@MichaelNatkin: When making regular caramels, the reason to add the cream in step 4 is to stop the cooking of the sugar (called "décuire" in french) from step 3. The sugar mixture starts to deepen in color (caramelize), and when you add the warm cream, it stops it from cooking further, or even burning, basically. Stated another way, you cook the sugar until it caramelizes, and then you add the cream to stop it from cooking further...then you cook this to a specific temperature in order to get the soft caramel texture. Hope this helps!

I like the same things everyone has mentioned.

This isn't a veggie, but I recently started doing plantain banana chips! very good! :)

In my opinion, this book is definitely worth it. I bought it in Paris (french version) & I tried one recipe so far. It tasted just like from the boutique! I'm not exaggerating! Great descriptions of the steps & the quantities were spot on (for the caramel au beurre salé). I highly recommend it.

Thank you for sharing this recipe & Eileen's book. I'd love to try making these, but I have a question about a couple ingredients: do you know if sheet gelatine will work the same as powdered gelatin (at the same weight)? I stock sheet gelatin in my pantry....(cheaper to buy where I'm located). Also, I have glucose but not corn syrup. I'm guessing these would be interchangeable. Have any advice? Thanks! :)

That's a great comment about the demi glace. I agree - a demi-glace is extremely rich and flavorful. However, I believe you still need to decant the stock (get rid of the bones & aromatics - onions, carrot, bouquet garni, etc, etc) before you start the reduction, which can take hours, for it to become a demi-glace. If you do that long reduction with all that stuff in it, the flavors are not as good as if you did it without them. There's a difference in taste -- that's what I was trying to say in my first comment. I'm still talking about fish stock in this case.