In this second Skill Builder installment on Kitchen Equipment, Cooking for Geeks author Jeff Potter discusses more essential tools and their use. Next up: Knife play! -Gareth Measuring Cups and Scales In addition to the common items used for measuring (e.g., measuring cups and spoons), I strongly recommend purchasing a kitchen scale. If you will […]
In this installment of Food Skill Builder, our guest geek chef, Jeff Potter, discusses some essential kitchen tools (ooh… tools) and tips for their proper use. In part 2 (tomorrow), we’ll look at measuring, timing, weighing, storing and similar tools. And, some knifing techniques! -Gareth Regardless of your needs, a well-equipped home kitchen shouldnโt cost […]
One of the great things about learning food science is the need to test everything. I say “need” because, in truth, it’s a lot of fun to geek out over the details and try various experiments that I wouldn’t normally try. Take yogurt. Everyone is familiar with it, but how is it made? Where does it come from? (Besides the store…) Making yogurt is incredibly easy, especially once you know some of the food science background. A bunch of different types of “friendly” bacteria chow down on the lactose sugars in milk, creating lactic acid in the process. This process, called fermentation, also changes the structure of the milk, turning it into a gel.
Jeff Potter’s book, Cooking for Geeks, is based on a simple premise: “We geeks are fascinated by how things work, and most of us eat, too.” Food month here on MAKE is built upon that same idea. We’re going to be excerpting from Jeff’s book over the next few weeks, and publishing some of his […]
โSous-videโ is fashionable French for a method of cooking that involves longer cooking times at lower temperatures and reduced atmospheric pressures. It means, literally, โunder vacuum.โ Commonly, food is sealed in plastic vacuum bags and cooked at temperatures well below the boiling point of water for dozens of hours, although the particular parameters vary widely with the food to be cooked. The point, really, is that the equipment involved is capable of finer automated control of those parameters than your conventional range, oven, and/or microwave, and the quality and flavor of the natural ingredients can be vastly improvedโwithout sacrificing safetyโby using it.
Make: Live ep08 is all about brewing beer and coffee. Thanks to our guests Diane Gilleland, John Park, Douglas Amport, and John LaPolla. Catch up on video and notes from the show here. Subscribe to the MAKE Podcast in iTunes, download Make: Live episode 08 in its entirety (m4v or Vimeo), or watch clips on […]
We first published MAKE’s Grand Fromage Dale Dougherty’s, Ignite talk on cheese in the fall of 2009. But in light of our food theme this month, I thought we should reprise it. For those of you unfamiliar with Ignite, each speaker is given five minutes and 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds. At Ignite […]
