Alcuin

I had Templeton rye once--if I recall they bill it as a "prohibition" rye because they claim to use a prohibition era recipe that has connections with Al Capone. Anyway, I found it to be pretty light, with a spicy rye character that was there but not as prominent as I expected. I remember thinking that the closest thing I could think of was Rittenhouse, which is not a great gift whiskey. Depending on how much you want to spend, I'd go with Sazarac or better yet Sazarac 18. Not the absolute perfect analogs perhaps, but anybody who likes rye will probably really like Saz 18.

I haven't had any difficulty in Madison, WI but then demand isn't too high either.

Well amaro means "bitter" in Italian, so its probably the bitterness that's the most important factor.

When I kept casings in highly salted water (on the advice of a butcher, who's now closed) they went bad. It was a couple of months, I think, but maybe more. I've never had this problem when I just kept them in salt.

Don't freeze them--it weakens them and they might break on you. Like David says, just pack them in salt and keep them in the fridge and they should be fine. I've had some packed that way for probably 8-9 months now and they're fine. I'm going to use them again in a couple of weeks.

That's a huge drink, but I might have to give it a shot. I'll have to sub CAF for the Cinzano though. Do you think Cinzano's essential to the drink?

I thought the "hey ho let's go" opener was corny. It missed the mark for style. It doesn't really matter whether you get it or not--he's writing about a laid back place that associates itself with CBGBs so he tried to write in a laid back style. There's nothing wrong with that, but it seemed a little contrived to me.

Nice! I've read descriptions and watched videos on how to do this that were never clear enough for me to get a grip on it, but this one is. I'll have to practice with a roast now...

Here's a pdf with clear instructions on tying a slipknot: click. It's really useful for tying up pancetta, pork shoulder roasts, etc.

That's a shame-I haven't had the chance to buy the copy I wanted to buy yet. Maybe they'll change the name and still be able to sell the book--here's hoping.

Hence my initial hesitation at buying it and my surprise that it wasn't that bad. This company also as a vodka, an "extra dry" gin, a limoncello, a rum, and I think even an unaged whiskey. I haven't tried any of these other products and I'm not sure what purpose they serve beyond novelty. I mean, why make a rum or a gin to compete with Flor de Cana or Beefeater? The apple brandy makes more sense to me--its local and its brandy, two things people like a lot around these parts.

Like I said, I'm not a Calvados expert and I don't really have access to a lot of it nor have I particularly sought it out. So $23 per 375 is better than what I'm used to-Daron, which I don't think is very good. You don't see too much $50 Calvados (I don't think I've seen any, though I haven't looked) around here. I don't really care to make sure I can get good Calvados though (like I do with Rittenhouse BIB and Carpano Antica Formula which I made sure I had local access to). The YB reminds me more of brandies like Maison Surrenne or Germain-Robin (not Shareholder's reserve), which is to say pretty good but not terribly complex as far as brandies go. I've seen Yahara Bay products around for quite a while but didn't spring for it because I thought $23 was a bit much and I wasn't sure whether it would be worth it. I sprang for it and was surprised that it was pretty good, though it wasn't earth shaking. On the world market, it's probably over priced. Here, it's a solid local brandy with the added value that it's made pretty much down the street from me.

Amidst a media in the throes of a transition from traditional print to online and tv, another giant is about to fall. According to Stephanie Cliffore at the New York Times, Gourmet will be closed--this site has the Conde Nast memo announcing it. As a subscriber (my mom's given it to me each year for Christmas since I started cooking years ago), I'm a bit shocked. Then again, in an age of blogs and searchable recipe databases, I suppose it makes sense. Even though I keep all my old issues, I don't really look through them much any more--I go to Epicurious. Even still, the magazine still for some reason owns a decent amount of authority and credibility making this unexpected to me. I suppose it's just another indication of the rapidly changing state of media.

I'm not a huge apple brandy fan, but I just broke down and bought a 375 of Yahara Bay Apple Brandy. They're a local company (in Madison, WI), so really I bought it for that alone. The bottle says the brandy's made with local Honey Crisp apples. I have to say I really wasn't expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's a nice brandy with a good apple finish. Not terribly complex, but I'd say it stands up decently to the Calvados I've tried at the price point ($23/375ml).

You could get some of that fermented complexity out of using vinegar--it won't have the same exact effect (of course) as wine but if say you make a pan sauce for beef using stock and shallots then finish the sauce with sherry vinegar you might get some of the complexity you would get if you used wine to give one example.

I've got the same thing going on here with the owner of the Cork and Bottle in Madison, WI. Last Sunday he came over and I cooked some stuff and we drank it with a 2001 Brunello and a 2004 Barolo (we also capped off the meal with a Manhattan made of Saz 18 (donated by him) and Antica (mine)--ah ooo gah!). I paired it with rare flank and ribeye steak of excellent quality over arugula (dressed only with olive oil and salt) and bread. It was a learning experience and fantastic. I'd never get to do stuff like this otherwise and I've learned a lot. Though I guess I've got more experience than most, I'd still make a distinction between the basic pairings I can conceive of and what I think a lot of people imagine when they're thinking about wine pairing which I think Alinea is an outstanding example of. I don't mean to imply a "don't try this at home" attitude toward pairing. But I would make a distinction between pairing that's revelatory (as at Alinea) or pairing that's simple and just good or even, dare I say, utilitarian. I also don't want to imply that its an arcane art that's impossible to learn: it's not. I still think its true though that when I drink my everyday wine with dinner (which is usually the case--I don't have $50 or even $20 to throw around on wine that often), the pairing is just good. Just good (and getting better) is good enough for me when I'm cooking and hanging out. In fact, sometimes its even great. I guess the point is that there's a lot to wine pairing and that it's occasional--good pairings taste spectacular when I'm in good company and pairings can be incredible under the guidance of a master. There's a good range in between too. Yet I think the distinction between picking up a well structured bottle of red to go with a stew's maybe not the same thing many people imagine when they think about "wine pairing." But both are really pleasurable matches of food and wine. Maybe I'm splitting hairs though...

The wine pairings at Alinea blew me away: the mind that could conceive of those dishes and those wines so well as to pair them so consistently well (some revelatory) is incredible. This leads to another point though: I've only had a few pairings in my (admittedly short, so far) life that have really demonstrated the possibilities of wine pairing. It's happened maybe once or twice with my own cooking by complete accident. I drink wine with a lot of my dinners, but I usually just think of what will "go" with what--I'm not trying to pair wines, I'm just putting them together. Big red wine with lots of tannins with steak or acidic whites with sauteed chicken thighs for some simple examples. There's something different going on with wine pairing at a place like Alinea. I'd make a distinction between putting wine and food together as opposed to pairing food and wine. There's a fuzzy line somewhere between the two that serendipity might happen to lead from one into the other in everyday cooking and drinking but usually I think there's a distinct difference for me (not a sommelier obviously, though I drink a lot of wine some of it very good and almost always have it with some kind of food). I would also think that as long as you push the wine in your mouth and let it hit all those tastebuds, you could still spit it out and have the benefits of a good pairing.

It's not that wine does something to your tongue (deadening or revitalizing it). It's the interplay between the flavors of wine and the flavors of the food. It also works the other way around too as wine can seem more complex through interaction with the qualities (richness, acidity, flavors) of food. It's a two way street and its also fun to pair food with wine. If you've got the right food and wine, the combination can be exciting and revelatory for both.

You can get ginger juice by grating with a microplane and squeezing the pulp. It's really surprising how much juice comes out of a tablespoon (or less) of pulp.

It's also good on homemade croutons for caesar salad or the like. The flavor's more subtle than fresh would be too.

I picked up a dressing without oil I think from Gourmet a few years ago. You take a lot of lemon juice and blend with even more Pecorino Romano and add a ton of fresh black pepper after you blend it. This dressing was designed to dress raw thinly sliced lacinato kale--the lemon juice breaks the kale down and the cheese adds richness. It's a good simple salad--I usually finish with a bit of good olive oil on top, but that's technically garnish not dressing, says me. Thickening with cheese might be a place to start exploring some uncharted territory.

I think the recipe from Mastering does have some extra steps (such as cooking the onions and mushrooms before adding them: I add them to the sauce when I'm finishing it and cook them in it). Someone was telling me how involved her recipe was so I compared it to how I usually make it. Mine's a bit more involved (but only slightly). It's also a composite of many ways of doing it, one of which is Julia's "Zinfandel of Beef" from the Way to Cook. It is useful to learn someone's "way" before you strike out on your own. I thought that Slate article was off the mark. I'd summarize it like this: "I cook a lot, way more than you, and even I don't have the kind of out of date and insane patience/attention to detail, so don't even bother." Not only is this condescending, it's dead wrong. Good cooking requires real thinking and patience: that never went out of style. I'm willing to bet that at least some people come away from their foray into Mastering with either a newfound respect for what cooking is or maybe even the urge to cook like this every once and a while. Discouraging people is lame.

This is pretty close to how I do it. Blanch fresh spinach, drain and squeeze, then cook in butter and garlic. Add cream and reduce to desired thickness then season and grate nutmeg. This is the first and only recipe I've used--I got it from the Joy of Cooking. It's simple and it works.

I've made this dish from the Bouchon book. It's delicious, unique (headcheese meets crab cakes?), and extremely rich.

My count: 61 What would I replace?: I'm not a big fan of a Death in the Afternoon. It's always struck me as a bit of a gimmick drink and it's not much fun to drink. Maybe I'm using the wrong sparkling wine (too dry). I'd replace it with either a Fogcutter (not too many tiki drinks on the list and that's a favorite of mine) or a Southside. Drink before I die: that's a tough one and would change daily (hourly? minute-ly?) but the first thing that popped into my head was a Sazerac with Handy--I want that drink to last as long as possible.