Tri2Cook

Ok, back from running errands (completely forgot everything is closed today) and I'm beginning to get the point here... this isn't going to be easy. I'll put my projects on hold for a day or two and cruise that "good enough spirits" thread. I don't plan to dig so deep with this that I start blending spirits and buying multiples for taste comparison so I'll read the thread and go with a "majority rules" thing based on what I read and the flavors I want to work with. Thanks for the help.

I'm going to be working with vodka, rum and bourbon. Possibly a brandy as well, haven't decided for sure on the base for one idea at this point. I rarely drink cocktails, almost never drink anything straight, so I don't really know what I like when it comes to some of this stuff. I'm more of a beer and wine person and even those are infrequent these days. I used to drink Maker's Mark years ago, haven't drank vodka since the teen "drink whatever we could get our hands on" years and never really got around to a rum stage. I know this leads to the question "why am I even doing this then?" and the short answer is... because I want to. The longer answer is that I have friends that are very into cocktails and I want to spring some surprises on them.

Pulling this one to the top again. The answer is probably already in here somewhere but I don't have time this morning to read through 8 pages and I plan to start a couple of projects today. What I'm wondering is: is there any reason to use top shelf booze for infusing or will the things that make them top shelf be overshadowed by the infusion? Obviously if using less expensive bases gives good results that would be preferable, especially since some of what I'm doing is experimental and may not work out anyway, but I don't want the ones that do work to be undrinkable crap because of the base either.

Yeah, I smoked some fresh tomatoes, pureed them, filtered the puree to remove excess water, infused cream with lemon thyme and used it along with some glucose and butter to make a ganache with 70% chocolate. I didn't use it for truffles though, I used it with olive oil cake. It was good but not so much a vehicle for the tomato, it was pushed to the background by the smoke and chocolate. I'm thinking of doing it again and maybe pairing it with a tomato pate de fruit or agar gel or something.

Thanks for the ideas folks. I'll play around with them. I know it definitely didn't have celery but that doesn't mean this isn't where the recipe started. If there was anything in it my grandfather didn't like, she would have changed it. She definitely used the cornstarch. I remember that because it seemed to emulsify everything so that there was no noticeable congealed grease even after a night in the fridge. The mention of pickles seems to be ringing a bell somewhere in the dark recesses of my memory but, for some reason, sweet pickles are shouting louder than sour. I'm not sure though, I could be thinking of something else she made. Unfortunately, sitting in the kitchen with gram isn't an option right now. I'm working in Canada and she's in Ohio. That will have to wait until I can make my next visit.

I'm trying to recreate my grandmother's potato salad. It's more along the lines of German-style. She boiled red potatoes and eggs and peeled them. I remember her cooking bacon, removing it from the pan and cooking chopped onions in some of the bacon grease. I remember that she made a mixture with vinegar and sugar (and I think water, I'm not sure) and added that to the onion/bacon grease. She would add a cornstarch/water slurry to thicken it. She'd add salt and pepper and then have my grandfather taste it. He'd say "more (whatever he thought it needed)" and she'd adjust it until he gave the thumbs-up. Then she'd pour it hot over the cut-up potatoes and eggs and toss it together. She'd always make it early and let it sit all day, she said that was important. Before serving she'd sprinkle the crumbled bacon over the top. I don't know if I'm forgetting anything, seems like I might be, but I still haven't got it right and she doesn't really remember it all that well. She's mid 80's now and hasn't made it in years plus has had to deal with some health issues including a relatively mild stress-related stroke after my mom passed away. I'm beginning to think it would take the team of her cooking and him tasting to get it right but he's been gone for over 10 years now. It has a somewhat creamy mouthfeel from the cornstarch and bacon grease but isn't greasy feeling and has no mayo or any dairy in it. It's quite tart compared to most potato salads I've had but in a well balanced sweet-and-sour way. It's a bit frustrating that I haven't been able to get it right.

Really nice stuff everybody. I'm going to have to check out that cake, I'm in the fruitcake-lover crowd as well. Any time a recipe from andiesenji or The Old Foodie shows up, I make sure to at least take a look at it. They both have some cool stuff in their archives.

I'm going to check with a supplier to see what he has available but their fresh stuff usually isn't any better than the stuff at the store. It's just a fact of life for where I live. Really good fresh produce is a rare commodity. The farmers market is starting up next week so I'll check that too but it's usually more of a craft market. We just don't have a long enough or reliable enough (it's the end of June and I had to wear a jacket for a mid-day fast paced bike ride today... and I don't get cold easy) growing season for many things. Our only reliable local crops are fiddleheads and blueberries. I'll keep my eyes open for some good fresh berries, I was just wondering about good frozen berries as a back-up plan because this sounds tasty and I want to try it.

Infuse 1.5 liters of water with fresh flowers (or herbs, spices, whatever), sieve and dissolve in 125 grams of sugar. Pour into a plastic 2 liter bottle, add 50 - 60 grams of fresh lemon juice (or other citrus, whatever seems appropriate for the flavor you're using) and about .75 gram of yeast. Fill with cold water leaving about an inch of headspace. Cap, shake and leave at room temp for 24 - 48 hours (until the bottle is very firm and doesn't yield). Chill at least 8 hours to stop fermentation, bleed off pressure and store in the fridge. The flower and herb versions seem pretty stable but I had a bit of trouble with gushing with the chocolate version, it took a lot of patience to bleed the pressure enough to open it without losing half of it. The chocolate version did not include a citrus juice and had more sugar (150 grams). The extra sugar was probably the difference but I wanted more residual sweetness for that version. Next time I'll return the sugar to the lower amount and add some lactose.

I agree that fresh is better all else being equal. What I'm wondering is, if I had to choose between mediocre fresh berries and high quality frozen, which is going to give the best end result for this application.

It's been around a while but I've never used it. Anything that makes rolled fondant taste better is a good thing.

Send 'em to me! Seriously though, I think it would be fun to do an elderflower beer with them. I have a batch of lilac beer on the go right now and the wild roses have started to bloom so I'm going to give that a shot too. I'm talking about beers in the style of ginger beer, not actual beer. I also did a chocolate-based version that's nice but kinda irrelevant to the flower theme.

If the recipe calls for heavy cream and milk in equal quantities that works out to ~20% fat and 18% cream works just fine as a less expensive sub. Apparently there are scientific reasons why it's not exactly the same (beyond the obvious 2% fat difference) but it's always worked fine when I've done it.

It's not foolish at all. It's pretty easy to rinse off all or at least most of the salt. Then just dry most of the moisture with a clean towel and toast them a bit. Bulkfoods.com carries unsalted pistachios and ships to Canada. Their shipping costs aren't bad at all and include all taxes, duties, fees, politician salaries, etc. in the shipping cost... nothing due on delivery.

Yep. All of my life, my grandmother did everything from scratch. Refused to cook any other way. After my grandfather passed away and when she was quite a bit older she decided it was just too much trouble to cook that way for herself only and had a complete reversal in the way she cooks. Almost everything in her house became quick convenience items. At first it was strictly a convenience thing but over time she actually started preferring the convenience stuff. It becomes the familiar. I can see how that happens. I used to hate diet sodas but now, after years of drinking them, they're the only type I drink even though I'm not "dieting". Everything else tastes too syrupy.

Would good frozen berries be a better option for this if the fresh berries available locally are consistently flavorless grocery store crapberries?

Yeah, his Notes From the Kitchen and Workbook blogs are both awesome. I follow(ed) them religiously but he's become busy to the point that neither has been updated for some time. I miss it.

I like this one from Michael Laiskonis' workbook blog. His adaptation of a Norman Love recipe. I'm not familiar with the original recipe so I don't know if he's tweaked it any or not... but it's good.

Sounds like a good list of reasons to me.

I'm going to watch this one with interest because I've never got results with oven fries that made it seem a better option than deep frying. Then again, I've never put a huge amount of effort into it either so it will be interesting seeing what those who have say on the matter.

I picked Wilo to win with Rick second so I didn't take that round either. I thought Wilo gave the best impression of "I'm here to make good food and do something good for my charity so let's have fun" but the things the judges said about his food made sense to me. I hate unheated grocery store pitas, the texture is horrible, and burying the main ingredient so deeply does kinda defeat the purpose. Pawclyn seemed a bit too nervous. She seemed nice enough but I think in something like this show you need to go in and do what you do best without worrying about what anybody else might want you to do. Lefebrve choked himself worrying about beating people instead of concentrating on the food. His attitude didn't bother me, I understand getting into the competitive "I have to win" zone, but he let it take over his concentration instead of focusing it. He wasn't going to out-Mexican Rick. Bayless was spot-on but that elimination challenge might as well have been held in one of his restaurants. Intentional or not, it was definitely biased his way. Still, he's very good at what he does and I don't doubt the judges word that his food was at the top. So congrats on the win Rick.

Gastriques are fun, there's a lot of room for play and interpretation within that category. I'm not sure there are any strict rules about caramelizing sugar or what has to serve as the acid source or ratios as long as you end up with a sweet/sour syrupy reduction at the end. For the khymos.org TGRWT #11 challenge the flavor pairing was banana and clove. I did clove brined pork tenderloin and breaded pickled banana on a vanilla bean skewer with vanilla salt and a clove gastrique made from 500 ml white wine, 60 ml of the banana pickling liquid, 80 ml of sucanat (it's what I used it in the pork brine and pickling liquid so I wanted to pull it through the sauce as well), salt and a few whole cloves. I simply combined it all, reduced, removed the cloves and plated it. Maybe not traditional, but a gastrique as far as I'm concerned.

You can probably get a result you'll be happy with in that case. It will be better than the store pizzas in any case. Both raw and par-baked crusts handle the process pretty well. Pre-freezing the crust before topping it with cold sauce seems to help reduce the sauce soaking into the crust but that didn't seem to cause any major problems regardless. Flash-freezing would undoubtedly be better but that wasn't an available option for me to test. The texture of the cheese does change from freezing, it's noticable but it's not a huge difference.

Yes, kaolin and bentonite are available in food and cosmetic grades. The suppliers can and will tell you which they carry. If they can't or won't, shop elsewhere.