Chris Amirault

I'm also wondering about a related scenario (which happens to be more or less true). A patron walks into a bar that focuses on classic cocktails and starts up a conversation about the word "cocktail" itself. Over the course of the conversation -- originally cocktails were spirit, water, bitters, sugar; those sorts of drinks are now called "Old Fashioneds"; you can use any spirit base -- the patrons eyes wander to the Del Maguey mezcal. "What about that stuff?" The bartender then makes an Old Fashioned with mezcal, cuts it with a bit of añejo tequila, some demerara syrup that's on the back bar, and some Angostura. Another bartender comes over as she's straining the drink and says, "Hey, that's Phil Ward's Oaxaca Old Fashioned!" Is it?

Welcome to the eGullet Society, Coyote Chef! Do you toss the broccoli with the tarragon prior to steaming? Interesting....

I didn't see the show and thus can't comment on what he said. However, in re this subject, he said the following in a chat he had with the Guardian recently:

Matt, I do have smoked salt, pepper, coconut powder, sesame seeds, and a bunch of other things on hand. They all come, of course, with their own flavors, which drove me to think about this possibility. Like Mitch, commercial LS has always seemed a bit too harsh, and the thought of apple smoke is appealing to me. That simple distillation seems promising. Has anyone tried it?

There are times when I'd like to be able to add a smoky element to items that I don't want to or can't smoke effectively: certain sous vide applications, some vegetables, etc.

I've had a Bradley for over four years and love it. Today I smoked apples, ribs, garlic, salt... and water. I had this silly idea that, if I stuck a pan of water into the smoker, I might get something remotely interesting. I didn't. It was sour, smoke-free, and straight up weird. Those of you familiar with silly exploits involving bongs: like that. I'm not able to distill smoke quite yet, so I'm wondering if there are any other methods for making something akin to liquid smoke using a Bradley. Other liquids? Oil?

Surprised myself today. I dumped about 1/2 c -- the rest of an old bottle -- of Dubonnet rouge into a tomato sauce I was making as a substitute for red wine. Damned good substitute. Who knew.

Casserole? Say more. Sautéed with fresh garlic and smoked, roasted garlic, finished with sherry vinegar tonight, btw.

Are you two going to fight it out now?

I need help. I just keep driving around the same boring broccoli boulevard: sautéed over high heat, usually in the oil leftover from some garlic and a dried red chile or two, and served with a splash of lemon or other acid. Surely there are other ways to prepare this strange cabbage.

If you add them frozen, you are risking cooking the exterior of the meatballs for far longer than the interior -- risking, that is to say, cooking the outside to mush before the interior is done. I'd thaw them first.

But they're not all the same, it seems. If I read runwestierun's post correctly -- -- the picnic has longer muscles with more connective tissue, and the butt will have thicker clots of muscle. For someone looking to maximize collagen, the picnic is the one you want.

So who's right? Are these terms -- Boston butt, butt, and shoulder -- interchangeable, or do they refer to different parts -- butt = shoulder, but Boston butt is a part of the shoulder/butt?

So I made this Rick Bayless sous vide carnitas recipe, which turned out great except it didn't hold together in the skillet when I browned it. Trying to figure out what went wrong, I wondered whether the butcher gave me butt instead of shoulder. Then I started wondering, "What's the difference between butt and shoulder?" Then I got really confused. "Is Boston butt the same as butt? What's the difference between picnic shoulder and shoulder? Is this all regional and cultural jingoism?" I need help. What are the differences between these cuts? Are there differing proportions of certain types of meat, connective tissue, and so on in them? And, while we're at it, are others confused about, say, baby back vs St. Louis ribs?

Yikes. The photo in that image made me run into my kitchen and hug my (EdgePro-sharpened) knives.

Agree about applejack vs calvados and the cassis. I think you should choose an unflavored black tea, instead of fiddling around with a flavored one that may have components you don't want. Lots more on bottled cocktails over here, including advice about amounts, ice, and so on.

I thought we could put together a list of cookbooks that are useful resources for sous vide/long time, low temperature cooking. A few are dedicated to SV/LTLT cooking. There's Sous Vide Cuisine by Joan Roca & Salvador Brugues (Amazon link here; eG Forums topic here). There's Under Pressure by Thomas Keller (Amazon link here; eG Forums topic here). There's Society member Douglas Baldwin's Sous Vide for the Home Cook. Soon, we'll have Society member Nathan Myhrvold's epic Modernist Cuisine (eG Forums topic here; Amazon link here). Then there are cookbooks that aren't dedicated to SV/LTLT cooking but use the technique, such as Society member Grant Achatz's Alinea cookbook and Michel Richard's Happy in the Kitchen. Are there others out there that you turn to when you fire up your Auber, rice cooker, or SV Supreme?

I froze a few of the leftover tortillas, carefully sealing them in a FoodSaver bag, defrosting them in a hot water bath, and then giving them a few seconds on the comal. The texture was shot: they were pretty tough. No more freezing tortillas.

Wanted to bump this up as I made carnitas last night using a sous vide method from Rick Bayless: The method isn't perfected, but these were the best carnitas I've ever had, full stop. You can read more about it over here.

Wanted to report back on the final steps of Bayless's SV carnitas (recipe here). Here are the loaf pans: The pork removed from the pan: At this point, I got concerned that the pork wasn't sufficiently firm to survive being sautéed. Forging on, I sliced it into ~3/4" slabs: Into a non-stick pan with plenty of very hot lard: Carefully, carefully tried to turn them, but... uhh...: OK, so it's not going to be featured in Modernist Cuisine: However, it was absolutely fantastic. The meat was infused with the spices and the texture was perfect, with tender and crispy bits in good ratio. It was insanely rich. It's a good thing I sautéed only a few slices or else I'd have eaten the entire thing. Of course, the big question here is: why did the pork fall apart in the pan? One culprit could be the liquid, but I'll sacrifice form for flavor without concern. I'm quite sure it's not a sautéing issue: they started to break down almost immediately, so even a very fast high heat sear wouldn't have worked. I'm thinking it was lack of collagen. Here are Derek's images of Bayless's pork: That looks like a lot firmer bind than I had, and even if I had left out the liquid, there was no way that pork was going to gel like that. Next time, I'll try it with skin-on pork and see what happens. Having said that, this is a great addition to my growing SV repertoire and a terrific way to prepare carnitas.

Of all the straight red hot sauces mentioned here, I have only tried Cholula, which I try to keep in the house, and, long ago, Tapatío. What are the differences between that and the others? We always have many bottles of Búfalo chipotle sauce (my wife's addiction) and 2-3 varieties of El Yucateco habañero sauce (my addiction) on hand. The Búfalo is quite thick, smoky, and meaty; the EY sauces go from fruity and bright to Blow Your Head Off.

And if you spend an order of magnitude more time digging around in that lower drawer, your energy savings go up in wispy vapor.

Made a batch at work this week using this recipe: 1 c Gosling's dark rum 1 c Wray & Nephew overproof rum 1 c Smith & Cross rum 1/2 c allspice berries, crushed 6 black pepper berries, crushed 10 cloves, crushed 2 cinnamon sticks, broken 1 1/2 nutmegs, crushed Will strain and sugar in a couple weeks.

One thing I've been appreciating is the vast volume of ice available for quickly cooling sous vide meats, brines, blanched vegetables, and so on. Given all my complaining it seemed only fair to admit this.

The enthusiastic Mr. Hennes just indicated that, for a mere $4/volume additional fee, you can get the book shipped overnight. (If you have Prime, which I don't, it's $4 flat.) At $421-500, this seems a pittance, so I'm going for the luxury of getting it PDQ.