Chris Amirault

FWIW, I don't think that the stuff is like, say, bitter hazelnut skins. After you roast it, it's pretty tasty.

It can be any type of mushroom. I scored a large batch of dried porcini mushrooms long ago, and I often grind them up into powder to sprinkle into braises. Any wet application that could use a boost of mushroomy umami is perfect for the stuff.

Yes, that's one of the concerns for the LL folks. In addition, we don't have enough booze for 1 oz pours of nearly ten rums for 12 people each.

I wash them and then don't worry too much. I just roasted a pan of them, and the gunk on the gunky ones crisped up and came off of most of them.

Doing the final prep for tomorrow's class on sours and rum. I'll be greeting them with a Mississippi Punch variation, talk about the punch/sour relationship, do an overview and tasting of rums (about which, frankly, I'm intimidated), and then walk them through mixing their own Daiquiris. The last part of the class we'll be talking tiki and drinking Mai Tais. In order to be a bit less harried during class, I'm doing a lot more prep. The base spirits for the punch and Mai Tai are bottled, so that I only have to muddle the lemon peel with demerara and add the juice for the punch and use a 3:1 base to juice ratio for the Mai Tais. I've got fist-sized chunks of ice for the punch, and I'm bagging crushed ice and cubes for the other two drinks. The one part of the evening that I am still struggling with is dispensing rums for the tasting before the Daiquiri mixing. I think I'm going to pour a few ounces in a glass in front of the bottle and set out straws for tastes. Other ideas?

Yep, a bit late: I went with the standard, adding a bit of bacon and tomato paste to the porcini & mirepoix basic set up. In foil at 225F right now.

There are no tech specs at all, strangely enough considering the potential market. There is this statement, though: I'd think that they wouldn't say that if they didn't get down to 120F.

Pre-orders are $399, which is $50 off retail, apparently. Very tempting indeed. Like Mitch -- somewhat eerily so -- I am not averse to dropping big bucks on certain items such as the Sylvia/Rocky combo; like Mitch, I have no experience with SV and can't anticipate using this machine three times daily (the current use rate of the Rancilio duo). But as I packed up my brisket in tin foil for a few hours in a 225F oven, I thought about how nice it would be to seal it all in a FoodSaver bag and plop it into an immersion circulator.... Probably can't spring for one now but I'm very eager to read more.

And they remove only the wax? Under hot water or without moisture?

It's brisket weather and I just reread every post in the topic to get ready for tomorrow's meal. I'm wondering if anyone's got new ideas to share; I think I'm going with the standard braise I describe at the head of the topic, but I'm sure there are those more adventurous out there!

I thought of another one: anchovies. I have absolutely no idea why, and frankly think it's a bit bizarre.

I'm interested to know how people clean off the wax and other gunk on lemons, limes, oranges, and other citrus fruit that you use for twists and the like. Somewhere (DeGroff's new book?) I read about using the old tomato-skinning technique: douse the fruit in boiling water for a bit and then wipe off the melted wax. I have also been fiddling with quick blasts (10 seconds or so) in the microwave, which also has been working pretty well. Are there other approaches to consider?

As you probably assumed, the distributor that carries those products (and a lot of other stuff too; the Haus Alpenz line is on the way to RI) is MS Walker, the event sponsor. I'd guess that these sorts of contests always have a sponsor link of some sort, either the big boys like Diageo or local distributors like MSW.

Newsflash: Society member Michael Dietsch (dietsch), author of the fine Dash of Bitters website, has also signed on as a judge. The Iron 'Tender website has been updated to include a schedule -- and, of greater interest to the topic at hand, the rules, the relevant portions of which I am pasting in here: Based on this scoring system, which makes a lot of sense to me, it would seem that last year's contest operated under different rules. In other words: phew.

I like it.

Great tips. I'll also add that using lots more corn meal than a dusting helps, as does working quickly once the dough is on the peel. If you do use corn meal, be sure to brush it off between pies, or else the pie cooks on the insulating pile of corn meal instead of the stone.

Let's just say you were teaching a course to cocktail neophytes and wanted to explain what a tiki drink is. What would you say?

Don't be sorry! Doesn't it blow your mind? It does mine. If you had told me ten years ago that sprinkling cumin over a saute pan filled with onions and oil would bring the entire house into the kitchen salivating, I'd have said you were nuts.

I think Katie's right: Batavia arrack is best untinkered-with as you're getting going with punches. I'm tweaking the Wondrich's Mississippi Punch base for a cocktail class I'm teaching on Monday but I'm keeping it relatively simple: 15 oz cognac (Pierre Ferrand Ambre) 15 oz Jamaican rum (subbing in a 1986 Plantation Barbados estate rum I'm lucky to have) 5 oz Batavia arrack van Oosten 4 oz lemon 3 oz demerara sugar (about 6 T) Peel skin off 2 lemons in strips, avoiding pith, and muddle them with the sugar in a punch bowl until the sugar dissolves. Add the other ingredients and stir to combine. Slide in a large piece of ice and stir occasionally until the punch has reached the proper dilution (depending on environment, bowl size, ice mass and temperature, that takes about 30-60 minutes in my experience). Serve with a bit of nutmeg grated on the top. Yes, I know that the Jamaica rum is more funky than the Plantation Barbados, but given the group I have I'd rather use the 90 proof Barbados and bring the arrack forward a bit more. (Wondrich's original ratio, from Jerry Thomas, is 2:1 cognac to rum, btw.) The nutmeg is primarily a wee aromatic touch; I'd think that something powerful like star anise or hibiscus would overpower some elements and clash with others. To that end, I think that a pear garnish is tricky. To work, it'd have to be a pretty fragrant pear....

That's interesting. When I associate craft brewing with cocktails, I think about Sam Calagione at Dogfish Head doing biomolecular archaeology and trying to build beers that reflect the oldest traditions of brewing. Brewing Jiahu is sort of like making a drink by a 9,000 year old Chinese Jerry Thomas. I think that's the problem with naming: you're battling preexisting, inconsistent associations.

As the chief cook of a family of four (me, wife, 12- and 4-year-old girls), I think a lot about getting my food in the bellies. I've never been one for cheap, Jessica Seinfeld tricks, but I'm always on the lookout for the sure-fire ingredients or techniques. To wit: I am certain of family joy if I include cumin in a savory dish. I am certain of family joy if I deep-fry the protein. You?

IIRC, Toby Maloney (alchemist round these parts) once referred to the cocktails at Violet Hour as "culinary."

That's about the best two sentence description of deconstruction, in the literary theoretical sense, I've ever read. And, as someone with a PhD in cultural studies, I've read a lot of descriptions of deconstruction. So perhaps the real fathers of bad culinary deconstruction are Big Jim and Billy Sol of SCTV's "Farm Report": "That there carbonara sure blowed up real good!"

Dave is right. Unless you're going to be discussing White Russians and chablis with ice cubes, no one is still alive who would be nostalgic for the stuff you'll be describing. And, besides: ewww.

I'm not offended in the least, since none of the categories seem to apply to me. Or to anyone else I know. Or to the categories Kent is asking us to consider. That sounds like pretty good shorthand, and a big tent to boot.