FrogPrincesse

From the "Friends" section, a modern take on the Dark & Stormy, The Perfect Storm (Alastair Burgess) with dark rum (Lost Spirits Polynesian-inspired rum), vieille prune aged plum eau-de-vie (Etter), lemon juice, honey syrup, ginger juice (BG Reynolds ginger syrup). I had tried it before with El Dorado 8. It's wonderful with the Polynesian-inspired rum - you get pineapple and banana notes (the ginger blends really well with the other ingredients and isn't obvious at all), it's boozy and very complex.

Sipmith VJOP makes a fabulous juniper-bomb high-octane Martini. I really like Monkey 47 too; I've never had it in a Martini but I imagine it'd make an interesting one with its non-traditional flavor profile - a lot of interesting citrus notes (including bitter orange) and pine.

I thought it'd be fun to have a topic devoted to smoke in cocktails. Smoke can be introduced into cocktails via different means. Through ingredients is the obvious way, for example with the use of a smoky mezcal or peaty scotch (Laphroaig etc). Or indirectly with a smoked food item such as the bacon that is used to "fat-wash" whiskey in the Benton's Old Fashioned. Other cocktails involve setting herbs (rosemary works well for that purpose) or spices (cinnamon for example) on fire and capturing the aromatic smoke. Lastly, wood chips can also be used to impart a smoky flavor to a drink. Here is an example of that technique. Loves Rival (Tim Robinson via Gaz Regan) with Michter's US-1 single barrel straight rye whiskey, Martini Gran Lusso, Boy Drinks World grapefruit bitters, cherry & yuzu smoke (substituted for applewood & lemon rind). I don't own a smoking gun so I just set the wood chips on fire, grated the yuzu on top and captured the resulting smoke in my cocktail shaker before I shook the drink.

Pretty sure that's me! Thanks for the catch.

That looks intriguing, but $56 a bottle? Wow.

Liberal cocktail (George J. Kappeler, 1895, via Martin's index) with Michter's straight rye whiskey, Picon, gomme syrup. This version of the Liberal comes sans sweet vermouth.

From last night - I was in the mood for a Gibson. I didn't have any pickled onions so I used pickled fennel made with a recipe in Mario Batali's Babbo. Gibson variation (2:1) with Tanqueray London dry gin, Noilly Prat extra dry vermouth, pickled fennel.

Haha. I think I got my amari mixed up! It's Baulio I was thinking of when I made that comment, not Lucano.

I love this one; I've had it in my rotation for a while now. Almost too good to share. Warday's (Harry Craddock) with Tanqueray London dry gin, Martini Gran Lusso vermouth, Daron XO calvados, green Chartreuse. (I use the ratios from the Bartender's Choice app). It's a great winter-to-spring transition drink with the mix of gin and apple brandy (I used calvados) as the base. There is something great about the interplay of the botanicals in the juniper-forward gin with the Chartreuse, and then the sweet vermouth & calvados giving it depth and warmth.

Classics... A fabulous Vieux Carré (Walter Bergeron) with Willet 5-year rye whiskey, Pierre Ferrand 1840 cognac, Martini Gran Lusso vermouth, Benedictine, Angostura & Peychaud's bitters. There are hints of spring everywhere and I had to have a Ti Punch. La Favorite rhum agricole blanc, JM sugar cane syrup.

Mine was improvised with things I already had, but turned out great. Duck foie gras au torchon on toasted Hawaiian bread, fleur de sel, Albrecht pink sparkling wine from Alsace. The foie gras was from d'Artagnan. Escargots, green & red mustard frills salad. Dessert was soft chocolate cakes made with Valrohna chocolate, and served with whipped cream.

And here is the sweet vermouth version, created 4 years after the dry vermouth version. Byrrh Cocktail (Jacques Straub, 1914) with Byrrh grand quinquina, Martini Gran Lusso vermouth, Michter's straight rye. They are both good but I preferred the dry vermouth for the simple reason that there was more contrast between the dry vermouth and the Byrrh, and therefore the resulting flavors were more interesting. The Savoy Cocktail book has its own variation of this as well (Byrrh, sweet vermouth and Canadian Club whisky, in equal parts).

Byrrh Cocktail (J. A. Grohusko, 1910, Jack's Manual, via Martin's Index) with Byrrh grand quinquina, Noilly Prat extra dry vermouth, Michter's straight rye whiskey. Light-weight but full of personality. I enjoyed this very much.

I agree; I like it better than Ramazzoti.

A recent Manhattan with Michter's straight rye, Martini Gran Lusso, Berg & Hauck / The Bitter Truth old time aromatics bitters, French brandied cherry. The old time aromatic bitters seem more spice-forward than the Angostura which has more caramel/warm notes in comparison. I really like the Michter's, it's great for mixing and fabulous for sipping too.

I had an interesting drink a couple of days ago, with bourbon and balsamic vinegar. It actually tasted nice and balanced, with a touch of smoke and umami. The only minus is that the balsamic vinegar and heavy dose (1/2 oz) of Angostura bitters tended to hide the nuances of the bourbon. Inkwell (Ryan Haile via Gaz Regan) with Kings County distillery bourbon, white grapefruit juice, balsamic vinegar, Angostura bitters.

@catdaddyI have no experience with low sugar marmalade, I am afraid. I have used commercial (Pomona) pectin once for persimmon jam, but didn't care for it. I used only a small amount and it made the jam artificially firm for my taste. I prefer to make my own pectin from green apples a la Christine Ferber. Google also tells me that ponderosas are a cross between lemons and citrons. Very cool. I am pretty sure they'd make a spectacular marmalade on their own! I can't wait to hear what the finished product tastes like.

@catdaddyLow sugar? How low? Most marmalade recipes seem to have > 50% sugar. Recently I've made a chinotto orange marmalade (with scotch) and a yuzu marmalade (with Japanese whisky). Homemade marmalade is amazing... Your "knobby lemons" intrigue me. Are these a type of citron?

While researching the use of bacon to line terrines (which I dislike personally), I came across this interesting article about pâté de campagne/ country pâté that review various techniques and recipes... I have made the Bourdain recipe and while it is good, I think it can be improved.

The Foxtail (Thomas Kunick via Gaz Regan) with Tanqueray London dry gin (substituted for Oxley gin), Benedictine, white grapefruit juice (Oro Blanco). A very simple three components/equal parts number. Benedictine is indeed very nice with grapefruit. I think the cocktail would be better with slightly more gin and less Benedictine because the balance was a tad off - the flavors were herbal and sometimes bordering on the side of medicinal. Or maybe Oxley gin works better with these ratios, it's entirely possible. Apparently it's also juniper-forward but has more citrus than Tanqueray.

Where were these abalones from? I've bought them in the shell like that from an abalone farm in Hawaii (these were small ones) and am curious to know where else they are available. They are also amazing with pasta & garlic...

Thank you for noting that! In France it's much more common to line terrines with caul fat; I don't think I ever saw bacon used for that purpose until I came to the US. I also find the appearance and texture of steamed bacon extremely unappealing. You pretty much have to remove it before you can eat the terrine (because who wants to eat steamed flabby bacon), whereas caul fat is a very thin layer that melt onto the surface of the terrine and doesn't need to be removed. I know this isn't directly linked to Top Chef but I would be really curious to find out where this practice is coming from? My guess is Julia Child but I could be totally wrong. There were more issues with his terrine. When he was grinding it and the meat wasn't cold, you could see the resulting gummy texture and that wasn't appealing at all either. He could have diced it very finely with a knife instead... That's what I used to do when I didn't have a meat grinder at my disposal.

Queen Eleanor (Brandon Josie via Gaz Regan) with Tanqueray London dry gin, Noilly Prat extra dry vermouth, Briottet wild peach liqueur, Berg & Hauck celery bitters. The celery bitters add a strong herbal note that cuts some of the sweetness of the peach liqueur in this Martini variation.

@ananthI have a few. Three Dots and a Dash (Don the Beachcomber via Jeff Berry) with La Favorite cœur de rhum aged agricole, El Dorado 8 Demerara rum, lime juice, cara cara orange juice, homemade falernum, allspice dram, homey syrup, Angostura bitters. The only reason I don't make this more often is because it's a bit hard for me to get La Favorite cœur de rhum. Because that is one spectacular drink! (I went back to the Jeff Berry version. The small amount of orange juice is nice in that one. I am not sure using dry curacao a la Paul McGee is a better option.)

Not imports, right? This looks like a restaurant in Mexico... I would talk to the sommelier/mezcalier and tell them what flavor profile you are after, what you like or do not like, etc, and they should be able to guide you.