Chris Amirault

Sounds very interesting, Toby. Can you say more about this: Were those tinctures? Or what? We'd all be eager to hear more about the session.

The Biter Cocktail (2:1:1 gin, lemon, Green Chartreuse) is remarkably improved by the real deal.

Now I'm confused. Are you asking about cocktails as per the topic title, which implies access to ice, or are you asking about hooch to drink neat?

No experiences but your thoughts make sense to me. I'd be very wary of oversalting, and would cut that part down to three or four hours. Remember that the salt continues to have an effect throughout the meat long after you rinse it off. Ditto on the fat cooking. I've always gone by the look and feel of the duck leg, specifically the flexibility and exposure of the thigh bone. You could simply cook the squab at a very low temp, thereby making overcooking much less likely.

I just roughly chop up the pineapple -- no need to blend if you shake hard regularly. As for the rums, I'm draining bottles to find a balance, with some Flor de Cana or Appleton white, some Lemon Hart demerara, some Wray & Nephew overproof, and maybe a bit more of this or that.

What's the humidity been like in there, Chris?

Hrm. I'll ask around here.

You can go back far to talk about NE traditions -- Thanksgiving, Boston cooking school and all that -- but insofar as the last few decades: I think that there were two kinds of NE chefs pre-80s: staid Yankees continuing the traditions of working class, hard scrabble folks making beans with salt pork and overcooking their cod, and the Boston-brahmin Locke-Ober crowd that channeled Continental cuisines. Along with others who have made the same point, I'd mark Lydia Shire and Jasper White as the two chefs who combined a local foodways approach with the sorts of high-end, high quality cuisines coming out of California. Both sought to create "New England food," but neither felt that the term required a compromise. I still think that White's first cookbook is the standard against which all NE books should be measured. As for new trends, I'm not sure that there are any that are particularly NE per se, as most derive from the same sorts of approaches seen elsewhere in the states. That's not to say that there aren't interesting trends around, but most stem from easily recognizable movements (locavore/Slow Food, especially) or from the sorts of immigrant influxes happening across the country (in RI, Portuguese, then SE Asian, then...). My two cents, anyway.

Had some peaches moving past ripe, so I did a quick, 24-hr infusion with the smoked pecans and the peaches. Straining it now. There's not much astringency from the skins, but I fear that Dave's advice about the smoke might have made sense. More later. And, yeah, say more Troy.

Mediocre brunch at Waterman Grille yesterday. Nice bread basket, well prepared and tasty eggs, but everything else was just ok and most was oversalted and overcooked. Three adults and a toddler rang in at $80 plus tip -- no booze either. Yet another disappointment at Sunday brunch -- which I'm beginning to suspect is simply impossible in this town.

I think that you just answered your own question, yes?

Interesting WSJ article about why those mixes are so awful:

So just using the water in the vodka, eh? Inneresting.....

I also give away a lot in individual packages, so one big bag doesn't work for me.

Surely you aren't suggesting that this is less important than open-heart surgery! Seriously, though, your ideas reveal my vanity. I want people to be able to see that bacon, not wax paper. So that's part of the dilemma.

I've done it several times, usually with pineapple. It's pretty simple: cut up pineapple; steep in rum until you like it; strain and filter. Makes killer Daiquiris, among other things. Same with passion fruit. With hibiscus, I'd guess you'd want to reconstitute it with a bit of hot water before starting the steeping. I don't add any additional sugar since you can always do that for your cocktails with simple syrups, etc. Indeed, I'd rather have a hibiscus syrup than a hibiscus-steeped rum, I think.

Oh man, this is my bete noir. I am very eager to learn more tips regarding bulk foodsaving. Here's my usual routine -- plus adding Chris's parchment idea, which I've used sporadically but think I'll use more often: 1) Set everything up 2) Wash hands 3) Cut bacon into approximate 12-16 oz pieces and place on a cookie sheet in the fridge 4) Slice up each piece on slicer, stacking the finished sets of slices on the sheet 5) Wash hands 6) Create as many bags as there are pieces 7) Cut as many pieces of parchment as needed 8) For each package, keeping bacon and clean hand separate: place sliced bacon portions onto parchment; cover portions with paper towel; put portion into bag; remove towel; seal package 9) Wash hands 10) Weigh and label packages 8 takes practice; you're essentially doing most things one-handed, but they're pretty easy to do. The towel is to prevent the bacon grease from getting on the bag seal area. This clearly could be done more efficiently.... ETA: Anna, I was entering my list here while you were creating yours. The jellyroll idea is an interesting one. Do you do it for space? Ease? Avoiding the bacon grease smudges? And do you add all of them to the same bag? I'm having a hard time picturing this, clearly -- sorry!

And if "yes," the server will then say, "Just to be sure that we are meeting your request, we understand well done to mean that the tuna is cooked all the way through, and the outside is heavily seared. Is that your preference?" If the diner says, "You betcha!" then you're covered if the diner wants to send back the slab of gray cork.

As are lots of rums. Trying to think about cocktails here, as per the request. Which reminds me that you could bring one bottle that has your liquors premeasured. (Not citrus, of course; don't want that oxidizing.) Manhattans, Negronis, Martinis... sky's the limit.

Base for any pasta sauce that uses bacon, or lardon crumbles for salads or eggs?

Depends on the kitchen, but for a quality place that'd be a simple matter indeed.

Sage has been very good every time I've been there -- but I haven't been since they moved to South Boston from the North End. Not sure about parking or size, but I'd give them a call for sure. If you're a fan of red sauce, of course, there are a slew of "atmospheric" places in the North End to check out, most of which have valet service and can crank out 25 meals with ease.

It's not workable for a restaurant, I think, but for home use a few trips to second hand stores will turn up a lot of coupes. I have about twenty but could easily have 100.

I think that this is a language (and thus a waitstaff training) issue: I think that's the trick, but you gotta force the diner to be more specific. The terms "rare" etc. don't have universally consistent meaning, but you can talk about flaking, color, temperature, etc. So if someone asks for rare, you can say, "You'd like the fish to be completely uncooked save for a band where it touched the pan?" and then get them to be more specific if that's too rare. Of course, that means that, when they send it back, you can say, "You said..." and show them that's what you delivered. ETA: Internal temperature won't do it. That's something that chefs and food obsessives like present company might be able to use, but your average diner doesn't know 120F from 140F.

Thanks to you both (and don't sweat it, Bill!). I was expecting to focus on recipe date and will try to report here what results I get. Meanwhile, though I was pretty worried to look at that "modern" list, some look good -- especially Jamie Boudreau's L'Amour en Fuite.