Modernist Pantry

I've continued buying food related stuff. And I've completely rationalized the expense because I plan to share what I cook with the family. So it isn't really just stuff for me. It's stuff for us.

The latest toys are coming from the Modernist Pantry. It's a store that was created to distribute all of the hard to find ingredients for some Modernist recipes. Looking for some sodium alginate to caviar shaped spheres of a liquid? They've got it. The nice thing about the store is that they also sell things in quantities so the home cook can play around with buying 5 pounds of a product to use 2 tablespoons of it in a recipe.

The thing I really wanted after flipping through Modernist at Home was sodium citrate. It is salt of citric acid. And apparently if you dissolve some in water and then slowly blend in cheese you will have a very stable cheese sauce that won't break. The mac and cheese recipe looks great. See, it's a gift for everyone.

I'm also looking forward to playing with Wrise. Wrise is very fine baking powder that has been encapsulated in a gel. When you mix it in a dough, nothing happens. Once you heat the dough, the gel melts and you get a quick rise in the oven. I got it to try this pizza recipe that uses champagne or sparkling white wine and Wrise instead of yeast. If it works well, I won't always have to make pizza dough a day or two in advance. I'll be able to make the dough while the oven heats up. Pizza, another gift for everyone.

Since I was shopping, I picked up some Ultra-Sperse 3 too. This is a super fine tapioca powder that can be used as a thickener. It's also gluten free. I'm going to try it in gravy to see how it compares to the sweet rice flour.

Still feeling generous, I bought a scale that can measure these ingredients accurately. They had one that could measure tenths of grams, but for an extra $5, you can upgrade to the one that measures hundredths of grams. I also got these little anti-static cups so all the measured ingredient comes out of the bowl after you measure it. They were only a buck and as a first time buyer, the shipping was free. It would have been wasteful not to buy them too. You know, for the kids.