ChrisTaylor

I made this using an 'Islay Dry'--The Botanist--as the base spirit. I like it. A contemplative drink. First time I've used those Suburban Asian bitters, too. Thanks.

My first two Sam Adams experiences: * Noble Pilsner. This was okay. Maybe a little better than the Summerfest, * Boston Lager. I like this one. Malty good.

Oh, I think you can have too much cheese. A Parma is chicken with cheese rather than the other way round.

The Second Wind spoken of a couple of pages ago. Coruba instead of Cruzan. This drink did not smell inviting. But I like it. It's a monster. A monster that'll make you want to eat some dark chocolate alongside.

Sierra Nevada's Summerfest lager. First time I've had this one I think. Maybe. Possibly. Anyway, it's okay. Probably the least interesting Nevada I've tried. I mean, I've had mixed opinions of their beers thus far--some are overrated, some are very good--but while this one is very drinkable (summer beer on a warm autumn night) it's not hardly inspiring. But whatever. It's pleasant. That'll do, pig. That'll do. Went on a bit of an American kick, actually. Decided I'd try Sam Adams. Grabbed a pilsner and ... something else. Will report back.

Rum madness. Inner Circle Green, Coruba and Ron Zacapa 23.

Bitter, bitter, bitter: Rafa's PPX. Superb drink. And another. This time a Man Comes Around. A celebration of Rafa. Go invent us another bitter monster.

Try grilling beforehand. You don't want to do that for long cooks but it won't be a problem for short ones. Consider the low-and-slow roast method Keller and Blumenthal advocate for rib roasts. They torch or otherwise sear it before parking it in the oven for a long time.

Version two of a drink I'm working on. Die Bible and Die Rifle. 2 oz KWV 10 mixed with a couple of dashes of my homemade Boer bitters, a dash of grapefruit bitters and some cane syrup. The grapefruit was my half-arsed way of making up for a lack of naartjie bitters, I guess. At least that's my excuse. Anyway. I mixed this with a little ice then drained it into a chilled glass rinsed with Laphroaig. Bye bye to the previous version's liquid smoke. I doubt it'll appear in the second PDT book but, hey, it's a better drink than version one. And that's enough. EDIT I think that one of the problems with this one was that the smokiness didn't come through. Other options for next time: an alternative Islay or maybe even mezcal. Shame I sent my real fake ultra smoky mezcal to (what I call in my day job as a grade one teacher) 'the art gallery'.

If you're ordering a Parma at an Australian pub it'll be the kind of ham that comes in a very large pink brick wrapped all in plastic and stamped with the words MANUFACTURED MEAT. I mean, an eggplant parma contains no ham at all. I think Parma refers to the cheese. Even though most pubs and recipes do not use Parmesan cheese.

Looks like an excellent series of dishes, Soba.

Plus or minus some steps I made this one tonight. The only significant plus/minus was that I didn't pound the living shit out of the chicken breasts or slice them as Camorra suggests. Instead I gave them a light thumping to make them of even thickness and used them like that. I thought it worked fine. I only used 180g bocconcini instead of the rather obscene 400g Camorra falls for! One of my problems with many parmas is that there is far too much sauce and cheese. This was the first one I'd made in a while without high end ham (i.e. no serrano or prosciutto). I think the thick-cut leg ham--admittedly a decent one like is called for in the recipe--made for a superior end result. I also added a couple of slices of pickled jalapenos to each parma because they're not ever a bad idea.

It's very close to Peychaud's/Angostura/a couple of kinds of orange bitters in terms of 'must have' if you're getting into beta cocktails/Kindred Cocktails/the eG Drinks thread. You'll burn through it faster than you'd even find reason to open bottles of many other kinds of bitters. Or at least you will if your tastes are anything like mine.

I (obviously) can get IC Red/Green/Black here. I know they're made in Fiji but ... is the Blackstrap-style rum meant to be funky? IC is certainly strong. And it walks all over whatever you mix it with. On a side note, would you like some IC rum?

Aha! I can get Coruba for half the price of Goslings. Sold.

Is there much difference between the Cruzan and Goslings?

An observation: the clear bottle Bols Genever makes for a nice Last Word but the stone bottle stuff doesn't work as well. Not sure if it's the slightly lower APV messing with the formula or what. Took me a long time to warm up to genever and I preferred the stone variant from the outset so I found this a little odd. The lime and liqueurs dominated the maltiness of the stone bottle gin whereas the maltiness in the glass bottle version managed to shine through.

There's a hole in my rum collection. Not that my rum collection is extensive by some standards, but, yeah, still. I see the odd recipe call for Cruzan Blackstrap. Now, a while back I stumbled across a bottle of Cruzan Aged and figured that was exactly the same thing or an aged version of Blackstrap and then I learned that it wasn't either of those things. Oh well. I've yet to see Blackstrap for sale anywhere. What will do the job? I have some understanding of what the flavour profile is supposed to be. I can get Goslings Black Seal but it's not cheap. It's not quite but almost in the same bracket as the magnificent Zacapa 23! In fact, it's slightly dearer than the lovely Appleton 12. Suggestions, please.

Have you considered a blend of 'normal' crumbs and panko? Or, God, those Corn Flakes-brand crumbs?

I really like my copy of The Complete Robuchon. It might even be a better starting point than Escoffier or Larousse. The latter two have hundreds of recipes that ... well, no one really makes any more. Complete Robuchon distills these to the ones that at least someone, somewhere is making. Still, making demi-glace the old, many-steps way is kind of fun.

Nicks sometimes stocks it. Expensive.

I just served that combo in that ratio with a robust ice block. Marvelous. Makes up for the stupid name. Renaming it, for my own purposes, as the bitter bitch. EDIT Round two. I really like this. Variants I am contemplating: * a dash of bitters--orange, most likely, or maybe (less likely) mole * cynar in place of at least some of the campari EDIT 2 'Ere we go. A variant. 1:1 Averna and Fernet. The Fernet smashes the Averna leaving only a sort of ... aftertaste in its wake. Considering I like both, tho', this is inoffensive if pointless.

Some of them. The Chimay and Duvel are excellent. Try get your hands on the Grande Reserve version of the former.

I'd second the Keller. But this is coming from someone that has cooked a fair bit from Escoffier and Larousse. If you mean classic French in the, well, classic French sense of the term you would do well not to overlook the mother texts.

I've ticked off my goal for 2014: shucking oysters. Managed to get through a batch today without ruining any. A couple weren't as brilliant as I'd have liked but all of them ended up presentable. Much better than my first attempt, during which some of them ending up so riddled with bits of shell grit that I had to dump them. Shame the serving method--my first attempt or taste of grilled oysters--wasn't as nice as a squeeze of lemon juice and drop of Tabasco would've been. Now I need to find something else to do.