thirtyoneknots

While I think bars are to be commended for every effort to turn over their aromatized wine inventory, home enthusiasts should not shy away from investing in them just because they can't use up the whole bottle in a couple of weeks. If you have the fridge space to spare, there's nothing to fear. While the experience of drinking out of a 3 month old bottle of vermouth isn't quite the same as that of drinking from a fresh one, I wouldn't say that it ruins very many cocktails. Developing a taste for the stuff on it's own with a twist of lemon or orange can also help a lot with turnover and is one of my favored beverages while I'm cooking. Vermouthy things aren't as durable as hard liquor, of course, but they certainly aren't as fragile as table wines by a long shot. Don't let your slow turnover discourage you from trying stuff, but do keep it in the fridge.

BadRabbit, what kind(s) of wood did you use when smoking? I am generally inclined towards pecan or a pecan/hickory mix. Got any thoughts?

After I finished smoking, I let it sit for a day and then grilled some. It's pretty damned good though next time I'll probably increase all the other seasonings except the salt and garlic. The thyme is completely lost and I'd like to taste a little more paprika/chipotle. I did a blinded test with the whiskey using multiple dilutions and one that I had simmered for an hour and had added water back to at the end. The results: I could easily tell which ones were which. The simmered whiskey had none of the "hot" flavors of whiskey/alcohol but was still very woody and identifiable as bourbon. The others were much more alcoholic tasting but also more complex. Overall, I'm betting the additional complexity would be lost in the final product anyway. Oh right. I eyeballed the garlic--about 4 small cloves--and used dried thyme. Those are almost automatic things I do for sausage so it didn't initially register as a modification to the recipe in my brain.

Finally got around to grinding and binding the Len Poli recipe last night, I'll stuff and hang today, probably smoke tomorrow. Only mod I did was to water down the whiskey--1.5 oz bonded Bourbon made up to 4 oz with water. Probably wasn't necessary, but what the hey. Skillet test revealed a lovely, subtle sausage even without the smoke. I'd gladly eat all 6 lbs as fresh sausage, truth be told! Had a little more venison so I also did a batch of the Bratwurst from Ruhlman/Polcyn subbing venison for the veal, and giving another go to the venison terrine from the same book. When I tried it before it broke, but I'm hoping more careful technique plus my spiffy new LC terrine my wife gave me for Christmas will make the difference this time.

By the way, I recommend using decent vodka. I made a few infusions with cheap vodka and the results were definitely sub-par. Stoli seems to work pretty well and is not terribly expensive. If there are cheaper brands that are smooth, I'd love to know. Monopolowa and Luksusowa are both very good, run about $11/750ml.

I've made #4 and it came out very very stiff--needs to be thinned with water before it's spreadable. It's also rather hotter than the Zatarain's I was hoping to replicate, now that I can't locate a retail source since I moved. I saw a blog about the same recipe where the guy, without explanation, modified it to only 2.5 tbs yellow mustard and it looks much more like the consistency I would have desired.

I should perhaps restate that I added perhaps more of the lemon than would have been necessary to achieve a good flavor, again not being particularly familiar with it on the cooking end--the eating end is another matter.

Hmmm...no I did not remove the pith. I'm not well-versed in using preserved lemon and I didn't recall seeing to do that. I just scraped out the pulp and minced the rest. I have little doubt that the pithy peel has enough salt to duplicate Chris' results. Any hints on how best to remove the pith? These are Meyer lemons, so the whole thing is relatively thin.

Most Peterson books that aren't topic-specific are excellent for this. He's quite a teacher. I recently picked up a secondhand copy of his Essentials of Cooking, and I'd recommend it to anyone ready to graduate past Bittman or Joy of Cooking. It teaches how to cook, not how to make dishes--there's not a single recipe in the whole book. And probably the most beginner-friendly of any of his books (I have several) but useful for the advanced cook as well.

Bam. Very cool.

I'm curious too, but I'm sort of reluctant to potentially waste another cup of olive oil when I no longer have much application for the aioli, even if it turns out successful. I have pomace oil and plain veg oil but that would be another confounding variable, wouldn't it?

Perhaps due to a rejection of your condescending presupposition that my technique is deficient. This was not my first time making mayonnaise, nor making it with olive oil alone. It was, however, the first time in many years I was unable to create a stable emulsion, and the only new addition was the salt-cured lemon peels. If you don't think trying to figure it out is a good use of your time there are plenty of other ongoing discussions for you to participate in.

Though I've made fully successful Mayos more times than I can count, I was afraid that technique may have been rushed on the first attempt, and I took more care afterwards. Certainly the final one was a fully successful emulsion until I added the lemon. I personally find olive oil to be less stable once refrigerated, since it will partially solidify, but it should have worked fine for this purpose, where I was making it fresh right before the meal. AAQuesada, that is interesting about the preserved lemon storage. I'll probably do that soon to save space. I'm still interested in ideas about other stabilizers. Something I often (but not always) do is add some amount of prepared mustard to the initial emulsion, which Peterson says strengthens it. I didn't do that this time, not having anything suitably mild on hand and not wanting to compete with the garlic & lemon. Anybody think this might have made a difference?

I'll definitely be doing that in the future, or at least rinsing it thoroughly. I'm guessing this would be prudent for any application.

Eh, I did move recently so the eggs are potentially from a different farm, but they are always "Large". Olive oil was store brand, seemed typical of what I normally get--serviceable but not anything particularly interesting. I couldn't bear to throw away all of that broken aioli, so I've saved it...any ideas on how to use it? I'll probably make vinaigrette with some of it, but someone suggested marinating chicken in it which might work. Other ideas?

No, but I probably have a pretty high tolerance for salt. I tasted it for the last time about 30 seconds after adding the lemon and satisfied, left it alone until I realized it was breaking. I wondered later if cornstarch or a tiny bit of cream might have helped stabilize it somewhat? I've seen cream work wonders for the stability of Hollandaise.

I don't think that the amount of salt used when making them at home really matters. The lemons can only take in so much salt and any process that completely covers them is going to get them to full saturation by the time they are ready. I think some of the commercial ones are pre blanched or at least rinsed heavily before they are packaged though so that could make a difference. Right, I was only offering why it might have worked for someone else and still be a salt issue for me.

I should perhaps add that these are probably as salty as they could possibly be, the amount of salt used was perhaps excessive, there was a significant amount in the bottom of the jar I made them in that never did dissolve.

Well that sounds at least as good as anything I was able to come up with. Thanks!

So a couple of months ago I pickled/preserved a bunch of Meyer lemons from my dad's tree. Quartered lengthwise, packed with salt, let them sit. Pretty straightforward. Yesterday I made lamburgers for my wife's birthday, as per her request. When I do this type of thing I tend towards a Mediterranean theme of flavors, and I figured that a brunoise of preserved lemon peel would make a great accent to some otherwise pretty straightforward aioli. I make mayonnaise-type sauces by hand every couple of weeks on average so I approached the task with confidence. Minced 3 small cloves of garlic, peel of one preserved lemon, small splash of sherry vinegar (since I was already adding lemon) and an egg yolk. Started with a mix of 1/4 grapeseed and 3/4 extra virgin olive oils. Halfway through it became clear that a stable emulsion had not, in fact, formed, and the sauce broke. Undeterred, I got a fresh yolk and started it, figure i could form a new emulsion with the rest of the oil and then beat in the first failed attempt. Nope. So I figured maybe I was rushing it and perhaps the blender would be a better idea. Same end result. So my friend who was watching all of this asked me what was different than what I had tried before--I said basically nothing but the lemon peels and that I normally use a metal bowl but was this time just making it in the small pyrex bowl I was planning to serve it from. With her encouragement to risk wasting another cup of oil, I tried it again, but without the lemon--we figured they were perhaps interfering somehow with the emulsion and perhaps could be added once a stable emulsion was already established. Garlic, sherry vin, egg yolk, olive oil. Worked like a charm. Added the minced lemon peel (about half a lemon's worth). Tasted great. Twenty minutes later it had separated. So what gives? Apart from adding the lemon, the only thing I had done was transfer the aioli into the same pyrex bowl I had been using before, but it's hard to envision why that would be the culprit. Indeed I've made Sauce Gribiche many times before, which has capers and cornichons in it so it's hard to see why pickled lemon would do it either. The only other thing I can figure is that the sherry vinegar I was using is either 6 or 7% acidity--but I used maybe a tbs at most. Anybody out there able to offer some solutions? I've never had this particular problem before, and I'd like to avoid it in the future--kind of an expensive set of failures.

As much as I adore Dolin, their sweet is not a particularly good vermouth for Manhattans. Reserve final judgement til you can get Carpano or Cocchi sweet vermouth.

Not unusual at all for the home enthusiast, but it would be something of a hindrance for a working bartender to have to rely on that setup. Barspoons are another matter. You would think so but it comes up with much regularity in metric recipes. Hard to say without seeing the original though.

I generally assume that kind of measure means the recipe was either scaled to fit a different quantity than originally specified, or converted from metric measures. Though I have seen 1/3 oz on a jigger before, I think maybe the new OXO conical jigger? edit: comma abuse.

Good idea. Any thoughts on what kind? The usual suspects would be a good bet but it seems like the kind of thing that might be quite versatile as a bitters vehicle if you possessed some of the newer more novel flavors.

Oddly enough I bet that needs bitters of some kind. Aperol is kind of sweet, I'd guess that pairing it against gin alone is flattening it out a bit.