Jump to content

thirtyoneknots

participating member
  • Posts

    1,969
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by thirtyoneknots

  1. I would recommend against doing that, at least not to so large a % of the bottle all at once. If you really don't have room for El Dorado 5 yr in your cabinet, you can always dilute LH an ounce at a time. But I'm betting you don't have the gear to revert it back to 151.
  2. If you know the equivalencies, there's no handicap to having a metric jigger. Those long, narrow jiggers are a delight to use.
  3. Whooooaaa where'd you get the stick?? I believe you can get them from Cocktail Kingdom
  4. I find that blanc agricole rhum is too assertive to be an asset in a Mai Tai. Better to use an aged r(h)um. Also, speaking only for myself here, as much as I am otherwise enthusiastic about Creole Shrubb, I've never thought it was the best liqueur to use in a Mai Tai. I don't know if it's too comparative, not a bright enough orange character, or what. Many people of taste will disagree with me on that though.
  5. That Plantation OP is nice stuff, and an even nicer price for quality OP. Not as assertive as Lemon Hart but that's not a bad thing on its own.
  6. If you don't have a food processor, grinding the fat through the smallest plate of a grinder is good too.
  7. There are a lot of people here with more knowledge of W&N 17 than me, but my impression is that it was a Dock Rum, or something similar to that, meaning it was distilled and barreled in Jamaica, but then shipped to London and aged on the Navy (or other) docks there, the climate imparting a distinctive character to the final product. I have no idea what kind of barrel would have been used at the time--a 17 year old product in 1944 would have been barreled no later than 1927, in the midst of Prohibition, so it is doubtful that a ready supply of surplus American Whiskey barrels were on hand--which is mostly what you'll find around today. If you try it, I'd be interested to know your findings, but to me aging spirits in barrels is something best left to distilleries who have the resources, experience, and economies of scale to do it right.
  8. Through careful skimming and straining I have had satisfactory results reducing clarified stock, though I admit it may not be up to your stunning aesthetic standard. We are in complete agreement about Ruhlman's charcuterie book being overly ballyhooed though. It's fine as a starting point but it gets too many points for slick production. And it doesn't cover anything like a jambon persille, to address the original question.
  9. Sounds more like a lack of focus.
  10. The standard liquor bottle in the US is 750ml. Go drink up something.
  11. Pfft, likes no sugar in his cocktails but can't handle a little punch in his booze
  12. The short answer is: no, you are not wasting your high quality rum. The long answer is, of course more complicated. Diminishing returns actually kicks in at a relatively high price with even molasses-based rums. And I guess it's all about what you're willing to accept to save money. Sure, you could make all your Mai Tais with Flor de Cana 4 yr gold, and you could make all your Martinis with Gordon's. Neither will be offensive. But when you can get some truly world-class products for an extra $10/btl (or, to put it another way, 40 cents/oz), why bother? You save 80 cents per Mai Tai and have an ok drink, or spend the extra money and have a transcendental experience with every sip. Many rum cocktails, especially the older Tiki drinks, are designed to make good use of the qualities of "sipping" grade spirits. Which is not to say there isn't a place for FdC white or Cruzan Blackstrap. Just because these are modestly priced does not mean they are not excellent--to my mind Flor de Cana Extra Dry is every bit a premium spirit, it just happens to cost $11/btl. It has a place that cannot be taken by Appleton Extra or Smith & Cross, just as you would be foolish to substitute it where those brands are called for. Unlike Gin or Bourbon, substituting one brand or type of rum for another is no guarantee of a successful drink.
  13. I'm interested to see you call for powdered/leaf gelatin rather than adding some shanks or something to the braising liquid (and then reducing). Is this an economy measure or do you think there's not enough difference in flavor or texture to justify the expense?
  14. I have one of those, and it works very well indeed. The only two reservations I have are minor: One, the chute that ice travels towards the crushing mechanism is rather narrow, so if you have oddly shaped ice (even regular freezer cubes stuck together at angles) you will occasionally have to stick something in there to free it--turn it off first of course. Making sure your ice cubes are separated first mostly eliminates this. Two, and this is minor, it's a fairly coarse crush. This to me is fine for anything short of a julep, and if I'm making juleps I crush ice in my Waring first then run it through a hand crank job to get it really fine. If you crush ice semi-regularly and have a place to store this thing then go for it.
  15. I should point out that this is now veering in the direction of a head cheese if you're binding chopped meat with gelatinous stock. I love head cheese and all, but is that the effect you are shooting for? Why not go more in the direction of a jambon perseille if you want to do a whole muscle preparation? Cure (if desired) and cook your pork, SV or otherwise, then glaze with an aspic and include the celery leaves there. Or just do a normal terrine. It's not clear from your post whether you have made a terrine before, but in my own opinion the similarities to meatloaf are highly superficial, and mostly in the execution--not the flavor or texture
  16. The 30th of February reference would seem to indicate that the story is not meant to be a literal account of the drink's creation though. Is any date available for when Campari was first imported into the US? Someone with a reputation such as Sparrow Robertson seemingly enjoyed--well, it almost goes without saying being a natural bullshitter is endemic to the type. Sounds like quite a character. Edit to add: Sparrow Robertson's possible proclivity for tall tales notwithstanding, the Old Pal just doesn't feel like an 1870s or even 1880s recipe, wouldn't you say? Dry Vermouth alone (if indeed that was the original version) would seem to place it more in the zeitgeist of the 1890s and later. Where's Dr. Wondrich when you need him?
  17. The lid is a good idea. Have you observed this using onions from a variety of stores, at different times of year? I notice significant seasonal changes in onion quality (and sometimes price) but nothing like you describe consistently over 2 years.
  18. Haha. At a guess, and judging by the tone of the appendix, the spelling is a humorous stab at his pronunciation of Italian. Right I think that's Erik's point: Italian vermouth is normally understood as red/sweet, which not the orthodoxy for the Old Pal.
  19. I know this is too late now, but Eastern Sour would be the best choice with that bar.
  20. What makes you concerned about toughness? Tough to cut/chew or difficult to execute? or are you talking about something where the pork is cooked and served as a whole muscle not ground first?
  21. thirtyoneknots

    7 Eleven

    That's actually how that pretty much always works. Sometimes it's private label made by a company you've heard of, some companies do only private label stuff. Buddy of mine works for a chip company that started out making private label only, he's the brand manager for their first self-branded product. He once explained how all that works, very interesting.
  22. I buy it from the Mexican grocery on occasion to use in the smoker (along with hickory and pecan woods) when making tasso and andouille. It is supposedly traditional, and though I've never done a side by side comparison it does seem to add something. As for using it for food, I've only heard of chewing on it as a snack or drink garnish. No doubt there are other things though.
  23. I've still got a few weeks or more to go on most things, though all four squash plants are producing so that'll keep me satisfied for now. Having a few problems with blossom end rot but not too bad. Only thing not flowering yet is the okra and some of the melons that have gotten off to a late start--cantaloupe is blowing up all over the place though. Thing about gardening in Texas is, you can never really be sure about frost--but you know it is going to get hot enough to kill pretty much everything you plant, so better to take chances and get a crop. Last year I planted the first weekend in April (Zone 8, down near Austin) and essentially got nothing to speak of out of my summer garden it was so hot. Lesson learned.
  24. After a few false alarms, finally got my first blush on a tomato today--a Super Sweet 100 cherry tomato planted on March 13. If you're keeping score at home that's a 65 day variety giving a ripe fruit after 50 days. Not that I'm complaining.
  25. Any chance there is a community garden in your area? Or a place to start one?
×
×
  • Create New...