Posts Tagged ‘geek’

The season of giving is upon us, and that means it’s time to start Christmas shopping for the food geek in your life.  Let’s face it: he (or she… but who are we kidding, it’s a he) is hard to shop for.  He already owns 4 kinds of microplanes, he’s got more cookbooks than Barnes & Noble, and his spice rack is organized by atomic weight.  A waffle iron just isn’t gonna cut it this year.

For just that reason, I’ve rounded up the best and geekiest kitchen gifts of 2010.  And, if you’re feeling extra generous, I also threw in a few “luxury items” sure to induce a Christmas morning nerdgasm.

Books

2010 was a great year for cookbooks.  In fact, all of the books below are new this year, with the exception of Modernist Cuisine, which is available for preorder but won’t ship until March.  At $475, it’s not exactly a stocking stuffer, but you can spread out the joy by wrapping each of the five volumes separately. 

• Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking by Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young, and Maxime Bilet – $475
• Keys to Good Cooking: A Guide to Making the Best of Foods and Recipes by Harold McGee – $19.23
• Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine by René Redzepi – $32.97
• Sous Vide for the Home Cook by Douglas Baldwin – $25.95
• Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food by Jeff Potter – $20.71
• Modern Gastronomy: A to Z by Ferran Adria – $43.90

Modernist Cooking “Ingredients”

If the food geek on your Christmas list is dying to pull off the latest techniques, he’ll need some ingredients.  I’ve found the WillPowder brand to be a great value for the price.

• For spherification (you’ll need all three): Sodium Alginate – $27.69, Calcium Chloride- $15.08, and Sodium Citrate – $13.62
• For gels: AGAR AGAR – $52.35, Methylcellulose F50 – $28.64
• Thickeners: Ultratex 3 – $13.42, Ultratex 8 – $18.12
• For foams: Versawhip 600K – $36.08
• For powders: Tapioca Maltodextrin – $14.13

Essential Kitchen Gear

Who doesn’t like playing with new toys?  Over the last year, prices of induction cooktops have plummeted.  They are a great way to expand your stovetop capacity, and they’re extremely energy efficient for heating small quantities of food. 

• Max Burton 6000 1800-Watt Portable Induction Cooktop – $99.99
• Whip-It! Professional Cream Whipper – $49.99
• Infrared Thermometer – $47.96
• Distilling Apparatus – $55.12
• Bernzomatic Self-Igniting Torch – $20.89 (fuel sold separately)

In My Dreams…

Some guys dream of sports cars, some guys dream of rotor/stater homogenizers.  Here is the equipment in the kitchen of my dreams. 

• Torbeo Hand-Held Homogenizer – $841.00
  For blending sauces into a consistency that is unachievably smooth using a conventional blender
• Ultravac 250 Vacuum Chamber Packaging Machine – $4600.00
  Step aside, FoodSaver, this is a vacuum sealer for the big boys.
• Polyscience Sous Vide Professional – $799.95
  Hands-down the best sous vide machine I’ve ever tested.
• Vacuum Rotary Evaporator – $9230.00
  For distilling and extracting essential oils.  No more store-bought vanilla extract!
• PacoJet – $3950.00
  Best known for making extraordinarily smooth and creamy desserts.
• Freeze Dryer – $2,000-20,000
  DIY astronaut ice cream!
• Centrifuge – $7000
  For separating and clarifying stocks and sauces.
• Laser Cutter – $30,000
  For making templates, etching and cutting foods

I am a pumpkin carving geek.  I can’t get enough of it!  As soon as October rolls around, there’s nothing I want to do more than buy a dozen of the largest pumpkins Fred Meyer carries and sit at home with my pairing knife whittling away at orange flesh.  [Tip: Fred Meyer’s scales max out somewhere around 30 lbs., so find the heaviest pumpkins you can and you’ll get a great deal!]

Over the past few years, I’ve developed a few pumpkin carving techniques (ahem… using lasers), but I am certainly not alone when it comes to geeking out over gords.  Check out this collection of nerd-o-lanterns!

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Summer has arrived, and that means it’s time to grill.  But before you start charring steaks, you’ll need a little equipment.  Here are my favorite nerdy accessories for the grillmaster within you.

1.  Extra-Long BBQ Tongs.  They don’t sound geeky, but this single piece of equipment can mean the difference between retaining your forearm hair or not.  Look for locking tongs at least 16” long, with metal ends since plastic and even silicone can melt at grilling temperature.

2.  TurboQue Turbo-Charged Smoker.  This battery-operated fan attaches to the inside of your grill and turns it into a convection smoker.  This means reduced cooking time and extra exposure to smoke from wood chips. 

3.  Infrared Thermometer.  Sure, you could hold your hand above the grill grate and count “one Mississippi… two Mississippi,” but it’s far more geeky to be accurate to .1 degrees Fahrenheit.  This non-contact thermometer instantly measures surface temperatures with the pull of a trigger, enticing you to be quick on the draw. 

4.  Instant Digital Probe Thermometer.  While the infrared thermometer will tell you how hot the grill is, it won’t give you a read on the internal temperature of your porterhouse.  Use a probe thermometer to quickly check the doneness of thick cuts without having to slice them open.  Choose a digital instant read over an analog model, unless you enjoy waiting while your fingernails melt over the fire.

5.  Onion Goggles.  You may look a little… special… flipping burgers with these on, but if you’re cooking with smoke, or better yet, over a campfire, they are indispensable.  The foam-lined glasses are highly effective at keeping the smoke out of your eyes, and keeping girls from ever talking to you.  But hey, form follows function, right?