Jump to content

Chris Hennes

manager
  • Posts

    10,190
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Chris Hennes

  1. That's clever - I was thinking of trying an immersion blender or something along those lines. Have you done it that way before? How does it compare to manually shaking the drinks?
  2. My mistake - I missed the bit about shaking the drink before serving it. I was imagining mixing up the ingredients and chilling, then just pouring directly into glassware, which is obviously going to give the drink a different texture than if it were shaken with ice.
  3. Do you have any thoughts on the texture question brought up above? Any special treatment for drinks with citrus juice in them, that are typically shaken rather than stirred?
  4. Sorry, I misunderstood the "specialty" part - for my friends, a Manhattan *would* be a "specialty" cocktail (i.e. it's not Bud Lite!). I think fruit-juice based cocktails could be made earlier the same day with minimal degradation. Fizz would be more problematic, though, unless you designed it as a mixer added just before serving, but now you're getting away from your original purpose.
  5. That sounds like a fantastic idea, but I just don't have time to dedicate to it right now. I want to eat wonderful things, but sourcing them takes time... hopefully someday I will actually finish my degree and can actually have weekends off!
  6. In DeGroff's "Craft of the Cocktail" book (I think it is this one, anyway...) he talks frequently about "pitcher cocktails" where you add the water directly and chill, rather than shaking with ice. For example, the Manhattan seems to work well this way. You just make up as large a batch as you need in advance, then when your guests arrive all you have to do is pour it into glasses.
  7. I don't know how much bacon drippings you had, but did you consider just cooking the eggs to soft-boil stage directly in the fat? Sort of an egg "confit" (to abuse the term, as seems common these days)? This is a really clever idea - way to think outside the box!
  8. I got a copy of Wybauw's "Fine Chocolates" (the first one) yesterday. It's a beautiful book, but wow, I'm glad I also have Greweling. Some of Wybauw's recipes sound like they will be great, but as a chocolate novice I find the whole book to be incredibly intimidating! The poor translation doesn't help, of course, but there is an awful lot of whitespace on those recipe pages that I think could be put to good use... obviously this is not a book directed at me.
  9. I think a jug of pancake mix could be awesome if you're camping. . . ← Bingo! We have a winner! ← We should be keeping track of this stuff... have we actually managed to find *any* items that no one could think of a reasonable explanation for? As foodies we have a tendency to look down upon convenience foods, but I don't know about you, sometimes I value convenience. It was pointed out upthread, I think: sometimes when you come home from work at the end of the day, the last thing you want to do is cook. Some days for me I like to, and it's stress relief, and I eat "good" things, but some days, I just want a Manhattan and a frozen pizza. And then another Manhattan...
  10. I agree that they can be hit or miss, but the local store brand (Wegmans) is pretty good. I've never had to pick out more than a piece or two.
  11. Aw, common. There's nothing wrong with bagged salads. All the ingredients are pre-washed and in mostly-appropriate ratios. Why should I buy an entire head of four kinds of greens for the one night a week my wife and I want salad? The cost is the same, and I save time and refrigerator space.
  12. I never imagined that the enrobing belt would fold up -- that is really cool (obviously I am just an beginning amateur and have no idea what I'm talking about when it comes to large-scale production!). Thanks so much for posting the photos, I love seeing stuff like this.
  13. Chris Hennes

    Molds

    That was my thinking, too - unfortunately, Chef Rubber told me today that the basic hemispheres are backordered . I had to go with the prismatic ones... hopefully it will work out. All of the shiny molded chocolates I see here make me envious, so I want to make some!
  14. Where do you get the powder? Maybe available at an Asian foods store? The citric acid is a good idea - thanks.
  15. This is presumably due to the oils in the chocolate coming out of emulsion over time and evaporating (sublimating?), right? That makes sense. What kind of time scale are we talking about here? Weeks? Months? Years?
  16. Way "back in the day" duckduck wrote: I just got this book today and was thinking of having a go at these when my molds arrive next week: I really like mango, and like Greweling's technique of using pureé that has reduced by half. Do you think that doing that in this case would work to give more mango flavor, maybe with a slight modification to the amount of cream to account for the water missing from the pureé? I know, I'm probably not advanced enough to be making modifications to recipes yet... oh, well... that has never stopped me before!
  17. Chris Hennes

    Molds

    What are the benefits of using the magnetic versus regular molds? I have only seen the magnetic ones used in the eG demo for doing the patterns on the top of pieces. Is that the main reason for their existence?
  18. Yeah - a lot of the pork seems to come from Missouri (at least my previous orders). At Heritage each package is labeled with a control number that you can use to look up the farm the animal came from. They give you a bio of the farmer, etc. It's kinda fun - makes it feel a little more personal, IMO. And the turkey cam was pretty funny around Thanksgiving - one day they lined the turkeys up and had a parade of sorts, walking them all past the camera. I've never bought anything but pork and beef from them, so I can't speak to the poultry quality. I don't know how the Pandas are doing, but the bald eagles were taken off the "Endangered and Threatened Species" last year. There are tons of them here, particularly at the north end of Nova Scotia in Cape Breton where my wife's family farm is located. Last summer an adult female bald eagle took two of our chickens - this bird was enormous - its wingspan was bigger than mine - mine is well over six feet. I'm glad they are doing well again worldwide, a couple of chickens was well worth the price of admission to see such a powerful raptor at work. ← Yeah, they probably wrote that years ago... not high on their list of things to update, I suppose . Bald eagles are indeed incredible... seeing them from a distance you don't get a sense for just how GIGANTIC they are.
  19. I'm not sure I would recognize "staleness" in chocolate - is that plastic taste and texture symptomatic of staleness? I would think that the Hershey's that I get here an hour from Hershey, PA should be about as fresh as it comes, and it's still got that "waxy" thing going on.
  20. I can get fresh dairy easily enough, but I have yet to find a pig farmer who sells locally and raises anything better than what I could get at the local supermarket. I'm willing to pay a premium for humanely-raised pork, but I insist that it must also *taste* better! So far Niman Ranch and Heritage Foods have served me well, despite the hefty price tag.
  21. Yes, unfortunately living in the middle of nowhere, "local" means "FedEx delivers here". The prices are startling (though they include shipping), but the quality is excellent, and they seem to keep close tabs on the way the pigs are treated, etc. I'm looking forward to moving someplace with better access to quality food products this summer!
  22. The selection is still not perfect, but I have always been pleased with Heritage Foods, and I just got an e-mail announcing a bunch of new pork cuts, including trotters, jowl, liver, ears, cheek and even head!! I'm excited since this is the most readily-available offal available to me -- now I can have at some of the Nose-to-tail recipes! Heritage Foods USA Website (note that I'm not affiliated with them in any way, I'm just excited about pork!!)
  23. I don't even quite understand what it is? The photo makes it look like some sort of disposable razor for masochists... can you describe the blade layout in more detail?
  24. That pancetta looks great! I'm looking forward to trying that when I get my kitchen curing space worked out.
  25. I dunno about that - I was pleasantly surprised by the E. Guittard 35% milk chocolate that I got recently for making candies. It has a very smooth texture and a decidedly un-Hershey's flavor. I'm sure even someone completely unfamiliar with chocolate and/or tastings would have no trouble picking it out of a lineup. It's not that expensive, I suppose, but more than Hershey's anyway.
×
×
  • Create New...