mkayahara

Yeah, Dry Sack is definitely too sweet for most cocktail uses that call for dry sherry. Plus, as I recall, it doesn't taste that good.

Nah, s'OK. I'm sure it was a marshmallow made with Lillet. (Or would it have to be "Fernet or better" around these parts?) Strangely, I've made that recipe using Suze instead of Lillet, and now whenever I drink Suze, I think it tastes like marshmallows...

Um. I'm thinking that, in my day job, that's what we would call a "non-parallel construction".

I guess it depends on what kind of texture you're looking for from your tapenade. If you add more liquid, it'll spin more easily, but you're basically going to end up with a puree. When I make tapenade to eat at home, I prefer to chop it by hand; when I've done it at work, I use the Robot Coupe.

Check out Naomi Duguid's book Burma: Rivers of Flavor.

I assume you mean "Toronto variation."

Come on, man, you didn't test at least three variations of it?

Where did you order the bonito and grater from?

Yeah, you're not going to get really crunchy pickles out of turnips that've been left around to dry out for a week at room temperature. This is even more true if they have their leaves. Putting them in the crisper of your fridge (or, barring that, elsewhere in your fridge but well wrapped) would help, but you'd be better off still making them as soon as possible after you buy them. Edit: That's what I get for not reading the recipe carefully before posting. A week sounds to me like a slightly long time to brine at room temp if you're looking for super crunchy, unless you add calcium chloride or a similar crisping agent to the brine. When you say the "best examples" are really crunchy, are you talking about commercially produced versions, or homemade pickles that you've tried?

At the end of the day, that's the important thing!

Well, first of all, there's a nomenclature issue here: in Canada "rye" is the generic term for Canadian whisky, and some Canadian rye (including Crown Royal) contains no rye at all in the mash bill. (For more on the historical reasons for this, check out Davin's book Canadian Whisky: The Portable Expert). There is no such thing under Canadian law as "straight" whisky; that's a term from American distilling. That said, the law in Canada is pretty restrictive on what can be labelled Canadian whisky. In particular, there's a provision that it has to "possess the aroma, taste and character generally attributed to Canadian whisky," which I believe limits what Canadian distillers can do in terms of assertiveness. It's sort of like asking if there are any Puerto Rican rums that are as assertive as Jamaican rum. Tl;dr: no, in my experience there are no Canadian ryes that are as assertive as American ryes.

I've heard good things about Richmond Station, and mediocre things about The Chase. In both cases, the comments were from people who work in the industry, but I haven't personally been to either. How would Momofuku Daisho (or, better, Momofuku Shoto) go over? Of course, there are the standard (read: safe) upscale options like Canoe or Splendido. If you're willing to travel to Leslieville, I strongly recommend Bero (where I have both eaten and staged in the kitchen, so I may not be objective about it). Edulis still seems to be one of the most talked-about kitchens in the city, which would make it a good option except for the difficulty in securing reservations.

I've never really understood recipes that call for aromatic bitters as well as Fernet; the Fernet tends to clobber even Angostura. I do, however, make my Toronto cocktails with Canadian whisky. I've had very successful versions with Alberta Premium Dark Horse, Forty Creek Barrel Select and Alberta Springs. (And will be trying with Lot No. 40 in the near future.) That said, you do need to dial the Fernet way back; I tend to go with something along the lines of 1.5 oz (sometimes 2 oz.) whisky, 1/4 oz. Fernet, 1/4 oz. 1:1 simple syrup. That kind of ratio gives voice to the Fernet while still allowing the whisky to shine. As a side benefit, it helps you stretch your bottle of Fernet further.

The domain name has changed since I posted that link. The updated location is here: http://www.cookingissues.com/2010/01/19/umami-nation-kombu-dashi-smackdown/

Finishing up the last of a bottle of Elijah Craig, last night's drink - and tonight's - was a Paper Airplane, or whatever you call the version with Elijah Craig, lemon juice, Campari, and Ramazzotti. Delicious stuff. Now I just need to resupply on some Bourbon. It's a tough life!

I did this the other night with Blackwood's 60% abv gin and Punt e Mes. (And Campari, of course.) It was definitely a classic Negroni turned up to 11.

I think his point is that if we stop buying farmed shrimp, then the wild shrimp population will be overfished to extinction. As far as frozen shrimp go, I buy only wild-caught these days. But what I'm now wondering about is the dried shrimp I buy for Thai and Vietnamese cooking, since I assume they're farmed; does anyone know if they'd be part of the same supply chain? Or is this strictly a "frozen shrimp for the Western grocery store market" problem?

Garlic scapes are the flower spikes (scapes) of hardneck garlic plants. They need to be removed from the plant in order to encourage the bulbs - that is, the garlic - to develop. I agree with the above commenters who said that they were too old. As with most things in the plant kingdom younger = more tender. Just cook them slower, and they should soften up nicely.

Your supply of Rittenhouse appears to be getting dangerously low!

What temperature did you cook it to?

I'm assuming, then, that the book isn't published by Hachette.

The problem is that on a lot of home stoves, by the time the surface has browned adequately to release, the fish is already overcooked. So I use a non-stick pan at home to cook nearly all fish. For that matter, I would say that part of the technique of turning fish without destroying it is to not overcook it first. It's more likely to fall apart if it's already starting to flake significantly when you go to flip it.

The only food magazines I still subscribe to are Lucky Peach and Art of Eating. If it had to be only one, it would be Art of Eating; that magazine is, in my opinion, indispensable, though it's not as recipe-focused as some of the other ones mentioned above. Other than those, the only ones I read regularly are Art Culinaire and Saveur. For drinks, I'm giving Imbibe a second chance, after cancelling my subscription a couple of years ago when they devolved almost entirely into listicles ("The 50 Best X in America"). That trend seems to have stopped in recent issues.

I get really annoyed by recipes that call for only 1/4 oz. of lemon juice... it's fine if you're a bar, since you've probably pre-juiced your citrus and stored it in bottles before service anyway, but at home, the smallest amount I can reasonably juice is half a lemon, which yields way more than 1/4 oz. I rarely drink more than one cocktail a night these days, which means the rest of the juice just goes to waste. Still, it sounds like a good drink, and I'll probably try it.

You could also use a stainless steel cleaner like Bar Keeper's Friend, but I would try vinegar to start.