haresfur

Well, she did "appreciate" wine and wasn't driving. When I was doing shift-work, if we had a slow night I liked to abandon my crew for a bit and go to the all-night restaurant. It was usually empty. I'd sit at the counter by the waiter who was studying his bible and have a heart-clogging breakfast. It was a time to gather my thoughts, or sometimes just to stop thinking. I'd pass a dollar or two to the cook on my way out and it seemed to really make his night.

That's a difficult question. To me it looks like the glaze is thicker where it is white, but hard to tell from the photos. The oxidation/reduction could vary through the kiln, as could temperature. The cooling rate may also change and that can have an effect on how things turn out. I'm not sure if those are major players, here though.

One of my all-time favourite dining stories from a similar thread: Strategy for dining alone I think this is (still) more of an issue for women than men, although that probably has changed with more women taking business trips. I don't mind dining alone. I too prefer to have my back to the wall, to observe the action and so no one gets the drop on me. I find a book helps, not so much because I feel uncomfortable with nothing to do as I wait for my food, but because it is good cover for the eavesdropping.

Shino is generally a reduction-fired glaze, which means that during the firing air intake to the kiln is restricted relative to the amount of fuel. This changes the chemical state of the iron and other metals in the glaze and clay to give that nice toasty colour. With heavy reduction, the fuel doesn't completely combust and produces carbon - soot. If the potter does this at the point before the glaze melts the carbon gets into the glaze then is trapped in the melt and doesn't reoxidize. The challenge for the potter is to control the atmosphere during the firing to achieve the desired effect. The potter may use several cycles of oxidation through reduction in the firing. This takes quite a bit of skill and there is still plenty of room for the kiln gods to work their magic. I would say it is easier to control in a gas kiln than wood (you have to go to great lengths to get reduction in an electric kiln, like popping moth balls through the peep holes or introducing some gas and it is rarely done). Still even with gas, my experience is that it can be hard to get the reduction while still maintaining the proper temperature climb. Things like barometric pressure and humidity can have an impact as does the kiln design. For those of you not as into pottery, Shino is interesting in that several of the desireable characteristics (and the desirability varies with the potter/tradition) such as carbon trap and crawling (pulling away from the clay, leaving bare spots) are usually seen as defects in other glazes. It's really its own universe with whole galaxies to explore. Interesting, I think of the bright orange colour as being a characteristic of "American Shino", and quite different from much of the Japanese. And if I recall, Japanese shino doesn't tend to show a lot of carbon trap. Shino without much reduction can look a bit like congealed spit (not that that is necessarily a bad thing!). But pottery making has a wonderful tradition of global exchange for thousands of years so maybe the Americans have inspired the Koreans who had inspired the Japanese, who inspired the Americans...

Widow's kiss. Hmm, maybe I've been hanging out with the wrong women... Lovely stuff. But the apple notes of the Calvados seem lost to me.

Very nice. I really like the little carbon-trap shino pot. I tend not to like a lot of black in the glaze but it works very well here. I particularly like the thumb print from dipping the pot in the glaze - a nice personal touch.

Toronto?

Someone tall & organized who prefers rum to gin?

From Science Magazine, food photographs helped identify the source of the Escherichia coli outbreak.

http://mlkshk.com/r/1DR5 Archaic use as medicine. Really? So there is no-one consuming bitter beverages to aid digestion? And no-one consuming bitters as a remedy due to their proven medicinal qualities? Bitters aren't just added to a drink for bitterness (although the bitterness plays a key part in affecting the taste of the drink) but if you want to use this nonsensical point then you're free to do so. I think you are missing Dan's point. If you want a bitter drink as a digestif, reach for the Fernet Branca or other potable bitter and have a drink with some significant bitterness. As you said up-thread we are discussing non-potable bitters and in most cocktails they don't add much bitterness. They are used to affect flavour and smell. Are you or anyone else is compounding bitters for the purported herbal-medicinal effects of the other ingredients? If you are please let us know so I can decide which ones to avoid. So yes archaic. I'm glad you agree bitters aren't just added to a drink for bitterness. As for using the (intentionally) nonsensical point, perhaps I'm easily amused but that is as good a reason as any to continue using your definition - not that I have much say in how language evolves.

Maybe Chris' question up-thread about astringency is relevant to this.

Now you've done it! We have a class of ingredients that are defined by an archaic use as medicine - no longer used as such and a bitter taste but don't add noticable bitterness to the drink. Prepare for another few pages of semantic arguments...

Cool! I think there is a lot of prior use of the term California-Common as a beer style in the home-brew and beer judging works so I don't see their drama about using that. Companies can trademark drink names (Bacardi cocktail - at least that has their company name). My personal protest is to use the name with whatever ingredients I want for personal use, and never order the drink by name when I go out. Take that Dark 'n Stormy!

Thanks for the link. The jury is still out. I might be able to keep up with the old Dalmatian as she follows her nose into the bush but she's crafty about not sharing her food.

Is that what my dogs are finding to eat in the woods? I thought maybe 'roo droppings. Seriously, anyone know anything about foraging for the things?

But it is also not unusual for these pots to last decades without chipping or only minor chips that don't seem to signal complete demise. I think you are over-generalizing.

I don't disagree, but it's just 5 past midnight here and I thought I might give it a try, only to find myself without Peychaud's. Isn't there a Peychaud's crisis-line you can call?

I like doing it by hand. If you wet the grounds with a little water, wait a few seconds for them to soak it up and start to release the flavour, then pour the rest of the water in, this isn't a problem, and you get complete contact. But most electric makers I've seen start off with a pretty slow drip. Guess I've never peered into the basket at the crucial time, but I'm surprised this is a problem. Can't say I've ever noticed a paper taste (except in Uni where they used paper towels from the men's room to line the percolator basket) but I haven't tried bamboo.

No, but I just ordered a 6 L Fagor. Thanks for the help deciding what to get. Looking forward to seeing what it can do.

New to my local Dan Murphy (Aussie Chain) Santiago de Cuba ron anejo. Haven't mixed with it yet but I had a sip and IMO it's very tasty.

After Pizza Hut buffet lunch with friends (not my choice), the associate manager/cashier asked the perfectly reasonable question, "How was everything?". My response was, "Up to your usual standards."

Well, I don't want to correct all the recipes for density, which is quite different across the range from sugar syrup to overproof rum. I use a 4 oz measuring glass that also is marked in teaspoons, tablespoons, and ml. The main trouble is trying to find and read the right scale. I got 2 at a (US) grocery.

You haven't? Fair enough but realistically these are pretty much being used as a custom bitters formulation in a bulk process. Quite different from making a couple of drinks on the spot. I haven't revisited the whole book, and there is a milk punch that calls for the aromatic tincture (contains valarian - don't know if you consider that bitter - certainly medicinal). In any case it isn't really germane to the issue of developing new ingredient recipes for a category that for all practical purposes doesn't exist in the marketplace.

True, but if you know your style and the amount of malt, you can use IBU to adjust for variation in hops and hit pretty much the right bitterness. The reason I ask is that I was wondering about Peychaud's. I don't claim any great sensory finesse, but they impress me as even less bitter than Regan's Orange Bitters and the least bitter of the classic bitters I know (can you call them bitters? ) I don't think anyone is arguing for rules regarding what can be used in drinks (as long as it doesn't make you go blind, etc. but it really is an arguement about categories, although there is perhaps an undercurrent that certain products are less worthy). I don't think I've ever seen a drink recipe that uses the term "tincture" and that's a problem for the splitters vs. the lumpers. All & all, I think it's like trying to get "herb tea" drinkers to realize they are drinking infusions, not tea.

... and the post WWII height of Martini drinking predates most of the people drinking choco-tinis by at least 2 generations.