Tri2Cook

I wish I could find a way to capture that fruity complexity while dialing back the heat so that I can use it in things I make for others who won't try it because of the heat level. I've been trying for years and haven't managed it. Apparently the Cooking Issues guys did but I don't have (and probably never will) a rotovap. Fresh habaneros are so incredibly tasty if you can focus past the heat. I wonder if the low heat varities that have been developed lose their flavor along with the heat? I've been building tolerance my entire life so it takes some pretty hot stuff to bother me too much. My dad is a spicy food fanatic and was probably putting tabasco sauce on my pacifiers when I was a baby. I remember using hot sauces and eating hot peppers before I was old enough to start school. I also went through an extreme chilehead phase with all of the super hot extract sauces and stuff but have since decided that it's really pointless without the flavor and don't do the heat-for-the-sake-of-heat thing anymore. I grew some red savina habs a while back and those were somewhat ridiculous but the flavor was worth the heat. I have noticed that my tolerance seems to follow the "use it or lose it" rule. If I go a long time without eating anything too spicy, when I break the fast I'm more wimpy than when I'm eating the spicy stuff regularly.

And just to prove that miracles can happen, I now have two bottles of Luxardo Maraschino in my cabinet here in remote, small-town northern Ontario thanks to the persistence of an employee at the local LCBO. He located the vintages stores down south that have a few bottles in stock and kept at them with emails until one agreed to send a couple bottles of the very limited stock available. I have a slightly guilty feeling that I won't be very generous about breaking it out when friends are over for drinks.

Fair enough and what I said wasn't intended to sound insulting. It was my, possibly badly worded, way of saying that I understand where you're coming from and that I don't feel all of the bashing is deserved. However, "depriving them the thrill of discovery" makes the assumption that people in general are interested in discovering anything. In some settings, it's pretty much a given that people are looking to be surprised and thrilled. In most settings, they are just there for a decent meal. Outside of those limited settings, following your line of reasoning requires you to be able to say... I envy the fact that your are in a position to make that stand and I'm glad it's working for you. I'm not enough in demand to be able to dictate that I will do it my way or not at all. So I do what I have to do on the job and get my creativity and attempts at giving others the thrill of discovery out of my system through private catered dinner parties and things like that. Regardless of all that, I enjoy your contributions to these forums and I'm a fan of the style of work you do. I was hoping there would be more representation of that style for the show than just two or three people. I hope you find the place that will allow you to do what you want to do the way you want to do it.

Hmmm. Looks like nobody had much to say about the wedding cake/bake sale episode. I don't really have much to say about it either other than I kinda get where Seth's at food-wise. His personal maturity is his own thing to work out (refusing to attempt the quickfire because "I knew I was going to lose so I decided to just have fun" is ridiculous) but in regards to his cooking maturity... been there, done that. It can be difficult to have a shot at showing people what you can do and keep the self-discipline and constraint to give them what they probably want instead. The judges have a habit of falling back on "it's not our job to educate" but it's not always a matter of education. Sometimes it's more a matter of "I'm really excited that I can do this" or "I learned this really cool thing that I want to share" that pushes aside the little voice saying "yeah, it's cool but the people you're cooking for don't care that it's cool". I think there are a very limited number of cooking forums where cool factor is an expected part of the show and most of those are built on the reputation of a chef already known for their cooking skills even without the cool factor. Trying to push cool factor in where it's not looked for has at best a 50 - 50 shot at being well received unless you can accomplish it without straying too far outside of the boundaries of what the customer expects. It took a few kicks in the ego for me to accept that... and I'm not working at the level he's working at. He'll figure it out.

I used to use the TGRWT and Royal Foodie Joust challenges to give me a kick in the pants. Having to create something from ingredients or a theme determined by others (sometimes with an intentional nasty little twist ala Chopped) that you are going to post publicly alongside many other creations can light the fire during the worst kitchen blues. Those challenges seem to have fallen into not happening very often these days. I know from reading through the pastry forum index and checking out old posts that some pretty cool challenges used to take place here on eGullet. They were before my time here but it would be awesome to see that sort of thing make a new appearance.

The "Sweet Sunrise Honey Vinegar" that is apparently made and aged the same way as the maple vinegar sounds very interesting as well. I'm really glad you posted this Kerry, I'm going to check some of those vinegars out.

According to the link in the original post, you can buy it (as well as several other interesting sounding vinegars). It's apparently just bottled under a different name now. Roger's Maple Syrup Vinegar... "Formerly known as Northern Whisper Maple Syrup Vinegar".

Thanks Matt, I remember you suggesting that in another thread you were helping me out in (the starter home cocktail bar thread). I'd already planned on taking that suggestion. The local LCBO doesn't stock it but one about 5 hours away does so I should be able to arrange it. This was really more just a curiosity thing as to what I might end up with if I tried it. I felt pretty confident when asking that it was a silly question but once I started thinking about it, I had to ask. I'm sure it would be something entirely unlike anything resembling rye (except maybe in the most literal sense that it might pick up the actual flavor of the grain) but curiosity gets the best of me sometimes (ok, way too often).

This may be the dumbest question ever asked in the eGullet cocktail forum but, being the booze amatuer that I am, along with having a strong willingness to embarrass myself in the pursuit of knowledge, I'm going to ask anyway. Is there anything that can be done with infusions that might help those of us in places that don't have access to American rye? Could something be done with a whiskey, for the purposes of mixing in cocktails, that might bring some of the characteristics of an American rye to the mix without causing other problems as a result? I'm assuming it couldn't be as simple as dropping some crushed rye in a jar of whiskey for a little while... but could it?

A boozed-up pflaumenkuchen might be tasty but that would be baking. No baking or ice cream... hmmm. Plum jello shots? Mousse? A parfait with layers of chopped boozed plums, cream whipped with a touch of blue cheese and a little sugar and something crunchy? I don't know, I've never had boozed plums.

You two are awesome. You've done more cooking the past 24 hours than I've done (outside of work) in the past 2 weeks.

I really liked the elimination challenge theme. I was a bit disappointed at most of the takes on it. I hated the format of "2 minutes to shop from whatever happens to be left behind the bar". But I understand that entertaining the tv audience is of greater concern than culinary excellence so that's what we get. I think I'm going to create some cocktail-inspired desserts just for fun.

Jen C. and Blais. Richard because his food is that blend of upscale and fun that I enjoy and Jennifer because her food was really refined and interesting the majority of the time.

Kerry Beal has that one as well. She did a demo on panning with it HERE.

Sprinkling some nuts on top shouldn't have taken them from perfect to way undercooked, all else being equal. If your batter, oven temp and bake time are consistent, the results should be consistent within a small margin... nuts or no nuts. If you were adding so many nuts that it was basically a thin network of cake holding nuts together, that would be different, but 1/3 c. of nuts sprinkled over a 10x11 area shouldn't cause any problems.

Very interesting, some tasty sounding creations. I love doing online challenges, I frequently participate in TGRWT and used to do the Royal Foodie Joust when it was running, but I have a lot to learn in the cocktail world before I'm going to even attempt to create something and put it out there for all to see.

In Frozen Desserts Francisco Migoya colors a basic macaron base with purple food coloring and fills them with cassis sorbet and almond ice cream. They're tasty and those flavors could be easily translated in buttercreams or an almond buttercream and a cassis jelly.

Finally watched it late last night. The drama is building to be an annoyance, hopefully that will mellow with age. I kinda wish they'd let them do their signature dish without the twist in the initial quickfire just to get some sense of what they do unhindered by entertainment value but it wasn't a nasty twist or anything. Shouldn't have thrown anyone calling themselves pastry chef off too much. I wasn't surprised to see Seth and Heather H. in the top 3 after seeing their desserts. I was a little surprised about Zac but I don't doubt the judges call on it. If the drama doesn't overwhelm, I think I'll enjoy this.

I haven't seen the episode yet but the blowtorch on the side of the bowl can help a buttercream come together if it's looking grainy from too-cold butter incorporated too quickly.

This has been one of the most helpful threads on egullet for me. I've learned quite a lot in the cooking and pastry forums but I'm comfy in those departments anyway, this cocktail stuff is a new venture for me. This thread has made me completely rethink my approach to building my home cocktail bar. Things that I thought I needed/wanted have been re-thought, brands marketing made me think I needed/wanted have been re-evaluated. To make things even better, I may possibly be getting my hands on a couple bottles of maraschino. It's currently showing in stock in some of the vintages stores and the local store has agreed to try to get some sent in for me.

Very nice chocoera. It's kinda interesting watching this thread evolve, that particular glaze was posted in this very thread by Rob (gfron1) almost exactly 3 years ago and now it's been discovered again by someone new to inspire people once more. It's a fun glaze to play with and very forgiving. If it doesn't turn out the way you want, you can pretty much just lift it off and do it again. Although requiring more expensive ingredients and being a little less forgiving to work with, I personally like the taste of dejaq's glaze more than the gelatin/cocoa glaze but it is still a very nice glaze. Kerry: green olive macarons? Seriously? That's f'ing awesome!

I was pretty sure I understood what you were going for here but I've been wrong plenty of times before. There are some excellent suggestions here from people who are much more knowledgeable in the area of cocktails than I am, I just happen to work around a lot of early 20's women who are always talking about their wild nights/weekends/parties/whatever and the things they like to drink are often brought up in those discussions. As far as more suggestions, I made up a pitcher of gin-gin mules at a staff thing this summer and they liked that one. And it's not a sugary "girlie" drink, I love 'em.

I really enjoyed the Paris episode. I like Bourdain and Ripert offered a nice counterbalance but most of all, I got some inspiration from the underlying message. I've felt in a cooking rut for a while now. I do what we do at the restaurant which isn't mine and offers very little in the way of creative freedom. I've kinda backed myself into a corner with my catering. People want the "molecular" style wow factor stuff (which is still relatively unknown in the remote area I live in so it hasn't become the target of scorn yet) no matter what other menus I make available. Lately (the last year or so) I've been feeling an overwhelming desire to make a sideways jump into a completely different lane. What I saw in this episode was a lot of people doing just that... successfully. Hmmm.

I understand where you're coming from but he didn't say he wanted to teach, culture or convert, he said he wanted to "wow". I'm not saying early 20-something women don't or won't appreciate a well made classic cocktail, I'm saying that the majority of them are unlikely to go for those when they're drinking with their friends. He can mix a couple of aviations if he has a young lady over for a visit and it's very possible she'll enjoy it. But if he asks her if she'd like another aviation or another bubblegum, I know which answer I'd put my money on 95% of the time. Most women aren't impressed because you can make them something cool, they're impressed if you can make them something they like.

I think maybe the serious cocktail folks are forgetting what college party girl's actually tend to drink. If we're talking about some serious cocktail ladies, the classics are fine. Most college girls at the bar that don't drink beer are ordering the sweet drinks with the risque names. "And for me, a Screaming Orgasm On The Beach with extra sugar on the rim, YUM!"