johnder

So I have to say I am pretty happy with the unaged abbots batch. After using it in a few drinks and soliciting the opinions of various industry experts who have actually tasted the real Abbot's it seems to be a pretty decent replica. That said I am really curious to see how the batch in the barrel will turn out. John

Everyone, I am closing this topic as it appears to have reached the end of it's life and is headed in a direction in which speculation and off-topic messages are the main focus. John

That's unfortunate. I was going to go to Porchetta next week. I am curious to see who is taking over the helm there. John

Wow looks like you guys had a whirlwind trip! Great photos. John

*sigh* Way to go a ruin a good thing. I wonder how long before they stop making the old ones and only offer the new fancy smancy ones. Not that I think that would happen. *gulp*

ok, before I get any more emails or pm's from people thinking I lost my mind I want to say, no rye was hurt in the making of these photos. Also, it is 4/1 -- April fools day. I also don't have any apple pucker, that was green food dye and water. The red and red was actually diet red bull and flat coke. That was actually the first red bull I ever purchased or tasted. I was hoping to keep it going a little longer, but honestly, I got about 7 emails from people asking me if I was ok or suffering from a dangerous fever. I was afraid to go to sleep and wake up with people beating down my door.

Oh man, that sounds good. Sounds like it is a special day for you too! John

Ok, I came with 2 cocktails today. I welcome your feedback. First: The Grey Saz A perfect Grey Goose Sazerac 2 oz Grey Goose Super Premium Vodka "The World's Best Tasting Vodka" 1/4 Caro Corn Syrup 3 Dashes Underberg Bitters Apple Pucker for Rinse Fill rocks glass with ice, let chill. Shake 2 oz Grey Goose and 1/4 oz Caro in a shaker with ice and bitters. Dump ice out of glass and rinse with Apple Pucker. Behold a perfect Grey Goose Sazerac. The second creation was a stroke of genius. I needed some caffeine but still wanted a drink. I present Red and Red 4 oz Sugar Free Redbull 1.5 oz Red Hook 67.6% Rye Build drink over block ice. Enjoy!

Don't know of any place in NYC, but Almondine in DUMBO makes some awesome pretzel rolls, and pretzel rolls with cheese. John

Sorry, couldn't tell scale from the picture! Thought, they might be full size wine barrels. Where did you get them? Are they used? Will you try to char the inside? So many questions... ← All 4 of the barrels are used once, and have I think a level 4 or 5 toast on them, and they came from Tuthilltown Distillery in upstate New York. The 3 smaller barrels are bourbon barrels, used for Tuthilltown's awesome Bourbon, and the other larger one was from Tuthilltown's Rye. The barrels were just emptied a month or so ago, so the aroma coming from them is pretty amazing. I am going to "roll" the larger barrel to see if I can extract any leftover rye from the wood before using it for bitters. This involves putting a small amount of water (~1 liter) in the barrel and rolling it around for a day or so to try and pull any residual liquor out of the wood. I contacted Ralph from Tuthilltown a few months ago and he graciously offered to sell me a few of his used barrels.

The 3 smaller ones are 3 gallon, and the big one is 5 gallons. 2 of the small barrels are promised away already, so I only need to fill 8 gallons.

Let the barrel aging begin!

Given the massive nationwide media coverage of the recent rodent problem in a specific NYC chain restaurant [CNN], and what appears to be a subsequent crackdown by the New York City Department of Health [New York Sun], the New York Times ran an great op-ed piece by eGullet's Steven Shaw here talking about food safety issues. ... The last paragraph led me to look at my own practices in the kitchen. Given I have worked in a few restaurants, I would like to think that my food safety is pretty good: I always wash my hands before cooking and frequently while cooking and have dedicated plastic cutting boards for poultry and fish, although I use wood for everything else. I came across a quiz the FDA put out called Can your kitchen pass the food safety test? The problem is while I knew the correct answers to almost all of them (except question 3), I scored only 20 points, mainly because although I know there is a risk, I feel comfortable taking that risk, specifically in the case of the two questions below: I personally love rare burgers, but unless I am comfortable with the place I am eating them, I will only get it Medium Rare. When I am cooking burgers at home, I grind my own meat, so I am much more at ease eating it very rare. So I answered A. The other one: Obviously they are concerned about Salmonella Enteritidis, but given I know where my eggs come from, and the large amount of both whites and yolks I consume yearly in cocktails, I don't consider this a problem, I answered B, mainly because I love chocolate chip cookie dough. The most interesting question of the bunch was: Check out the test page for the answer and how to do this. Does anyone actually do this? I think if nothing else the recent coverage food safety has been getting hopefully will increase the publics awareness of safety in their own kitchens and hopefully the DOH will focus more on food safety issues in restaurants that really matter, as opposed to forcing people to wear rubber gloves.

So I had my first drink with the batch -- a Martinez cocktail. Wow. It was amazing. By itself the bitters are very overpowering, but added a few dashes to a martinez and it became a whole new animal. Complex, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg. A huge difference. So based on that one drink, so far so good! John

Everyone, I am going to close this topic as it seems it is just rehashing the same arguments in different permutations. John

I have just been told that D&C will be open again tonight serving drinks. Since they have been closed for 2.5 weeks, food will start up again Monday or Tuesday once they get their orders in. John

You may want to try the benzoin resin as opposed to the powder. The resin is, as you would expect extremely sticky but smells amazing. John

Why would you want to do this? Everything I've heard about Abbott's indicates that the unique profile, coupled with the strength of flavor and aroma, is what makes them so wonderful. I say try them like they are. And you might want to send me some for a second opinion -Andy ← From my research and speaking to one or two other people I was under the impression that they were an aged bitters. I will gladly send you some as is, but in their current state will put hair on your chest.

The oxo one fromm amazon is the one I have. :-)

congrats guys! You guys rock. I wanted to go out to Seattle before, now I am definitely coming! John

I really like the oxo mini strainer. It is heavy gauge, closely spiraled spring, well made. I have 2 of them.

I made the recipe above last night and it turned out mighty tasty. I didn't have any Cointreau on hand, so I used Luxardo Triplum. Overall the cocktail was well balanced and blended well. The idea of Cherry Brandy eje mentioned intrigues me. That may be tonights experiment.

Hey Vadouvan -- any turkey pictures that you can share?

Wow, I need to check Coco Roco out. Especially since it is so close to my house. I didn't know they made pisco sours there. John

Sorry for the lack of updates on this. I do have 2 batches currently sitting in mason jars. The clove/nutmeg coming off them is really insane. I am still trying to track down some oak barrels to age these in, as I think that is the only way to tone down the nose on them. I have been tasting them every week or so, and all you can taste now is the clove and nutmeg in them. Aroma wise you can pick up some of the vanilla scent from the tonka beans, and also some of the juniper. Given the small monetary investment in it, I think it was worth it, hopefully the barrel aging will make it amazing. John