Dave the Cook

Oh no! Is there a shortage of gin?

The saying is not original with me, but I've found it to be true: almost anything made with vodka is better made with gin.

Not to be too picky, but the menu I have is from 8 November, 2007. As KD1191 said, the cocktail (and the menu) changes -- in this case, in ways that most people wouldn't notice: Roederer Brut instead of Paul Laurent; butternut squash rather than pumpkin. Go figure.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has named Restaurant Eugene its restaurant of the year: Full story here.

I'm finding Wayne Curtis's And a Bottle of Rum to be very enjoyable.

I'm not sure what your point is, Berlioni. Organic citrus is waxed more often than it's left naked.

More detail from Reynolds:

You don't have to go that far. Check out the eGullet Culinary Institute's course on brining.

If they remove anything but wax, they have to go to Time Out and Think About What They've Done. Seriously, running hot water does the trick. No loss of zest, if that's what you're asking. The texture of the gloves is akin to a loofah (which, come to think of it, might work, too).

When we teach classes where a lot of citrus is involved, one assistant is issued a pair of potato gloves.

I agree with those who are saying that the term itself is misleading. A telling example of what this can lead to popped up on Top Chef a few weeks ago, when a chef, unfamiliar with the precess, was sent packing because he took the word literally. "Reconstruction" or "recombinant cooking" might be more apt.

I think your editor doesn't understand the subject.

Like most such lists, this one seems to be designed to create, if not controversy, at least discussion. Success on that point, given this topic. However, this one seems to have more than the usual share of self-contradiction and misconception: Item 10: Gee, wouldn't that be, um, deconstruction (Item 1)? And speaking of deconstruction: What a silly encapsulation of the style. So Alice Waters is Deconstructionist in Chief? Item 9: Let's see . . . rotovaps, dewars, immersion circulators . . . nothing there costs ten grand, let alone tens of grands. Even in MG kitchens, the most expensive piece of equipment is still the conventional range or convection oven. Item 8: Where do these people eat? Item 2: Put aside Zagat's astonishing lack of understanding about what a chef's job is. Who besides Rocco Despirito is in this category? Does one example constitute a trend? Back to Item 1: it's churlish (and misleading) to pick a bad example of something and use it as a categorical characterization. I suppose you could say every car sucks if all you'd driven was a Yugo.

Yes. pressure canners aren't quite as user friendly as the smaller models, and because of their size they take longer to come up to pressure, but they work exactly the same way.

You might want to read through a couple of topics: An interface between the two languages and Daily Nihongo.

Great idea, MSRadell! Despite having spent eight years of my life using these on a daily basis, I'd completely forgotten about them -- and how fun they are to peel. For those of you not familar with wax pencils (aka china markers), look here.

With a carefully prepared shell (1/8 to 1/4 inch of potato left in) and ample fluffage of the potato guts and additions, halves can look decent. The problem with many examples of the half-school is that the shells are insufficiently scooped, then refilled inadequately. They look like giant whites-only devilled eggs. On the other hand, given the size of russets found in stores these days, a whole potato baked and stuffed does make for a huge portion. You have to be very patient to find smaller shapely specimens. An alternative to slicing the top is to cut a wide X and peel back the flaps, curling as you go. More care is required when scooping and filling, but it makes a pretty, bountiful-looking presentation. Cultured butter and scallions, please -- though my daughter is partial to surimi (real crab doesn't work as well for some reason), broccoli and shredded cheddar, which, when using a medium to large potato, makes it a meal.

With respect to ceramic knives, I no longer have any fears -- that was sort of my point. And thanks to paulraphael, I no longer fear culinary hell, because it sounds a lot like eG Forums. Sweet.

In the discussion about Chad Ward's excellent book An Edge in the Kitchen, I told how I replaced an expensive knife with a Kyocera parer for citrus-cutting purposes. My roommate (aka my mom) kept borrowing it for her own purposes, such as cutting up the dog's daily chicken ration. I am basically lazy, and hunting down the stray, then washing and drying it became too much of a burden, so I got a second. The dog's knife lives in the block next to the sink, and the citrus knife has its abode in the tray where I keep my other cocktail hardware, and all three of us are happy. One day I realized that I would never send these knives back to Japan for sharpening. When they became too dull, I'd just replace them. I'm far from rich, but it's not worth the trouble and postage for a $30 knife. Laziness is self-perpetuating, and now I've descended further down that slippery slope: I run them through the dishwasher. I figure I'm shortening their lives by a few months, but 1) given their brittleness, there's a good chance one or both will break before they go dull; 2) if I get two years' use (or 730 chicken thighs + countless lemons, limes and grapefruits), I'll be satisfied -- and I'll have saved many hours (okay, maybe many minutes, but still) of hand washing. But will I go to culinary hell for this? And if I do, will I have company? Do you, too, subject to your dishwasher things that you shouldn't?

That's pretty much the way I do it, too, though I usually only bother with three or four long slices per piece, depending on how wide the celery is and how finicky the finished product needs to be. On the other hand -- even though they aren't a dice of any sort -- don't discount the visual appeal of chevrons.

I usually clean as I go, I clean my knives with relative promptness, I don't abuse my non-stick (mainly by avoiding its use). But as I sit down to scrape Bar Keeper's Friend out from under my fingernails, I realize that my worst habit is not cleaning the stovetop often enough. It's a white ceramic top, and you'd think persistent ugliness would encourage me, but no. I don't think you should think of this as a bad habit, but rather efficient time management. A trick I learned from Alton Brown is to not worry about cleaning the grill right after cooking. Instead, the next time you go to use the grill, light your coals and spread them out when they're ready. Let the grates heat up, then clean with a wire brush. Works for me (I have cast-iron grates), especially the no-guilt part. Sometimes all you have to do is redefine the problem.

I considered that, but I already had the Cruzan -- gathering dust because I wasn't quite sure what to do with it.

I've run through my supply of Inner Circle green, an ingredient that Dave Wondrich's says is essential to his Both Indies cocktail. The other night, it occurred to me to try mixing equal parts Gosling's Black Seal and Cruzan 151. Not only did it work reasonably well, it made me realize that the Both Indies is a tiki drink of a sort -- even moreso when made with two rums rather than one. Anyway, you might give it a try, Chris.

I can't speak for Tri2Cook, but I have two basic methods. The first is the trusty Sharpie, which writes on pretty much anything, as long as it's dry (the cut face of an onion, for example, does not take to being Sharpied, but that's another story). Much to my surprise, the white areas on storage bags that are presumably intended to be used for labeling, actually accept and preserve ink better, as well as provide better contrast for reading. Two contrasting examples, bagged and labeled within a day of each other: I suspect that the second bag was damp, but the difference is pretty stark, regardless. The other thing I do is simply tear off the package label and stick it in the bag, facing out. Here's a pork roast I bought last week. I cut two chops off and stored the rest. The label tells me what it is and when I bought it (more or less). The weight is no longer accurate, but I can deal with that.

Posole a la denim?