haresfur

You mean salmonella isn't a little salmon? One of my family's favorites is the restaurant in Italy that translated spaghetti into three other languages: "spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti."

Ok, I'm way behind the times on this but I'm trying to imagine how ATF determines if something is potable or not? I mean, what poor SOB gets the job of seeing if he can hold the stuff down??? Great product BTW.

I want to thank you for this thread. It opened my eyes. I went to the all night restaurant for breakfast at 4:30 this morning before work, sat at the counter and chatted with the staff as I ate. After I settled up I handed 10 % through the pass through to the cook - a pittance really. Man, if it were always that easy to make people happy, I'd be tossing bills all over the place! Clearly it was the thought that counted. I thought the waiter had left at the end of his shift but he saw and made a point of thanking me for making the cook's day.

Assuming there is some truth to their marketing, Fris vodka uses a combination of distillation and freezing. Fris vodka I could see that a combination of methods might have advantages but that would have to be borne out by testing. I bought a bottle for my ginger infusion and it did seem to have a decent mouth-feel, not that I'm any sort of vodka expert. Actually some of the infusion recipes on their website look interesting. I later offered this quote from a NYT article: So, to sum up: distillation (separation of substances based on differences in boiling points) is preferable to fractional freezing, and was practiced in the rural US extensively by the late 1600s. ←

They're herrings that have been gutted, opened up like a butterfly then cured with salt and smoke. ← The Digby chicks would be a great name for a country band. Ours have better health care but theirs get to carry guns. Same species Homarus americanus. ← So can you confirm the story that in the old days, if you were really poor in the Atlantic Provinces, you went out after a storm and picked up lobster off the beach... and hid if you saw anyone so they didn't know you were reduced to eating lobster? ... then again, maybe I don't want to know because it's so good a story I'm going to keep telling it anyway.

So do cherry leaves leave a cherry taste??

Got a message from a geologist friend that Thursday is mole day: Here's how I replied: Ok, to celebrate I figure that: 1 mole of ethanol is 46.06844 g and the density is 0.789 g/cm³. So 1 mole of ethanol is 58.39 cm³ My single malt scotch is about 80 proof or 40% alcohol by volume. So I should toast mole day with 146 cm³ of Scotland's finest. Now this neglects the partial molar volume of ethanol in water, which is negative so we had better round up to 150 ml. That makes for a 5.07 oz drink or about a double and a half. Oh, and I'd better hurry home from work to toast Mole Day on time. ... the things I do for science...

The closer to spherical, the lower the surface area to volume of the teapot so a Brown Betty won't lose heat as fast as other shapes. Also they are earthenware, right? The more porous clay will tend to insulate better than a stoneware. The downside is that earthenware will depend on the glaze to keep water from seeping into the clay or even through onto your table. So crazing can be a problem with earthenware. Also it is somewhat more difficult to formulate a durable earthenware glaze that doesn't craze. Lead was wonderful for helping glaze fit but has pesky health issues. Personally I wouldn't worry about the crazing unless tea is weaping through the bottom of the pot. Other people worry about bacteria growing in the cracks but, heck if you just use it for tea and just rinse it out, it wouldn't seem to me to be any worse if it is crazed. I read somewhere that in India there are tea shops where you pay more for tea brewed in a really old pot. Can anyone confirm? I suppose the big advantage to a Brown Betty is that you can't see the ... er, patina built up inside.

My "pasta a la Costco" (or should it be "au Costco"?). Cook spaghetti. Toss with black olives, green olives, artichoke hearts, possibly bruchetta topping, maybe even some bean salad - anything that suits my fancy out of those huge Costco jars cluttering up my fridge. Add grated Parmesan or Romano from the plastic container in the freezer and some olive oil. Leftovers were nice for lunch today.

I prefer Earl Gray with sugar but no milk. Your basic black tea, I drink either way but avec milk has an edge. For Earl Gray, Murchie's turns my lips satisfyingly numb when fresh - a good reason not to hoard it. My go-to tea, when I have it around, is Murchie's No. 10 blend. Don't know if it is what you would consider a "flavored black tea" but I believe it is a black/green tea blend. It has a nice amount of floweryness (hey, I never said I could describe tastes well) without being too refined, although their fancier blends are nice on occasion. While I'm at it, for purely black tea, Murchie's Afternoon Blend (do you detect a pattern here?) is on the top of my list. I believe this was their old Empress Afternoon prior to parting ways with the Empress Hotel. Although the Empress still does afternoon tea, last time I was in Victoria we went for the Indian Buffet in the Bengal Room, instead. Super! The Bengal Room

Should I feel guilty? I suppose so, but when your SO lives in a drafty, cold, grad student apartment in a converted carriage-house, there is nothing better than hot chocolate with rum. Now years later, as fall approaches, this not-so-young man's thoughts turn to liquid comfort. So give me Swiss Miss and Meyer's - I'll ignore your sniggers. But if you like it fancy, I also like real milk, cocoa, and sugar. Add 1 oz Gosslings Black Seal and 0.5-1 oz Gran Galla, depending on how sweet you like it and how much sugar you add. Put it in a favorite hand thrown mug with a well balanced handle. And go ahead, put some whip cream on top.

This country has drunk its way through the Great Depression and many recessions since....

What about Natural Brew do you like, rather than Reeds or Vernor's, if I may ask? ← Well, I'm not a great taste-analyst but I guess I like that it tastes like ginger. Reeds has a citrus flavor that isn't quite right IMO. I'll add my own fresh lime, thank-you. And Vernors has some sort of weird unidentifiable taste to me - but it ain't ginger. I prefer Canada Dry to it. I think Natural Brew has the right amount of ginger flavor, bite, and sweetness.

Never too late to talk about ginger beer, right? I know I'm in the minority but I'm not a big fan of Reed's. Natural Brew ginger beer is my go-to for drinking straight or dark-and-stormies. Never liked Vernors ginger ale either.

FWIW, hops are highly susceptible to powdery and downy mildew, which can really decimate production and be very difficult to eradicate or even treat. Thus organic hop production could be a challenge, and certainly would be in areas where powdery mildew has been reported, like the Pacific Northwest. On the bright side, many local small-scale operations could be a good thing in this case since there is less chance for spreading the infection. Also some labor-intensive management practices apparently can help, and there may be some treatments considered organic (I'm no expert). I read that hops are very toxic to dogs so watch how you recycle anything containing them.

That's just wrong! I'd rather a place just admitted they don't have ginger ale. I guess I'll just stick to beer next time I'm there.

Is ginger ale as a mixer an East Coast thing? I went to the Issaquah Brewhouse and distillery last week. They are owned by Rogue and the distillery part is pretty new. At the suggestion of the waiter I decided to try the hazelnut rum. Asked if I could get a dark and stormy and had to explain it used ginger beer. He said they didn't have ginger beer and didn't even have ginger ale - he found this strange being from the east coast. He suggested a rum and Coke. I negotiated up to getting a lime wedge with it. So, without getting into the wisdom of trying to sell designer spirits without having more than a basic bar, is ginger ale not typically found in west coast bars? What about other areas? The first time I had rum and ginger ale was hitch hiking on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia where it involved passing a rum bottle followed by a can of ginger ale, but I don't have much experience with mixed drinks in west coast bars because, in the Pacific Northwest, even the most dive bars tend to have decent microbeer. With hindsight, I would have done best with a shot and an ale chaser.

Very cool! Also all the other good ideas. To clarify: I didn't want to restrict the topic too narrowly, sorry for any confusion. I think there's a sliding scale of capacity or complexity. Certainly, sometimes when I'm camping I don't have access to ice, but some trips, ice may not be an issue (unless you demand a certain size or temperature ). If two bottles or a few flasks would make up your ideal traveling bar, I'd be interested in hearing about it. The mini shaker could come in handy... Also if there is a drink list that matches your somewhat minimalist bar, let's hear it. Thanks.

Ron Zacapa Centenario 23 is great for sipping on its own. No ice needed. It will also mix well. ← Both points are well taken. As nice as a flask of single malt whisky may be, a really good rum may be more versatile for sipping and mixing - if you don't feel too sinful using it in cocktails. Citrus keeps ok, and now that I see the hint that you can freeze lemons (& I assume limes) they can keep the cooler chilled, too! But, yeah, good fresh fruit would be a good reason to go with rum. Now if you want to add bitters into the mix, what about a good brandy? Sidecars, brandy Sazeracs, and you can drink it straight and warm if you have no ice...

What do you like to make when traveling, when you may be limited in the kit and supplies you can take along? Any ideas for iceless camping drinks? If you had to bring just one bottle, what would it be? Are there a few choice items that would give you a good range of drinks to mix? I was at a kayak symposium recently and, although I'd brought a variety of bottles along, I ended up making Dark and Stormy variations that were well received and easy enough: Cruzan dark rum, 1/2 lime juiced, and ginger beer. Even warm, they were quite tasty. I'd give you more precise measures but they varied widely as the night wore on...

today Powells put several copies online for $10; available on amazon marketplace or directly, so hurry up if you're interested ← Me too. Thanks!

I am not aware of anything known as "dilution heat." In order for combining whiskey with water to cause the resultant solution to rise in temperature from, there would have to be an exothermic reaction. In consideration of the fact that the whiskey is already at least 50% water, I would say that this is impossible on a chemical basis. ← Well, it's been a long time since I took physical chemistry but I assure you it is possible. Because the weak bonds/interactions between highly polar water and less polar ethanol are different, you get changes in physical properties that are not strictly additive when the two are mixed. So you get a delta-H of mixing that is, um, I think positive and the temperature increases. The effect is really noticeable when you dilute nitric acid with water - it can get really hot. On the other hand if you mix acetic acid and water it gets cold because of the opposite effect on the bonding. I don't know the magnitude of the temperature effect in mixing alcohol and water or if it really has any effect on the resulting drink. It seems to me that the heat taken up by melting the ice is the same whether it occurs before or after the mixing. But as I pointed out thermodynamics is not always intuitive... A related illustration is from my thermo textbook (I was hoping they would give me an easy answer to the temperature question). They provide the following example: "A corrupt barman attempts to prepare 100 cm^3 of some drink by mixing 30 cm^3 of ethanol with 70 cm^3 of water. Does he succeed?" (I'm sure you do this all the time ) Skipping the calculations, the answer is that the volume of the mixture is 96.8 cm^3. Oops, they go on to say, "Comment: It would probably be unwise to attempt to explain this to the barman."

Very nice, thanks. There are things in many cultures that don't make sense when explored from another context. Like, "... stir with ice and strain into an ice filled glass..." In my opinion it is best to embrace the diversity of approaches without over-thinking everything. In Japan you can spend hours making a bowl of tea (although I understand tea ceremony is not "mainstream"). In the Pacific Northwest USA you can walk all over town sipping your, now tepid, venti soy Chai.

My latest Campari sacrilege: 1 Campari 2 Tawney Port 2 dashes Fee's Orange Bitters Orange twist to garnish Mix Campari and port over ice, add bitters and garnish. I figured "way bitter" and "way sweet" ought to work together. The orange bitters really make the difference to me. I tried Regan's orange bitters and they didn't seem quite right.

I thought that the Aryans lost access to Soma as they expanded into the lowlands of the Indus Valley and the ritual morphed from quaffing amanita muscaria tea into a more abstract concept of religion. I guess you never went to a 1960's style pot party. Also see comment regarding Soma *ritual* above. In N. America I do tend to blame the drunk driving problem on the demise of the corner bar. I blame the demise of the corner bar on prohibitionism in our zoning departments. "Drugs" may have contributed a little to the demise of the cocktail hour but only because they provided alternatives. I think the expanded living space of our homes is partly to blame - in the past pubs and bars served part of the function of our living rooms as the social interaction space. We shot ourselves in the foot when we got bigger houses with more awake-space and found there was no one else around to be social with.