mkayahara

Dan, in terms of exploring the differences between different bitters, you could do a lot worse than an Old Fashioned. One of the benefits is that you can change the base spirit to suit the bitters: you might try the Regan's orange and Peychaud's with rye, but the Fee's lemon with tequila or genever, for instance. Also, Ted Haigh's column in a recent Imbibe magazine point to the Allegheny as a good cocktail for experimenting with different bitters. Give it a try.

I see lots of discussion of sherry in this thread, but precious little of port. I recently bought a bottle of Graham's Six Grapes, and promptly made one of my favourites, a Coffee Cocktail. I love 'em, but there are only so many I can drink, since they're so rich. I also tried a Chancellor: 2 oz. blended Scotch 1 oz. ruby port 1/2 oz. French vermouth 2 dashes orange bitters But there's still a lot of port left in the bottle, so I could use some other suggestions! Anyone have any favourites?

I guess the quickest way for me to answer that would be to point to the recipe at the bottom of this article. Enjoy!

The standard solution to that with G&T cubes is a light sprinkling of citric acid mixed with baking soda. Once it hits the moisture in your mouth, you get a nice fizz.

I don't have specific experience with making spheres from stock, but I don't think pH should be a problem, since it tends to be low pH that inhibits the process, and stock shouldn't be acidic. As for the calcium levels, I think the "reverse" spherification process (i.e., calcium in the base and alginate in the bath) has become more common than the original now, since it offers a host of benefits. So my advice would be to go with that approach; then, you won't need to worry about how much calcium is in the broth.

Thanks, tomdarch. I agree wholeheartedly with your comments about the lemon pudding! I made a full batch, and it was actually too much to fit in my blender canister, not to mention blending properly. As a result, it didn't end up a smooth as I would have liked, even once I blended it in several batches. I also used less saffron than was called for (simply because I didn't have 2g in the house), and it still tasted quite strongly of saffron.

Given the choice between goose and duck, I'd definitely go with duck. I've roasted many a duck, but only one goose - and the goose fat was definitely more problematic to deal with. Of course, many would consider goose to be more seasonal. Of course, as rlibkind said, you'll need several ducks to feed 6: two or three depending on appetite sizes.

Thanks, all, for the punch bowl suggestions. I'm on the road right now, but I'll check out the thrift stores once I get home. I guess if I can't find something big enough, I can always just refill it partway through the party. Another question: How do you calculate how much punch to make, especially when dealing with a group of guests who have never had proper punch before? I'm worried that I'll either run out really early or have tons left over at the end of the night.

I've been reading some Dickens lately, and have come across a punch-related term that I'm unfamiliar with. To wit: Can anyone offer insight as to what a "bumper" is? Is it a quantity? A type of glass? Something else entirely? To pick up on Chris's question above, I'm planning on making punch for our Christmas party this year, but I have two overriding problems right now: 1) I can't decide what kind of punch to make. I'm thinking of doing a basic rum/cognac/lemon juice/tea punch (David's "Bowl of Punch" in Killer Cocktails) or the Carousel Punch in the November/December issue of Imbibe magazine (despite the expense of Calvados). Which brings me to problem 2) I don't have a punch bowl. Any advice on what to look for in buying one? Mostly what I've seen around here is cheap glass with - yuck - a plastic ladle. Please tell me there's something in the middle ground between Walmart and Lalique.

I'm not able to say how durable the Baratza Maestro is, because I had mine for only two months when a stone in my beans jammed the burrs. What I can say is that the customer service I got from the Canadian distributor in repairing it after the incident has been outstanding. My understanding is that the working parts in it are mostly metal (apparently the drive gear used to be plastic, but they're using metal in the newer units now), so it's really just the housing that's plastic. And I've been very happy with the grind quality, though I use it mostly for French press and espresso for my Saeco Aroma (Classico in the US), which is a fairly different coffee routine from what you're talking about. Hope that helps.

No, no, no, no, no. This would be dangerous. Discharge the canister by holding it upright (if we're talking a whipped cream canister) and squeezing the trigger to release the pressure. Then unscrew the top and remove the spheres. By keeping the container upright, you'll prevent the spheres from being blasted out the nozzle. I'm not sure about the mechanics of a soda siphon, so I'm not sure how you could do it with one of those.

It looks to me like it's been largely "adjusted" for the US market: Some of the recipes use weight, but most do not, and those that do have imperial first, followed by metric in parentheses. There is a column called "Weighing Ingredients" on p. 459, and all of the bread recipes seem to be given in cups first, with a metric weight in parentheses. I can see how this might detract from the overall utility of the book, but not enough to discourage me from recommending it!

Yeah, I have the full edition, which I bought specifically because of the foam section. (I got it second-hand, so it wasn't terribly expensive.) The foams in it are mostly a reproduction (and translation) of the PDF file that used to be available online, outlining the different methods and types of foams Adria makes. The section is short, but really worthwhile - especially when you consider the price of the el Bulli books and the usefulness of the rest of this book! The actual recipes all look pretty straightforward, and some of them are complete dishes, which helps if you're still learning to integrate foams into a broader context. The recipes are "Raspberry, Yogurt and Mango Foam", "Meringue Tart", "Pistachio Foam", "Frozen Chocolate Mousse", "Mayonnaise Foam with Asparagus", "Gin Fizz Cocktail", "Cappuccino Almond Foam with Truffle Juice", "Catalan Cream Foam", "Potato Foam", "Coconut Foam & Lemon Gelatin". Not a hugely long list, but a great cross-section.

I can tell you at least one difference in the contents: the Ferran Adria chapter on foams is excluded from the concise edition. Given that you appear to be interested in that subject, you might want to trade up to the full edition, if you can do that without offending whoever you received it from!

It seems to me that truffles are the more usual luxury accompaniment to scrambled eggs, but I wouldn't turn this plate down!

Really sorry to hear this, Chef. I thoroughly enjoyed my meal at Tailor back in April (and meeting you!) and had hoped to return before too long. Best of luck on whatever your next project is. And be sure to keep us posted!

That sounds about right; I think it's more or less what the manufacturer recommends. Whenever I do any foams with gelatin in the Thermo Whip, I make them up the night before and chill overnight. Let us know what you get, and what you use it for!

You're bang-on with that. The Gourmet Whip is probably the better bet, unless you're a caterer and need to be able to hold the contents hot or cold in a room-temperature setting.

Nuts are definitely one of my favourites, whether candied or simply toasted. But, at the risk of invoking the jumped shark, I'd say the ultimate crunch factor is fresh, homemade bacon bits!

Thanks! I saw that after I posted, and realized belatedly that I should have checked with the producer first. That said, "sweet, warm and aromatic" doesn't offer much information. But roses? That's intriguing. Isn't there a thread around here for cocktails with rosewater in them? I think I just talked myself into buying a bottle. Good thing vermouth is a relatively inexpensive proposition.

Does anyone know anything about Cinzano rosé vermouth? I came across it recently in the Quebec liquor system, and was wondering whether it would be worthwhile to pick up a bottle. I have no idea what kind of flavour profile it would have.

Salsify, smoked salmon, dill, caper I've wanted to make this dish ever since I first got the Alinea cookbook, but I had a hard time tracking down salsify. So when I finally laid my hands on some last week, I set about this recipe right away. I'll admit up front that part of the appeal was the fact that it looked long and involved, and I wanted to jump in with both feet. I'll also admit that it pretty much kicked my butt, so maybe "jumping in with both feet" wasn't the best approach. After three days of making the various components (and giving my dehydrator a serious workout) I ended up skipping two items on the final plate: instead of cooking the salmon sous vide, I just plated two chunks of hot-smoked salmon, and I skipped the dill sauce. Well, I tried to do the dill sauce, but gave up when I nearly burned out my blender. Not sure what I did wrong there. Either way, it ended up being very tasty, if a little salty. The dried vegetable coating on the salsify was remarkably good, and something I'll definitely be looking to find other uses for. But I won't be repeating the whole recipe - or any other long Alinea recipes - any time soon!

Not in Ontario, I'm afraid! Darienne, I don't know of any specific stores along your route, but a lot of the major grocery store chains do carry both those products in and around Toronto. For that matter, you might try Cheese Boutique.

If there's still quince available at the farmers' market tomorrow, I'm so trying this!

I finally got around to ordering James Peterson's Sauces on the recommendation of this thread, and was very excited to start reading it the other night. I agree with the comments upthread that it comes across as fairly restricted in its view, but I knew that going in. And frankly, I was looking for old-school sauce making info, so I don't mind. That said, I'm appalled at the copyediting when it comes to proper names. I'm only on chapter 4, and I've already come across two egregious errors: "Archestrate", which is the French spelling for "Archestratus" and - far worse - two instances of "Ferdinand Point" instead of "Fernand." Given that he explicitly comments on the "amazingly thorough" copyediting in the acknowledgements, I'm disappointed by these oversights. Still, here's hoping the actual recipes are good!