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Three eights? C'mon, Dan - I have enough trouble with thirds! But yes, that does sound pretty good, and to my surprise I found some Laird's on sale the other day - never seen it here before. I might be perilously low on Bonal, another one I've never seen here (mine came back from NY with a friend), but I'll think of something. Thanks - you've answered the 'what shall we have tonight' question.

With difficulty! Actually, I've just checked and my Chartreuse doesn't look like it ever had a wax seal. That's ordinary (!) green; are you dealing with VEP or some other exotic variant, Jo? But when I'm faced with a bottle of something with a seal, I use a knife to cut around where I think the actual seal (cork or whatever) joins the bottle, then ease it out normally. But be careful; we don't want to see you in the 'I will never again ...' topic anytime soon.

That looks amazing, FP. The basic recipe is about the only bread I make, but I've never done the brioche. I must.

Hi, @arcadiandj. Sounds like you're coming along nicely. I had a tidy-up of my booze cabinet recently and was surprised to find I had 12 different rums. You and Jo are putting me to shame! I think what you like is more important than the label - after all, you're presumably making cocktails for you to enjoy, right? As a general principle, better quality ingredients = a better cocktail, but your taste is important. If you can't tell the difference between, say, Appleton VX and Appleton 12 (or you can tell the difference but prefer the VX), so what? Go with what you know you like for now and enjoy saving some money. You'll return to the 'better' ingredients over time and may then find you prefer them ... or you may not. In which case, carry on!

Sounds tasty, FP. And I got a new bottle of Montenegro this very day. Something like 2/.75/.25/rinse?

I'm a little late catching up with this topic, but you've had some excellent suggestions. Something I haven't seen mentioned, other than the OXO angled measuring cup, is a really good jigger. As some of the cocktail fraternity of eG know, I commented recently on the difficulty of measuring 1/3 or 2/3 of an ounce. A friend of mine has this one, also from OXO, which permits every measurement known to man (almost). I covet it. I do rather fancy that fancy spoon, too ...

I'm reminded of a trip to Noumea a few years ago which (serendipitously) coincided with a foie gras festival. One of the highlights (aside from finding what an amazing match foie is for asparagus) was a dinner following a wine tasting. For the dinner foie was served in several ways, but the one I'm thinking of was barely-seared on top of a fantastic steak. I'm thinking if you grated raw(ish) foie onto a freshly-seared steak, the heat of the staek would begin to cook it and you could end up with something rather special. Cue salivation ...

Yes it is. Referred to as 'hydrated lime' in a couple of recipes here.

Rafa's Churchgoer tonight. Gin, genever, yellow Chartreuse and dry vermouth. Really, really good. According to Kindred I'd made it before and given it four stars. Now I've bumped it to five. And before you ask ... my gin, my genever, my bay seed liqueur in place of the Chartreuse, and Carpano Bianco. So it"s probably several removes from what Rafa intended!

I can hereby report, following jollity on this page and the previous, that the Red Head posted by @Craig E is freakin' delicious (whether one has a jigger that manages one-third measures or no).

Yes, I think its reputed shelf life might be vastly underestimated.

Only if you have time ...

My jigger struggles with 1/3 measures, but I think I'm going to have to try this one.

Muffins, I believe ...

Thanks for the topic resurrection, @Steve Irby. I'm betting the chicken thighs with Toulouse are going to be wonderful. I haven't really given much thought to this year's Christmas dinner, but another lamb saddle as above may well be on the cards.

OK, for four recipes I may be able to resist. Thanks for saving me money!

Recipes as in 'how to make amari'? Much depends on your answer!

Yes, the Martica's a good one. I also like the Chocolate Martica - increase the vermouth to a full ounce (from .75) and sub two dashes of mole bitters for the Angostura. I also went D&C for tonight's cocktail - Cynaro de Bergerac. I can't say why, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I'm sure I have before. Nothing wrong with it, though.

Sounds like one for me, FP. What ratios did you use? The comments in Kindred suggest several variants.

I really like my induction hob. It was installed just before Christmas maybe four (or is it five?) years ago now, so about the first thing I did on it was the non-oven bits of a proper Christmas dinner (no, I don't remember now what we had, but it was a matter of flinging myself onto the learnng curve and not falling off). I'm not the most demanding of cooks so take this with a pinch of Maldon, but I'm not sure I'd value 100+ heat settings. Mine has 1-9, plus a simmer and an 'OMG' setting. I use 7 to start most things, down to 5 or 6 as cooking progresses and 8 or 9 to quickly bring a pot of water to the boil. With very few exceptions (simmering gravy once it's thickened and just needs to be kept warm), that's it. Every now and then - say if I've forgotten to get my cup of water boiling to throw in he oven when the bread goes in - I've used the extreme setting. Maybe twice ... The induction hob (Fisher & Paykel; five zones) looks good, is easy to clean and is so much more controllable than the pathetic gas it replaced. I'm sold.

A new cocktail from Rafa is always worth a look (and a taste). Today he's given us the President of Vice: Look at that colour! It's not the simplest of drinks - Añejo rum, Bianco vermouth, Curaçao, Amontillado sherry, apricot brandy, Peychaud's and orange bitters, orange flower syrup and orange peel - but I like it a lot. I used Barbancourt 8 for the rum. I don't have any orange flower syrup (I'm not sure I've ever seen it) but it's quite sweet enough for me with orange flower water instead. Nice one, Rafa. Keep 'em coming.

Is this the article you meant, Rotuts? Looks like their most recent one.

Exactly that. Use juniper berries, coriander seeds and a bit of orange and/or lemon zest (to start with) to flavour cream and make your ganache from there. I more or less proved the concept a while ago with ice cream flavoured with gin botanicals, which you've reminded me I need to try again.

Thanks, @ananth, @Rafa, @Craig E. The old 'training the palate' trick, eh? Yes, it's worth a try. After all, I trained myself to like olives some years ago. I might even start with a Last Word (I like everything else that's in it) with greatly reduced lime and see how I go. Of course Plan B, which has served me well so far, is simply to make things that don't have citrus in them! There seem to be quite a number of those ...

It's important to have the right ingredients for a few decent cocktails (and barrel-aged Negronis are great - I must see about putting another batch down). As a foreigner I'm finally going to ask somethng I've wondered about in other eG postings - what are 'homefries' and how do they differ (if at all) from common or garden fried spuds?