Tri2Cook

No reason not to. The "reverse" is better, in my opinion, in pretty much all cases. Even where calcium content of the base isn't an issue, it still gives the flexibiliy of a much longer hold time so you're not trying to get them done at the last minute.

Yeah, I saw that. Just keeps getting better, doesn't it?

Two guys that've been working there forever and think they're the final word on what people will or won't buy. They stock the Barrel Select and Double Barrel Reserve so it's not impossible that others will show up... but the Confederation Oak and John's Private Cask never did. It's really not a big deal if they don't show up but I might check them out if they do. Especially the Port Wood. Actually, it's not always the local guys to blame though. Some things just never make it to this end at all, even in the bigger towns.

The Forty Creek Copper Pot hasn't made it this way yet, I'm kinda watching for it but really hoping the Port Wood makes it. I'm also keeping one eye on the Lot 40 to see if it makes it to this end of the province.

I'm not even going to put this one here except as a link. I heard about it existing and thought "it has to be fake". Apparently not.

This year's cookies... Mostly kept it simple. Orange walnut biscotti, bacon gingersnaps with maple glaze (thanks Kerry, they were a hit with pretty much everybody that tried them), lemon poppy seed with lemon glaze, peanut butter, brown butter chocolate chip (dark and white chips by request), vanilla bean (basically a soft, chewy sugar cookie with a couple vanilla beans scraped in the dough and rolled in vanilla sugar before baking), hot chocolate (soft, chewy chocolate cookie with cayenne in the dough, rolled in cinnamon sugar before baking), toasted oatmeal cashew and Mr. Hankey gingerbreads. [Moderator note: This topic is rapidly approaching a size that our servers won't handle it efficiently, so we've locked it. There's a fresh discussion of holiday cookies, here: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/146110-christmas-cookies-redux/]

Tried the Tabonga & Jerry tonight. A tiki-twist on the Tom & Jerry. Tom & Jerry batter, Cruzan Black Strap rum, brandy, lime juice and falernum topped with hot water and garnished with grated nutmeg and a cinnamon stick. I enjoyed it. Not as rich as the original but tasty on a cold night.

I got a nice, big, heavy granite mortar and pestle. I'm looking forward to using it.

I'm going to disagree on that one. After comparing results using tempered and untempered chocolate, I've never bothered. I didn't see any benefit in the final result that supported it being necessary. In addition, I had increased incidents of the cooler chocolate being cooled further when the gas was added and plugging the outlet of the whipper. I'm not saying you shouldn't do it if you prefer, I'm just saying it's not a "must".

Of the 20th Century variations I've tried, I liked the 21st the least by a wide margin. I thought the 19th with bourbon and dubonnet rouge replacing the gin and lillet blanc was tasty and I like the original but there was something about the 21st that was completely disconnected from the other two in my non-expert opinion. The absinthe rinse didn't work for me in it and I didn't particularly enjoy it overall. That's not to say it's not worth trying, it might be someone elses favorite of the bunch.

Toss a few things in the smoker, taste them and think about what you could do with them. I cut some oranges in half and tossed them in to smoke while I was smoking some chocolate and marshmallows. I had a plan for the chocolate and marshmallows (aerated chocolate and toasted marshmallow ice cream), the oranges were just out of curiosity. I used them to make a smoked orange curd. I made a ganache with 70% chocolate, basil-infused cream and smoked tomato puree. I used it on an olive oil cake. Those experiments were tasty, some I've tried were less so... but they were all fun.

Made 'em. They are tasty. I took a couple liberties with the recipe. That's unusual for me, I usually do recipes as written the first time then decide if I want to make changes but I suppose I've made enough ginger cookies over the years to make an exception. The changes were small, I added a 1/4 tsp black pepper, replaced 1/2 tsp of the 1 1/2 tsp of salt with smoked salt and skipped rolling them in sugar pre-bake. Instead of the sugar roll, I drizzled them with a maple glaze after they cooled. I'm not opposed to rolling in sugar, I just have a couple other cookies I make that have that and wanted something different.

I melt the butter in the cream when I heat it and add them together.

I'm supposed to be stirring my sugar while it's coming up to temp/color? I give it a stir or two until things are melted and cooking and maybe a swirl or three once it starts coloring. Other than that, I don't do any stirring until the cream goes in. If I'm doing it wrong, I don't want to know... 'cause that time while the sugar is cooking is spent getting other things done.

That bacon-rind wrapped roast looks awesome. I have some vac packed this-season's moose loin in the freezer, I'm still deciding what I want to do with it.

Might have to give that a shot too.

What was the verdict on those? I've been looking for something as a changeup to the ginger cookies I usually do.

Seriously. With a grain of salt on the side.

Ah well, worth a try anyway. I like the addition of the bourbon. [Moderator note: This topic continues in Help for a Couple of Cocktail Novices (Part 2)]

Which recipe did you use Kerry? I like this one. I use the Luxardo and I can't get a cask proof bourbon here so I used Knob Creek. At 100 proof, it's as close as I can get on that one.

I've never tried it with CO2. I've tried it with and without the oil and with substituting cocoa butter for the oil. I think the best result texturally is with the oil. I sometimes add additional flavor by using roasted peanut oil or other oils (I used a chili oil once to get aerated hot chocolate which was tasty). It works pretty well without a vacuum. As mentioned above, the result is denser and less bubbly but it's still obviously aerated and lighter than a chunk of chocolate. The trick to getting the best result without a vacuum is to get it chilled fast. Have your container in a tray of ice or an ice bath and get it in the fridge as soon as you're done spraying. The less time it has to collapse, the better the result. I usually use a single chocolate, I blended the two in the case you mentioned because the smoked 70% I was using was a bit heavier on the smoke than I wanted. I was trying to mellow it a bit and add a touch more sweetness as well so I added milk chocolate until I got what I wanted. I've never bothered tempering the chocolate and I've never bothered being precise about canister temps. I toss it in a hot water bath (I just use straight hot water from the tap) for a bit before filling then I dispense it quickly because sometimes the N2O causes some of the chocolate to harden and plug the dispenser if you mess around too long.

Of the things I've tried, only 4 have managed to make that list... Liver - from any animal in any form, disguise it as you will, I can't get it down. I've tried over the years. I've wanted to like it. I don't. Chitlins - singularly the worst thing I've ever put in my mouth. Made two attempts at it in the past. There won't be a third. Tripe - only tried it once in menudo gifted to me from a friend. Tried the broth/sauce and thought it was awesome, got a bite of the tripe and the rest went in the trash. Sea Cucumber - strictly a textural thing. I could probably learn to eat it but don't feel the need or desire to. I've never met a fruit or vegetable I didn't like. Not saying one doesn't exist, I haven't tried everything out there, but so far I like them all.

If you just want to make bendy shapes, something as simple as a gelatin/agar combo in most curd recipes will do the trick. If it's too brittle when cold, letting it warm just a bit usually solves the problem. If you're wanting to do loops and twists and all that, it usually takes some playing around when you change components. Doing the Alinea ganache with white or milk chocolate still works, I just go a bit lower on the cream. Eliminating any form of chocolate from the formula is when the fun begins as far as figuring out what to do to make it work. The hydrocolloid bill in the Iuzzin flexi-curds is fairly substantial (carrageenan, gellan, agar and LM pectin) but it's easier to manipulate flavor-wise because it doesn't rely on chocolate as a structural component. It can be gently twisted, curved, carefully knotted, folded... but it won't support itself enough for loops and larger arches. I went through an excited phase of playing around with this stuff soon after seeing the Alinea version several years ago but I haven't messed with it much in the past few years. I'm hoping somebody that's been working with this technique more regularly and recently chimes in to gve you some more specific information.

It's not really as simple as that unfortunately. The variations generally require more modification that just switching the flavor components depending what you're working with and the result you're after. For example, Johnny Iuzzini's Meyer Lemon Flexi-curd and Caramel Flexi-curd both both use almost identical ingredients as far as the hydrocolloids are concerned (the only difference being the lemon uses iota carrageenan and the caramel uses kappa) but the amounts of each ingredient are different for a pretty close to same-size batch. I once tried doing a variation on the Alinea flexi-ganache by replacing the chocolate with cocoa butter so that any chocolate note would take a way-in-the-back seat to the other flavors involved. I basically followed the recipe exactly wth that one switch and flavored the cream by infusing it with mint. I did get a flexible result that tasted purely of mint but it required some tweaking of the cocoa butter amount and still wasn't the same texture as the original. It would bend but it wouldn't actually twist and loop without cracking or breaking. The recipe you posted is the one from the Alinea book and I still maintain that it's incorrect though I've seen no official correction for it. The amount of cream is way too high in that recipe and the result is very soft and difficult to work with. Adjusting the cream down to equal the weight of the chocolate or even a bit less works much better as far as shaping goes.

Me too.