mkayahara

None given in the article, but the Institute's website is here.

Today's Globe and Mail has an article on a purportedly growing trend in Toronto of serving drinks in teacups as a nod to Prohibition. (Never mind that Prohibition was much less stringent and shorter-lived in Canada.) My favourite quote from the article:

OK, it's now come up a couple of times in the past few days, so I'm going to put this out there: I have never understood what "smooth" means in the context of spirits. As far as I can tell, it's nothing more than an impressionistic catch-all that means "I like this."

Thanks to both EvergreenDan and KD1191 for your replies. It sounds like Ramazzotti is the way to go. I don't have CioCiaro - indeed, it's not even available from my local liquor monopoly. Nonino is, but I won't be able to convince my other half that I need to buy it. The other option I have is Boudreau's Amer Picon replica, which sounds like it would also be worth a try.

Personally, I'll be disappointed if I don't see at least one recipe involving nixtamalization...

What's the Amaro Nonino like? I'd love to try the Paper Plane, but can't really justify another amaro in the liquor cabinet right now. I've got Ramazzotti, Fernet Branca, Cynar and Suze on hand for bitters; would any of them likely work as a substitute?

Ha! You're exactly right, of course. I don't know how I interpolated Bourbon into that, other than that I was desperate to find a Bourbon and sherry cocktail. Worked fine, I'd say; I guess I need to try it with Canadian whisky and rye, too. I know next to nothing about sherries; what's Manzanilla like? Compared to Amontillado?

Test driving cocktails last night for a gathering of friends I'm having over tonight, I hit upon the Up-to-Date in the Savoy: half sherry, half Bourbon, with two dashes each of Grand Marnier and bitters. I made it last night thusly: 1.5 oz. Amontillado 1.5 oz. Woodford Reserve 1 tsp. Grand Marnier 2 dashes homemade "Hess House Bitters" The front is all Bourbon and the considerable tail is all sherry. Delightful and highly recommended.

Linda at Playing with Fire and Water has a series of posts up about fig leaves; you might want to check it out. I think the first one is here. Edited to add: It looks like she blanches them before using them to wrap things.

You must have access to substantially better store-bought English muffins than I do! I didn't think it was that much trouble, and thought the quality of homemade was much better.

I imagine H2S would smell like rotten eggs, no?

I appreciate the impulse to try your hand at making anything that can be produced commercially, so the suggestion of commercial liquid smoke probably isn't that satisfying. Whenever I want that smoky flavour without actually going to the hassle of smoking something directly, I turn to other smoked products I keep on hand: pimenton, smoked salt, etc. So maybe smoke your own version of those? The real question is this: How do you make the smoke powder found at suppliers like Terra Spice?

Well, there's always cheese sauce... but I like your rut better.

Well, yes, but my broader point still stands: in a domain where we can't even decide when a change in proportions requires a new name - you can call it a Martini whether it's 1:1 or 100:1 - how would we ever be able to decide when a change was sufficient to avoid royalties? It would all end up being fought in court, at great expense to bars and, by extension, customers.

I think that Dale DeGroff -- hell, Jerry Thomas -- would have something to say about who should take credit for "her most recent creation." Turtles all the way down, I tell you.... Though I imagine she would argue that her inclusion of ginger puree and the mint-blossom garnish make her drink sufficiently distinct from DeGroff's or Thomas's versions to avoid having to pay royalties. Of course, if there were copyright protections in place, one presumes she would have to make that argument via her lawyer, in front of a judge, in which case one hopes that her bar has deep pockets.

No, agar will not gel oil; gelling oil is a whole different set of problems. My understanding is that locust bean gum keeps the agar gels from being too brittle. There's nothing wrong with an agar gel on its own; it just doesn't have the same texture as a gelatin gel. Keep in mind, though, that agar requires boiling to work properly, so you may end up with a tomato gel that tastes more like cooked tomato than raw. As for the mozzarella, I'd probably try pureeing it in a blender with some milk or cream to thin it out, then gelling the result.

Indeed, I have Chris. Actually, the only infusion I've done so far was lapsang souchong tea in Saint-James rhum agricole. I reported on my findings in the Drinks! thread. I used 6 grams of the tea in 120 ml. of rum, and the flavour was great: strong and smoky, with no bitterness. Made a great a Mai Tai!

A few days ago, I followed the lead of Dave Arnold and Co. and infused some Saint-James Royal Ambre rum with lapsang souchong tea in my iSi Thermo Whip. (I know, not the best use of the technique, given how fast tea infusions are to begin with.) Tonight, I made myself a Mai Tai with it, with Appleton Extra for the other rum, and Grand Marnier for the curacao. Brilliant: smoky, tea-inflected, delicious.

Fair enough, I guess. The applications where I use vermouth as a substitute all involve cooking it down. And I don't think white wine is as integral to the identity of risotto as basil is to pesto genovese...

Chris, can you give an example of a dish where substituting vermouth for white wine would ruin the dish? I do this all the time - with mussels, in risotto, in sauces for chicken, etc. - and am never bothered by the results.

For what it's worth, the book does recommend substituting a farm-raised goose if you can't get wild Canada goose.

I picked up a copy of Fresh Canadian Bistro by Craig Flinn a couple of weeks ago, and have been gradually browsing my way through it. It's a very interesting collection of recipes, and if you wanted to get a picture of the modern state of Canadian cuisine, there are worse places to start. I'd be especially interested in trying the roast Canada goose with brandy marmalade sauce or the red Thai curried caribou, if only I could get my hands on either of those meats! There's even a touch of avant-garde technique in the book, involving agar and cold oil...

In terms of the discussion about vegetarianism, I found this article on Salon today to be interesting. It addresses the question of "can I justify maintaining my vegetarianism in a culture where food is not so readily available as it is at home?" in a very insightful manner.

Along the lines of epazote, anything for mitsuba in Japanese cooking. I long wondered what mitsuba tasted like, and was never able to find it here in Canada. Then, when I finally got a taste of it in Japan earlier this year, I realize it was a herb unlike any other I've had.

I haven't had a bottle of Chambord in a long time, but my recollection is that it's just a black raspberry liqueur, right? So presumably it could be easily substituted for other berry liqueurs: cassis, blackberry, etc. I imagine it'd be quite good in a Gin Bramble or, if you have the 2010 Food & Wine Cocktails book, maybe give the French Canadian a try? I bet it could be interesting to work into some Tiki-style drinks, too.