haresfur

Thus, the gin.

Everyone likes gin. Some people just don't know it yet. I would recommend starting with something not too in-your-face juniper. I would start with Beefeater over Tanqueray. Bombay Sapphire may be an ok entry. and then try several cocktails in different categories before you decide if you like it or not. I would suggest a French 75, Tom Colins, Negroni, Gin gin mule. Then splurge on a lime and good tonic for a gin and tonic - sipping it outside as a sundowner.

Is there a reason you used tongue and groove instead of plywood?

Do you concentrate your stock after making it? I do and I can't see how the little bit of volatiles lost during pressure cooking the stock could possibly compare to the amount that must be lost when boiling it down.

A dog's breakfast of an Old fashioned: WT 101 rye, cane syrup, Jerry Thomas bitters, Chris Taylor chocolate bitters. Nice.

You could extract the alcohol from the wood with boiling water and make swish like the Newfoundlanders.

FrogPrincesse announced this MxMo in our previous Mocktail Thread but to save the cocktail blog world from having to wade through it I thought I'd start this thread for our entries (or entry at least). In spite of some skepticism expressed by the eGullet cocktail crowd, I was kind of pumped for this topic. Scott's announcement points out that many classic cocktail books had sections for for non-alcoholic beverages. But in addition to that, many old cookbooks had either sections for cocktails or had alcoholic beverages mixed in with non-alcoholic refreshment. Preparing a good drink was seen as an important skill, booze or no booze. Typical choices for designated driver drinks in bars are often pretty dismal - coke, water, or if you want to live on the edge, orange juice. But in Australia there is another choice - lemon-lime and bitters. What you usually get is a premix from Schweppes or Bundaberg like you can buy at the grocery (You can also get Angostura brand) that is basically lemonade (Sprite to you North Americans) with some bitters added. Still, it has bitters and that has to be worth something. A while ago, I was at a bar in Adelaide and went to get a lemon-lime and bitters for a friend. It was a revelation when the bartender made it using a big bottle of Angostura, a lime, and lemonade. I'm not sure whether it was any better but it was classy. So my MxMo contribution is a variation - Bitter lemon-lime and bitters: Start with a fresh lime: Add a healthy dose of Angostura and Peychauds bitters to an ice filled glass, top with bitter lemon soda and garnish with a lime slice. Bob's your uncle.

Thanks Nick. A couple of differences with what I did. I cranked the temperature up and the time down and used pretty lean meat. This saved time but also seemed to keep from rendering much fat. I didn't try boiling the liquid by itself but there was no protein coagulation as I reduced the wine. I'm guessing that the time/temperature conditions were a factor in this. Certainly the liquid was very much lighter and clearer than in my usual slow cook SV. The higher temperature can only help increase the yield. It would be interesting to do a taste comparison with different times in the SV. My main motivation though was to minimise the fat, simplify the process, and keep from having to wash a fry pan.

Yeah, I should have measured but I would estimate about a half cup of liquid goodness. Then again, I'm cheap and only used 1/2 kilo of meat and the recipe calls for frying up 1.3 kilos. Obviously I didn't get the browning. You are correct that fat can carry flavours and one thing I wonder about is if you could use something like liquid-liquid extraction to get some flavours to go into the oil and from there into the aqueous phase.

The cooking with Modernist Cuisine at Home topic seems to have mostly run its course as many of us have had the book for quite a while. One thing I like a lot about the book is that it presents ideas for variations along with the recipes and presents many variations of ways of achieving similar results. So my motivation for this topic is to have a place to talk about our experiments in modifying the recipes - successful or not. You see I have difficulty following instructions... To start, is serendipity with this post in the sous vide thread asking about using bag juice that came out right as I finished up an experiment with the red wine glaze. The experiment was motivated by a mistake where I made SV short ribs at too high a temperature a while back. The meat was not very good but juice was wonderful. So instead of frying up a bunch of ground beef, I took a half kilo of relatively lean stewing beef and bunged it in the SV at 88 C for an hour. At the end of that time the meat was dry and the bag full of meat juice. The juice was very clear and light in colour with little in the way of 'gunk'. I added it to the wine and veg, started reducing, then strained the veg out and reduced the rest of the way. I skipped pressure cooking the knucklebones (I'm not sure why the recipe has you reduce the wine, then add water to pressure cook the bones, why not cook the bones in the wine then reduce?) To cut to the chase, I was quite happy with the result. I don't agree with the 'fat is flavour' mantra and the only fat in this was the little that rendered out of the meat in the SV. I might try adding a little gelatin for mouth feel and to make the glaze with less reduction. ... and the dog was happy with the dried out meat for his tea-time.

Thank you to Steve for enriching my life. Not only have I learned much here, but I have made friends and I am grateful to him. My thoughts are with his family and with his friends.

Pre-revolution Bacardi, aka Havana Club?

Gage Roads Wahoo Kolsch. It's decent although the beer web sites seem to give poor reviews. Certainly better than your average Australian lager if you are after a lightish beer.

You do make me feel better about the cost of drinking here. But I'm sure your mai tai still costs much less than making them with our highly taxed liquor.

I like Senica Drums Not too much juniper IMO

Colour has some complicating factors like oxidation (that's why they pack some meat under nitrogen, IIR). Within the same muscle I think it might also be related to how fast the blood drained, how fast it cooled (interior or near surface of the carcass) or how close to the surface or how much tension during hanging. Some of those may be related to the flavour but some may not be. I'd just use some caution on assuming colour = flavour.

Mainly M&R and Cinzano. I don't think my Dan Murphy's has Punt e Mes anymore and I've never seen Dolin. I can get Nolly Prat but it is about twice as expensive and I wasn't impressed when I was first getting into cocktails. Since I can only get large bottles and am reluctant to buy a bottle to have it go bad, I figured I will hold on revisiting dry vermouth drinks for trips to bars. I didn't think Dubonnet was considered vermouth. I used to drink it on the rocks as a kid (ok, my parents used to drink it on the rocks and I sampled).

I have come to the conclusion that I just don't like vermouth much - at least the ones I've tried. So I made a Negroni substituting Dubonnet and was happier. It is sweeter so you may want to dial back but what I found interesting was a spicy note and the Gin coming forward more. No picture - it looks like a Negroni.

I suppose I'm one of the few around here who likes the flavour of tender meat cuts. I think it brings out more subtle aspects of the taste not as being bland.

My suggestion is not to worry about the amounts when you are mixing sours - go by flavour. You can adjust and keep track of the amount to find what you like, but even then, your citrus will vary and could need adjustment. I aim to be compulsive about taste, not round numbers.

It may need more chips, but I don't (and I would eat them if they were there. There were a few more before I took the picture).

Flathead and chips at a Greek cafe in Hastings, Victoria. The best batter I've had here. Lovely.

F the rum, just add molasses to cheap vodka and you are about there. From the above, you can probably figure out I avoid Cruzan Blackstrap like the black death. I usually use Captain Morgan Dark for my darkest rum, if only to remember my youth. I really don't think it is bad at all but I suppose I'll try Coruba sometime.

This is so deserving of a name: 1 1/2 oz London Dry Gin (Traders) 1 tsp Nocino (Miho's homemade) several dashes Chris Taylor' Suburban Asian Bitters Medicinal, complex, bitter, boozy.

As Chris said, I think pretty much anything goes. I wouldn't be surprised if some places use short-cut bacon.