Tri2Cook

This is the part to remember. Nobody at the event or funding the event will care about the reasons why if things don't go well. You can tell them "I only had x number of days due to blah blah blah..." but the only thing leaving the event if things go badly will be "the catering was terrible".

I think the concern is what will happen to the recipes if a short time down the road "we no longer require your services".

Interesting stuff Frederic but you don't have to convince me. I try a lot of things that some may claim I shouldn't but I don't sneak any of it by unsuspecting victims. If I make a dessert that includes tonka bean or cherry pit, even using amounts or methods generally considered safe, I let people know and I never use them at work, only in my personal experimenting. I won't be doing tobacco in booze mainly because I'm not sure it's of interest to me but also because of the warnings I've read in various places including your blog (which I check in on daily). I saw the post about the bitters when you originally posted it and don't doubt it's safe used as recommended. I'm more at odds with the tobacco itself than the safety issues. I'm not sure it's a flavor I'm interested in. The warnings just make the decision easier.

Tried a swizzle tonight that features Campari if you ladies aren't Campari-ed out at this point. I've been working my way through some tiki stuff and I'm not really clear on whether swizzles are tiki or not but, regardless, I liked it. Witchy Woman 1 1/2 oz Campari 1 oz white rum 1 oz orange juice 1/2 oz lime juice 1/2 oz orgeat 1 dash Angostura bitters Build on crushed ice. Swizzle.

Are swizzles tiki? Anyway, rum, citrus and orgeat made it close enough for me. The kick in the pants from Campari was the clincher on deciding to try it. Good stuff. Witchy Woman 1 1/2 oz. Campari 1 oz. white rum (I used Havana Club Anejo Blanco) 1 oz. orange juice 1/2 oz. lime juice 1/2 oz. orgeat 1 dash Angostura bitters Build on crushed ice. Swizzle.

42. This article from right here on eGullet may help with some of your specific questions. I grab a pan based on what I'm going to be putting in it and what I'm going to be doing with it (for example, the pan I grab may seem large for the amount I'm going to put in it if I'm, say, making caramel and know it's going to foam up when I add the cream to the hot sugar) so I can't be definitively helpful regarding naming the sizes beyond their actual size (2qt, 4qt, etc.). A "large pan" for a 2 cup recipe isn't going to be the same as a "large pan" for a 2 gallon recipe. I realize everybody knows that, my point is that it's a tough thing to write in stone.

Sounds tasty Katie. I'll have to keep that in mind the next time I fire up the smoker. Last night I went with the Leg Before Wicket... 2 oz gin (I used Broker's) 1/2 oz Dubonnet Rouge 1/4 oz lime juice 1/4 oz Campari Shake with ice, strain, lemon twist.

I'm far from being an expert but a summer drink I like with creme de cassis is the El Diablo. 1 1/2 oz tequila 1/2 oz creme de cassis 3/4 oz fresh lime juice Build in a highball glass with ice. Top with ginger ale, lime twist.

The agricole is a problem right now. None available in Ontario or Manitoba that I've been able to locate. A friend is going to be in the U.S. in the fairly near future and I'm recruiting her to see if she can find at least one agricole plus a good 151 and maybe a bottle of Zacapa 23 while she's there. She's driving so there will be no issues with bringing a 151 on an airplane... so we'll see how that goes. I can get the Zacapa 23 in Manitoba but at $80/750ml I'm going to wait to see if she can get it for me before I go that route.

If you're going to have a cooking club using those ingredients which is free for the participants you won't have any problem using up most of the ingredients in retail packaging before you have to worry about shelf life being an issue. The only exception I can think of would be transglutaminase. That one doesn't like to hang around for too long even under the best of circumstances and only comes in 1 kg packs. Even that one wouldn't be too bad if you plan your classes/meetings accordingly for a few weeks so that you have lots of projects that use it. I've had to replace quite a few of my personal ingredients at home that I thought would be quantities I'd never use up.

This is what I was wondering. I'm not really up on the retrograded starch technique (I understand how and why it works but haven't really worked with it) so this isn't coming from personal experience but I'd think that it would have the opposite effect of what you'd want the potatoes to do in a pureed soup.

**I meant to and should have prefaced my posts in this area with a disclaimer. Their are a lot of things not available through the LCBO and substitutions are going to be fairly frequent. My comments will be based on the drink as I made it with no intention of that reflecting on the original.** That's entirely possible. I didn't have coco lopez on hand but maybe I'll grab one for my adventures in tiki land. I'm already going to have to do enough substituting with spirits so I probably need to keep everything else as close as possible to original. I don't have any of the options you mentioned other than the Kraken available in Ontario and I don't even have that one in my cabinet. Maybe I should add it. Because I'm pretty new at this, I'm going to list the rums I have in my cabinet at this time and any suggestions regarding substituting will be greatly appreciated as I continue on with this. If I make a substitution and something else would have served the drink better I'll go back and try it again. El Dorado 5 year El Dorado 12 year El Dorado 6 year Silver Havana Club Anejo Blanco Havana Club Anejo Reserva Havana Club 7 year Dry Appleton Estate V/X Appleton Estate Extra Appleton White Mount Gay Extra Old Flor de Cana 7 year Doorly's XO Gosling's Black Seal Pusser's British Navy Angostura 1919 Wray & Nephew Overproof

Last one of the weekend. Beach Cruiser 1 oz Zaya Gran Reserva 12 Year Rum (don't have it, used Doorly's XO for no particular reason) 3/4 oz Fernet Branca 1/2 oz falernum 1 oz Coco Lopez cream of coconut (I used coconut milk and didn't miss the extra sweetness) 1 oz orange juice 1/2 oz lime juice Shake with ice and strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with 4 mists of Bittermens Elemakule Tiki Bitters. I didn't find this particularly exciting. I like the Doorly's, Fernet Branca would be good squeezed out of a sweaty sock and the Tiki bitters are really nice but, while the overall drink sat well above something I wouldn't drink, it sat well below outstanding for me. I think upping the lime may have helped it for my taste, maybe not though.

Aperol is definitely worth getting. Not all that long ago I was deciding which one or two of those I wanted to go with. Now I can't imagine not having all three plus Fernet Branca in the cabinet.

Might give that one a try myself but it will have to be with the Extra or the VX. The Reserve was skipped over at this point in the interest of getting more variety in my cabinet.

Nothing wrong with that twist. I usually just twist it over the glass and drop it in with no attempt at pretty or sometimes just twist it and toss it in the trash. I haven't tried the Romanza, how does the bitterness stack up against something like the Negroni or the Eeyore's Requiem? I've discovered I like Campari-heavy drinks after the initial shock of the first time I had one passed and I really paid attention to what I was tasting. Have you tried the Jasmine (gin, cointreau, campari, lemon juice) yet? It balances the bitterness nicely and tastes remarkably similar to grapefruit juice.

Today's fun... Hawaiian shirt optional: Horse Tonic 1 1/2 oz dark rum (I used Flor de Cana 7 to try to bring back some of the missing molasses since I don't have the Cruzan) 1/2 oz Cruzan Black Strap rum (again, had to sub Gosling's Black Seal) 3/4 oz lemon juice 1/2 oz ginger syrup 1/4 oz falernum 1 egg white Dry shake then shake with ice. Strain into a glass with 1 oz of soda water. Finish with a pinch of espresso and an orange twist. Probably not really a tiki drink but it's rums, citrus and syrups so I called it close enough. Tasty. Next time I might try replacing the pinch of espresso with a dash or two of the coffee bitters I picked up from House Made just for fun. Thurston Howl 1 oz Appleton Estate V/X rum 1/2 oz VSOP brandy (I used E&J) 1/2 oz Tangueray Rangpur gin (can't get that here, I used N2O cavitation to infuse regular Tanq with lime zest and called it close enough) 2 oz pineapple juice 1/4 oz grapefruit juice 2 oz papaya nectar (I used fresh papaya juice) 1/4 oz cinnamon syrup 1/2 oz ginger syrup Shake with ice, pour into a glass. Now we're back in tiki land. I really want to make a Jet Pilot but that means going with Bacardi 151 or not fueling the jet.

Tonight I did... Monkey Suit 1 1/2 oz Mount Gay Eclipse rum (Mount Gay XO) 1/2 oz Cruzan Black Strap rum (Gosling's Black Seal is the best I could do here) 1/2 oz Firelit Coffee Liqueur (used 3/4 oz of the coffee syrup I made this am) 1/2 oz simple syrup (omitted) 1/2 ripe banana 2 dashes Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters Blend with 1 cup crushed ice for 30 seconds. A bit dark and heavy (if that makes sense, I'm kinda new to the tasting notes thing) for what I generally think of as a tiki drink but that could be due to all of the substitutions involved. The coffee and banana play nice together and making Mount Gay taste bad doesn't seem to be an easy thing to do any time. I liked it. Missionary's Downfall 1 oz white rum (El Dorado 6 year silver) 4 whole fresh sprigs of mint 1/2 slice fresh pineapple (used 2 oz pineapple juice since the pineapples available were junk) 1 1/2 oz fresh lime juice 1/2 oz peach brandy 1/4 oz simple syrup Strip mint leaves from sprigs and discard stems. Place leaves in blender with all other ingredients and 14 ounces of crushed ice. Blend until smooth. Light on the alcohol for a tiki drink but really, really (really!) refreshing. Stop by any time you're in the area Matt but it's a long way to travel for drinks you could probably make better at home. I'm not in a prime area for ingredient access.

My reading comprehension has apparently abandoned me for the evening. Thanks for the clarification.

I don't know what the next trend among the influential or the dessert world at large will be. My next step is taking the things I'm learning from immersing myself in the world of cocktails and applying them to my desserts. I don't mean mimicking a cocktail in a dessert (though that can be fun too), I mean the flavor combinations (like when gin, cointreau, campari and lemon juice tastes remarkably similar to grapefruit) and balancing flavors without something to hide behind. Things like how twisting a piece of citrus zest over the glass or a tiny dash of bitters or simply rinsing the glass with something before putting the drink in can have a surprisingly large impact on how the drink is perceived. The variances in the cocktail world quite often come down to subtleties that seem like almost nothing on paper but make important differences in the nose and on the palate. I've become deeply interested in the cocktail world and it's gone far beyond what I originally intended but the original intent remains and that was to see how I can use it in other aspects of what I do.

I'm not with you on that one. I know a person who owns a small restaurant. She has a cook and one server working at any given time. During one of those shifts, her daughter is the server. She does the same work as the other servers, gets the same pay as the other servers and has the same living expenses as the other servers. Why is she less deserving of a tip based entirely on her being the owners daughter?

Going to do a weekend of extreme tiki-ness. Bought lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruits and (sorry gang but the pineapples at the only local store were not nice) a container of pineapple juice yesterday. Last night I made 5-minute falernum and used the same method to make pimento dram. I also made orgeat and grenadine while I was already making a mess. Got up really early this morning and made simple syrup, demerara syrup, honey syrup, vanilla syrup, ginger syrup, cinnamon syrup and kona coffee syrup before work. I have a pretty nicely stocked cabinet for a small, remote town in Ontario, Canada and a decent selection of rums. The only thing spoiling the fun is the lack of a 151 rum. The only one available is Bacardi. Nothing I can do about that but I'm not going to let it stop me from playing. I haven't invested in tiki mugs or bowls yet so pictures will not follow.

I think I remember a thread about some people getting arrested because they refused to pay a service charge? Possibly. I think of an automatic service charge the customer is aware of up front and a tip as two different things though. An automatic service charge is basically just higher prices in a halloween costume. A voluntary tip based on the customer's satisfaction or lack thereof is done by choice. I've very rarely encountered a server that earned a zero tip, I rarely come across a server that earns a reduced tip... but when it happens I have the option to let my tip do the talking.

The literal answer to that question is, of course, that it is always permissible not to tip. They won't stop you at the door to take it from you. As for when not tipping is warranted, that's a personal decision. Nobody can decide that one for you. In most cases I tip on effort. Sometimes a new server makes mistakes that someone who's been doing it a long time might not even though they're putting way more effort into taking care of you than the more experienced person. Sometimes even the experienced person makes a mistake, they're human. How they react to being asked to correct the mistake is a factor for me. I never punish the server for kitchen mistakes unless the server gives me grief over correcting the problem. Really, the only thing that can cause me not to tip at all is a bad attitude... and even that has to be offensively bad, not just obvious they'd rather be somewhere else. They don't have to like being there, they just can't make it clear they don't like me being there.

I rarely fall victim to fearmongering but I've read enough scary stuff on tobacco infusions that I'm not brave enough to mess with it. I'm not claiming to know for a fact that there are dangers and I would never take it upon myself to tell others what they should or shouldn't try (I play with tonka beans and cherry pits more often than some might say is wise) but I don't think I'll be doing anything with tobacco in alcohol anytime soon. I'm not sure if I'd even like it anyway, I've never smoked a cigarette, cigar or pipe or chewed tobacco in my entire life.