I never quite settled on how best to employ the technique to fit what we do, rather than just riff off of someone else.

 

 

A noodle- conventional or otherwise- is a challenging texture in a dessert context, something I realized many years ago while attempting several variations on sweet ravioli. It's tough, in that you either have to go all the way, or not at all, and I don't see us doing bowlfuls of faux pasta at LB anytime soon. But shrinking it down to a pre-dessert bite seemed to preserve the novelty without beating anyone over the head.

Here we extracted strawberry water, clarified it, and set it with agar and locust bean gum (I think to create a longer, chewier texture, I'll substitute the LBG for gelatin next time or try Johnny's carrageenan blend; it also threw off a lot of water through syneresis after the fact). I coiled one long single noodle onto a demitasse spoon and imbedded tiny,tiny cubes of strawberry pate de fruit, a thin slice of semi-candied celery and leaf, fresh strawberry, and orange zest.

 

 Download Strawberry Noodle- Workbook 14.6.09

As a base for the noodle, I used this strawberry consomme (further clarified with 0.5% gelatin) that I wrote about a couple years ago in this Notes From the Kitchen post. A puree would work just fine, but wouldn't offer the same translucence.

Download Strawberry Consomme

 

 

 

Conquered

Concord grapes always tend to sneak up on us. A first signal of autumn, it’s not uncommon to begin seeing them as early as late August. I love them, but for some reason I usually get stuck for ideas. Because of their seeds, they have to processed, and in the end, they just seem to lose a little something along the way. And simply turning them into coulis or sorbet seems boring.

 

Undeterred, we've set about blending and straining several cases since their arrival, incorporating them into a few different applications this season.

 

  

We're still exploring complimentary flavors via pate de fruit. Here, concord grape is teamed up with pear:

 

Though we haven't ever introduced gelatin clarification into a regular production or menu item, we play around with the method from time to time. It's a great way to transform a muddy-looking grape puree into a more refined end result. A dosage of 0.5% gelatin is dissolved into the puree, and then its frozen. The solid block is then allowed to slowly thaw through a chinois, producing a translucent to clear juice; the nasty bits get caught up in the protein network provided by the gelatin. Knowing that tannins can sometimes affect certain hydrocolloids, we haven't played around with this enough to notice.

   

Cheese has found its way back into some of our pre-dessert work; most recently, chevre has been given the spherification treatment. We using the 'reverse' method, of course, and a 0.8% alginate/water bath The natural calcium present in the goat cheese mixture is sufficient for the skin to form. Heavy production of this and a couple other spheres has taught us how a holding bath can help us control the end result. Storing the finished orbs in syrup make sense in a sweet application. A weak syrup actually helps to nicely 'tighten' their shape, though we learned the hard way that the syrup itself can suck away too much internal moisture, shrinking the spheres down to half their original size.

 

The grapes enter the dish in the form of cold oil/agar agar pearls, and the whole is finished with candied walnut and a half-grind of black pepper.

 

Concord season has also afforded us the perfect opportunity to work on a technique that's been on my to-do list for months. Borrowing a concept from the El Bulli camp, the goal is to create a stable liquid that can be baked into the center of a cake. I've seen a few minor variations, but the basic idea is to gel a fruit mixture with aglinate and calcium gluconate, followed by blending, molding, and freezing. The frozen center is then inserted into a batter. I've seen a similar effect achieved by Stupak, using gellan to  give his carameilzed brioche pudding a liquid caramel interior.

   

Here, the soft grape is baked into a standard financier piped into silicon molds. Perhaps I see a peanut butter and grape variation in our future.

Download: Concord Grape Pâte de Fruit- Workbook 01.11.09

Download: Concord Grape Pearls- Workbook 01.11.09

Download: Chèvre Spherification- Workbook 01.11.09

 

 

 
 
 

Minor Revelations

 

It's true, we don't typically start out on something with expectations that it will fail. But nor do we assume we'll knock it out of the park on the first swing. This corn custard, however, began as a simple exercise yet yielded a beautiful, near-perfect result.

It’s just such a minor revelation that can turn a dull, normal day into a great one.

 

 

     
 

The original idea was actually a voluntary act of kindness, troubleshooting for someone else- a similar approach that lacked refinement. Now I hope I can find a place for it myself.

 

The goal was to create a heat-stable, yet soft, corn custard. Corn was briefly simmered in milk, then drained. Agar agar and locust bean gum were hydrated into the milk, while the corn was puréed and strained. Iliked the idea of adding some richness via a bit of egg yolk- its function was less about thickening and more about flavor. The two mixtures were put back together and seasoned before dispensing into cylinder molds.

 

 

To balance the salty/savory aspect, I sprinkled the custard with sugar and applied the torch. Pictured here is a plating scheme with some other components we normally within arm’s reach: hazelnut praline cream, popcorn, orange peel, and piment d’espelette.  

Download Corn Custard- Workbook 22.10.09

 

 

 

Mou

 

As in 'soft'. Soft caramel, or caramel mou.

I love this stuff. It's the soft texture, and the complexity of flavor from the resulting Maillard reaction- the sugar and milk proteins reducing together- that elevates this confection beyond that of mere caramelized sugar. Add some sea salt and it's a real party.

When you nail that perfect consistency, however, the caramel is difficult to handle, and thus, is often found wrapped in cellophane. That works out alright in most circumstances, but as a petit four in a fine dining setting, I'm uncomfortable with the idea of litter on the table. Something edible would be great.

 

     

 

I've had a passing interest in edible films, probably since a first encounter with one of those breath strips that hit the market a decade ago. This isn't a new idea of course; thin wrappers that you can eat have been around forever. But I bet it was the pharmecutical industry that discovered and then pushed the film-forming possiblities of our friendly hydrocolloids. The gelcap was just the beginning.

In the culinary realm, there has certianly been a lot of work in this area. The first few that come to mind: the Fat Duck's own flavored films, Aduriz's faux fish skin made of cod-derived gelatin, and Alinea's crispy Pure-Cote packages. I've never been smart enough to come up with such inventive applications myself, so I never really pursued the idea with much vigor.  But this sudden challenge of finding a refined wrapper for my caramel renewed my interest.

And though I spent several hours pouring through patent applications- there are indeed many ways (and many ingredients available) to achieve edible films- one answer jumped out at me from our daily mise en place. Whether dispensed from a squeeze bottle, or spooned out of a container, the random drips and drops of our pectin-based sauces often dry out, turning 'crusty' even at room temperature- frustratingly so- but are easily peeled away. Perhaps a solution? Sure enough, our standard passion fruit coulis, spread on some acetate and given a quick run in the dehydrator, yielded a transparent, pliable wrapper. It was a little sticky the first few times, so I simply reduced the sugar. Primitive, for sure, but it works.

 

    

 

Most of the recent patents I researched concern themselves more with the application of flavors or medicines to an array of films. But it was within those various 'recipes' that I discovered a new (to me) gum, pullulan, derived from starch, which seems to tailor-made for this kind of thing.

Fun stuff.

 

   

Download: Soft Caramel- Workbook 30.9.09

Download: Passion Fruit Film- Workbook 30.9.09

   

 

Gummy

It’s probably been at least a year and a half now since we started tinkering with our own version of gummy candies and starch molding. Of course, it was right about the time Sam was doing his various alcohol ‘bears’- including absinthe, sambuca, and amaro, and at least once, there was the infamous ‘whiskey dick’. We didn’t really want to tread on his territory, so apart from playing with starch molded fish and the like, we shelved the idea.

 

I sat in on a hydrocolloid demo at ICE a couple weeks ago, featuring George Mendes, Tim Koerner and Anthony Caratozzolo, as well as Mr. Mason, who blew through his repertoire of cold oil spherification, soft chocolate set with carrageenan, gellan films, and warm custards made possible with methylcellulose. The gummy bears just kind of came up in conversation, reminding me that I hadn’t thought about them in many months.

 

Our first test was with Pernod, a little softer and less chewy than the commercial candy we all know; we didn’t factor the blooming water into Sam’s formula (dosing gelatin at 25% of the total), nor is there the high enough sugar content to contribute much texture. And though we’ve taken a break from pearls and caviars and such, we still keep some cold oil in the walk-in, so I dropped the last few cc’s of Pernod gel into the oil to produce a nice transparent pearl.

 

 

From there, I wanted to see if they would float in water; they didn’t, but I’d love to try floating them in a slightly more viscous fluid. And then the general idea of suspension led to the thought of floating such pearls into a clear gummy. Below are basil and strawberry gummy pearls dropped into a clear gel, and strips inlaid with raspberry. We went for a firmer texture using 25% gelatin, and along with some sugar we also added a small amount of citric acid. The technique can certainly be refined, but it was a cool starting point.

 

 

 

 

Download: Pernod Gummy-Workbook 27.7.09

 

 

 

Duality

 

We stopped doing what I would call ‘traditional’ petit fours for a long stretch- pâte de fruit, nougat, macarons- opting for more inventive and complex bites. But time and distance does often make the heart grow fonder for such things. And certainly during the summer months, when our corner of the kitchen can hit 80 degrees and 80% humidity, we need to go with stable standbys that have some measure of plate time. Being able to make them by the hundreds also helps. We do, of course, continue to throw a curveball with these- macarons, for instance, become open-faced constructions, and the pâte de fruit appears as a duo of flavors.

 

The standard HM pectin jellies still hold interest, even as we explore other textures and the versatility possible through other hydrocolloids like LM pectin, agar agar, and gelatin. We’ve often combined two flavors into the same gel, but it was Hermé who sparked further play through the conventional method with such joined pairings, but also inclusions and infusions.

 

 

 

 

While I’m sure there exists some trick for better adhesion, we find that simply stacking the two framed pâtes, followed by a run through the guitar, does an adequate job. And using the thin white chocolate plaque as a vehicle allows us to skip the sugar dusting, reducing the sweetness somewhat, but also giving us a nice, translucent jewel to behold. Two most recent pairings include fig-apricot and lychee-peach.

 

Download Apricot Pate de Fruit- Workbook 26.7.09

 

Download Fig Pate de Fruit- Workbook 26.7.09

 

Download Lychee Pate de Fruit- Workbook 26.7.09

 

Download White Peach Pate de Fruit-Workbook 26.7.09

 

Just When I Thought I Was Out...

   

So the voicemail I received from Asbel yesterday went something like this:

...so I know you mentioned that you were getting bored with the pearl/caviar thing. But we were inspired to start making textured pearls with stuff inside, like seeds and such. Just thought I'd pass along the inspiration...

So of course, I was pulled back in. I went straight back into the kitchen and immediately started scaling stuff out.

   

I'm not so much bored with the idea, I just don't want them to become a crutch. For a while I had been thinking about pearls within pearls, but then my head would start to hurt so I never pursued it further. Having never really thought about adding some kind of texture, I figured I'd give it a go.

Basil within basil seemed a logical starting point: basil seeds hydrated in a basil syrup, encased in a basil water gel. I've always done the agar/LBG thing, but Asbel and I have discussed gelatin and pectin in the past; this time I'd try it with gelatin alone.

   

The most frustrating part of the process was cooling down the basil water- cool enough that it would set faster in the oil, yet fluid enough to dispense from a bottle. It was setting quicker than expected, around 70F, so in the process of heating, cooling, and then reheating... unfortunately the color began to get a bit muddy, even with the addition of ascorbic acid.

And then, of course, it pained me to butcher one of our squeeze bottle tips to allow the seeds to pass through. We normally pride ourselves in having beautiful and clean small tips!

 

    

For a first attempt I was pretty happy, though the process could be refined quite a bit. It's interesting to see where we could go with it; raspberry and kiwi were the first that popped into my head. Or passion fruit with a poppy seed interior. Or sesame and something...

It wasn't until I decided to compose a small plate with some macerated tomato that it hit me: Jose Andres has been talking about this concept for years by way of the natural 'gelatin' and seeds inside of a tomato.

Download: Basil Seed Pearls-Workbook 8.3.09

 

Bespoke

 

This project has been germinating for several weeks. We finally picked up momentum, and armed with some more detailed information and opinion, we've begun to sort out this business of stabilizers. Not only have more and more people been talking about it lately, but I've always felt like I was taking a lot for granted by using a commercially blended product. And the basic knowledge of what works and how (and why in a particular synergy) is good to have as it can lead to other things.

The idea was pushed forward when a pastry chef colleague down the street mentioned his dismay at the fact that the most readily available (at least in NYC) commercial sorbet stabilizer contains both whey and gelatin. It has bugged me too, but not enough that it kept me awake at night, that is, until I began to think about it more. It should be a given that our sorbets are, if not dairy free, then at least vegetarian. I promised that I would find the ideal solution for our own knowledge and our conscience.

The first step was to break down the Cremodan stabilizer into its labeled constituents: gelatin, locust bean gum, cellulose gum, guar gum, whey protein concentrate, and dextrose. I have all of these ingredients on the shelf, with the exception of the whey, which I'm trying to get rid of anyway. I wanted to consult a food scientist (who has had a particular interest in ice cream) on what was and wasn't necessary, and what first steps I could take to constructing my own blend.

The advice I got was that the whey powder provided no function whatsoever, and neither did the cellulose gum- carboxyl methyl cellulose or CMC- at least in this application, and when guar and locust bean gums are being used. Hands down, in his opinion, the best single stabilizing ingredient is simple gelatin. It's water-holding abilities, viscosity, mouth feel, and that it melts at body-temperature, all make it ideal. This was awesome, but it deflated my enthusiasm somewhat, as I was hoping to remove gelatin from the equation. His second choice would be locust bean gum alone or in tandem with guar gum. Our dialog on the subject is by no means finished (at least I hope not), but this was a great place to start.

I also wanted to take a look at some other 'handmade' formulas. The one that everybody seems to reference can be found in Francisco Migoya's recent book, Frozen Desserts. Now, I have to confess that I don't own it, and have only skimmed a copy, but I think it's a great resource. The components in his formula mirror that of the Cremodan blend, but at least now we get a sense of their proportions.

The next logical step would be to conduct a simple side-by-side comparison of these four variations: the commercial Cremodan stabilizer, the bespoke blend, gelatin, and finally the LBG/Guar combo. I'll apologize in advance to any real scientists out there; despite our wish to be as accurate as possible, there is certainly some inherent margin of error in our measurements. I also didn't assemble a true control (a sorbet with no stabilizer added), nor did I record every possible variable.

 

   

I chose a basic raspberry sorbet as our test subject. Looking at some general usage guidelines, I chose the percentage of each stabilizer based on their common ranges (even on such a small scale- tenths of grams- it could make a difference) while also trying to hit a fairly rounded measurement. We began with the four identical syrups, all prepared in the same manner. The Cremodan (A) was dosed at 2.25%, the Migoya blend (B) at 2.5%, gelatin (C) at 3%, and finally the gum duo (D) at 2.5%. Once prepared, matured, and cooled, I assumed that these syrups would tell us something before fruit was added and spun. As predicted, the A and B syrups appeared identical- slightly opaque but quite fluid. The gelatin-based syrup was crystal clear, with the texture of a just barely set gel. Syrup D was by far the thickest, with a good deal of elasticity; I immediately determined that the locust bean/guar percentage could be lowered by at least a half of a percentage point, if not more.

     

An equal measurement of each syrup was added to an equal measurement of raspberry puree. Each mixture was spun and then stored in a sub-zero F freezer. And though the anticipation was killing me, I decided to let them sit undisturbed for 48 hours. Only after some degree of storage would we be able to see how the stabilizers do their intended job. The first visual observation would be its volume or overrun. There were no noticeable differences among the group, though I don't know that such a small batch size would give us such clues.

Onto the taste test. I didn't notice any real difference in flavor, with the exception of sorbet D; the slight gumminess did seem to mask the raspberry flavor more than the others. Texturally, D was, of course, the least pleasant as predicted. The gelatin-stabilized sorbet had a more noticeable body and mouth feel than A and B; in terms of texture alone, my friend was right- gelatin won.

The other factor I wanted to look at was it's rate of melting. Here, the results become harder to analyze. The first to begin melting were A and D. After 10 minutes, the order of fastest melting to slowest was D, A, C, and then B. Yet after 20 minutes, the order had changed: B, A, C, followed by D. Taking into account which sorbet had which stabilizer, it made sense that C was among the slowest, yet D didn't contain the gelatin that A and B both had. For kicks, I stuck a thermometer into each fleeting scoop t the 30 minute mark, and surprisingly the temperatures ranged from 50F/10C down to below 40F/4C. I wouldn't think that any of these stabilizers would affect the temperature, and as you can see from the photo below, the scoops sat out within about a foot of each other. I wonder then, why such a broad difference?

     

So what did we learn? That the gelatin and LBG/Guar versions provided noticeably different results compared to the commercial blend and the bespoke attempt at replicating that blend. Yet on the whole, with the exception of an over-dosing in sorbet D, the sorbets were remarkably similar, more so than I would have thought. The verdict? As yet undecided, at least until I run more detailed tests. But I certainly feel just a bit smarter for having put in the effort!

While I didn't faithfully record the resulting data and observations for you, here are the syrup recipes that I started with:

Download: Raspberry Sorbet.Stabilizer Trial-Workbook 7.3.09

 

 

Cultured

 

My general obsession with all things dairy has recently renewed my interest in yogurt. With the breakthrough of the Spanish pastry explosion a decade ago, it seemed to take hold here in only a limited fashion. Of late, I haven't paid much attention to yogurt either, outside of panna cotta or sorbet, so I've been thinking about how I might apply it in other ways.

Though I was familair with 'orbing' yogurt into an alginate bath (and had thus used it in a demo or two with regard to 'reverse' spherification- the process relying on the naturally occuring calcium in the yogurt), I was intrigued by the Ideas in Food experiments using low acyl gellan. It was a hectic evening, but I set out to revisit the notion by doing a comparison of the two methods. Needless to say, service distracted me away from the project; I lacked the sodium hexametaphosphate called for anyway. What can I say, sometimes I'm impatient.

Download: Yogurt Spheres (Alginate)-Workbook 21.2.09

This is the 'traditional' method. I've used an addition of heavy cream in the past, but the only yogurt I had at hand was drained and full fat. A little skim milk thinned it out and added a higher dose of calcium, just for good luck.

 

But then I hit a common roadblock. Having harnessed and perfected a technique, what do I do with it? It's a self-imposed dilemma, perhaps. Some things, no matter how cool and exciting, don't easily lend themselves to the refinement we seek. Something like this doesn't really work in a plated composition very well. I could certainly present it on it's own, say, on a spoon. But at the end of the day, it's still just a spoonful of yogurt.

The important thing is that we keep asking the questions, and seeking out the answers...