lesliec

Dave, your Betty looks wonderful. That's a good tip about apple selection - we can actually get Fujis here, so I'll be able to compare them with other local varieties as a guide to how they'll perform. I don't know that a Brown Betty is known to New Zealand cooks. The nearest equivalent is probably the Apple Crumble (or crapple umble, if you're my wife), but it doesn't have multiple crumb layers and the 'crumbs' are actually oats, butter, flour and sugar. If the apple layer beneath is too wet, it becomes the famous Apple Soggy.

Baking soda can be good for removing smells. Try mixing some with water (no idea of proportions, but I can't see you getting into too much trouble with it) and letting it soak into the wood for a while. A 1:1 solution of white vinegar and water is also worth a try. Good luck.

Key words: closed-cell foam. If it's not closed-cell it will probably leak.

Hi, Smokey17. Welcome to eGullet. I'm glad you've seen the light and now joined us! You may have caught up with the discussions already, but recently we've been talking about blueberry pancakes made in an iSi siphon, and the newest eG Cookoff is all about apples. Feel free to chime in. See you in the forums. Kind regards, Leslie

Kingston Negroni sounds tasty. I'm hoping a colleague who's in the UK at the moment is going to bring some S&C back for me, so that would be a good start. And I'm sure you mean Madame Frog!

Hum. Not sure how I feel about that, either. I guess it's no big thing; the first thing I do when I get my Anova One out of where it lives is plug its cord in. So now I won't have to do that ...

Fantastic - it's always great when a concept becomes real. Having this one out the door now seems like a good sign the full production version should be on track for next month, as Jeff indicated very early in the piece. One of the things I was looking forward to on the new one is the removable/adjustable clamp. From Anna's photos it's exactly what I was hoping for.

I second that. The Teenage Riot is a stunningly good drink, and I'm sure I can taste the Amontillado as one of the (many) flavours. But then I haven't tried it with a fino.

It's good to add things to a G&T. I like a drop of lemon cordial and/or St Germaine; coconut would be interesting to try. As we speak I'm enjoying your Choke Artist. Lovely stuff.

I can see I'm going to have to set myself up as an exporter of Smoke & Oakum Gunpowder Rum. As an 'in your face' float on a Mai Tai I'm convinced it has no parallel.

It could be argued 'heirloom' means exactly the opposite - it's an old variety that hasn't been mucked about with, because it tasted good all along. Often, in my experience, heirloom fruits and veg aren't as 'pretty' as newer, cultivated varieties, but boy, do they taste better.

The dog poop in your area is considerably more attractive than it is here! Try a baby quenelle. Reasonable instructions, with photos, here, or an old eG discussion here.

You're not alone. I hadn't really thought about it, but when I SV chicken breasts, say, they come out quite firm. But now I consider the matter ... I'm not certain - it's been a while since I did it - but I have a feeling modernist fried chicken, where the meat is cooked SV before breading and deep-frying, comes out tender. A further experiment seems called for.

Right - that's tonight's drink sorted out.

I strongly approve, FP. In summer we've been known to mix up a batch of G&T in a vacuum flask and take it to the beach to enjoy with fish and chips. One of the great food/drink pairings on a summer evening, that one.

Sometimes I just feel like something based on a particular spirit, sometimes I want a specific drink, sometimes it's something sparked by eG, sometimes I have no idea what I want. In pretty much all cases, the solution is to fire up Kindred on the phone and do some browsing.

That looks great, Mr Ross. Rustic is entirely appropriate for Tarte Tatin.

Great, thanks. Haven't got that one; I may have to get creative. What's the active ingredient - something like isomalt? Wifey and I went to a screening of El Bulli: Cooking in Progress as part of the annual Wellington on a Plate food festival last week, so my interested in fun stuff has again been piqued.

They look great, William. What's the texture - crunchy? I'm not sure if the recipe's in the El Bulli book I have. Which year are these?

I'm not sure we have a norm, Heidi. Pancakes certainly aren't unheard of, but neither are they exactly a cornerstone of our national cuisine! I just used some butter out of habit, I suppose. You're right; if the pan is properly seasoned - mine is; it's a lovely heavy Lodge - it's probably not needed, particularly since the batter itself has butter in it. But somebody - Escoffier? - said everything tastes better with butter, and who am I to argue? Jo - no problems here with sticking (maybe the butter helps), but as you saw I used the 'second squirt' method. They were great with maple syrup.

They are quite scary beasts - particularly once they go pale after a bit of time around alcohol. Just had a thought. How about including a finger of Buddha's Hand in a Zombie?

The wisdom of crowds? Ummm ... This sounds very much like an event business, as somebody in the article said. I could see it being sustainable in big enough population centres - pop-up restaurants can be fun, but I don't always want to eat in a (probably drafty) motorcycle garage. You'd need a good population base so there was always a supply of first-timers coming along. But were those plastic wine glasses on the tables? Ugh.

By 'in' you mean 'above', I hope. That recipe doesn't need the fruit to actually contact the alcohol. The amount of oil/flavour/aroma sucked out with the fruit suspended above for a few weeks is amazing. With Buddha's Hand, I'd suggest two weeks rather than three. It's incredibly aromatic. Three, which I did, is fine; I just don't think it needs that long.

What Kerry said. Although in your high-volume setting an experiment seems called for. Can you do a small batch of 'infused final product' and see what it's like?

I'm going to call this a success: Recipe as per Jo's in post 28 of this topic, except I only used one type of flour 'high grade' (probably what you know as cake flour, but I can't guarantee it). I mixed everything (sans blueberries) up last night in the blender, poured it into the iSi and left it overnight. This morning I got some butter melting in the pan and charged the siphon with two cartridges. Why two? Dunno; it seemed like a good idea. These photos are all of the second panful, when I was getting better at it. Side 1 cooking: Blueberries on: A second layer from the iSi - not as much as for side 1: Flipped; nearly ready: The pancakes were a delight. What most impressed me was how light they were - really delicate. This made them a little tricky to attack with a slice to turn them over, but I learned fast. There's plenty of batter still in the siphon for tomorrow's breakfast as well, and no shortage of (frozen) blueberries. It will be fun to do this again when fresh ones are in season. Thanks to eG in general for the idea and Jo for the details. Highly recommended.