Some new kitchen gadgets

[deltasigma]

Although in some cases it’s not really fair to call these things ‘gadgets.’ Take the anti-griddle for example:

Most—if not all—cooking methods involve changing the temperature of one or more ingredients. Yet modernist techniques tend to use more-advanced tools to bring things to higher or lower temperatures than our kitchens are usually equipped to handle.

When you need temperatures to plummet, there’s the Anti-Griddle, a flat, temperature-controlled surface that flash-freezes any ingredient placed on top of it. PolyScience’s at-home Anti-Griddle reaches a fixed temperature of –34.4 degrees Celsius (–30 degrees Fahrenheit). It works by pumping a refrigerant through a compressor to remove heat from the steel surface, chilling it to frigid Yukon-in-January temperatures. Some chefs make their own flash-freezing griddles by placing a steel surface over dry ice (carbon dioxide in solid form), but this requires a quick hand because dry ice is much colder, at –78.5 degrees Celsius (–109.3 degrees Fahrenheit), than a standard Anti-Griddle.

Think of the Anti-Griddle as the opposite of a standard heat-based griddle. As with a regular griddle, you pour or place batter or food onto the surface, using a nonmetal spatula to move it around. As soon as the food touches the griddle, it begins to freeze. You can freeze just one side of your creation, or flip it over to freeze both sides.

When prepared properly, flash-frozen food has a hard, crunchy shell and a cool, creamy interior—a texture that’s hard to replicate by simply tossing food in the freezer. You can use the Anti-Griddle to make chilled desserts, artistic salad dressings, frozen mousse, and tons of appetizers and decorative dishes.

[Idle_Thoughts]

Moving to CS as you requested.

[aruvqan]

I have the Sous Vide, the siphon, the chemicals, no interest in the smoking gun or the anti griddle, would be more inclined to reproduce the ones that use a quick dip in liquid nitrogen though one can purchase a dry ice maker that uses a tank of CO2.

I do plan on having fun with my ebook edition of Modernist Cuisine - I love the idea of using the pearls to flavor boost drinks, and noodles made of agar agar and flavoring liquid. I have in mind a noodle of spinach and agar agar, some flavor pearls of mrAru’s balsamic dressing and thin slices of sous vide london broil as a sort of salad, I am thinking slivers of jicama for crunch. Not sure about croutons, I need to read more about playing with breads.