FrogPrincesse

You are welcome. I love the UC Riverside website! I go there regularly, most recently looking at sour orange varieties...

Interesting article about The Death and Rebirth of the Duncan [white] Grapefruit in the New York Times.

I don't think that these new silicone bags are a bad idea at all. I've been using ziplock bags (as I don't want to invest in a vacuum sealer); I try to recycle them but they are not especially sturdy so I double-bag, but I would prefer a more eco-friendly option for sure. I will probably wait until they have the family-size option available because the individual bags seem quite small (and pricey).

The mysterious demise of Lucky Peach magazine and its uncertain future (article in the Washington Post) Behind Lucky Peach’s Closing, Colliding Visions (New York Times)

Beer on a Budget in San Diego - recent article in the New York Times.

I know... if I had known, I would have stocked up!

I was a magazine subscriber from issue 1 but didn't renew past issue 12 or so. Too much navel-gazing for my own taste.

The Classic Madeleines with Plantation 5 years rum (and no lemon zest). Very delicious!

You are welcome. I would include Myer's too. I think it's the same ballpark as Gosling as far as how it's regarded for its use in mixed drinks. Did you get a chance to read Josh's review of dark rums at Inuakena? (There is a link upthread but here it is again.) He gives similar ratings to both (and rates Coruba higher). His tasting notes are very detailed and helpful. He tried them neat and used a rum mule (aka Dark & Stormy when made with Gosling...) as his test drink. If you manage to get out more, Trailer Happiness in London is a well regarded rum/tiki bar. I've always wanted to go there... It's a much shorter distance for you!

With the demerara rums, I agree that a Queen's Park Swizzle is a great place to start.

Myer's should also be available to you in the UK. Why not try something super simple with your black rum like Steve Remsberg's version of the Planter's Punch, and decide which rum you prefer in that application? Or go to your favorite rum-oriented bar, see what they use, ask them questions, maybe score a few samples in the process...

I guess you could ask him directly!

Although I haven't tried the Blackwell, Kevin at 5 Minutes of Rum, whom I trust, feels that it is an acceptable option for dark Jamaican rum. He even has a full episode on the Blackwell rum.

I am guessing "off the shelf".

Did you omit the Angostura bitters intentionally?

I agree that there is room for more than one orange liqueur in a bar or home bar. I almost never use Grand Marnier in cocktails; I think it's hard to mix with (but I love it for crepes Suzette). Cointreau makes a beautiful Corpse Reviver No.2, and is an essential for a classic Margarita. Clement Creole Shrubb is a must have for Mai Tais. And Pierre Ferrand is fabulous where you have ingredients that are a bit richer, and you need a dryer orange liqueur to balance things out. It does super well in the classic cocktails that @Reed & Thistle is interested in investigating... That is precisely what it was designed for!

I don't think so. I think it's just a matter of time if you enjoy bourbon already. It's too bad that you didn't keep the Rittenhouse to experiment with it a bit more. I know that one of the first drinks that made me love rye was a Rattlesnake made with Rittenhouse. The egg white foam tempered things considerably and I was able to really enjoy the flavors of the rye. Another one was the Brooklyn because the sweetness from the maraschino liqueur balances out the spiciness of the rye very well. These were easier to love in the beginning compared to a rye Manhattan which I absolutely love now, but would consider an "advanced" drink because the rye is so front and center.

Which Rittenhouse was this, the 40% or the bottled in bond (50%)? I use the 50% all the time and I don't find it overly dry or spicy. Actually I find that it is quite lush and rich for a rye. Sazerac rye is a great one if you'd like something sweeter/softer. Given that you are a bourbon fan you should like it.

It was braised. It's a really great recipe.

Get all three! More seriously, I would start with J.M since it's available locally to you. Then if you fall in love with rhum agricole, start collecting them!

He didn't say it was an option, but if it is, this is another great one!

Hello @abenc85! La Favorite is excellent! I concur with Death & Co. As for a substitute, in your list I've tried Trois Rivieres blanc, Clement Canne bleue, J.M blanc, and in my opinion J.M is the closest as far as the flavor profile is concerned (and for use in cocktails), Canne bleue second. I don't care much for Trois Rivieres. With the J.M make sure you get the higher proof version (50 or 55%, not the watered down 40% version). They are indeed all different, but the differences are subtle. The good ones are all super grassy/vegetal, and then some are more briny than others, some have coconut notes, etc, etc. You can read the Rhum Agricole thread on eGullet for more information/discussion, or Inuakena's very thorough rhum agricole review (he reviewed all the white agricoles that are accessible to us in the US, but note that the flavor profile he goes for isn't necessarily everyone's cup of tea - for example he isn't a fan of La Favorite!).

By some coincidence I made the same cocktail recently, and I think the devil is in the details with this one. The final result will depend on your ratios of course (you are using a small amount of maraschino liqueur which I think is a good idea as it tends to overpower things), and the quality of your ingredients because it's such a simple drink. Can I suggest that you share the brands of the ingredients you are using? PS A great source of historical recipes is Martin Doudoroff's very handy Cocktail app; it's a great tool! And it's a somewhat curated list (which means he included the recipes of interest from his references, the ones that are "mixologically interesting or historically important", not every single recipe under the sun...). Referring to it, you would have seen that this recipe first appeared in this form in Harry Johnson's Bartender Manual (1900), and that it originally contained Boker's bitters (not Angostura). I guess that Boker's bitters were already extinct/hard to find by the time the Savoy was published.

I forgot to report on my sous vide steak here. This was a Delmonico (bone-in rib eye), about a pound so not very thick (about 2 cm / 3/4 in). I referred myself to the excellent ChefSteps cooking guide (on my phone there are videos showing meat texture in great detail) and went with 54C / 129F for 1 hour, which is also what is recommended by Serious Eats for medium-rare, and finished the steak on a hot grill. I was concerned that it was going to continue to cook on the grill but it was fine except for a small spot where the grill was apparently hotter. The first thing I noticed compared to grilling was that there was no need for a resting period, and this was great because the steak tends to cool down a bit during that time. Also I noticed right away when slicing that it wasn't losing the juices that it usually does. Lastly, it was cooked very uniformly which was really nice (except for that one small spot where the grill was hotter). I really like this technique; I imagine that it would be a fool-proof way to cook a very thick steak perfectly, which is always a bit tricky on the grill.

A few recent meals I didn't get a chance to post... Butternut squash ravioli (from Trader Joe's) with brown butter and foraged sage (it grows everywhere around here). It's such a wonderful pairing. Chicken breast (cooked sous vide) with chard gratin (recipe from Anne Willan in the Country Cooking of France) Delmonico steak (aka bone-in rib eye), cooked sous vide and finished on the grill, with braised green cabbage (recipe from Molly Stevens in All About Braising), potato and celeriac puree