lesliec

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but Kaiser Penguin's 5-Minute Falernum works really well. It's very close to his 'normal' falernum recipe (and tastes pretty much identical - this is a good thing), but it's made very quickly using nitrogen cavitation in an iSi siphon. You still need to zest eight limes, which is at best tedious, but it does mean that that's the longest part of the process; actually making the final product is real fast. And delicious, particularly with W&N as the base. But then, anything's better than the commercial muck I've had. Fortunately I started making my own before feeling any need to buy some.

I'll see your curious mixture and raise you a glass of ... Dante's Requiem. This is rather a splendid beast; very complex, with the Chartreuse quite apparent (and the FB not) but not dominating. Delightful colour, too; I'd show you a photo but I drank the subject.

Likewise 'au sous vide', which I've shuddered over here. 'With under vacuum'?

To add to what djyee100 said - when you're mincing garlic, mix in some coarse salt. Twofold benefit; it's easier to mince because of the grinding effect of the salt, and salt helps counteract bitterness.

Hi Kerry. As far as I could tell, I replicated my earlier recipe and technique but didn't get the same result. I'm beginning to wonder about the wisdom of putting all my botanicals in a muslin pouch in the still column - I think there's potential for variation there due to the 'sock' getting more or less squashed by the ceramic saddles accompanying it. Homedistiller.org had a post about making genever and the suggestion there was to have the heavier ingredients (juniper, coriander) in the boiler itself and only the light stuff (peels, fried leaves) in the column. I think I'll look into that for future experiments. But for this time, I'm inclined to credit the second distillation for smoothing things out. This was in pure pot still mode, by the way - no reflux at all (not recommended with a stainless column).

I find myself in possession of 6.6 litres of gin at 82% alcohol. No, I don't propose drinking it like that! This batch has been a bit of a trial but seems to have worked out. I distilled a batch of gin a few weeks ago, using the same method as last time, but it wasn't right. Rather harsh, regardless of the percentage I watered it down to. So I resolved to run it through the Still again when I had a second batch to make it worthwhile. It all happened this weekend. I ran another gin batch yesterday, then combined it with the earlier one, watered the lot down to 40% and ended up with around 16 litres, to which I added some more juniper berries for extra flavour, then ran through the still this morning. It looks like a good result. It's clear and smells good. I've diluted small quantities to 40, 50 and 55% for comparison. The 55 is pretty good and may be best in a cocktail. The 40 is most approachable on its own, but who drinks gin like that? The 50 just doesn't work - it's hot without any other redeeming features. I plan to take all three to my favourite bar for a second opinion, but my current thinking is to bottle both a 40% and a 'navy strength' version. But it's also slightly tempting to do a triple-distilled version when I have another batch or two ...

That's fantastic, Martin. Thanks for all your work on this, and it's great to see you on eGullet again.

I'm glad to see Rafa 'liking' things again. He'd gone quiet for a day or two; I was worried his coworkers had succeeded in killing him.

Silly me - didn't include a link. I'm on my phone, so this won't be as elegant as I'd like: http://www.kindredcocktails.com/cocktail/the-difference-engine

A very entertaining evening at the Hawthorn Lounge last night. Next week we're getting a bunch of people together for the first of (we hope) many entertaining steampunk cocktail evenings at Hawthorn. I've posted before about the Rusty Automaton, but last night we decided we needed some more in the repertoire. It turns out Kindred already has one called the Jules Verne (tequila, açai, elderflower, lime, agave syrup) so we tried Gian's take on that, with Burlesque Bitters in place of the açai spirit - very successful; not something I'd want much of due to my citrus aversion, but certainly pleasant. Then the real fun started. We wanted one called H.G. Wells and ended up with the Thyme Machine: A bit of thought went into this one - Lighthouse Hawthorn Edition gin (Hawthorn Gin, hence H. G. We considered Hendricks, but Peter felt it wouldn't handle the rest of the ingredients) along with one of the oldest things the bar had (Bénédictine) and the youngest (Greenbar Grand Poppy liqueur), with, of course, fresh thyme as a garnish. Given the relative amounts I was surprised at how much the poppy came through. Very good, although the amount of ice did make it a little watery before I was really ready. Then it was Gian's turn again and he came up with the Smoking Cap (it would have been the Smoking Jacket, but Kindred's got one of those already): This was probably the drink of the evening. Port, Hawthorn Edition gin again, Gunpowder Rum and falernum, poured through smoke. Beautifully complex. Somebody else at the bar had one shortly after this was invented and also liked it a lot. It's a definite sipper rather than a 'toss it back' drink, but you want to keep sipping to see what it's going to do next. Smoking caps and jackets were originally intended to keep the smell of pipe/cigarette/cigar smoke out of one's clothes and hair. This drink poses no danger of stinkiness. Finally, we handed Peter a challenge. Between the 1820s and 1840s, Charles Babbage worked on a Difference Engine - an early computer. He never quite finished, but there have been working models constructed now. There's a beautiful picture of a Difference Engine here; all brass and cogs and things dear to the heart of any steampunk enthusiast. I showed Peter a photo, we talked about brass and oil and such and he, seized by inspiration, went forth and dug out a bottle of walnut oil (nuts = bolts, screws, etc. also). With some barmanly manipulation, he got this to emulsify with blended Scotch (and a touch of Laphroaig, which certainly came through later), egg white and Demerara syrup to produce this masterful column of oily brass: Although again there's more lemon in there than I'd normally go for, this was really good - the oil or egg or something tamed the lemon nicely. So we're now nicely set up for a variety of more or less steampunk-themed cocktails for next Wednesday. I'll report accordingly.

The problem ain't the sweetener; it's how much stuff you eat that it's in.

Alas, the Hawthorn Lounge had a private function last night and we couldn't get in. We'll try again tonight. The upside of this was we got to enjoy our PPX on the couch at home, covered in kittens and watching an episode of the new series of Sherlock (recommended). I had to do the photo like this - the array of ingredients is just so impressive. Lacking cognac, I used Esplendido Spanish brandy. It's from Jerez so might be expected to play nicely with the PX. The rest was Ilegal mezcal, Sazerac rye, Triana PX and of course Cynar and molé bitters. Another winner, Rafa; definitely in our ever-more-crowded Top 20. The mezcal rinse is inspired and gives a nice subtle smokiness when you sip. After that, the drink is a real smoothie. What surprised me was how dominant the molé bitters were. That's not a bad thing; a nice wodge of chocolate on top of caramel/raisin PX can come to visit any time it likes, as far as I'm concerned. I didn't get quite as carried away with the Cynar as Rafa suggested, but I am able to report that there's not a lot of difference between one and two bar spoonsful. Maybe I'll chuck a decent amount in next time and see how it goes. The overall impression is it's pretty sweet (PX will do that); a bit more bitter won't hurt it at all, I suspect. A couple of questions for the knowledgeable: How do you define a 'dash' with the Bittermens products, since they come with a dropper?This recipe says to express the orange peel then discard. What's the thinking there? When is it best to drop the peel into the drink; when to squeeze and throw?

Just the drink I was putting the last touches on this evening. This being you, Leslie, you may want to increase the Cynar somewhat—say by an ounce or two... :-) And that would have been quite enough for my liver this evening, but my coworkers are taking me out tonight, and they've promised to get me wasted. I hope they don't kill me. Hmm. More Cynar. There's a concept ... I'm sure I join with all of us here in also hoping they don't kill you. For our part, the Hawthorn Lounge is beckoning. I'll lay the PPX on them and see what they think.

We enjoyed the Free Fallin' last night. Just the right sort of bitter for us. Thanks, FP. And I've just found Rafa's P.P.X. over on Kindred. My gawd - that's on the list for tonight!

Yes, meringue can be nasty sticky stuff. I once (very inadvisedly) tried doing baby pavlovas in metal forms. Complete failure. Kerry's the expert when it comes to how an acrylic mould might (or might not) behave in the oven, but if you're going to try it I'd suggest baking paper/parchment to prevent sticking.

Well, what exactly did you expect with a name like Junipero? :-)But seriously, I think it's about the same as Tanqueray on the juniper scale. Therefore Tanqueray tastes like ... tanks?

Everything's better bitter. Especially that drink.

I can't believe nobody's bought anything four five days. Anyway, here's my weekend purchases: The Junipero is a new one for me - my first US gin. First impressions are it's more juniper-heavy than I'm used to - this is not a criticism; simply an observation. It made a pretty respectable Negroni with Campari and Dubonnet last night. The Averna was to replace a bottle we killed a couple of days ago, and the Chartreuse is because I want to try a few more cocktails that use it and I'd run out of the samples given to me by a workmate whose partner comes from near where it's made.

Your first orange twist was prettier, though

That's the sort of experiment I like. A Negroni should bash it into shape, perhaps.

I have long held the view that, in any given couple, one will like tripe and the other (passionately) not. Personally I'm a fan of the classic English tripe and onions. I grant it looks like white slop with lumps, but I like it. I made Tripes a la mode de Caen some years ago for wifey, who actually ate it and allowed that maybe tripe wasn't so bad after all. It's occurred to me to wonder about cooking tripe sous vide but I haven't overcome inertia sufficiently to do any research, let alone just try it.

Why not? A quick squirt behind the ears; very refreshing on a warm day and no doubt pleasant for those who are permitted to get close enough.

Give me Wray & Nephew, or give me death.

Not really. Matt Smith's TARDIS was very steampunk.

As promised, Rafa's Bulwer-Lytton: Nice. Quite light and refreshing; I was surprised how the Earl Grey-infused Lighthouse gin subdued the Bundaberg ginger beer. No lavender bitters so I used a squirt of Angostura, and some of a rather good local lime cordial instead of a real lime. We'll do this again on a warm day. Then we decided to dress up in full steampunkery (because we could) and head out to the Hawthorn Lounge, which we have unilaterally declared the Official Bar of Wellington Steampunk. It was necessary to begin with a Rusty Automaton, which we have unilaterally declared the Official Cocktail etc. etc: The Hawthorn used some of their own cherry brandy in place of the Cherry Heering and it worked very well, with a nice lingering cherryness. The box on the right is my steampunked version of this. Mine stands on elephant's feet, has an elephant's tail round the back (best place for it) and the switch turner-offer is an elephant's trunk. The elephant, I regret to say, did not long survive this transformation. And of course that's my pith helmet and spooky goggles in the background.