Alcuin

I think one of the problems of this culture of the "chef" is the worship of perfection. The notion that "chefs" know how to do things somehow and other normal people do not completely misses the idea that cooking is about learning. As a cook, you're always on the road to perfection, but you're never there. As a "chef" (in the popular imagination at least) you're totally there. I don't think this keeps people away from cooking; it just reinforces the notion that they can't cook in contrast to those who can. The point that experimentation and learning involves failure sometimes and that cooking is hard but really rewarding is missed by those that think of cooking in terms of "chefs" and mere mortals. That's what's the shame about this.

Pumpkin pie for breakfast and I'm about to get another piece right now. Turkey and white bean stew for dinner tonight.

There's also a game called _Personal Trainer: Cooking_ for Nintendo DS that is basically a cookbook that gives you step by step instructions with audio (i.e. chop onions now, etc). It looks to me like it might be the beginning of a kind of lifestyle software. There's no contest going on or anything, you just pick the recipes and it tells you how to cook them. I've never played around with it, but I think its an interesting idea. I'll stick to the books of course, but could you imagine an interactive Julia Child or Jacques Pepin game that guides you through their recipes using their own voice, chiding you for not using enough butter or capping off your interactive cooking session with "happy cooking!" That would be awesome to the max. Who knows what the future holds.

I really like Harold McGee, but I often find his NYT articles a bit simplistic. Why does he assume that there's only one singular brining method that always results in the same salty meat? If it's too salty, you left it in the brine too long. If it's too sweet, you added too much sweetener. I wouldn't brine for days and days as he suggests; that's how you get over salty, waterlogged meat. You have to brine according to the size and shape of your protein and tweak the brine according to what you're after. Then, it can highlight some of the meat's flavors or subtly introduce some other flavors (such as garlic, sage, rosemary, lemon juice, juniper, etc.) into the protein. I get that some people don't like brined meat but it's not a monolithic thing. It's a technique like others and is useful sometimes for its effects (the most important of which, for me, is not ability to overcook and not worry, it's about the flavor). But, like other techniques, it needs adaptation of method to result in the desired effect.

I'm not sure what exactly you're after, but braising might be an option if you're not smoking. There might be a greater margin of error there and it would certainly help on the moisture front. If you're looking for a crusty exterior this is not the way to go of course but if you want juicy shredded pork on a bun it might be an easier option. As others have noted, 165 is too low and it looks like you need a bit more time.

I live in Wisconsin and was astonished to find out that the local grocery chain (Copps) was selling live Maine lobsters. I've never seen this as long as I've lived here (only 3 1/2 years, but still) though there is one specialty store around that I know of that sells them at prohibitive prices. They were $11.99/lb for 1.5 pounders. The price isn't spectacular, but the fact that they're selling them at all is unusual. I was so surprised I bought two, ate one tail one night and turned the shells and remaining meat into bisque the next day.

My mom would always serve something like this--she called it kluskis and cheese, referring to the Polish noodle (she's 100% Polish) though she used elbow macaroni, large curd, and butter instead of sour cream. I've always thought it was Polish. Speaking of sour cream though, does anyone eat sour cream and bananas. My (Jewish) dad used to make that all the time. My keeping things simple dish is lightly buttered noodles tossed with parmesan with a fried egg on top (and a lot of parsley if it's around).

Stock making is pretty easy. What separates a good stock from a great stock in my opinion is like every thing else in the technique and attention to detail. Don't simmer your stock too hard as this causes cloudiness and be sure to degrease the stock thoroughly. I also like to strain several times--once through a chinois, then through a reusable coffee filter. Then I cool and refrigerate, scrape the fat off the top, and strain again through the coffee filter to get a little bit more sediment out and the rest of the smaller globules of fat that I couldn't just scoop off the top. Then, I reduce (if necessary) so that the fat isn't emulsified into the stock. My system involves a pitcher (for pouring through the coffee filter easily) and rewashing the stock pot several times to refill with the stock strained at one stage or another. You can then reduce in the pot the stock is in. This takes a lot of time and can be messy unless you have the logistics down (and is still a bit of a pain even then), but it produces a very clear tasting and looking stock (short of clarifying for consomme). I like the results and figure the extra labor now will be worth it and is really not bad considering you'll have stock for a pretty long time.

Great tutorial-I've been using this method ever since I first learned it here a while ago. It's really good for pork chops too. I use 2 inch chops (also like a mini-roast) and sub in lard for the butter when cooking pork. It's roastily delicious.

Yes, it's called Luxardo Sangue Morlacco, and there's a short thread on it here. If you've ever had the Luxardo cherries in syrup, it tastes like the boozy version of those. I don't have enough experience with Cherry Heering, though, to make a direct comparison. ← A boozy version of Luxardo cherries would indeed be good (or any other version of them for that matter). Every time I spoon one out, I always take some syrup with it for a pre-drink treat. I could see that working as a replacement.

Since first reading this post, I've gone around asking about Heering and what I've found isn't promising (at least in SE WI). The most definitive word I've gotten is that Cherry Heering not only hasn't been available but is even off the list of available products. I'd be interested in what people say as a good sub, because I've never tasted any thing like it. I've never seen Cherry Marnier around. Isn't there a Luxardo product that is similar (or did I just imagine it)? In any case, I've never seen that around here either. My response has been to try to stock up.

This Friday I'll be in possession of a bottle of Bols Genever. I've never had genever before, but I'm definitely going to try it in an Improved Holland Cock-Tail and a gin julep. Are there any other drinks that will really highlight the qualities of genever? And welcome to eG, Matt.

Around here (Madison, WI), Plymouth just went up from $21 a liter to $25 a liter at the cheapest source (though every other place in town has it for around the same price for a .750). The price of Beefeater is stable at $31 a 1.75 and Tanqueray is $35 a 1.75. I still buy Plymouth at this price, but I definitely use it less than Beefeater, my standard gin (unless I spring for Tanq, which I usually don't). $40 for a bottle of gin! That's over the top--you can get a bottle of Redbreast for that much.

I have yoghurt! Would you suggest mixing it milk or water, or just use yoghurt straight up? ← I sometimes use yogurt for my fried chicken. I let it sit for a couple of hours in the yogurt, which I spike with Sriracha for a little spice (enough to make the yogurt pink so that you know its there). Like buttermilk, it denatures (I'm not sure this is the proper word...) the protein a bit, making it more tender. Then, I just strip the excess yogurt off with my hands before flouring with flour seasoned with Old Bay seasoning (at least twice before shallow frying, preferably in real lard). The yogurt works just as well as buttermilk, I think. This is the way my mom makes it--never misses.

I regularly do about 50g whole wheat to 550g white flour, about 9% of the final dough in baker's percentages. Adding whole wheat to your formula should result in only a few minor adjustments if any. Go for it--it's good.

I wasn't sold on this drink either until I got real absinthe (absinthe substitute was too sweet and didn't bring much to the overall flavor profile). I make mine with 2 oz Beefeater, 1 oz orange juice (average valencia), 1 tsp grenadine (homemade with pom), and 1 tsp absinthe. I think it might be the extra absinthe that I really like in this drink, more like 8 dashes than just one and it really adds a sophisticated background to it. Its a lot of absinthe but it really dries up the juiciness of the drink and pumps up the herbal character that it needs to be more than a glass of gussied-up gin and juice.

I'd say the Monkey Gland should only be made with absinthe. Having only had it with Pernod, I thought it was somewhat bland. I wrote it off for a while then tried it with absinthe and it was a complex, sophisticated, interesting drink. I've been meaning to make a Cocktail a la Louisiane with absinthe. I thought this one was a bit too rich when I made it with Pernod. It was cloyingly sweet. Maybe I added too much pastis then, but I suspect the absinthe will dry it up so that it hits the right mark of sweetness/richness. And I agree, a Sazerac has to be made with absinthe. It increases the contemplation-factor of this drink quite a bit.

I buy from thrift stores, but when I find the occasional Libbey coupe, I snap it up as quickly as possible. Not only do they look more elegant than many other glasses on (or off) the market, they are thick and sturdy. The thickness also helps because when you pre-chill them long enough, they stay colder longer than thinner glasses. You can get cases of them pretty easily (eg from Amazon).

Sourdough bread tips, especially Jackal's course and bread troubleshooting. It's how I began to learn to bake.

Think about it... considering that 100 proof whiskey is 50% water by volume, how could this possibly be true? ← I never said that I thought it was true. People do seem to think it's true though, so I hazard to guess that's what "dilution heat" means in this mizuwari recipe.

I've always heard that a little bit of water added to the whiskey causes a chemical reaction that is supposed to raise its temperature a bit and that you can observe this by noting a stronger aroma off of the scotch after the volatility of the drink is increased by this process. Maybe this is what "dilution heat" refers to. But even if it is true, I do doubt that this "dilution heat" is represented in a scientific way by the procedure described here--could it really factor in much with all that ice? I don't think so. But as an idea, I think it makes sense: if the idea is to account for every possible contingency whether scientifically established or perhaps only customarily excepted as a real phenomenon (in which case, it may as well be real anyway) in the course of the making of the drink, it would be pleasing for bartender and customer to see so much care and precision lavished, perhaps especially so for such a simple drink such as this one.

You can check out this thread on eating in Madison which has plenty of info. For burgers, I would recommend Dotty Dumpling's Dowry.

As others have pointed out, these are iconoclastic highballs he's making there. A typical highball would be something like 1.5 ounces of spirit in a 9 ounce glass with ice and a fill-up of lengthener to the tune of 4 ounces or so. And I should point out that these wouldn't necessarily be crap drinks, either. This is a fairly classic ratio. In contrast, db_campbell's version would be around 3 ounces of spirit with 2 ounces of lengthener. It's no surprise that the quality and qualities of the spirit would be much more important in this kind of drink. ← Wouldn't that then make these more cocktail-like drinks than highballs or long drinks? I'm saying that even though the second ingredient is in fact soda, the proportion in which it is used in more like what would be used in a cocktail. And thinking of the sweetness of the soda, it's being used more like a liqueur than a lengthener. I wonder what it would be like to use flat cola. It sounds strange, but it could be interesting. The drink would have an entirely different texture. ← Couple of dashes of bitters and I think that would pass as a cocktail in anyone's book, recognizeable even to the Ancients of Mixology. ← Another possibility might be to reduce the cola into a syrup. Build 2 oz bourbon/rye, 1/2 oz cola syrup, bitters, lemon twist could be an interesting Old Fashioned variation (the "Cola Fashioned"?). ← I seem to recall that cooking Coke or other soft drinks will alter their flavor in a negative way, thus making reductions difficult. I really wanted to try this same idea some time back except with aged rums. Finding Coke syrup not in a bag proved difficult, and the next closest thing, Rose's Cola Tonic, didn't yield the hoped-for results (I think the Rose's is lacking in vanilla flavor). ← I was thinking of coca-cola chicken in which the cola is reduced quite a bit for the final product for the principle. I've never tried it myself though--perhaps some experimentation is in order. I would speculate that reducing some soft drinks might intensify the flavors, some of which might not be that good at that degree of intensity--perhaps that's the trouble with soda reductions?

As others have pointed out, these are iconoclastic highballs he's making there. A typical highball would be something like 1.5 ounces of spirit in a 9 ounce glass with ice and a fill-up of lengthener to the tune of 4 ounces or so. And I should point out that these wouldn't necessarily be crap drinks, either. This is a fairly classic ratio. In contrast, db_campbell's version would be around 3 ounces of spirit with 2 ounces of lengthener. It's no surprise that the quality and qualities of the spirit would be much more important in this kind of drink. ← Wouldn't that then make these more cocktail-like drinks than highballs or long drinks? I'm saying that even though the second ingredient is in fact soda, the proportion in which it is used in more like what would be used in a cocktail. And thinking of the sweetness of the soda, it's being used more like a liqueur than a lengthener. I wonder what it would be like to use flat cola. It sounds strange, but it could be interesting. The drink would have an entirely different texture. ← Couple of dashes of bitters and I think that would pass as a cocktail in anyone's book, recognizeable even to the Ancients of Mixology. ← Another possibility might be to reduce the cola into a syrup. Build 2 oz bourbon/rye, 1/2 oz cola syrup, bitters, lemon twist could be an interesting Old Fashioned variation (the "Cola Fashioned"?).

To my mind, there is little more gin-related than vermouth: neutral-grain spirit + aromatics marries perfectly with wine + aromatics. Plus, as thirtyoneknots says, good vermouth is cheap and readily available. If it goes bad to your taste, throw it out. You can also use it for cooking of course. I've recently been drinking drinks with lots of vermouth in them such as the delectable Imperial, which I discovered in the Stomping through the Savoy topic. I usually don't have much trouble going through a bottle.