Blether

At the weekend I put up a bottle of "Usquebaugh, or Irish Cordial" according to the 1828 edition of The Cook and Housewife's Manual by 'Margaret Dodds' (props to jackal10 for pointing the book out), which I also linked to on the Bitters thread. (the link should go to Google Books - the recipe starts at the bottom of P.449). A british pint (568ml) of Teachers Highland Cream, and a quarter of each of the other ingredients fitted nicely in a standard-size wine bottle with a re-sealing wire & ceramic/rubber stopper. I didn't have an orange or sugar in sugarlumps, so used the carefully-grated zest of an iyokan, an orange and orange-sized Japanese citrus with what I think will be a suitable flavour. I used soft brown sugar, and sultanas rather than raisins.

At the moment I have strong wholewheat, strong white, not-quite-so-strong white and white cake flours. The volume is in the first two, and the big bags sit out on the kitchen floor, under the 'eaves' of a table. They go quickly enough to be safe that way - the only flour I've ever thrown out, still in the bag, was some wholewheat that went off, stored too long in room heat (6 months). Once or twice I've tasted it coming and been able to finish a bag off (until recently I was ordering wholewheat, 4 x 5kg bags at a time). One thing I do to keep the varieties down is mix strong and cake flours for pastry and other things, typically 1/4 - 1/3 cake for an AP kind of flour, but it's pointless giving a ratio when flours themselves differ so much. There's no room in my own freezer, but I could see the attraction of having a stock of pastry flour in there.

I would say that, as long as you're making stock, broth and soup, there's no practical difference between the two in terms of the aspects you list. For these preparations, you most commonly want to keep a large, mainly liquid volume at a constant temperature near boiling. You're only putting a small amount of heat in. Ultimately, more conductive pot sides will dissipate more heat into the air, but in terms of what that'll cost you in the present day, my guess is it's minimal. You will probably want a stock pot that, clad or disk-bottomed, has enough on the base to ensure even heating, so you can saute or sweat a base for a soup easily. My understanding is anything with a minimum 2mm of copper, or 5-6mm of aluminium in the base will suit. Why worry how thick the sides are ? It seems to me your deciding criterion will be cost. Good straight gauge typically costs more, but if someone's giving them away, a straight gauge pot may be your answer. If you can accept some fuss in place of spending more, you might go with a cheap, thin straight-gauge pan, accepting that it'll not be so good for sauteeing / sweating and you might need to dirty another pan.

Hi, Prawn. I'm intrigued by the vessel on the right, with the coriander garnish. What is that wire frame all about ?

Thanks, Kim. This is the picture that did it for me - those ribs look like they must have tasted absolutely delicious. And I kinda like the name 'Fish Eye' too - let's hear it for screwtop merlot, Miles of "Sideways" be danged. I'm happy I found the seafood gratin recipe - finally something that approaches the technique that must have gone into a more sophisticated and completely gorgeous gratin (crabs, langoustine, scallop, fish) I ate in a restaurant on the Brittany coast, in the way back when.

Yeah, it's the photography on an empty stomach that hurts most.

Morning fresh 100% wholewheat from the breadmaker; scrambled old-fashioned-flavour eggs adulterated with the last spoonful or two of a pot of Marcella's Tomato, Butter & Onion pasta sauce, and a little grated parmesan: Mmm-mm.

Lemon entry, Watson, dear boy. Virtual plates and all that - I dunno, you guys seem determined to push me into temptation with your tales of distilling, but yes, whilst you can fractionally distil using a simple pot still and condenser, you do need a fractionating column / reflux setup as you say, to efficiently separate harder-to-separate combinations, which do clearly include vinegar; or just to efficiently achieve high concentrations. Just call me Job. The truth is I measured out the vinegar and boiled up the spices in it at the same time I started the topic It sounds like you went to a fun school - very Speyside of you. ETA: What I haven't said: I found a local source where I can get Sarson's white distilled neutral-character vinegar in an American pint (i.e. 3/4 of a pint) for ~370yen. I can get 900ml of basic 4% fruit or rice vinegar for ~290-350yen or so (fruit vinegar is cheaper). Wine vinegar - forget it. 350ml for like 500yen. There's an Italian product available for a bit less, but it has a floral character that I don't like. I can get a 750ml bottle of good, drinkable Spanish red or white wine with the sort of flavour I like, for 300yen. So I need to buy a still start making vinegar at home.

Another good suggestion. And the chutney's fine, thanks for asking: I read up some more, and I'll write up a couple of things I found, while I'm here. As long as the link persists, this picture from Edinburgh University shows the 'Boiling Point Diagram' for acetic acid dissolved in water. The top line (curved) is the 'dew point' and the bottom line (straight) is the 'bubble point'. The Bubble Point is the temperature at which the first bubble appears as the solution is heated; the Dew Point, the temperature at which the vapour condenses as it's cooled. Along the bottom is the 'mole fraction' - roughly speaking, the concentration (this picture shows the concentration of water rather than acid). The catch is that converting concentration by weight (e.g. 5% vinegar) to mole fraction, involves a formula with the form x /(x + y) and so it's not a linear relationship. By my calculation, some sample conversions run like this: 4.0% vinegar - 0.012 molefrac acid - 0.988 molefrac water 4.5% vinegar - 0.014 molefrac acid - 0.986 molefrac water 5.0% vinegar - 0.016 molefrac acid - 0.984 molefrac water 50% vinegar - 0.231 molefrac acid - 0.769 molefrac water 90% vinegar - 0.730 molefrac acid - 0.270 molefrac water 99% vinegar - 0.967 molefrac acid - 0.033 molefrac water (I'm resisting the urge to abbreviate mole fraction as 'mf', but feel free to snigger along). One way to use the diagram goes: say you have some 50% vinegar, and you want to know what will happen when you boil it. You look up the mole fraction of water (0.769) on the bottom of the chart. Looking up, you find it'll bubble from about 104.4C. Looking horizontally from that point on the bubble point line, you find from the dew point line that the vapour coming off at that temperature will have a mole fraction of about 0.865 water (close to 34% vinegar by weight). You'll be able to concentrate the vinegar, but 1/3 of what you're boiling off will also be vinegar. For 4% or 5% vinegar, all the information is in the bottom right of the bottom right box on the chart. It's hard to read at this scale, but it looks like boiling 4.5% vinegar will give off 'steam' that's itself about 3.5% vinegar. There's a good short summary of distillation principles here from Newcastle University (you might have known) and a more detailed scientific treatise here from the University of Rhode Island.. Beyond that, my science is too rusty for the game to be worth the candle. I know where I can get some home winemaking supplies, and in the back of my mind I suspect they'll be able to point me at some acetobacter

Just stay away from the Kool-aid

You sound like someone who'd know whose ear to bend in the liquor companies that are behind it, or in the state administration

Ooh, careful. Unless it's a very small duck, you won't reach max saturation in 36 hours. Think somewhere between 60 and 100.

Exactly. By that definition, all cocktails are illegal. And that statement about changing the alcohol content; Anything you do can only reduce the alcohol content, not increase it, so what's the problem? From the wording of the advisory, it's based on liquor law - as opposed to, say, health & safety. Isn't the idea that the abv stated on the bottle is somehow legally certified - so if I buy a legally-mandated-size shot of legally-monitored spirit that says 40% alc on the label, I know what I'm getting ? Watering down is a big no-no. Of course ultimately the bar is left to do the measuring. How does it work ? Is the manufacture and sale of optics legally restricted ? And how about measuring cups ? Is serving from them in front of the customer mandatory ? In practical terms, a bar could use a measuring system that splits the infusion made from one bottle into the 20 or 30 or how ever many shots come from a bottle in that jurisdiction, but my guess is the law related to serving liquor will outlaw it. Bars - not all bars, of course - have shown in the past they can't be trusted to come up with a fair measure, unregulated. One way around the problem would be to make your infusions so strong that a few drops or a teaspoon will flavour a whole glass of drink - then add it to a measured shot of spirit. In the end you're slightly over-serving spirit - but there's no control over what you charge for your flavourings and mixers. Workable for many infusions, probably not for all. Lastly, if you went the legal route there's a hole to pick in "... reacts with and changes the nature...", because of the difference between reacting and mixing: "reacting" having a specific meaning involving exchange of atoms between molecules, like acid + base = salt + water. But as someone said already, there's a whole world of trouble and expense between evading legal pressure and engaging through the courts.

Ah. My mistake for missing it. Thanks.

Thanks, Bruce I guess I'm trying to get a better handle on how much extra 4.5% vinegar I need on the one hand, and on the other to better understand the properties of these liquid mixtures. My 568ml / 631ml figures suggest that 11% more volume of the 4.5%, contains the same absolute amount of acetic acid as 5% vinegar. But as you say, if I simply boil it, I'll lose acetic acid as well as water. So if not 11%, how much more do I need ? 20% ? 50% ? I revised alcohol distillation. If I've got it right, you have a weak mixture of alcohol in water (say 5-15% or so) and you boil it. Around 78C it boils, and alcohol and water both begin to evaporate together. At first it's mostly alcohol. The mixture continues to boil, and the proportion of alcohol - both in the liquid and in the vapour - falls as the proportion of water rises. Once the mixture reaches 100C, that's a sign that all the alcohol has evaporated and the remaining liquid is only water. 'Azeotropic' and 'zeotropic' are a bit harder to get to grips with. Directly translated from Greek roots, 'azeotropic' means 'doesn't change on boiling' - the idea being that the mixture of (two) liquids stays at the same concentration even as you boil it - and it boils at a constant temperature, like a single liquid, even if the components have different boiling points. What confused me is the sources saying something like 'ethanol is azeotropic in water', as if it's a once-and-for-ell thing, regardless of what proportions you mix. So, for example, ethanol (alcohol) is azeotropic in solution with water at 96.4% concentration, with a boiling point of 78.1C. However much you boil it off, what is left will still be at 96.4%, and all the vapour will also be at 96.4%. Raoult's Law... I might try to wrestle with that. It'd be better if I did have a still in my kitchen - regardless of whether I wrastle with Raoult or not. Shalmanese, I'm starting to like your 'add some concentrated acid' idea

Thanks, that's a lot clearer, ScoopKW. What you're looking for is a 10" knife to be your main knife, you're not on a budget that makes USD500 a problem, and you like Japanese knives based on your experience with both them and European ones. Have you tried asking any of the online stores if they'll let you try-and-return ? Say, have them deliver three and you return two for a refund ? Also, have you read Chad Ward's An Edge in The Kitchen and Knife Maintenance and Sharpening ? Paulraphael, Hi. There's no question from me that the gyuto is anything other than what we call a "chef's knife" in the West. In the last week I had a first browse through an online store here, Gourmet Meat Shop. The first retail place in Japan I've seen list caul fat - but intriguingly for the present discussion, it was interesting to see the Japanese enthusiasm for exotic foreign products in the knives they're selling - the ham knives are Arcos (Spanish... well, Iberico pork and ham are such a big brand here); Global honesuki; Afinox (Spanish again) and Wenger (Swiss). They're generally running around 50 bucks. I find it heart-warming to see the Japanese making such a go of selling high-end kitchen knives in America - the cultural zeitgeist is with them and they're riding it beautifully. Over here, you see the mania for foreign designer goods - little Vuitton purses at USD200-500, for example, and reflect on the difference between cost, value and market pricing. Not so very long ago, Sheffield steel was the ne plus ultra of the domestic knife world (and others). There's craftsmanship there yet, of a sort - did you see this article on the disappearing art of the hand-made pocket knife ? German and Swiss kitchen knives were the thing in the UK, 20 and 30 years ago - no-one would buy a British knife, least of all the Brits - but in the 80's I found the Robert Welch knives I've linked to already in this thread and posted about before, which are a good quality stainless steel knife at an unfashionable low price. They're still making them, and I'm still happy with my choice. I don't have the 10" knife, but yesterday I finely shredded the peel & pulp of 6 lemons with the 8" chef's, and only noticed afterwards that in the process I'd taken a small sliver out the face of one of the fingernails on my follow hand (bad technique, of course) - maybe 1/6 of the nail thickness, in an area 1/8" x 1/16". That knife's sharp enough for me - sharpened last in the autumn and regularly steeled. Of course I'm only a regular domestic cook. These knives look and feel to me the way a kitchen knife should - so there's the aesthetic argument, too. That said, I wouldn't recommend them to ScoopKW, who already prefers his Japanese blades in use: it's well-discussed on eG, that the major general defining difference is the harder steel that holds an edge longer. There again, I wonder at the thought that a gyuto - in a thread where there's much discussion of Japanese knives oxidising and discoloring the food they're used on. Hasn't the West been making western food, and providing knives for it, quite a bit longer than Japan has ? Which doesn't make much difference to what's available today, but there are arguments for stainless over carbon-cored; and there are arguments for a softer steel over a harder one.

Thanks for saying so, purplechick. But "The Pope quote" ? Is there only one ? PS Cratinus. Tut, tut.

At least one source on the internet says that acetic acid forms n azeotrope with water - most others say it doesn't. I read the boiling point of pure acetic acid to be 118.1C. There's a tradition of boiling vinegars down in the kitchen - for Hollandaise, for example, and boiling vinegar is famous for the fumes it gives off. Reducing on a normal stovetop concentrates the flavour, but to what degree does it concentrate the acidity ? This is where I have a practical question. Can I reduce 4.5% Japanese vinegar (fruit, rice, apple, they all seem to be 4.5%) to a 5% (standard western distilled or wine vinegar) concentration ? If I could boil off water only, by boiling at 100C, I reckon 631ml of 4.5% vinegar would come down to 1 pint (568ml) at 5%. I want the vinegar for chutney-making. I'm not too concerned as I've winged it in the past, but I'm interested in understanding better.

Speaking seriously, I'm interested in your starting criteria - you want something bigger than an 8" chef knife, something with a bit of heft (did you say that ?), for dispatching poultry, something you do a lot. You also do a lot of pull-cutting, but you want a knife that'll be good for onion-chopping, too. Is that right ? You also said that you think 2 knives might be better. By 'dispatching', do you mean breaking down ? For me, pull-cutting is just something that needs a completely different edge from what you want for cutting up birds - a narrower edge angle - and for pull cutting you don't want a multi-profile blade (bigger angle on the rear part, for example). You also use the same part of the blade for chopping onions that you use for breaking bones - that rear section. Can you say a bit more about what you're doing ? I'm guessing you're cooking professionally. Is that right ? Where does the pull-cutting come in ? You said you're making do with your 8" chef's knife for poultry now - what do you do for all that pull-cutting ? What for other prep ? Several people have pointed out that a Japanese gyuto (chef's knife) isn't the thing for breaking up birds - it'll chip on bones, and typically it'll be light for its size. I find the naming of the gyuto interesting - literally 'cow blade' or 'beef knife'. Did the name arise because they were first produced in Japan for use on meat, or simply because they were western-style, and seen as coming from a meat-eating culture ? Or something else ? I haven't read up on that, but I believe that from the range of Japanese knife styles (as opposed to Japan-made western-style knives), as a dedicated blade for poultry most would choose a 'deba' - heavy, short (comfortable to turn this way and that) and sharpened for strength. Funnily enough - and it's a proverb rather than practical kitchen advice - there's a Japanese version of the saying "using a sledgehammer to crack a nut", that goes: 牛刀(ぎゅうとう)をもって鶏(にわとり)を割(さ)く - 'gyuto wo motte niwatori wo saku', or 'using a gyuto to cut up a chicken'.

There's a 19th century recipe for bitters here that are ready in 8 days after you assemble the ingredients.

Today I did a bit of poking around in Google Books. I've now edited the Wikipedia article on Marmalade, which read: to read - but I should probably keep the excitement to myself.

That's a gorgeous loaf and a couple of great pictures.

Sea trout and baby clam cream gratin: - served over saffron basmati, with broccoli cooked without oil, just fiercely enough to brown in places, and dressed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar & salt. I made a logistical mistake by cutting the fish pieces so thin they almost covered the base of the gratin dish, so the sauce mostly floated on top - I should have cut fewer, thicker pieces. Anyway - the baby clams purged of sand overnight in a covered bowl of salt water with some flour in it, in the fridge; a couple of tablespoons finely chopped onion fried in butter with a little black pepper, the clams and 140ml white wine added, and the clams lifted out as they opened. The fish cutlets poached in the liquid for 3 or 4 minutes, till done, and laid in the gratin dish. A very small butter roux, the wine liquor added, a couple of teaspoons French mustard, a small carton of cream, and seasoning of cayenne, S&P. The shelled clams scattered over the fish, the sauce poured over, warmed in the oven for ten minutes then dusted with parmesan and browned under the grill. Adapted from a recipe for langoustines in French Provincial Cookery. Sea trout / salmon gives no corals to mix into the sauce, hence the clams. They worked beautifully. A lovely dish, almost wasted on farmed fish.

It sounds like the Italians see you as Neapolitan.

One challenge with lasagna is keeping the pasta al dente: you pre-boil it, assemble the dish then bake it. If you make a big, deep dish of the stuff it might take half an hour or more to heat through. Meanwhile the pasta is getting softer and softer. Marcella Hazan decries the use of dried pasta at all for lasagna (though she accepts the dried in general), and instructs that you dunk it in cold water after boiling and bake for no more than... was it 15 minutes ? Recipes seem to differ on whether to mix the bechamel and ragu, or to layer them. For example: Marcella - combine, layer with grated parmesan; in "The Delights of Good Italian Cooking", published in English in Italy by Bonechi, editor Paolo Piazzesi chooses a recipe that layers ragu, bechamel and parmesan. The latter source also suggests variations: a lighter version (tomato sauce, diced mozzarella, a basil leaf); Campania (rounds of sausage, crumbled ricotta, sliced hard-boiled egg); Liguria (pesto, bechamel).