mkayahara

If you haven't already, you might want to take a look at the eGullet Culinary Institute course on homebrewing, and its related Q&A. I keep meaning to get into homebrewing, but just haven't set aside the time to do it yet!

Which provides an excellent use for the memo pad on the iPhone (or other smart phone)! I routinely add drink recipes to it that I would like to try made by a professional so that I have them with me if the bartender is unfamiliar with them or to make for friends when I am away from home.Believe me, I added it to my smartphone as soon as I got home. Now I'm never without it!

It's probably also worth checking out the ingredient-specific threads, such as the ones on sherry or Champagne.

Check out this discussion.

Out of curiosity, have you actually measured the temperatures of your shaken and stirred drinks? I'm not sure how it would work, but I'm wondering if it's a perceptual difference, rather than an objective one. Also, do you chill the glassware you're drinking from?

I'm going to point out again here, for the record, that tipping is just as standard in Canada as it is in the US The restaurant industry in Canada is structured much more like in the US than the EU. In Canadian restaurants, 15% is considered a standard tip; until a couple of years ago, the tax was 15% (apart from alcohol), and people would just double that to determine the tip. Individual ignorant Canadians may choose not to tip (whether at home or abroad), just as individual ignorant Americans may choose not to do so, but that doesn't mean that Canadians "don't have to do so at home."

What's wrong with Mount Gay Eclipse?

I wonder how it would do in something like a Garrick Club Punch? I say this without having tasted this particular bottle, but I recently acquired a small bottle of "white rye" from Dillon's distillery in the Niagara region of Ontario, and it's putting me in mind of a juniper-free genever as well.

Indeed, I find Dolin sweet vermouth to be less syrupy.

Aren't those two things at odds with each other? Pastry school will start by teaching you ordinary recipes, because those are the foundation for the innovative desserts. In any case, I second Baselerd's recommendations, and would add Migoya's book Frozen Desserts as well: even though it's nominally about frozen items only, it contains lots of interesting composed desserts that use non-frozen elements. Also, check out anything you can find written by Michael Laiskonis. Eric Ripert's book On the Line has a few of his recipes, and you should be able to find several more online. Beyond that, you may want to take a look in many of the high-end restaurant books that aren't dedicated to pastry, like Alinea, Eleven Madison Park and the like. You're not going to find a comprehensive course in innovative pastry in them, but that's where some of the most creative stuff has been happening.

Working with some unfamiliar ingredients, I whipped this one up tonight: Working title: "Everybody comes to Rick's" Dash Pernod 2 dashes Angostura bitters 1 tsp. Cointreau 1 oz. Basil Hayden Bourbon 1 oz. Moroccan fig eau-de-vie 3/4 oz. Williams & Humbert "Walnut Brown" sweet oloroso sherry Stir, strain over rocks. If I had an orange twist, I would have flamed it.

Oh gosh, yes. This. I am not a fan of cucumber, bell pepper, jalapeno, or any other vegetables in my cocktails, up to and including Blood Marys. The one exception I will make is the Juliet and Romeo, which is delicious.

Why do you not want the garlic in the final dish? If it's a textural thing, you can always bash it into a past in a mortar and pestle, or grate it finely on a microplane, so that it won't be noticeable.

Microgreens. As a garnish, they've become a crutch.

I would probably use any of a number of recipes for vegetable ash (see the Mugaritz book, for example), then disperse that in a neutral oil. Edit: Of course, I don't have first-hand experience of the oil in question, I'm just taking a shot in the dark based on the name!

I've never understood the Twentieth Century, though perhaps that's only because good-quality crème de cacao is hard to come by. I'm also not a big Vesper fan. But most of all, heresy of heresies, I've never seen the appeal of the Mint Julep!

I suppose it's similar to the reasons a vegetarian restaurant wouldn't stock beef, right? I suppose you could make that case.

What's the reason for not stocking any vodka, though? That just bugs me, and I don't even drink vodka! Or does Mayahuel stock only agave-based distillates? I think Pegu Club's approach is perfect; even just stocking one rail vodka, and no flavoured vodkas, would be fine. The philosophy of, "if someone ordered a vodka tonic they would make him the best vodka tonic they could -- and they wouldn't make the guy feel like a loser for ordering one" is, to me, the heart of hospitality. I get that you don't want your bar overrun by crowds that are there for the atmosphere alone and drinking nothing but vodka drinks, but still...

This is actually a falsehood: the full contents of a bottle of Canadian whisky are aged in small wood for at least 3 years. No grain neutral spirits permitted, though very high-proof whisky is used as the blending whisky. This, of course, is quite true, in much the same way that Cuban rum tastes softer, milder, and more diluted than Jamaican rums. My mistake. I knew that the full contents of a bottle of Canadian whisky had to be aged together but the way I wrote it makes it sound like it's diluted after aging. I was under the impression, though, that Canadian whisky legally can be distilled to a much higher proof than US spirits, i.e., that at least some of the distillate going into the barrel is effectively neutral spirit? And that the law permits additives other than grain spirits to go into the barrel (e.g., wine and brandy). At any rate I don't object to the softer profile of Canadian whisky, which as you say is somewhat analogous to the softness of Cuban-style rum, which I'm a fan of (an especially apt analogy since Cuban rum producers in the early 20th century were known to add fruit, wine, and other flavorings to their spirits). I mean, I think that's basically correct, but it's a pretty big distinction. I'm not sure there are government regulations on how much high-proof whisky vs. how much low-proof "flavouring whisky" is required, but it's the combination of the two that gives Canadian its distinctive profile. And yes, other flavourings are permitted as well, though the more reputable brands tend to avoid them. If I had my copy of Davin de Kergommeaux's excellent book Canadian Whisky: The Portable Expert with me, I could tell you more. Instead, I'll just encourage you to read it!

This is actually a falsehood: the full contents of a bottle of Canadian whisky are aged in small wood for at least 3 years. No grain neutral spirits permitted, though very high-proof whisky is used as the blending whisky. This, of course, is quite true, in much the same way that Cuban rum tastes softer, milder, and more diluted than Jamaican rums.

Yeah, I mean, I'm not in the bar business, I'm just an "enthusiast," but I think in this day and age, with all the new and varied gins on the market, the whole "Plymouth is a unique style of gin" thing is overstated. Their may be historical reasons to use Plymouth in certain drinks, and there may be times when you want its specific flavour profile, but I don't think you need a Plymouth gin in your liquor cabinet the same way, say, you need to distinguish between London dry, Old Tom, and genever as categories.

The thing that irks me the most is that, as we saw the change from about $28 a bottle to $44 dollars a bottle where I am, the bottle design is the only thing that changed. If they'd given me even a couple more points of proof, I might be willing to spend that kind of money, but as it is, there's nothing to justify the increase. It's just a cash grab! There are plenty of other good gins out there, and I won't be buying Plymouth again anytime soon, unless the price comes back down to something reasonable.

Count me in the "cold oil spherification" camp. You can use the technique with gelatin, which should give you the clarity shown. And if you're using a syringe, you can control the bead size pretty accurately by adjusting the amount of liquid you drip into the oil. Then I suppose some poor stagiaire has to sort them by size.

Scales with that kind of range and resolution are always more expensive. I don't find it a problem to use one scale that measures in milligrams up to 100g for the additives and a separate scale for measuring in 1-gram increments up to 2kg. But then, I don't live in a tiny New York City apartment or anything, so I've got lots of space to store two different scales.

Add about 32% more milk fat.