Tri2Cook

As much as I hate admitting it, I like peach Nerds. I've actually considered working them into a dessert... but so far I've been able to talk myself out of it.

There is definitely a taste difference between Diet Coke and Coke Zero. Coke Zero tastes much better to me and I really don't have issues with the word "diet" being on the label. If I have to choose between Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi without the Zero option, I actually prefer Diet Pepsi but Coke Zero is better than either of those. I've cut down on all of that stuff, diet or not, to the point that I've only had maybe two or three in the past few months (outside of coke or ginger ale for mixed drinks but I definitely don't use diet for that) so it's really not an issue anymore. One thing I have noticed since cutting back is that diet drinks taste pretty good when you're used to them but, when you've been off them for a while and then have one, they're actually not all that good no matter which one you're drinking.

I like to admire it from afar... because the LCBO doesn't carry it.

Does the White Zombie recipe I found online, rum, fresh lime juice, coconut milk and chile-infused simple syrup, qualify? I didn't find it overly sweet considering what's in it but I don't think it's going to be making many appearances at the serious cocktail awards either. Regardless, I liked the little kick of chile heat and flavor lurking beneath the surface. I used Havana Club Anejo Blanco for the booze.

On the rare occasions when flashbacks from my younger years convince me a microwaved frozen red hot burrito or two would be good, nobody is happy in the aftermath... I know they're not going to be what they were when we bought them during a gas stop on the way home after a weekend of whitewater kayaking. It's late in the evening. You're tired. You're hungry. You have to be back to work the next morning so you don't really want to take time to go to a restaurant. They were pretty tasty at the time. Not so much now but I still give in to the memory now and then.

Yeah, the LCBO is a strange critter. Not that I particularly want a bottle of Crystal Head, it's just strange they don't carry it with it being made in Canada. There's a product or three from Victoria Spirits and Okanagan Spirits I'd like to see available through the LCBO as well.

The velveting is a nice look but without a sprayer I still think I'd go with a mirror glaze or Kerry's idea to drizzle it with chocolate. With a little effort and different chocolates you could probably get somethng going on that resembles tree bark or something. You could also warm some of the apricot jam used in the dessert, lightly brush it all over the surfaces and grate some chocolate over it with a fine grater or rasp so you end up with a fuzzy look of sorts. Are you working from a book? If so, which one? Nothing to do with the finish. I'm just curious because I did it from the In Search of Perfection book a few years ago and when I got the Big Fat Duck book I noticed that some components are a bit different when it's not being adapted for the home cook. Another difference in the Big Fat Duck book is that it's accompanied by a kirsch ice cream that's not mentioned in the Perfection book. Edit: just had another thought. If you have some acetate or something, you could cut it to size, spread chocolate thinly over it and cover the sides and top of the frozen brick of Black Forest in it. Cap off the ends with chocolate-spread pieces of acetate cut to size and toss it in the fridge. When you're ready to serve it, just carefully remove the plastic and you'll have a shiny chocolate brick.

It's frozen when sprayed so you could just pour over a mirror glaze or thin ganache instead. Won't be too hard to get a thin layer that way. It won't have that velvet look but with a mirror glaze it would still look pretty fancy.

I'm a huge fan of different and experimental and it does make for more interesting tv. Having said that, think about your statement above from the perspective of the person eating the food. It's all well and good that they try something different and use cool techniques... but in the end, it's food. If it doesn't taste good, we won't want to eat it. If we don't want to eat it, it's effectively not food. As big a fan as I am of experimental cuisine, I'd rather have unexciting food that tastes good than cutting edge food that doesn't. I've made a lot of fun things work when experimenting that might seem cool but were inedible. Being creative in a culinary sense is doing those cool things and having it be something that tastes good at the end. I'm not sure I like the judge's message that being creative just for the sake of creativity is ok.

I agree. At .5% there is very little difference in the texture, it just tends to stay in place a little better but, like I said, for tarts and things I don't bother.

Looks tasty to me. Nice job. I've always thought the curd drooping over the sides of the slice barely hanging on looked good. Kinda inviting. Like "I better get to eating it before that escapes". I mentioned the gelatin as an option because it works and some prefer to keep clean edges. I only use gelatin if I need it to be free-standing for what I'm doing. If it's in some sort of container like a crust or something, I don't bother.

Okay, I'm a bit hesitant to even post this... but what the heck. Doing pork in the smoker today and wanted something cold and refreshing. So I shook 1 oz Boulard Calvados, 1.5 oz Jameson's, .5 oz fresh lemon juice and a couple muddled apple slices with ice, strained into a glass with fresh ice and topped it up with about 4 oz Magner's Irish Cider. I dubbed it Apple of My Irish (a cheesy drink deserves a cheesy name, right? ) and it went down nicely. I'm sure the experts could make some suggestions that would improve it (although they might also suggest pouring it down the sink ) and I welcome them but it was really just a spur of the moment thing. I debated over .5 oz of simple in the shaker and decided against it. Maybe I'll try one with it just for comparison but I didn't feel like I missed it.

I think the difficulty I'm having as a novice is understanding how the lines are dictated. Just for fun, I'll temporarily ignore words such as classic and traditional and stick with craft or not craft regardless of who created it or when. To say that a craft cocktail is defined by this degree of sweetness, that particular balance and the other ratio of spirit to other ingredients and if you make something that doesn't conform to that, no matter the care and ingredients involved, you have made crap, seems like a pretty narrow box to me. Granted, it could be a deep box, but narrow nonetheless. Maybe I'm completely missing the point of what's being discussed here? I'm ok with saying "If a drink is this, it is a craft drink" but I'm not sure I'm ok with the then-assumption that "if a drink is not this, it is crap". The only way I would be comfy with that is if we each build our own box but that completely kills the idea of defining a standard... which I assume is the point of all of this.

Thanks, that makes sense. I think that's where my confusion comes from. The sorting into boxes. That hadn't occured to me as an approach yet other than the boxes "I like this" and "I don't like this". I suppose the other boxes will begin to present themselves further along in the journey when "Do I like this?" is joined by "Why do I like this?". Discussions like this will save me some trouble when those boxes arrive.

I didn't think of it so much as softening it so they can drink it as much as softening it so they can learn to enjoy it. I'm not doubting there are plenty of people who took their first taste of a powerful Islay single malt and thought it was a thing of beauty... but I bet there are at least as many or more who were completely overwhelmed and wrote off the region, and maybe even the spirit, completely. If spreading it out a bit allows a person to begin exploring what's in there that otherwise would simply write it off as tasting like bandages then it seems to serve some sort of purpose. I have no way of knowing if serving that purpose had any part in it's creation but it certainly played that part for me. As a scotch neophyte, my first instinct when I opened my bottle of Laphroaig was to say money be damned and pour it down the drain. I'm glad that particular drink was created regardless of whether it's craft or crap. As I basically said before, I think that's pretty much where I stand on the whole subject. If you like something, does it really matter if someone else is looking down their nose at you because it doesn't conform to certain standards? Just for the record, I'm not being argumentive. I really am a novice when it comes to this stuff. I have my own ideas on how to approach it which are largely based on how I approach cooking other peoples recipes... do it their way once then do what you need to do so it tastes good to you. I don't pretend to know that it's the correct way to do this and I'm more than willing to learn otherwise if there is reason to.

Would something like Audrey Saunders Dreamy Dorini Smoking Martini with vodka, Islay single malt, Pernod and a lemon twist be considered crappy because the base spirit is vodka? I don't think any of the other ingredients particularly enhance the base spirit. What is there to enhance? I'd say just the opposite. That the base spirit, for some, enhances the other ingredients in that someone not accustomed to the powerful flavors involved can begin to appreciate the complexities without being overwhelmed. I realize that's somewhat case-specific and those who appreciate Islay single malts would rather have it sans the other stuff but I think it's nonetheless a cocktail crafted to solve a particular problem which, in my opinion, does it well. Feel free to firebomb the amateur if this is a silly example, I can take it.

I'll leave this debate to those who know much more than I. To borrow a slogan, I don't want drinks with good taste, I want drinks that taste good (to me). If they happen to conform to a standard described by the experts, great. If not, as long as I like it, I'll drink it anyway...

I'm not sure I agree that only the affluent or relatively affluent will be cooking from it but the price definitely ensures that I, unfortunately, won't have my nose in a copy any time soon.

I assumed the higher ratio of liquid in Linda's recipe was to accomodate the drier cheese used. I've done both, neither produces a sliceable result. Heston's is poured to desired thickness on a tray, chilled to set, then cut to size. Linda's is rolled between sheets of plastic wrap to the desired thickness then chilled and cut. Of course I didn't try freezing either of them as directed in the MC recipe (which didn't exist, at least not publicly, at that time) so I don't know if the carrageenan is helping get a result that can be grated or if it's doing something else and the freezing does that job. The carrageenan obviously plays a role or it wouldn't be in there, I'm just not sure exactly what part it's playing. Maybe the book explains it, I don't have it (yet). Feels almost like a conversation with myself when I see your signature... I'm Larry also.

Heston's recipe would use* 250g sherry, 8g sodium citrate and 425g comte. Linda's would use* 280g sake, 8g sodium citrate and 400g parmesan. Without doing any actual math, that's pretty close to the MC proportions. *Neither are the actual numbers given but both are the exact same proportions as the original recipes.

Sounds reasonable, especially when you consider Heston Blumenthal's version he made for his "perfect burger" in his second In Search of Perfection book didn't contain carrageenan at all. His recipe consisted of manzanilla sherry infused with garlic, peppercorns and fresh thyme, sodium citrate and comte cheese. Linda from the Playing with Fire and Water blog also did a version a couple years ago with sake, sodium citrate and parmesan. Both work fine as a "processed cheese slice" for sandwiches, melting on burgers, etc. without the addition of carrageenan. I'm wondering if the primary role of the carrageenan comes into play after the cheese is melted into the hot water and pasta.

Knowledge is never a bad thing. It's the people spreading their version of knowledge by telling the part of the story that backs what they want to say and ignoring the rest that get me grumpy. I'm not referring to those here who are simply discussing it from all angles, I'm talking about scare-mails and sensationalist news stories.

A standard curd is plenty thick enough for tarts. The shell keeps it in place and a little drooping once it's cut into isn't a big deal for a family-style meal or individual tarts. If it is a big deal (you're plating it behind the scenes and want to keep clean edges) and since you're doing one large tart, a very small amount of gelatin (around .5% by weight) will firm it up enough to keep it's shape when cut without messing up the texture. Bump that up to around 1% and it will hold it's shape without the tart shell and still not mess with the texture enough to be offensive... but I'd go lower since you're using it in a tart and it won't have to stand on it's own. You can use any Italian meringue recipe. There's nothing tweaked about his, it's just the standard item but looks like it was posted without proof-reading first.

Actually yesterday, El Dorado 6 year silver. Not sure how it stacks up in the world of white rums but, since that and Havana Club Anejo Blanco (which I already have) are the only local or semi-local options other than Bacardi and Captain Morgan, I thought I might as well give it a shot.

Similar point to what I started typing as a response when I saw this subject come up again... but presented in a much more constructive tone than where I was headed before deciding against it. Thanks for being the voice of reason.