ChrisTaylor

I wouldn't waste money on truffle salt or jarred truffles (or truffle oil). Cheap (in a relative sense) for a reason. The aroma and aftertaste is just nasty. Even in applications where you think you'd be able to get away with a less-than-stellar example of a product -- e.g. roasting a chicken with some truffle under the skin, like in all those old Escoffier recipes. I'd advise waiting until you're at a restaurant some time and they offer to grate some decent truffle over your risotto. We're talking cheap liver paste versus foie gras here. You might have a similar starting point but the end products simply aren't comparable.

The Double-Barreled Julep is pretty good.

Last year I served a modified take on Heston Blumenthal's edible garden from his at Home cookbook. I bought some small plastic pots and used them as serving vessels. Each pot contained a 'garden' of vegetables (cooked sous vide early in the day and reheated for service). Very easy dish. I wasn't aiming to keep kosher or meet anyone's dietary requirements but it would tick your boxes.

Solerno.

The Frisco Club is lovely. One of my favourites.

The French press method has become my go-to coffee delivery system. In large part because there's no fluffing around in the morning: decant some coffee from a bottle into a cup, add a bit of water, push the lid down.

How did it turn out?

The 18th Century is pretty good if you use Carpano instead of subbing in something else, be it Dolin or Punt.

I followed this method: http://www.selfsufficientme.com/sustainability/how-to-make-biltong-using-an-excalibur-dehydrator

I bought a cheap dehydrator and decided biltong would be a good starting point. I'm making a batch each of beef and 'roo biltong. The meat was rubbed in rock salt and set aside for a couple hours, given a bath in cider vin and rubbed it with black pepper and coriander. I'll see what it's like in the morning.

I own a bottle of Suze. I cannot find, locally, other gentian liqueurs--e.g. Aveze. I've only tasted Suze. Is it a workable substitute or totally different? I am looking in the Dead Rabbit book and seeing a lot of recipes that call for Aveze and Bonal in small quantities.

Hot Buttered Rum. I had to make do with what I had. I didn't like it as much as the Toddy.

I forgot to buy more nutmeg. This Hot Whisky Toddy goes unadorned. It's the first hot cocktail I've liked. Maybe it's just the shit weather and this mountain of marking and data entry set before me. Incidentally, I'm somewhat surprised I'm the only one who seems to be mixing Rabbit drinks so far. I reckon if you've got a well-stocked bar and are prepared to make a few of the common ingredients (the lemon sherbet, the mace tincture [i based mine on vodka and didn't dilute it--rectified spirit is simply too expensive here]) the book is worthwhile. It's really pushed me, as the most amateur of bartenders, to think about things in very different ways.

I blitzed some watermelon just for this: the mezcal fizz. Possibly a little too heavy on the shrub. I suspect the problem is mine; I might have a different understanding of what a dash is. My partner hated it but I thought it was okay. i've liked all the drinks to varying degrees, although based on my ham-fisted recreations of the published specs I'm a bigger fan of D&C's style. This one I really like: Gin Smash a la Byron. The black bottle contains lemon sherbet.

Last week I started a half-batch of the pecan-infused Buffalo Trace. I just made a Buffalo Soldier: a couple ounces of the flavoured bourbon with a quarter ounce of Demerara syrup. I think the seasoning applied to the nuts (salt, pepper and cayenne) makes it. Or, at least, it turns a very sweet drink into something I can drink.

Weeper's Joy. Not pictured: the Dolin dry vermouth, which serves as the base.

I've been making hot sauce for two, three years. I'm by no means as experienced as some of the eG condiment engineers. I have also worked with one base recipe: John Currence's spin on Tabasco. I say this for context. I say this so you can take what I say with a grain of salt and adjust it (or dismiss it) based on what you're trying to do with your sauce. This advice is based on correcting future batches of sauce, not one you've just made (although the first point--time--could prove useful). Time. Just like in The Shawshank Redemption, time is everything. My last batch of sauce is now many months old. 9? 10? Thereabouts, anyway. It's a vinegar-based sauce (no tomatoes), so this may be a contributing factor, but I found it mellowed over time. It's a hot sauce, no question, but it has a much better balance than it did even after Currence's prescribed 'rest' period. It's a bit like mustard. When you first make a mustard it's really harsh, right? Think about shiraz. Or new make spirit. Some things need time to take the edge off.The obvious: some parts (ribs, seeds) of a chilli are hotter than other parts. And some fruits, even within the same variety, are hotter or milder than you might expect. You may need to take this into account.Varieties. Is there a reason you're stuck with habanero fruits? You can use them as a base--say, 50% of your chilli content--but you can add other chilli varieties. My current sauce is based on a blend. Some chillies you add for flavour and some you add for heat. You could add, say, jalapenos to soften the impact on the sauce (and add a nice flavour, too).Experiment with the impact of salt, sugar, acidity, etc on the perception of heat. Look at how Thai cookery is finely balanced.

Mamie Taylor: a scotch highball. I like it, but it's rather elaborate for a highball.

Not-Quite-Georgia Julep: equal parts cognac and Laird's apple brandy with a little bit of peach liqueur. It's interesting. I don't know if I like it.

The Glee Club. As with the D&C Flor de Jerez, the colour is a lot darker than the provided picture due to the colour of the Australian 'apera' I used. I like this one. The amontillado sub I've got is a bit of a bully, but Chartreuse and raspberry eau de vie manage to beat it into submission.

Sake and Stephenson in the sun on a Saturday afternoon. Otokoyama Tokubetsu Junmai Namachozo. I dug the bird on the can. A bit sweet on the palate but creamy, too. Like, the greasy mouthfeel I associate with dairy. Then it's a little sour ... Sour in the funky, rather than citric, sense.

Bijou. The introductory spiel elaborates on their changes to the classic specs. I used Carpano Antica for the vermouth.

A rare original. WIP. Darkness at Pegu. Lighter, sweeter, needs a gutsier gin. 1.5oz gin (Four Pillars), .75oz blood orange liqueur, .75oz ruby grapefruit juice, 2 dashes of Angostura. Shake. Campari-rinsed coupe.

My copy of the book landed today and, oh dear, it's the first cocktail book I've bought where I can make very few of the recipes with my existing stock. Death & Co.? beta cocktails? No problem. Add some fresh fruit into the mix and I'm in business with most of the recipes. With this book I should have heeded Rafa's warning when he mentioned Muldoon and McGarry called for a lot of obscure ingredients. To be fair, a lot of the house-made infusions (e.g. the mace tincture) are called upon regularly, so you'd be able to make a whole lot more if you invested the time to make them, but this is a very ... interesting book. I'm not sure if my first impression was entirely positive (and not just because of the recipes). There's a rather ... weighty section of the book dedicated to elaborating on the greatness of the bar and those who created it. It avoids the more subtle road of, say, letting the recipes imply that the bar is great. Nonetheless, here's a Ford. The plastic drink bottle contains Dolin dry. I thought it was a nice drink. And until I make some of those tinctures it's one of the few drinks I can make with a collection that extends a fair way into the obscure.