mkayahara

Not to mention that, in places where they don't usually put vermouth in the Martinis, you probably don't want to be drinking their vermouth anyway. Who knows how long it's been sitting there getting friendly with the local oxygen?

Wait, you're asking whether I would save all my pots or all my knives? In that case, pots it is. It'd be a lot less money to replace my one 8" Global knife than all of my Le Creuset.

Does anyone have any thoughts on proportions for a Monkey Gland using Seville oranges instead of sweet oranges?

How about using an Isomalt/fondant/glucose caramel? See here, for instance.

In my experience, the biggest problem you'll find in keeping them for a few days is that they may weep, especially if the base is very acidic. Otherwise, they should be fine.

It's interesting speculating about the top 3 or top 4, but it all looks really moot at this point. I think Stefan is a shoe-in for the win. The only thing that's keeping me watching is the thought that that's just what the producers want me to think!

At the risk of sounding flippant, I would say it depends entirely on what you're planning to use them for. If you're looking to make a full range of tiki drinks then, by all accounts, you can't really substitute, since the genius of tiki drinks lies in the way they blend a wide array of different rums. If you're just looking to make a handful of other rum-based drinks, though, my recommendation would be a white rum (I like Havana Club, but I realize this presents some problems for US residents); an aged, lighter-bodied rum (I like Mount Gay Eclipse or Cruzan Estate Diamond); an amber Jamaican rum (Appleton V/X); and a dark rum (I would slot Gosling's Black Seal in here, though there are some great Jamaican offerings for this category). The only rum I feel like I'm missing from my liquor cabinet right now is a Demerara, so I can't speak to whether or not it's actually necessary to stock it!

I wouldn't worry about it, Mike. I've never really noticed considerable liquid from the bellies I've cured.

Yeah, I'm almost certain that's why they left the photos out.

Chef Rubber. Look under "pastry rocks". Do we get to hear what you're using them for? In fact, I've never been quite clear on the process of taking neutral pop rocks and giving them flavour, so if anyone has any advice on that, I'd love to learn.

When does a cocktail depart so far from its namesake that a new name is needed? I ask this in light of an article in the Saturday Globe and Mail (sadly, unavailable online) about a new Toronto cocktail hotspot called Barchef. At issue: Their "Vanilla Hickory Smoked Manhattan," which is billed on their online menu as "our take on an all time classic". The listed ingredients are vanilla and hickory smoked Crown Royal Extra Rare, fresh lemon, in-house cherry vanilla bitters, hickory smoked syrup, vanilla cognac. Now, I'm sure this is a lovely drink, though at a reported $45 a pop, I'm equally sure I'll never find out. But it isn't a Manhattan. It isn't a "take" on a Manhattan. If you want to be a purist about it - and I do - there isn't one single ingredient in common between this drink and an authentic, traditional Manhattan.

I'm not sure what you mean by acid/food ratio, but yes, the pH of the contents of your jar are all-important if you want to avoid botulism. C. botulinum spores are not killed in a regular boiling water canner, so you can't count on that to make you safe. Just keep in mind that "tart" and "high-acid" are not the same thing; most fruit is sufficiently high acid to be safe, even though jams don't taste tart.

Raising pH and correcting for too much acidity are not necessarily the same thing. You can reduce the impact of acidity by adding sugar, for example, though that won't be appropriate in every dish. Obviously, just like with salt, it's best to simply be judicious in the amount of acid you add.

I highly recommend Christine Ferber's Mes Confitures (the title is French even in the English translation). The flavour combinations are beautiful, and all the recipes are predicated on using apple jelly as a pectin base, rather than commercial pectin, so it sounds like it's right up your alley!

My lattes never have been, and probably never will be, as good as the ones from the local coffee bar.

Have you considered starch molding? Or are you trying to avoid the sugar content that would involve?

Two ideas come to mind: I tried to make a bianco vermouth sorbet once, and it froze just barely enough to hold its shape; depending on what you're doing with it, it might even have been too soft. The vermouth in question was 16% abv., but it also had a lot of sugar in it which may have inhibited the freezing as much as - or more than - the alcohol. Second, you could always check out Jamie Boudreau's recipe for Martini sorbet here. It sounds like it packs a good punch. Hope that helps!

I thought gellan could go a lot hotter than 90C, since gellan is what Wylie Dufresne uses (or used, anyway) for his deep-fried mayonnaise. Did you mean to type "agar"? As for the OP's question about forming red wine balls, I'd think the easiest way would be to dissolve the gellan into the base, then portion it into spherical molds and let it set. Then you can release them from the molds, batter and deep fry.

So I see that TasteTO is reporting that the deal has fallen through and Monforte will be closing after all. However, plans are still proceeding for Klahsen to reopen next year, with plans to raise money by selling 2,000 shares at $500 each.

Yes, you do need twice as many cartridges to operate the quart size as you do for the pint size. Some recipes require you to charge with 2 cartridges in the pint size and 4 in the quart size, but this is usually stated in the recipe. (If the recipe doesn't explicitly state the size it was designed for, you can usually infer from the size of the batch and scale accordingly.) The other question you need to ask yourself is what your intended application is. I'm a home user with a pint-size ThermoWhip, and I've never managed to exhaust the entire supply of any foam in one evening. I can't imagine how long a quart-size batch of any foam base would last me. If you're serving several dozen covers in a night, the quart size makes sense, but if not, you're going to end up eating or serving a lot of the same foam over a relatively short period of time. It might make sense in a restaurant setting, but can get tiresome at home. Speaking of which, would you like some of the tangerine foam I've got kicking around in my fridge from New Year's Eve?

Well, I guess you could always use one of the higher-end bottlings of Grand Marnier. I imagine a Cuvee du Cent Cinquantenaire Sidecar would be something to try! To me, the bigger problem is that this approach only gives you control over two variables: sweet and sour. That leaves no room to correct for strong. And while it might make a passable Sidecar, there's no way to tweak it into transcendence.

I've done a "one-bite cheese course" in the past: a bit of crumbled blue cheese, a single toasted almond and a blob of fig jam. I wanted to add port to the mix somehow, but couldn't think of a good way to work it in. If you're feeling adventurous, you could try Ferran Adria's Spoonful of Pina Colada. Also, you might find the "forks and spoons" chapter of Rick Tramonto's book Amuse-bouche to be inspiring.

Didn't Michael Laiskonis suggest in his most recent blog post that he is planning a book? I wholeheartedly agree that books from both him and Sam Mason would be great.

I received a food dehydrator as a Christmas gift this year, but there's a catch: it doesn't have any temperature control, and there's no obvious indication on the packaging of the temperature it operates at. I'm hoping for a fairly wide range of applications: dried fruit and herbs, jerky and, of course, various preparations from the Alinea cookbook. On the other hand, I'm only a home user, not a restaurant. So how vital is temperature control? Can I get away with just drying things at one temperature but perhaps for different periods of time than indicated? Or do I need to return this dehydrator and upgrade? Edited to add: If I do need to upgrade, I'd also appreciate any tips on Canadian sellers, either online or bricks-and-mortar.

So if my only options for curacao are Grand Marnier and Brizard (or Bols) blue curacao, which am I better off with? The blue stuff will make everything look funky, but is the flavour any different?