vice

It would make more sense to me to do the whole braise ahead of time and reheat for service.

Tonic water, not club soda.

While McGee has never steered me wrong, I wonder if he might be simplifying the science just a bit for the wider public. There are, as far as I can see, potentially important variables involved here aside from molecule size (see particularly Tom Gengo's excellent post above discussing the possible roles of polarity, protein denaturation, interstitial spaces vs. migration across cell walls, etc.

But there's also a good layer of salt in the middle, so might it act like a thick piece of meat curing from the outside in and inside out simultaneously? I would still advocate flipping and rotating, which could get a) complicated and b) messy dealing with multiple pieces per bag, as Chris indicates.

I seem to recall Ruhlman mentioning, either in Charcuterie or on his blog, that he hangs his pancetta in the kitchen. Presumably, he has windows there. If you're really concerned about light, you can always wrap it in cheesecloth or muslin.

Interesting, I like La Favorite fine but much prefer the Neisson blanc, which has some meaty quality to it that I just can't get enough of. I agree that the La Favorite is the more vegetal of the two, but I'm not sure I could decide which is more aromatic overall. Both pack a huge wallop, albeit different ones. I'll have to do a side by side tonight.

Harold McGee and/or the Cooking Issues team need their own bat signal for questions like this. My take is, at the very least, flavoring a brine makes the kitchen smell nice.

In addition, you'll do yourself quite the favor by mixing up both the Pat's Special cocktail and a Parisian.

My metallurgy's a bit rusty (oof, apologies for that): what is the distinction between hardness and toughness?

I totally get the brut side of things, but I am a bit curious about the French part, given that quality sparkling wines from other regions are now readily available. Is it a matter of personal preference or is there just something about Champagne champagne that tends to work well in a punch? ps. very jealous of all those that have gotten their copy already. mine is in the mail and I can't wait for it to arrive.

From the horse's mouth (well, Craig Schoettler's rather): This still leaves a lot open-ended, but it does shed some light, and justifies some concerns, about the potential for interaction with the bartenders (chefs?) at Aviary.

To the already great list of recommendations, I would just add that you should absolutely get the affogato at Blue Bottle (Ferry building and Mint Plaza locations). For that matter, you should probably get ice cream at both Humphrey Slocombe and Bi-Rite Creamery (both in the Mission). No one has mentioned Una Pizza Napoletana yet, about which there's been a lot of deserved buzz. For cocktails, I never fail to stop at Alembic when I'm in the city, but I've had notably great experiences at Nopa, Bar Agricole, and Smuggler's Cove, amongst all the others. Some might scoff, but I also make a stop at House of Nanking whenever possible and I've yet to be disappointed over the course of six years going there.

How is the pricey stuff different from regular ol' superfine? I just whip up another batch in the food processor when I run out. The thought of someone going without daiquiris makes me sad.

Isn't the Goodnight, Irene just bourbon and Branca Menta? That looks more like a riff on what Tom may have been calling the Goodnight, Chris, which I suppose could have evolved from the Irene.

Does he say why?

I hear that. A gnarly head cold had me on the hot kick though. I don't know that I'd have made it through without goodly doses of Lemon Hart or Laphroaig.

Good points. Some hygrostat controllers (this one, for example) do have cords you can route outside the fridge much like the keg fridge thermostats many people use.

I'll add that, even if some data are available elsewhere, the authors have collected all of it in one place and interpreted their results specifically with cooking in mind. Both are considerable contributions.

Correct, with one caveat: If it's possible that you'll eventually scale up from the Vinotemp to a full-size fridge (the latter will need the humidity increased rather than decreased), it'd be cheaper in the long run to pony up now for a hygrostat with both humifidier and dehumidifier control (see jmolinari's blog post linked above). Just something to think about.

To fine tune the humidity, you'll need a hygrostat in combo with the dehumidifier. jmolinari discusses a few options here.

I think snobbery requires some subjective judgment. Asserting that pupusas are not Mexican is just stating fact.

It's pomegranate season. Hand-reamed 7 cups of juice today for ice wine grenadine. Boy did I wish I had an Orange-X.

Say goodbye to whatever chance we might have had to convince people it's properly called espresso.

This is the problem. It's not that it's bad, it's just not better. I guess I'm still not sure how it's a problem. In the cocktail world, I don't see people entirely switching over from regular simple to agave syrup due to perceived health benefits (or for other reasons, for that matter). Is the argument that agave syrup is 'not better' flavor-wise?

If you're drinking enough agave-sweetened cocktails to cause health issues, fructose is not your biggest problem.