haresfur

How different is it from St Germaine, aside from the alcohol?

I think you can use it in place of celery (which I dislike) in many places.

Do tell. Who knows when I'll get a chance to try them out?

Not worth a photo, but Hendricks gin and Russell's Reserve bourbon for less than 1/3 of the prices I've seen in Oz.

Took a break from wine tasting to visit Finger Lakes Distiling and picked up a less junipery gin and an 80% rye rye.

I tell younger scientists that the secret to being a good chemist is not as much knowing how to be precise and accurate as in knowing when you can be sloppy. So how accurate (since you are talking about calibration) do you need to be? If you are following a recipe, then you don't need to be more accurate than the person who wrote it. Once you figure out what works, you only need to be precise (unless you change equipment). I can't imagine any situation where a .01 % absolute error would matter for cooking. If your calibration weights have large unknown random errors, there isn't much you can do about it. If you have a good weight the most important thing is not to crap it up with finger prints, oxidation, etc. You can check the linearity of your scale with a stack of new coins - you don't need to know what their mass is, just put them on one at a time and plot the mass vs number of coins. Take them off in a different order to check. If your scale isn't linear, you could construct a graph to figure out a correction for different masses by assuming the error is linear between data points. For small quantities needing very accurate measurements, adsorption of moisture probably make the biggest difference. Especially since you may be in a more or a less humid area than the creator was. You can dry your powders, cool them in a desiccator, then weigh them if you really care. Even then you can have problems. Try weighing sodium hydroxide pellets some time. They suck up moisture so fast that you can't get a stable reading. I suppose if you really want accurate amounts flour you should dry it before using it but I expect most people are happy enough to adjust, based on observation of the consistency. But even if you have a well calibrated scale, there are corrections that you might need for materials with density much lower than steel if you really want accuracy. That's because we tend to weigh things in air rather than in a vacuum. Low density materials like water or solutions essentially float in air to some degree and this leads to a lack of accuracy. There are tables you can apply if you know the density or can estimate it. Is it important? IMO, not for the cooking I do, but I don't know how finicky the molecular stuff is (see my first paragraph). In any case, it is unlikely that those corrections were applied in developing the recipe.

FWW I ordered this 2 probe model with alarm, although I might have been tempted by the IR/probe one, had I noticed it. I just ordered one thermocouple - the needle probe with a metre lead. It seems to me that will be more versatile than a pen and I like the idea of being able to replace the thermocouple. I have a love of subcultures and think it is great that BBQ is market niche worth targeting.

Take one for the team and report back when you recover.

I have to say I've grown very fond of a Brave Bull as a simple drink with a fair bit going on in the flavours playing off each other. A good winter drink that I think you could order at most bars without them screwing it up too badly (or that I can make after a hard day without screwing up). My preferred ratio is 2:1 tequila to Tia Maria built on the rocks.

Walnut infusion? Green walnut, no sugar? Do tell.

Yes, I'm in Oz but I bought the blender at Costco . It looks like wattage is higher here for similar models - it should be easier to get higher watts with 240 because you don't need as many amps but I don't know why they wouldn't just adjust for that. Yeah, the red ones are fastest. I think the success of the design is manly in the curved bottom so things feed through the blades very well. Mine is used mostly for smoothies and pesto. I use it for making bread crumbs, too and even fresh bread ripped into chunks will feed through with only a little pulsing. The icon is the top of a ceramic tea-warmer I made with 3 rabbits sharing 3 ears - the closest I have to a haresfur picture

How long are you willing to spend cooking before eating? You can do most lean meat or chicken in about 20 min if you keep it thin enough and are going to eat it right away so you don't need to pasteurize it. So the meat will be ready in the time it takes to make the salad and vegetables if it is pre-bagged. Another way to look at it is that it won't take any longer than reheating chilled bags. I guess I'm a bit of a rebel because when I'm cooking for myself I don't worry about cooling in an ice bath for relatively small volume bags (all that fits in my current setup). I cool in a pot of cold tap water and then put it in the fridge or freezer. I mean, that's more care than I take with most leftovers. If something really needs an odd amount of time > 8 hours, you can always cook to pasteurized time one day then finish the day you want to eat. But I expect most long cooks are pretty forgiving of a few hours each way.

I can't say I'd be tempted to try anything washed in chicken fat but I guess if you are going to do it, ginger and absinthe (?) might go with it as well as anything. I'd be more tempted to add some Pernod to a dish of ginger chicken.

I have a Breville 550, which I gather is less expensive than the models you mention. It's the best blender I've owned so, I don't think you will go wrong unless you really want/need the high end brands.

At MoVida Nextdoor in Melbourne: Rebujito – La Goya Manzanilla, Citrus & Soda Don't know the proportions. A low alcohol fizzy drink that tastes decidedly 'adult' to me.

Maybe if you substitute Cuban rum

Preparing for a trip to the US by drinking up my Russel's Reserve. It seemed a shame to do anything more complicated than an Old Fashioned. Used Regan's orange bitters as a change from my usual Fee's whiskey barrel or Jerry Thomas bitters.

I'm sure they put expiration date on the ingredients but I bet most of the dry powders will last forever. That being said, it may depend on the specific chemical. For example calcium chloride won't degrade but it can absorb water so your weights might go off. Keep them sealed, cool and in the dark is good practice. I plan on using mine until they are used up or I start getting failures.

Yeah, worth going once but not for the taste. I liked the food at Andena if I recall but it isn't a meal I remember much about. My cocktail wasn't that great. I really enjoyed Toro Bravo. Once again the cocktails didn't match the food.

I've never had a problem dining out with my vegetarian friends and relations. And the only time I've had the need to lecture a server on vegetarianism was to explain that bringing out a dish that they said would not contain meat but had ham in it was one thing, but after we sent it back to the kitchen, it was not acceptable to pick (almost all) the meat off the plate and bring it back.

I see the shrink-wrapped stuff that passes for corn on the cob here and shudder. I am so looking forward to decent corn when I'm back in the US in August. Wild blueberries or Saskatoons are super. However, there is nothing more disgusting than a Samoyed that has rolled in bear scat in berry season...

Well, I liked the name "Sexy Beast", but "Wedderburn or Bite" works too. But if you are going to name it after a town just up the road from me, and since I don't have any Smith and Cross, you should know that Inner Circle works well in this.

Sure.

No photo but Imbibe's website just published a Dave Wondrich article on the Singapore Sling. Nice article and recipe. Since it fits in with my recent drinking and I have some limes to use up, I gave it a shot. Unfortunately I was out of soda so used tonic and used a bit more lime to balance. Not bad but not high on my list.

The round-up is up: http://ginhound.blogspot.dk/2013/06/mixology-monday-lxxiv-cherries-round-up.html