Chris Amirault

I just reread this topic (on prompting from a similarly obsessed friend), and realized that Dave Wondrich and Toby Maloney have the key: teaspoons (or fractions thereof) and drops are the way to go. This dash stuff is wack.

Mitch Stamm (boulak on eG Forums) has competed in the past, and he's born and raised in the US.

I guess my point is that, like many things, taste is relative, and it would be more useful to say, "If you like a sweeter bread n butter pickle, try this one; if you like a tarter, crisper pickle, try this one." I mean, my Maine family would come to blows on the question of B&B pickle criteria. Crimey!

Subbing in NP for the Dolin, I've made this exact drink, and I agree wholeheartedly. I have to say that Perfect or Dry Manhattans never seem quite right to me.

Was the salt tasted in its original form, or was it ground to a powder to eliminate the effect of the crystal size and shape? If the former, then the test is bogus: it's very easy to tell texturally whether you've got Morton's or Diamond in your mouth if you know both.

Katie, that's almost exactly what I do, less the chiles but with a few peppercorns to fish out later, and usually with a bay or sage leaf. This is a place where a nice glug of quality olive oil works wonders.

There's a difference between telling people about what these sorts of bars do and don't have and telling them what to order and not to order. Don't get me wrong: I have no vodka in my liquor cabinet. But Steven's query begs the question of hospitality vs in-group clubbiness at top cocktail destinations, particularly for first-time visitors.

I think you should tell them not to order a vodka martini. ← Well, that would certainly communicate to the person who is "totally unaware of the current cocktail renaissance and has never heard the words "cocktailian" or "mixologist"" that the entire business is rulebound. If that's your goal, I mean.

Great stuff, John. What kind of ducks are those?

Thanks, Avery -- but those steps seem pretty shallow, not deep enough for a non-spice bottle. Are there larger ones that I've just not seen or found? Even ones like this seem too shallow for most of my bottles. Yes, that's right. And save for some space elsewhere (where like Sam I keep extras and stuff I don't use very often) what you see here is what I've got to work with. Unless I want to be mixing in the unfinished basement, I can't add a shelving unit. Yeah, that's about what happens with me: feeble attempts at a system that get screwed up by week's end. That's a useful idea. I'm thinking I need to move those wine glasses....

That's my liquor cabinet. It's a mess: bottles four deep that I can't see; muddler, bitters, strainers, spoons, and glasses all in the way of each other. I don't know how to organize the bottle shelf or the gadget shelf. How do you do it? Let's see 'em.

All at once? If you do stages of increasingly fine filters, you make the really fine ones do less work.

Why no shaking or citrus?

Oh, I realize you're just translating, Hiroyuki! But these directions don't really resemble any cocktail recipe I've ever seen. Assuming room temperature booze, this would probably lead to a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio of whisky to water, at least at the outset; as the ice melts, of course, that'd make for more water, unnatural though it may be. I don't really see the relevance of dilution heat in this situation, though perhaps I'm missing something. Or perhaps these directions are wonky. I mean, really: 13 1/2 times is a bit wack.

Thank you. Atmosphere counts: you can't discount the fun, clubby effect of the phone booth entrance at PDT, for example. Cocktailian consistency only is relevant if you've been to a place repeatedly with different people behind the stick. (I certainly haven't.) Audrey hugged me both times I've been to Pegu Club, so that's a plus.

Stir 13 1/2 times? Add ice after you've, um, added ice? Making the whisky hard to dilute -- but creating "dilution heat"? "[N]atural water"? Huh?

What criteria would people use to determine which places belong on this list?

What do you mean?

I've always felt that the mortar gives a smoother texture, but I go with an old warhorse Waring blender usually myself. Always mash the garlic with salt first in a mortar, though, for sure.

I just watched an episode of the show devoted to KC ribs, beans, bread and butter pickles, and thermometers. It was very strange. The rib and bean recipes were pretty much standard issue, as far as I'm aware, but as CI often seems to do they didn't reference the standards, and instead acted as if they'd invented each step. I just don't get that: why can't they give propers to those who came before them? Then Kimball tried the bread and butter pickles. He liked the one that finished last best, and he disliked the one that finish first the most. Everyone kind of laughed awkwardly, but it did beg the age-old CI question: whose taste is the basis for what is "best"? The thermometer testing was also bizarre. They discounted the Maverick dual probe thermometer -- a fantastic piece of equipment for many reasons -- because the marketing claim that it reached up to 100 feet didn't fly (they got 30 feet away or so). My kitchen is well within range of my grill, so 30 feet works for me. They then had a conversation about which thermometer does and doesn't fall from the grill cover hole, and chose the cheapest as the winner. They never tested the accuracy of any of the thermometers.

Do you mean be a New England chef or cook NE cuisine?

Great tip. I'll hit my sources here. Meanwhile, I believe that it's Florida passion fruit season, so I grabbed one and made a basic syrup by whizzing the pulp of one baseball-sized fruit with about 1/4 c 1:1 simple. Still fiddling with it: it's very easy for it to overpower everything else, and the balance of sweetness is even more challenging. I'm wondering if infusing some white Jamaican rum with it would make more sense....

I can't find 209 around here, so I haven't had the chance to try. But if you can find dried lavender around town, it's a simple syrup -- so to speak -- to make. Give it a go.

What are the proportions of water and scotch in a standard mizuwari?

Welcome to eG Forums, Philip, and great news! Any sense of what the timeline will be for broader US rollout? If we should start bugging our retailers, let us know.