250 replies to this topic

[Frederic]

As of today, the Drink & Tell: A Boston Cocktail Book is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and soon elsewhere. Working on the Kindle and Nook versions. And it should be in some brick & mortar stores like the Boston Shaker!

Here's the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.co...k/dp/0988281805

Edited by Mjx, 13 September 2012 - 10:59 PM.

[FrogPrincesse]

A new book by eG member Kevin Liu, Craft Cocktails at Home: Offbeat Techniques, Contemporary
Crowd-Pleasers, and Classics Hacked with Science, just came out. Has anybody read it? From its table of contents, it looks like it would be an interesting read with a science-based approach to cocktail-making.

[Chris Amirault]

Just bought the eBook for $4 at the link above. Will report back -- and thanks Kevin!

[bostonapothecary]

A new book by eG member Kevin Liu, Craft Cocktails at Home: Offbeat Techniques, Contemporary
Crowd-Pleasers, and Classics Hacked with Science, just came out. Has anybody read it? From its table of contents, it looks like it would be an interesting read with a science-based approach to cocktail-making.

my copy is in the mail. i had the pleasure of finally meeting and making drinks for kevin a few weeks ago. kevin is definitely brilliant. i cannot wait to see what he has come up with. i went with a print version but i hear a free kindle version is available on thursday.

[Kevin Liu]

What amazing company to keep on this humble food forum!  All four of the previous four posters are featured in the book in various ways.  You guys are an inspiration!

 

Hope you like the book and please let me know if there is anything I can clarify/correct/add to.

[Chris Amirault]

Kevin, can you check the chart on juices and make sure it's what you intended? I was shocked to see the lime juice expiration times in particular. 

[Kevin Liu]

Chris, good catch.  I struggled a lot with whether to include this chart:

 

 

Most online references will say that lime and lemon juices should not be stored in the fridge for more than a week or so, but I wasn't able to find any scientific literature to back that up.

 

The info on lime juice comes from a review of literature found in Hui (ed.), Handbook of Fruits and Fruit Processing, Page 345.  It summarizes a 1961 paper by Ikeda et al. this way:

 

"Pasteurized juice can be stored at 2◦C for 15 months without appreciable change in flavor. In untreated samples, changes occur and storage life is limited to about 4.5 months at 27◦C."

 

So I actually tried to go *very* conservative in the 1-2 month recommendation, which I found reference for lemon juice, if memory serves me right.

 

With that being said,

"Shelf life" in this context refers specifically to when consumers felt that lime juice was "unacceptable" in flavor. By my testing, I think lime juice gets overly bitter in about a day or so due to enzymatic bittering, which is why I say the juice is best used in 4-10 hours.

 

So: I wouldn't use 1-2 month lime juice ever. But I wanted to be complete in my testing, so there you go.

 

Does that make sense?

[Tri2Cook]

Watching for the paperback to hit amazon.ca. My ereader isn't a Kindle... and I kinda like having my cocktail books as physical books anyway.

[Rafa]

Finished Craft Cocktails at Home last night and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's the first book I'd recommend to those with a science/engineering background who want to get into cocktails. That said, a lot of its content is directed at those already invested in cocktail culture. It has a lot to offer cocktail enthusiasts(/nerds) who want to understand the scientific underpinnings of important concepts like dilution, citrus freshness, infusion, acid content, etc. It puts across a huge amount of information in a style that stays light, clear, amusing, and witty. And it's full of great ideas and recipes that I can't wait to try: almost instant allspice liqueur (which I'll be making later this week), an orgeat recipe so simple it feels like cheating, and many more. I'm especially glad for the chapter on good drinks to convert cocktail novices, and for the exploration of alternative forms of acid in cocktails, a concept I've long been interested in. My one complaint, if you can call it that, is that many of the chapters feel more like jumping-off points for further discussion than complete overviews of a given subjects; but, as this is a forum devoted precisely to those kinds of discussions, and as there's an entire blog attached to the book to explore and interact with, I don't see this as a real problem. (One other complaint, this one directed at Amazon: the Kindle app on my iPhone consistently mangled all the lovely charts. You get what you pay for, I guess.) Thank you for the book, Kevin, and I look forward to reading on on the blog. 

[Kevin Liu]

@Rafa,

 

great comments, thanks a ton. I'm working on getting all the charts and graphics on to the blog now.  If you have any specific questions about recipes or techniques please feel free to post here or drop me an email at kevin@craftcocktailsathome.com 

[Kevin Liu]

Regarding the shelf life of citrus juices, here's an insightful article by Harold McGee, in which he writes:

 

Food technologists define shelf life not by how long it takes for food to become inedible, but how long it takes for a trained sensory panel to detect a “just noticeable difference”

 

Just wanted to share that article because he puts the blabber I wrote above into more eloquent words.