ChrisTaylor

I use the method described in Heston Blumenthal at Home: you remove the skin from the pork belly and scrape off as much fat as possible before seasoning it. The skin is cut into bite-sized pieces and dried in an oven at 70C for 5 hours on a cooling rack. You remove it from the oven and crank the heat up to 240C. Park a tray of water in the oven then return the rack of pork skin to the oven for about 10 minutes.

Pull bird apart. Sous vide pieces. Maltose 'crackling' for skin--a bit like how Peter Gilmore treats pork cheeks. Or just low and slow under foil.

Burning through Karl Ove Knausgaard's My Struggle: A Man in Love while trying to find the perfect matched dram for this very personal, contemplative book. Dalwhinnie 15? Far too fruity. Too light. Too cheerful. Onto the Glenfarclas 15. Suspect I'd be better off with something assertive and a little dangerous and undeniably masculine like Talisker. Although I guess aquavit is probably more geographically appropriate.

I decided to save the trotters for tomorrow. Tonight it was barbecue chicken: bone-in thighs hit with a dry rub, smoked as low as my gas-powered smoker will go for about 90 minutes, brushed with sauce (I used Rufus Teague) and then returned to the smoker, albeit at higher temperature.

A bar annachan introduced me to in Melbourne calls this drink their own. It seems to be a fairly common thing, though. And, too, the 'house made sarsaparilla' that this bar uses came in a bottle that looked suspiciously like Bundaberg. Anyway, whether they acquired the recipe on a Google trawl or stumbled across it through independent experimentation, it works. And that is, perhaps, enough. A pretty bartendress that nerds out talking about amari and whisky is just a bonus. 60mL Fernet Branca in a high ball glass topped up with decent sarsaparilla (Bundaberg does the trick, funnily enough).

The crab cakes from John Currence's Pickles, Pigs and Whisky. A male mud crab. Mud crabs are among the best of the locally available crustaceans. Purchased live, of course. The guy that tied the claws didn't do a very good job: most of the crabs in the crate were happily snapping away at the lady in charge of the crustacean station. Luckily she had some blue rubber gloves to protect her fingers from a few hundred pounds of pressure. This one kilo crab produced about 250 grams of meat. The finished crab cakes. They were very good. And, for tomorrow, Thomas Keller's recipe for pork trotters.

Chimay Grand Reserve. I liked it but I'm not sure if the 2012 vintage was good enough for me to consider this, still, my favourite among all beers.

The Double Rye is excellent.

Has anyone made the potato salad? What did you think of it? Furthermore, how does it stand up to storage -- i.e. being made in the morning, parked in the fridge and then served at lunchtime? If the deep-fried skins would get soggy I guess I could substitute them with some good quality salted potato crisps.

A Ti Punch with Flor de Cana 4. Never had FdC. It's pretty ninja, altho' maybe I prefer Banks. Altho', hey, good luck getting Banks at the local bottleshop in Australia, brother. Still. After pulling a 13 hour day while rabid with disease and having to listen to Christmas carols, this is pretty fucking rad. Of course, Rafa's Skittles-infused turps would be pretty rad at this point too.

I've already started doing test runs. Here are some fixed things and possibilities. I'm still chewing on ideas for vegetables to go with the main course. I want something that's essentially prepared in advance (a couple of last minute steps are okay but nothing involving, say, deep-frying or anything I need to pay super close attention to for an extended period of time), filling but suited to Australian conditions (Christmas Day might be 20C but it could also be 40C). Entree: Pig's feet (Keller's Bouchon w/ sauce gribiche and some sort of salad. I'm thinking something as simple as parsley, shallots, capers and maybe a bit of shaved fennel. Main: Pork belly (the Sunday pork roast from Modernist Cuisine with apple sauce terrine and ... something vegetable-based. I'm open to suggestions. A couple of different salads? Maybe the potato salad from Modernist Cuisine? Has anyone made that? I'm leaning heavily towards a couple of satisfying salads. Things that are easy to knock together in advance and serve as a nice foil to two fairly robust cuts of pork. My sous vide rig will be tied up for a little while reheating the pork (altho' in a pinch I could re-heat that in a water bath using my induction cook top). The skin will be cooked on its own, Blumenthal at Home style. Dessert: Pudding w/ rum & raisin icecream and creme anglaise... something else. Open to suggestions here. Something crunchy. A praline? A crumble of some kind? Shortbread, say?

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society's 'Cowboy's Delight'.

If you were in Australia I'd say OnlyBitters.

Manhattan with Punt e Mes, High West Double Rye, Boker's bitters and Scrappy's orange bitters. And, in honour of a hero, some neat vintage KWV.

A Last Word made with Bols Genever.

Turned to Zuid-Afrika today, hey. Purchased some 10 year old KWV brandy. The guy recommended it over the 15 and 20 year old expressions in terms of bang for buck and not being overly 'smooth'. I'm keen to experiment with this and the Boer bitters I'm currently infusing.

A not-really-successful attempt to do something with a new addition to my collection: Bitter End's Memphis Barbecue Bitters. I wanted to call it Smokin' With Some Barbecue but that'd just be an insult to Kermit Ruffins because this drink isn't very good. It's not sink-worthy but the combination of the Perique and one of those bitters--or maybe it's the Perique and High West (I think it works with other ryes)--brings out this weird buttery quality that I was not at all aiming for. 3 dashes barbecue bitters and 1 dash Creole bitters prepared, with a sugar cube, in the manner of an Old Fashioned 60 mL rye (High West) 30 mL Perique Less than the some of its parts.

I think it was billed as some sort of Van Winkle Special Reserve Bullshit Edition. I don't know. It's not like that end of the bourbon market is terribly popular here. Most bottleshops won't stock anything more premium than Booker's and the other small batch Beam offerings. Anyway. I'm revisiting an Aussie one: the pinot cask-finished Hellyer's Road. I know that at some point a certain eGulleteer may have stumbled across a box of HR whiskies in the mail. These accidents can happen. This person may be interested to know that in place of the very youthful whisky he received, the modern day Hellyer's is aged for ten years. I'm tempted to pick up a bottle of the ten year old peated HR and the re-released Smith's Angaston to see how they compare. The pinot finish HR is funny. Nose and palate were initially closed up. I added a couple drops of water. There's this ... I don't know ... I don't get this with, say, some of the other wine finished whiskies I've had (Nectar d'Or, say) but with this there's this real yeasty note. I reckon if you licked the inside of a wine barrel that hadn't seem a huge amount of service yet you'd get this flavour. Musty. Bready. A bit of floral funk. Less like pinot noir as I might serve it to you in the glass and more like pinot that's been skuling around half-dried up in the bottom of some poorly cleaned glassware that's occasionally used to dissolve instant yeast. So. The pinot character is there. Buried. This is an easier drinking whisky than I remember, despite the funk and must. EDIT I was trying to pick what this reminded me of. In Zimbabwe there's this home brewed wonder. It's billed as a kind of beer but what it's really like is someone dissolving instant yeast in water and adding a little vodka to the mix and serving it in clay.

Using some cheap Chinese vodka I found (53.7&% APV distilled from sorghum with a little bit of barley and wheat) I started my first three batches of bitters. Aside from the coffee ones, I used Chris Amirault's Hess House Bitters as a starting point. The coffee ones were from the book Bitters but modified somewhat. I have to use gentian as it is the most readily available bittering agent (well, I can get wormwood, but I've yet to see a recipe that uses it as the sole bittering agent). Coffee, cinnamon and cocoa nibs: self-explanatory. The coffee (I used some nice single origin beans) is supposed to dominate. Die Boer: I worked off the spices used in boerwors: allspice, coriander seeds, cloves, black peppercorns and nutmeg. Allspice and coriander are meant to be the main players. Star anise, black cardamom, coriander seeds, Sichuan peppercorns, cinnamon and clove.

Last night a fellow eGulleteer, myself and our respective plus ones hit Whisky and Alement. I know of a couple of overseas-based eGulleteers that would so dearly love this place. Things tasted: Van Winkle 17. A lovely bourbon. Very big on oak. Sweet. Yet ... I don't know ... I liked it but I wouldn't run out and track down a bottle of it like I did when I tasted their rye whiskey. I just couldn't see a massive step up in quality from some of the more readily available bourbons I enjoy.Scotch Malt Whisky Society 'Cowboy's Delight'. I was told this was a 15 year old malt from the Springbank still. I nosed a number of other 15-ish year old Springbank drams and none of them came close to this beast. This sexy, sexy beast. The tasting notes mentioned pork crackling and leather (hence the 'cowboy's delight', I guess). We found it to be very savory. Enoki mushrooms moreso than pork. As it opened up it became a fair whack sweeter. An amazing whisky. Almost worth the $240 for the bottle and $200 price tag for joining the society ... Yoichi 15. I've loved this whisky on previous visits but, really, anything that's a nod to the lighter Speysides isn't going to stand up to a lovely cask strength craft whisky. It felt flat and lifeless on the nose. It opened up eventually and was, yeah, nice enough but it lacked any sort of complexity in comparison. On future visits once I turned to the 'scotch malt whisky society exclusives' page I'd stay there.

Ha. A Hanky Panky. I had one tonight. Bartender made it with rye instead of teeth.

Can you provide more details on the smoking process? I've been meaning to cook a turkey in my hot smoker for ages.

My take on this: 2 oz Smith & Cross 0.5 oz aged Cruzan Something like 0.5 oz demerara syrup 2 dashes Bitter Truth Xocolatl Mole bitters 1 dash Scrappy's cardamom bitters Having downed this I mixed a Ti Punch with La Favorite. Now. I'm thinking. Batavia arrack. A Batavia arrack Ti Punch. Yes or yes? EDIT So here we are. I thought it should be called an In Punch. haresfur suggested an Arr Punch. Then he said, oh, yeah, pirates ... Indonesia ... nah. But, hey, modern day pirates in SE Asia. I'm not sure about this one. The opening is nice but the finish is a bit much. A bit assertive. I used a bit more demerara and citrus than I normally would. EDIT 2 As the ice works its magic, I think the Arrack variant fucking works. You just need to give it a right proper rest.

After all this html code I think I need another drink...I made this using everything in the original recipe bar two things: the allspice dram (I used housemade) and the vermouth (Punt e Mes). Smells dangerous. This is a fucking monster. It's agavesmokefunksweetbitterspiceandallthingsnice.

Sazavit or, my first experiment with aquavit Set out two Old Fashioned glasses. Fill one with ice. Yeah, it's a Saz variation ... only you're rinsing with Talisker (might try Laphroaig next time--the idea of Talisker/Aquavit came from a guy that works at my go-to bottle-o). In the other stir together, w/ a little ice, some demerara syrup and a couple dashes each of Peychaud's bitters and Bitter Truth lemon bitters. Tip out the excess Talisker and lose the ice and strain the aquavit/etc into the whiskied glass. For an alpha cocktail I'm happy enough with it. But, yeah, the smokiness only pops up towards the end. Needs more Islay.