mkayahara

the oz of vodka won't help? In short, not really.

Most Mai Tai recipes I've seen call for only a quarter ounce of orgeat anyway, which is small to begin with. I've always found that you need to increase it when using homemade orgeat. Ultimately, you have to ask yourself what the orgeat is doing in the drink. It can sweeten, add an almond flavour or a benzaldehyde flavour, add body through the suspended oils, add opacity. Low-grade commercial orgeat is usually just simple syrup with almond flavouring and maybe colour anyway, so you're no worse off using amaretto, but the flavour is pretty strong, so you might have to rebalance in some cases. (Or make an "amaretto syrup".) As far as suspended oils, there are other ways to affect texture (using gum syrup, for one). And as for opacity, well, I find it off-putting to begin with, so I don't want to reproduce that. All of which is to say that, from a functional standpoint, I see no reason you couldn't tweak recipes to substitute amaretto for orgeat. I rather imagine it would work better in some things than in others, though; I'm not sure I would want a brandy-and-amaretto Japanese, for example. But in Tiki drinks? I bet it would work.

Will Goldfarb makes a "modern" gum syrup using locust bean gum, if that helps at all. I haven't tried it, though, so I can't vouch for it.

My husband is interested in making Greweling's shell-molded cherry cordials, only we're faced with a problem: we don't know what size mold to buy to fit the cherries, fondant and chocolate! Can anyone recommend a size - or a specific model? Thanks!

No, I wouldn't say it's as spicy as root ginger. It's got most of the same aroma, though... maybe a bit more floral. And the texture reminds me of allium, because of the way it's layered. It's pretty cool, but I have no idea how to use it in a home cooking context, though it would be easy to incorporate into a fancier dish.

I'm not sure about sourcing the plants, but Sanko in Toronto carries myoga, at least intermittently. I bought some from them a few weeks ago, and pickled them. (I've still got a couple left.) Maybe give them a call and see if they can tell you when they'll next have them in, or ask if they can ship them to you. What do you plan to do with them? I bought them simply because I'd read about them but never tried them. I've mostly been using them in the place of pickled ginger since then.

I wonder if this is the same sort of preparation as Japanese ichiya-boshi? I'm sure I've seen directions for that somewhere (and, as I recall, it did involve brining the fish), but I haven't been able to find them.

I ate there a few weeks ago, in late August, and had a fantastic experience. In fact, it was the best meal of my trip to the West Coast. Don't hesitate; go.

I encountered it at this year's Tales. My wife and I were drinking at Iris and the bartender kindly offered me a taste of it. It is truly unique; I'd love to get a hold of some eventually. Time for a trip to Montreal! I've got a friend in Montreal right now - he texted me to say he couldn't find the Suze. Damn! From the SAQ's website, it looks like the only store that has it in downtown Montreal right now is the Signature store on Saint Catherine. If he's still there, he might give it a try!

I encountered it at this year's Tales. My wife and I were drinking at Iris and the bartender kindly offered me a taste of it. It is truly unique; I'd love to get a hold of some eventually. Time for a trip to Montreal!

The basic orange-juice-and-grenadine kind? Personally, I'm a fan of the "Tequila Sunrise Circa 1920s" from DeGroff's Essential Cocktail. It's yet another example of how well tequila and cassis get along. If you haven't tried it, you should.

Made an apple crisp last night using Tri2Cook's topping, but with a few sliced almonds added. Russet apples as the base, mixed with a little lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon. Oh my this was good!

I'm not convinced there are any real clear-cut distinctions, except that pastis is sweeter and, of course, lacks any grand wormwood. To my palate, Henri Bardouin pastis is probably more aromatically interesting than Kubler absinthe. As far as rinses go, you're fine using either - the important thing is to use a good-quality product. When you start getting into measured amounts (in, say, the French Pearl), you may have to change the sugar balance to compensate one way or the other.

I can't imagine soaking makes any difference if the marrow is left in the bone, but if you remove it first, the water you soak it in turns a delightful shade of pink, so I assume it is doing something, even if it's purely aesthetic.

Today Le Bernardin pastry chef Michael Laiskonis announced his departure from the restaurant early next year "to pursue new dreams, new ways of expressing [himself] through cooking, and new ways of exchanging ideas." It'll be interesting to see what that means! Edit: It looks like it means he will be leaving the kitchen to write and teach.

Just to clarify, when we say "Dolin Sweet Vermouth," are we talking about sweet red vermouth?

I, for one, think this is an absolutely brilliant idea and it must be pursued! These would make it fairly trivial, no?

Savoy says equal parts gin, Calvados and apricot. No lemon.

I think the most common analogy is that Calvados is like an apple Cognac and applejack is like an apple whiskey. This isn't to say one can't be substituted for the other, but it may produce results that aren't quite right. A Jack Rose made with Calvados, for example, would be weird, and I would say that a Widow's Kiss made with applejack would miss the point. But, as always in matters of taste, you may feel different.

They're the same inasmuch as they're made from the same base materials. But they taste pretty remarkably different.

Sorry to sound a bit defensive, but I have no idea what point you're trying to make here. The product name is "Amère Nouvelle" - looking at the bottle sitting right next to me. It wasn't just pulled out of our asses - we worked with industry folks and journalists that are native Francophones, as well as our Parisian importers before deciding on a name and they all agreed that it was grammatically correct and preferred the name in the feminine instead of the masculine "Amer Nouveau". Then presumably I'm the one who's wrong. As far as I can tell, the available nouns for "bitters" in French are "amer" and "liqueur amère", but "amère" all on its own is not a noun; it's a feminine adjective. But I will bow to your native Francophone colleagues. Either way, it won't interfere with my desire to try the product.

I bought a bottle of apricot liqueur shortly after I bought my first "serious" cocktail book, Joy of Mixology, because it seemed like every second recipe in there called for it. The funny thing is, I can't think of any go-to recipes that involve it (the way that, say, a Stinger is a go-to recipe with crème de menthe), but it seems like it crops up in the strangest places, and it's good to have it on hand at those times. My latest favourite with it is the Youngstown Tube from Food & Wine's 2011 cocktail guide: 1.5 oz. London Dry gin 0.5 oz. yellow Chartreuse 0.5 oz. apricot liqueur 0.75 oz. lime juice 0.25 oz. agave nectar Fernet Branca (rinse) Shake, strain into a Fernet-rinsed coupe.

There's the Chartreuse Swizzle, a drink created by SF bartender Marco Dionysos (his member name here is cocktailgeek). At first glance it seems as if it would be too sweet, but it's very well balanced. And since the Chartreuse is the base spirit, it's a good way to gauge your interest in the liqueur. (Emphasis mine.) Isn't that like saying a Martini is the best way to gauge your interest in gin? How many potential gin drinkers has the world lost because the only gin drinks they knew were Martinis and gin and tonic, both of which taste like Christmas trees? In getting to know Chartreuse, I would recommend the Bijou.

In addition to what's been mentioned above (my "essentials" are Cointreau, maraschino, Campari, absinthe, Chartreuse, Bénédictine and apricot brandy [Edit: I mean liqueur.]), can I put in a plug for crème de cassis? It's good for gin brambles, and it's wonderful with tequila. Plus, of course, blackcurrant is one of my favourite berry flavours. As for the vermouth issue, I can relate: I can get M&R in half-bottles, but I don't love their dry vermouth, so I buy litre bottles of Noilly Prat, keep it in the fridge with a vacuum stopper, and end up using a bunch of it for cooking. I would love to be able to get half-bottles of it.

I was initially going to be irked that they got the gender agreement wrong (it should be "amer nouveau", not "nouvelle"), but upon further inspection, it appears I should be irked that they're making up words, since it's actually "Amère nouvelle". At least they got the gender agreement right, and I suppose you could argue, à la limite, that it's a "nouvelle liqueur amère". Anyway, I look forward to picking up a bottle if I come across one in my travels.