thirtyoneknots

Actually, ONLY made with Gosling's Black Seal Rum. If it's made with anything else, it is not a Dark and Stormy. I think technically the trademark is on Dark 'n' Stormy. Wikipedia on Dark 'n' Stormy Personally, I still ask for a Kleenex even if the box says Scott Tissues. ;-) I would have thought so too, but I checked before posting, and the Gosling's website spells it Dark 'n Stormy. Go figure. (Reminds me of this). ETA: Hah! The 2nd footnote spells it like the Gosling's website, whereas the inline reference in the article spells it like the article heading.

Actually, ONLY made with Gosling's Black Seal Rum. If it's made with anything else, it is not a Dark and Stormy. Actually, "Dark 'n Stormy" is the copyrighted name. And while there's nothing wrong with Goslings, I'll more often mix mine with Cruzan Blackstrap, which is quite dark and plenty stormy.

Your palate is good--Appleton Estate is aged largely (if not exclusively) in spent Jack Daniels barrels, if I'm remembering correctly. Actually Dakki mentioned it in the OP, when he said no points for it

I bow to Dick's experience with regard to the use for this particular make and model, but for smoking duck breasts in general I've had good results dredging in the dry cure mix from Polcyn & Ruhlman's Charcuterie, letting it sit for 3-4 hours, then rinsing off the cure and rubbing again with black pepper and dried sage, then smoking 2-3 hours over fruit woods. Delicious hammy duck flavor.

My wife, a large animal veterinarian, has let me in before on the little secret that to qualify as "Black Angus" the beef in question legally only has to have come from a black cow--no Angus pedigree of any sort is required. So yes, you are quite right to be skeptical of that little bit of marketing. Which is not to say that it can't mean something good in some cases.

Ok but even by those definitions you aren't poaching the liquid anymore than your are roasting your oven. I think this is a grammatical rather than scientific question.

1 oz lime is the way to go. Try Reed's Extra Ginger. 2-4 dashes Angostura.

I've never thought of "poaching" as a description of a liquid. Can you "poach" a soup? You aren't going to poach a soup, but you can poach the veg (ie cook them in a liquid that is between 160 and 180 degrees) Or you could say I want to cook that stock at poaching temp overnight so it remains clear. Does this make sense? Then that is exactly what I was saying. Your liquid is simmering. Your vegetables are poaching. Maybe a 'slow simmer' but while you may have a poaching liquid (ie, liquid for poaching), you aren't poaching the liquid.

Is not simmering something you do to a liquid and poaching something you do to a solid? Ie, you simmer soups, sauces, or a poaching liquid such as court bouillon. When you add your fish, corned beef, quinelles, whatever, you are poaching them. Because the liquid is what is simmering, not the item being cooked.

I've actually gotten to the point where I'm eyeballing stuff like garlic or onion...I like living on the edge.

There also seems to be a significant discrepancy between the volume and weight measures throughout the recipes, specifically when dealing with fresh herbs and garlic. Especially the garlic. Now I like garlic a lot, so I typically go with the weight measure in most instances, but it is often pretty easily 2-3x the volume given as equivalent. Anybody else ever notice this? Is it possible it is a difference in available ingredients?

Not really different from what is being suggested here except for the addition of garlic, but I learned this one from Peterson's Sauces and it is oh so good. Lots of cheese and black pepper.

That's kind of funny about the Suffering Bastard typo/modification. When we had that on the menu at Veritas with house ginger ale, I made the same mistake on the recipe card. Luckily my colleagues were paying attention and caught the typo before someone was served a more 'avante-garde' drink. Not that kind of crowd there, sadly. Great drink though, and yes to the ginger beer.

I'll second the recommendation to start with a Daiquiri, with the caveat that it should be made with as little sugar as you can tolerate, and for whatever reason superfine (NOT confectioners, which has starch added) sugar gives subtle, though noticeably, superior results. Try with 2 oz of excellent rum (white Cuban style is traditional, though really any cane spirit will work), half of a lime, and 1/2 tsp of superfine sugar. Shake and serve 'up', in a cocktail glass. If you positively need more sugar, stir it in, but you'll take a truly transcendental drink and turn it into a pleasant but pedestrian rum sour by doing so. When it's 100F in the shade thats the kind of thing I'm drinking, if I'm not just sticking with gin rickeys. For that matter, just Rum, half a lime, and lots of soda and ice would be delightful in its own right I'm sure.

A friend of mine has a calomondin tree that gives dozens and dozens of fruit per year, he used to bring them in periodically and request drinks with them. I found the muskiness rather challenging but your orange bitters comparison shows an angle I don't think I ever considered. I made a few things I wasn't ashamed of with them but in general I didn't think much of their cocktail potential at the time, fully realizing then as now this has more to do with my own limited imagination than anything.

Worth noting that rue is closely related to true angostura.

There was a minor trend a few years back using them to make "flips", presumably for audiences who would be turned off by the idea of raw egg in their beverage. From my idea of what advocaat is like, seems like it would work well enough.

Not bad when cured and dried into bresaola, I must say. If roasted very rare it is acceptable with some old-school French sauce on it, or cold on a sandwich, sliced very thin indeed.

Might Slivovitz (plum eau-de-vie) fit the bill? Not too dissimilar in the grand scheme, no?

This sort of illustrates the thing with dark rum, is that it is such an open-ended descriptor as to be nearly meaningless. The variations in profile between different products that could be labelled as 'dark rum' is so diverse that one could never even adequately fit the bill for any given application (though maybe a specific recipe). All of the recommendations have been sound, I'm just not so sure the best bet is not to just rotate that selection if you can only afford to have one at a time. For my own part I'd be cycling between El Dorado 12+, Smith & Cross, and Plantation Barbados 5. Of those, the Plantation is most budget-friendly.

I donno, I find the character of oxidized St. Germain rather fascinating in it's way. But I like stinky old Rieslings, too.

Never done it but there is a pretty good tutorial on the egullet culinary institute for roasting a whole pig with a contraption that in some parts is indelicately known as a "coonass microwave"--basically a pit full of hot coals with a pig suspended over it and over the pig, a sheet of metal to reflect heat back down. Supposed to work great, if you have the option of digging the decent-sized hole the operation requires. No reason I can think of it wouldn't be applicable for lamb. And of course in South Texas (and Mexico), pit-roasting whole goats and pigs is quite a lovely tradition. I've never seen it done up close but my understanding is that it involved burying the animal over a bed of hot coals, sort of like the Hawaiian pig roast. Options if you don't want to mess with a spit.

I think this is perhaps why the answer to the OP is so elusive--a recipe cannot be intrinsically "craft". A "craft" item is the product of a craftsman, an expert in executing a method. Whether a cocktail is a "craft" cocktail must be judged on a drink-to-drink basis, even when the drinks are theoretically the same recipe. Perhaps addressing the idea of intrinsic quality or merit of recipes needs another term?

To extrapolate a little on what I think Splificator is getting at, the "craft" aspect of a drink has a lot to do with context. If the ego (whether well-founded or not) of the bartender overshadows the drink (s)he is making, it loses something, if not everything. A bartender who is a host first can make a beer and a shot into a "craft" experience. If the bartender is more concerned about grooming his facial hair than making his patrons feel at ease, then nothing he makes will be as enjoyable as the guy at the neighborhood dive who always forgets the bitters in the Manhattan made with wet ice. But hey, this guy has some great jokes and can actually make conversation and the drink is only $4 anyway. That may not be a "craft" Manhattan, but it sure as hell is craft bartending.

Wow that's quite pricey, I think I saw them for maybe a little under $10/lb, though it was an industry price. I do recall it being cheaper than the (at the time) $11/lb rib rack. If ChrisTaylor can get the smoker he's been talking about elsewhere, those braise-ready cuts like neck and shoulder can be brined, rubbed, and smoked for a long time to excellent effect. Here's one: does anyone know if something like head cheese/brawn can be made from ovines? Now that would be something.