mkayahara

I dunno, Sam, I'd say that's precisely the distinction that's being made, historically accurate or not. The term "cocktail" has broadened in semantic scope to encompass all spirit-based mixed drinks, so the hyphen (not a dash) has been added, at least in these forums, to evoke the "spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters" drink, or the minor variations (fancy or improved). In other words, if I post in the "Drinks" thread that I'm drinking a Cognac cock-tail, people around here have a much better sense of the type of libation I'm consuming that if I say I'm having a Cognac cocktail. Again, not to say that this is historically accurate or universally understood, but I think it holds true in this forum.

If I don't say it, someone else will: shabu-shabu is a Japanese dish, and the Japanese celebrate the Gregorian New Year, not the lunar one. Yes, you can definitely do sous vide in a big pot of water that you hold at a given temperature. An induction burner will do that more accurately than a gas or electric burner, but you're still not going to have the level of control you would with a PID device. An induction hot plate is probably a good investment in its own right though, so you might as well pull the trigger!

Geez, Andy. Next you're going to be saying the "nod in the direction of France" style of Martini isn't equally entitled to the name "Martini".

Just to give a point of reference, the El Dorado 21 is $110 here in Ontario.

Bronx tonight, made with the Citadelle Reserve barrel-aged gin I recently bought. Such a great, classic cocktail, but I can't remember the last time I had one. I rarely seem to have both sweet and dry vermouth open at the same time!

Grilled cheese that costs more than a burger? There's something wrong here.

Tea bags. Life is too short to clean tea leaves out of a pot my hands can't fit into.

With that much syrup, I assume you're working with a medium or dry Madeira?

"Buy" can be a fluid concept. I ordered online and paid for on Dec. 22 - but picked up today - a bottle of Citadelle Réserve barrel-aged gin. I've read a bit about "yellow gin" before, but never had it. Looking forward to trying this one out.

Are you thinking of chronic wasting disease? That's a prion disease, so cooking won't stop it anyway.

Straw poll: What would we think of wild moose shoulder, previously frozen then pre-seared and cooked sous vide at 52°C for 48 hours? As I understand it, 52°C is at the very bottom end of pasteurization temperatures - and below where I would feel comfortable eating the meat - but the freezing and pre-sear should help reduce pathogen populations pretty far to begin with. The other question is whether 52°C is hot enough to convert the collagen to gelatin in a reasonable length of time. Thoughts?

Thanks for the comprehensive and prompt reply! That's sort of what I figured. I was planning to make a half batch. If even that ends up being too much, I assume I can always freeze the remainder.

I have a question for mm84321 (or anyone else who's made it) on the Beef with Bone Marrow Crust, Swiss Chard and Chanterelles: I see that the recipe for the Bordelaise sauce calls for 4 cups of veal jus, which is then reduced to 2 cups. Did you find that you actually used that much sauce when plating the dish? I ask because it's not easy for me to get veal bones, so if I can scale back the veal jus recipe, I'd like to do so.

I just realized while making dinner that I can rarely be bothered to strip the leaves from thyme. The stems go in, many of the leaves fall off, the stems are picked out before I finish/serve the dish.

Pure menthol can be harmful. If you dilute it significantly in other food items, it's edible, but you wouldn't want to eat the pure crystals on their own. They can be purchased from Terra Spice, and you could try Le Sanctuaire; they used to carry them, though they don't seem to be listed on their site right now.

I'd be inclined to agree with this if you're talking about paying guests, but if it's just your friends, there's no need to be "professional," is there? I frequently experiment on friends. Worst case scenario, you end up calling for take-out.

I need some help! When I made up my first half-batch of mincemeat, I poached a full recipe's worth of quinces. They sat in the fridge for a little while, until I realized I wasn't likely to use them for anything else right now, so I made another half-batch of mincemeat, and canned it in Mason jars using a boiling-water bath. (That is, not a pressure canner.) The recipe in Beyond Nose to Tail sanctions this, but after I pulled them out of the water, I started to have doubts. Most of the ingredients are acidic (raisins, apples, lemon and orange juice) and there's no meat (which I would never can except in a pressure canner)... but there's the question of the suet. Does the acid from the lemon juice sufficiently combine with fat to prevent the growth of botulism? Is a recipe like this safe to store at room temperature?

I recently made my first homemade mincemeat, using Fergus Henderson's recipe in Beyond Nose to Tail. It calls for suet but no meat. It also calls for poached quinces, which I thought was pretty cool. (I'm a sucker for quinces.) So far I haven't used it in anything (I'm planning a pie for Christmas Eve), but the samples I've snuck have tasted great!

With apple, it should be pretty straightforward, right? Just layers apples in on one half of the pie, then spoon the blueberries in the other half. Of course, you might have issues with cooking times; I can't imagine both fruits would necessarily reach their peak doneness at the same time. Another solution - besides making a different flavour altogether - would be to make mini pies. Or tartlets!

Truth be told, I didn't think to look there either; I found it through Eat Your Books.

Yeah, after I typed that, I checked in Ad Hoc at Home, and he calls for lemon juice there, too. (Two tablespoons for 4 pounds of quinces.) Give it a try; let us know how it goes.

You know, I've never made quince paste before, but I assume it's the same idea as any pectin-based jelly: pectin, fruit puree, sugar, acid. It's just that the pectin is being provided naturally by the quince. It may be you didn't have enough acid for the pectin to gel: did you add lemon juice, or just zest? You could add more sugar, but it's probably not necessary: 50% sugar is enough for the pectin to gel.

And what did you think? I adore this drink. Haven't made one in a while!

I'm just guessing here, but maybe the goal is to raise the amount of butterfat without raising the water content as much? It's true that dairy fat is dairy fat, but cream is only 35% dairy fat, while butter is 80% or so. Edit: Oh, wait. I see what you mean... more cream as opposed to milk. No idea, in that case! Second edit: Is the butter mixed in with an immersion blender after the base has been cooled? Is it intended for same-day churning? What kind of machine was it churned in, a regular ice cream machine, or a Pacojet?

Keep in mind that pop rocks dissolve in water and water-based liquids; the reason they work so well with chocolate is that chocolate is a fat. Ganache has a lot of water in it - presumably enough to dissolve the pop rocks. You might try coating them in cocoa butter (or pure white chocolate), letting that harden, then incorporating them into the ganache that way. The cocoa butter will provide a moisture barrier that will prevent them from dissolving.