Chris Amirault

Could you have mixed some of this more intense brew with the original bourbon? Or would that not have done the trick? The above experiments of mine lead to a very milky louche. Did the fat washing prevent that? Eager for pix...!

It sounds like the sort of pig that would be perfect for something cured with very little manipulation and spicing, like a saucisson sec.

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An aquavit Old Fashioned?

Airline travelers please note: nip bottles make a fine muddler. Just ask for some limes, sugar packets, a bottle of Bacardi, and two cups, one with ice in it; muddle the limes and sugar; add the rum; pour the mixture over the ice cubes and then pour back and forth a few times -- and you're drinking a US Air Daiquiri, my friend.

Bisbee Breakfast Club is excellent. Not the best pancakes but very good french toast, bacon, sausage, and the SWMex dishes were all excellent. Bella Roma Pizza is also worth a stop. They could put out slop and make a killing, but it's quality dough, cheese, and excellent oven-roasted roma tomatoes in the place of sauce.

Paul, it sounds fantastic. Can you tell us a bit about the pairings?

Is it at all orange flower-y? If so (and if you're arms are up for it) I wonder what it would do dripped into a Ramos Gin Fizz.

I think the OP was referring to frying the tortillas in lard for enchiladas, which is what I do (and what Diana Kennedy does more often than not).

Sounds good, David -- and good timing. I'm off to visit family in southern Arizona (Tucson and Bisbee) and will do some investigative work while there.

I am a terrifically big fan of Solomon's book, but the Cambodian & Laotian sections are not very strong. I want that Riviere book!

Just so we're clear, DeGroff says that Reiner calls for the rinse. I didn't include that step above, but Dale does.

The Apry definitely doesn't get lost one bit. Sam, I don't understand your question.

Sorry you're so disappointed, Janet. I think that they did a straight-up alphabetical listing (just as they did with "What to Drink") as an overarching structure precisely because they included a variety of categories in the book. Of course, you can just use it like an encyclopedia-style reference and look stuff up by initial letter. I have been using it a lot in a number of ways lately. One is that I will pick it up when staring at a few stalks of celery or a bag of pine nuts, just to jog ideas or learn new ones. Another is that I have looked up specific cheeses before going shopping to find something to go with some bread I have. Most enjoyably, when I have time I grab the book for pleasure reading. From the "Flavor Matchmaking" section, I think that they had hoped the variety would be fun and surprising; I'm a list person and like hitting the variety that you find a jumble. Diff'rent strokes....

Right -- I understand about the smoke ring. I didn't realize that the smoker was so efficient with the wood!

Looks good -- but I don't see a smoke ring. What was the smoking set-up? Wood, time, etc.?

I was going to write more about the IDH today after an interesting cup yesterday. The nose was still there for me, same rich, excellent aroma. But this time the flavor was there as well: it was a much better tea. There were three differences in my brewing. I used tap water from my house, not tap from my work. I brewed at a slightly lower temperature (didn't measure). And, I think most notably, I brewed for an additional two minutes. I can't explain baroness's failure to detect the same aroma -- and as I indicated, my experience with the smell was quite idiosyncratic. But my guess is that this tea benefits from a longer steep.

I haven't tried the spring trick and think it's time to do so. I also noted after posting that I gave the lemon a pretty tough squeeze tonight. I wonder if the lemon oil is having an effect on the meringue.

OK, I'm bumping this back up because I'm still not getting consistent results. 9 out of 10 I have the silky meringue foam I want. Tonight, making a Pisco Bell-Ringer, I got a mediocre head. Great drink, don't get me wrong, but why settle a mediocre head, right? Those of you who nail a crema-like foam every time, can you walk through the basics in detail? Are the eggs at room temperature? What sort of ice do you use? (I don't have a Kold Draft at home, so I use my crappy half-moons from the ice-maker in the freezer.) Tonight I did a longer dry shake than usual -- mistake? I also did a longer ice shake, and noticed more ice chips than usual; is the water diluting the meringue?

Haven't gotten back to get that other pisco. However, snooping through Dale DeGroff's Essential Cocktail, a book that is growing on me, I found the Pisco Bell-Ringer, a Dave Wondrich creation (click here for his original recipe) that Julie Reiner (Mixtress) tweaked: Pisco Bell-Ringer 1 1/2 oz pisco acholado (La Botija) 1/2 oz rum (Cruzan 2 years dark) 1/2 oz lemon 1/2 simple egg white dash Angostura dash orange bitters (Angostura) dash Apry This is an excellent drink, a good gateway for newcomers to pisco that doesn't lose that character. I would use Regan's orange bitters next time, I think, and would be happier with an older rum, too.

Excellent idea! Those milk punches are good with vanilla, without vanilla, with a bit too much rum, with a bit too much brandy, with good liquor, with a dusting of nutmeg, with....

Yikes. As someone with some pretty bad blindspots myself -- as well as idiosyncratic preferences that others don't share -- I usually assume that everyone else has them too. Those who live in glass houses, all that.

I have to say that the concern stated about Cutlets has been odd to read for this very reason. I don't keep up with the NY blogs, but there are plenty of folks out there in the food and cocktail blogosphere who seem content to reprint PR releases on new products complete with industry-supplied photos. If you wanted to do it, it's not too hard to trace back those one-link chains of evidence, and you don't need a conspiracy theory. Anyone got similar evidence for anyone in the NY crowd? Or is speculation all we've got? If that's the case, anyone demonstrating a preference for something connected to a money-making operation is vulnerable to this speculation. It's fun to write the tabloid headlines: "Cupcake Kooks Kowtow to King Arthur," "Foie Fans on Ariane's Dole."

Content and spelling both, I think it best not to judge too harshly what a PR person put up on the Amazon "sight." Given his previous books, it seems impossible that Ruhlman is going to trot out a bunch of ratios as anything other than a base for tinkering. It's one of the main premises of "Elements," in fact: try, screw-up, fiddle, repeat. Indeed, it appears that it's the next step from the "don't rely merely on recipes" theme in "Elements." I can't imagine he'd encourage people to treat ratios in a manner opposite to that.

Right -- and I think that baking is probably the least likely to lead to perfect single-digit ratios. However, I don't do much baking, and getting base ratios for what I do make in the kitchen that I can then tweak and fiddle with... that sounds good to me.