Chris Amirault

Spent a few hours at Proof in DC last night, a great bar in a great restaurant. They have a fantastic selection of ingredients; Ashley's drink-making and Adam's menu design were top-notch. And the ice was terrible. It's not like they're alone: save for very cocktail-forward bars designed around crucial elements like ice, most bars simply aren't built to support the production and maintenance of cold, hard ice. What are some real-world strategies a bar can use to deal with this ubiquitous problem?

Spent some time at Proof last night and really enjoyed it. Ashley was behind the bar making our drinks, and we had excellent Aviations, Bairns, Millionaire Cocktails, & Rough & Tumbles. The product available is outstanding: lots of Haus Alpenz stuff including Smith & Cross Rum, Plymouth Sloe Gin, Macallan cask strength. In a perfect world, such an excellent cocktail program (by Adam Bernbach, who was also there) would have the ice to match it....

No "necessary alcohol content" to be a cocktail: there are weaker and stronger types. Having a variety of strengths might be appealing for some folks -- unless this crowd is hellbent on getting bent.

I'm leaning toward suck. Look, if post people have never had Aperol before, you could just pour 1 oz of it over a cube, fill with sparkler, and twist lemon on top. It'll be crisp, elegant, balanced, and unweird -- just the way to introduce them to it.

Continuing with the Bluecoat project. I had a slug of it a couple of nights ago when I was snacking on Triscuits and kirbys, and the combination got me thinking that akvavit might be an interesting foil. Think Martinez, think Morgenthaler's Norwegian Wood, think summer on the deck, think strapping Danish American actor, think... The Viggo Cocktail 1 1/2 oz Bluecoat gin 3/4 oz akvavit 3/4 oz sweet vermouth (M&R) 1/2 oz lemon -1/2 oz simple 2 dashes Angostura half a kirby cucumber Muddle; shake; double strain; very small lemon twist over top; discard. A big twist would obliterate the interesting aromatics carried by the cuke. As for the akvavit, I used Aalborg, though I'm eager to bump it up with Linie or Krogstad.

If you can swing it, Audrey Saunders's Intro to Aperol is a fantastic "gateway to gin" drink: 2 oz Aperol 1 oz gin (Beefeater) 3⁄4 lemon juice scant 1⁄4 simple syrup dash Angostura (or Fernet Branca) ETA can't find any kosher indications on label I have.

Hard for me to understand a post that both expresses concern if McGee disappeared but heaps derision on the "ridiculous food manipulations" of Adria, the practitioner often credited with finding ways to bring many of McGee's concepts into reality and sharing those methods freely.

Opens up lots of interesting naming options, too.

Get 6 oz ones, max. Here are a few interesting ones with stems.

I think that part of the tension also involves the fact that a number of western knife fans (including this one) have had Archimedes moments switching from those to the Japanese knives. It tends to make me, at least, cognizant of the possibility that everything I know about knives is flat-out wrong. What would be ideal, I think, would be some videotaped (and then posted) head-to-head comparisons. Does anyone have both western and Japanese knives and a big slab of lox?

I completely agree with Sam on this point. If you're trying to become the NYC Kosher Preschool Cocktail Party King, which you clearly are, then don't dilute at all, and your guests will have the first good drink with crappy wet shell ice they've ever had in their lives. It will blow their minds.

Newsflash: Greg Boehm at Mudpuddle Books and cocktailkingdom.com is announcing a two-day event on Japanese bartending in NY hosted by none other than Kazuo Uyeda. In addition, Mudpuddle is publishing an English translation of Uyeda's book, Cocktail Technique. It's May 3 & 4 at Hiro Ballroom, and I'm happy to announce that I'll be the Society's correspondent covering the event. Much more information to follow. Meanwhile, I'll start thinking about questions for Greg, Uyeda, and the participants -- with your help, of course. Where to start?

Yep.

Or you can do it all on site during prep: bring ginger, a microplane, and some simple syrup, five minutes, tops. Infusing that for even a brief time will give a nice bite.

Thanks, David. No mold, Chris. It's the applejack, I tells ya. I realize that I really, really am thrilled with the Grigson saucisson sec base recipe, which is extremely permeable. Good pork, a few select, slight tweaks, and a lot of time do amazing things. I mean, yeah, duh, but you know what I'm sayin'.

Nut liqueurs tend to taste sweeter than citrus liqueurs, even with equivalent brix, I think. But, hey, go for it if you like it. Ginger syrup is extremely easy to make: grate some ginger, steep in demerara syrup, put in bottle. No need to buy it.

Just a quick update to state that the Ace is the little dehumidifier that could! I'm settled at a happy 60% and things are looking good for the pancetta, lop yuk, and bresaola.

Here's that saucisson sec -- or, given the apple brandy, that sweet, sweet sausage -- based mainly on Grigson with assists from Ruhlman: 22 days at around 50-55F and wildly varying humidity, locking in at 60% in the last few days. Very happy with the flavor and definition.

It was thickened with a roux using the leftover dredging flour, and then again, I learned post hoc, with the butts of the dumplings. I loved it -- and that didn't get any guff around here.

The results: I followed Dave's basic approach above, keeping it simple with chicken thighs, onions and celery, roasted chicken stock, thyme, and so on. The main tweak was the cornmeal dumpling I mentioned above, to which I added minced onion and scallion, and the final roast to brown the tops. I absolutely loved it: the textural contrasts between the silky thighs and the crunchy dumplings, the thyme infusing both stew and dough, the rich broth. My wife? Meh. What's with all the extra stuff in the dumplings -- and why cornmeal? Why fancy it up with thyme? You get the idea: chicken & dumpling traditionalism versus chicken & dumpling adaptation. She wants white, AP flour dumplings with nothing in 'em but S&P and nixed the crisp; the dumplings were perfect for me precisely because, well, they weren't blah. My mom never made it. Her mom? You guess.

Yeah, I was going to suggest that just now, too, Salty Dog stuff: tequila, lime, salt, grapefruit zest & cilantro gremolata. ETA: I'll bet that Negroni oysters -- Campari, gin, sweet vermouth -- would kill. You know, in the non-food-poison sense.

The sour has ratios that don't make sense to me: it'd be too sweet, if my guess about Bartenura is correct. Try it and see, but don't be surprised if ratcheting down that liqueur and bumping up the lemon is required. I don't see the point of the vodka in the champagne cocktail -- unless you're trying to get people plastered -- and would suggest something like a lesser amount of cognac instead, which will give a nice grape-y touch to the drink. You can make very simple grenadine with 1/2 Pom and 1/2 sugar shaken like nuts; there are more involved recipes around, too, including possibly non-kosher ingredients and a bit of cooking. I'd definitely add some bitters to that cocktail -- and the Angostura bottle I just checked has "National Kashruth" stamped on it. Batch all the non-sparkler and make sure the bartenders shake it up real good before each drink, or else you're gonna get icky sweet by the bottom of the glass. Your Paloma needs some sugar, stat. I'd just move right into a highball. I've had guests go gaga over this: 2 tequila 3⁄4 lime juice 3⁄4 ginger syrup 1 pineapple juice 1 t salt grapefruit soda You batch everything but the soda, pour a couple fingers of the mixture over ice, then top with the soda. Use something tart -- Polar Half n Half is what I use here, but the Jarritos grapefruit works, too, though it's sweeter. Having written this all out, I wonder if making that first drink a highball (over soda) is the right way to go, too. Then you can make some funny joke about rugrats and highballs or something.

So "oxidation" is the issue, not the more general "spoilage"? And the "increase in sourness" stuff is flat-out wrong? Where does that idea come from?

All right, next up: the Nick and Nora question. (No, not the "Why have you been obsessed with Myrna Loy for three decades, Chris?" question.) Here are two examples I offer for discussion. First, a 5 oz crystal with a long, relatively slim stem: Next, a squat 3 oz glass: These have been among the hardest glasses for me to find, not least because I'm not sure what they are. What, exactly, makes a Nick and Nora glass a Nick and Nora glass? I mean, Powell and Loy weren't squat, for starters.

Enjoying tonight's cocktail, the award-winning Que Lastima from Blair Reynolds of Trader Tiki's Booze Blog: 2 oz pisco (La Botija Tabernero) 3⁄4 oz lime 1⁄2 oz cinnamon 2:1 syrup (5 drops cinnamon tincture + 1/2 oz gum syrup) 1⁄4 falernum (Taylor's) 1 Fee's OF bitters 1 dash pimento dram (homemade) It's a great drink, one I'm surprised I haven't made sooner. It'd probably be terrific batched; next time, I think I'll toss an egg white in there and put a few drops of the tincture on the meringue.