Tri2Cook

It's there but very tolerable. Exactly what I hoped you'd say. Going to have to try it.

Mugaritz and The Elements of Dessert are definitely on my list. I already preordered them on Amazon. Mugaritz because, well, it's the Mugaritz book. The Elements of Dessert because I really enjoyed (and still use) Frozen Desserts.

That puree is making me drool. How forward is the bitterness from the zest/pith?

The Liquid Cheesecake recipe is about 3x the sugar to cream cheese ratio I usually use in my cheesecakes but I haven't tried it yet so I don't want to say I don't like it.

This may be a dumb question but is it possible to over-flavor falernum? Can it be too strong? The reason I'm asking is, I have a batch of the Kaiser Penguin's rich falernum syrup in the fridge and I'm currently steeping a batch of rum-based falernum in the more traditional manner. Would (or could) using the rich falernum syrup as the sugar syrup added to the infused rum be overkill and result in something over-flavored to the point of being unpleasant? Could it possibly result in something nice with the combination of alcohol and water extractions of the aromatics? I don't mind occasional loss in the name of learning but I'd rather not mess up my falernum if somebody already knows or strongly suspects this is a bad idea.

Those reserved bottles at this end were apparently picked up. They've disappeared from the inventory. The current LCBO inventory on that is showing 17 bottles left but they're scattered around at 9 different stores. Glad you were able to find a few anyway.

The availability thing does make it difficult sometimes so lists of that type with substitutions would be kinda cool. I have a decent selection of rum at the moment but there are obvious gaps style-wise that can't be filled through the LCBO (and I'm sure there are redundancies that someone with more rum knowledge would weed out). As an aside, Ron Matusalem Gran Reserva just became available through the LCBO so I'm going to try to get my hands on one of those and I've been looking for information on the St. Vincent Sunset 169 proof they recently added but haven't found much so I'm letting that one pass unless I find out it's actually a good one to have around. I won't buy it just for using for infusions/falernum/etc.

That looks tasty! I've wanted to make those steamed buns, regardless of what I end up putting in them, for a while now. Still haven't done it.

Yep, they do. I was heading to work early one foggy morning running a little late and driving a little faster than I should have been. I had stopped at an accident but the people were fine so I hurried on my way. The police officer shot me with the radar, turned around, chased me down and wrote me a ticket. I said "by the way, there's a wreck on the bridge a couple miles back". He said "yeah, I know... that's where I was going". I deserved the ticket, it just struck me as odd that he was on his way to an accident scene and was taking time to shoot radar and chase people down.

I tend to favor gellan for those types of projects. Great flavor release, a nice mouth feel and much higher resistance to syneresis, including freeze/thaw induced, than I've found with gelatin or agar. Low acyl has the best resistance to syneresis but the texture of the gel is more like that achieved with agar, cutting it with some high acyl (in the 25%-30% range) improves the texture. That said, the required hold time may be a factor... people have been using gelatin for this purpose for a long time with good results but the item usually can't sit around for too long once thawed. As a final note, I've found that freezing an item completely in order to get the "velvet" look when spraying chocolate is not at all necessary. The exterior of the item does need to be very cold for it to work really well, but not "frozen solid". A light hand with the sprayer and keep it moving, the chocolate will set plenty quick enough on a well chilled item. I like to give it a light coat, chill it in the freezer again for a few minutes, and hit it with another light coat.

I would guess the latter. Add the ovaltine in place of the additional milk powder and then add the chocolate. I haven't made that one yet but that makes the most sense to me.with it being a variation of the milk crumb.

I've done the popcorn sherbet from Francisco Migoya's Frozen Desserts, the popcorn flavor came through really well but there's something about it being out of context (cold and not crunchy) that seems to make it more difficult for people to recognize than some flavors. I was getting more "popcorn?" than "POPCORN!" from tasters. Once revealed to those who weren't sure or had no idea, it was instant recognition "Oh yeah! I knew it was familiar!". It's a fun flavor to play with.

Are you asking if you can put agar "pearls" inside a spherification? If so, yes. If you're wanting to put a liquid sphere within another liquid sphere, I wouldn't be surprised if someone has done it but I haven't and I'm not sure what the best way to go about it would be. It seems like freezing a sphere in a liquid then doing a spherification with that would work initially but could lead to some syneresis issues once all of the liquids have thawed. Unless maybe one of the spherification methods is more freeze/thaw stable than the traditional sodium alginate version.

I'd be willing to say it's probably not due to overly high expectations. None of the recipes I've done so far were actually bad. I'd say they were all in the decent to good range... but they weren't great. Nothing I was running around telliing everybody to try or marking to do again soon. I found myself wondering more than once if they were really true to what they do at the restaurant. I agree with Kerry though that there are some interesting components among the recipes that could be tweaked for other uses.

The fiddleheads are finally emerging here, grabbed a few yesterday. Didn't get a picture but they were dinner tonight. There weren't many yet but it's raining tonight so they should really take off in the next day or two. Keeping my eye on the wild horseradish as well. I want to catch it early and get a bunch of the greens while they're still nice and tender.

It's the cost. Dried anything will try to get it's water back if given the opportunity. I've never infused with dried fruit so I'll leave the tips to those who have.

Yeah, I don't think they're all that hard to find. This one was a gift or I probably wouldn't have it but it looks kinda cool on the shelf. The pics on it are old cars, "Sage 1906" on one side and "Renault 1907" on the other.

Cool stuff in this thread, glad you revived it. Reminded me I have this... It works great but I don't actually use it. Pretty much just a dust collector. Edit: I uploaded the wrong pic, the one I meant to post doesn't crop the top of the box off. The only thing missing is what I assume is the brand name... DeLuxe.

I'm a few hours northeast (I.F.) and northwest (T-Bay) of those locations but so far I'm too chicken to sign on for a week of blogging. I'm at work fairly long hours 6 days/week so I'm not sure I could keep it interesting. Really looking forward to Kerry and Anna though.

Funny how that happens with the booze cabinet. I swear they breed in there, surely I didn't buy as many bottles as I seem to have now. I haven't been too happy with the Milk Bar recipes I've tried. They sound good on paper but never seem to deliver what I think they should. Anyway, look forward to seeing what you two get up to this week.

The St Germain never made it to this end of the province. I grabbed a couple bottles of the Chase Distillery Elderflower (which has disappeared from the stores at this end now as well so I'm glad I did) and I've been happy with it... but I've never had the St Germain to compare.

I like that one Kerry. With it being Cinco de Mayo, I decided The Gringo sounded kinda nice. Not bad at all. I skipped the salt rim, not a fan of those for any drink.

They have to be local, sustainable rocks. Roasted with salt, a squeeze of lemon and olive oil...

You provide the lactic acid acidulated malt aromatized bourbon and I'm in. I'm not gonna find that at the LCBO.

That's pretty much what I was thinking. Maybe even a food truck/cart or something. I've been involved in a startup, not as an owner, and I would have been happy doing 70 - 80 hrs/week. It would have been a nice break. But having owners with no previous restaurant experience basically meant put up or shut up.