ChrisTaylor

Recent ones I remember - Coopers Vintage '12. Unsurprisingly good. Have put a handful in the wine cupboard. Will revisit them when I remember they exist ... or forget the whole point is to give them at least a year. - Chimay Grande Reserve. Still maybe my favourite beer.

You think Averna's nice? Wait until you try Nonino.

It's nice enough, altho' verges on being too sweet. Will use less elderflower next time.

And another - Wild Turkey Rare Breed. Very good. I mean, I've liked all of the Wild Turkey products that I've tried (granted, I've only had the regular bourbon and rye whiskies--I haven't any of their special editions, the honey liqueur or their pre-mixed beverages), but still. Rare Breed is a full-flavoured bourbon, the kind that can take you to a dark place. The kind of bourbon you want when listening to Tom Waits, which I am. I mean, I've warmed to the milder, underdone Maker's Mark/Booker's kind of thing, but still, this. I guess it's maybe the bourbon version of Islay: it's for people who are already sold on that format of whiskey.

Tried another method: roughly equal parts short rib, chuck and skirt steak minced (coarsely) by the butcher. Obviously I wasn't going to ask the butcher to carefully shape the mince into a log, Blumenthalstyle. I simply salted the mince and worked it as little as possible. I made a large batch and then portioned them into lots of three. There are maybe six nights worth of burgers in vac packs sitting in the freezer. I think it's very good--I really like the texture and flavour--but it'd be better with some bone marrow. And maybe dripping in place of oil (I was cooking in a frypan).

Left Hand w/ Buffalo Trace stepping nicely into the bourbon role.

Conquistador without the egg. I just don't like egg in cocktail.

Other recent whisk(e)y tastings that I remember - Whistlepig rye. Amazing, amazing, amazing. That is all. - Jack Daniels Gentleman Jack. Don't remember if I've had the standard Jack. Don't think so, I mean. Bought it because of a couple recipes--in PDT, maybe, or the Beta book--called for Tenn. whiskey. And I didn't have any. The whiskey both books recommend, George Dickel, is really hard to find here and very, very, very expensive in AUD terms. So fuck that, right? Anyway. Gent Jack is okay. I mean, there's nothing about it that compells me to buy the, er, more premium Jack, but there's also nothing about it that makes me want to off-load the bottle onto someone who'll enjoy it more. - Dalwhinnie and Oban. Enjoyed the former a whole lot more than the latter. The Oban was nice enough, I mean, but I'm glad I only have a 200mL bottle, as I except a full 700mL would be lingering around for a good while. The Dalwhinnie, tho', I think it'd be a nice entry point to the scotch side of the whisk(e)y world. As in if a non-whisk(e)y or scotch drinker wanted a starting point, that'd be it, before a more standard Glenlivitfiddichetc.

I would say ja, mum and then go ahead and find a better recipe and present it like the one in the photo. Give mum some rose wine or send her off to lunch with her son. My treat. And then, when she comes home and the cake is all perfect, well sure lady, you bet I baked with that recipe you've never attempted. Lies make smiles.

On the burger front, at least, you need to check out two things, first of all - the In Search of Perfection episode wherein Blumenthal seeks out the perfect burger. - the eG 'perfect burger patty' thread, which is a nice companion to the above episode. I mean, really, for most of those goals, eG is a brilliant resource--either in terms of posts or recommendations (and detailed discussion and debate) of books.

Heh. To be honest, I mostly accept restaurants as they present themselves. I don't enjoy staff taking things too seriously but mostly, in Australia at least, I don't really encounter that. Even at nice restaurants, Australians seem to mostly be laid back. Polite. And ideally the staff know a thing or two about the food or the wine. But no one is stiff and overly formal. I mean, maybe, as skilled waitstaff, they take cues from the customers: me, I attempt to behave myself (I don't want Keith_W or annachan posting about me in the 'badly behaved dinner companions' thread), but at the same time I go to dinner, as do most--maybe all people--I dine with to enjoy the food and the company of others. I tend to find the detailed descriptions of wine interesting, altho' I probably get more out of the experience--and am more inclined to turn it into a conversation--when the topic is beer or whisk(e)y. I'm not good with social cues and some of the more subtle aspects of communication or anything like that, but I rarely, if ever, feel like a sommelier is giving me a hard time or treating me poorly because I don't know a whole lot about wine. If I'm at a loss, I'm more inclined to ask the sommelier for his or her recommendation. I buy by the glass, so there's not that awkward moment of having to negotiate a price range. As a 'foodie'--and, really, I fucking hate that word, even if it's a word other people apply to me--I've enjoyed food at cheap and cheerful places, loud and trendy places, degustation-only fine dining options and many restaurants that fall elsewhere on the spectrum of restaurant ... styles. In the past, six, nine months, my favourite meals have been in a little Portuguese place in the inner 'burbs of Harare, out in the courtyard with a can of 2M beer and a fence that's 'decorated' with broken wine bottles (the security system), and some of Melbourne's costlier options. I guess, so much as the atmosphere doesn't make an active effort to annoy me--by being really loud and crowded, say, or with really intrusive service--then I'm mostly interested in the food. It might be a good cheeseburger or a good ten course menu or a good steak--the only medium-rare steak that maybe, at that time, was being served in the country--with a deliciously thick mushroom sauce, but the point is the food has to be good. I don't care if it's popular or cheap or expensive, if being there marks me as a sheep or a trendsetter or a dining rebel, but the food needs to be good. That's what matters most. So, no, the degustation isn't dead for me. The trendy 'no bookings' place, neither, altho' in the case of the latter I'm inclined to swing by one lunch time when I'm on holidays, sidestepping the need to line up or leave my phone number with some guy at the door or any of that nonsense (if I want to go to a restaurant and eat, I don't care if I have to book--even if it's a couple months in advance--but I really do want to just go in and eat, not have to loiter around the city for a couple hours).

Rack of lamb. 56C/4 hours is vastly superior to the 60C/1 hour method in Blumenthal at Home.

Oh man. Those chicken wings. I truly want those. My favourite cut of chicken, easy. Maybe one of my favourite cuts of animal.

I tend to keep things casual due to a lack of space (i.e. I can seat maybe 6 people at a table but possibly double that if I could rely on really nice weather and move the whole operation outside) and, too, knowing my audience. I know people who arrive consistently late. And me, I don't really care. I aim for the food and everything else to withstand that. In your situation you could look at something like pulled pork or brisket. Or spit-roasted meat of some kind. Or, if that's not your idea of a good time, I'm fond of choosing a region or theme to focus on--i.e. the deep south or Escoffier. At the moment I'm in the process of abandoning several large dishes and moving towards canape-sized portions of many different things.

http://www.au.timeout.com/sydney/bars/features/10100/world-class-cocktails-nobunaga Some differences: - I used Tanqueray instead of any kind of vodka. Purely because where I first saw the cocktail, on a menu for a restaurant, it mentioned Tanqueray and not vodka. I haven't tried the vodka version (there's an unloved bottle of Absolut loitering around somewhere, waiting for something to do that doesn't involve Kahlua for my girlfriend's Black Russians) but I suspect this version is superior--the juniper shines through. - Possibly slightly generous pour of the Amaro. Would pour carefully next time. - Lemon juice instead of yuzu. I like it. I think I'd up the Campari more than I did--I added maybe two 'barspoons', given I know I prefer things on the bitter side--but, too, yeah. If you enjoy the flavour of Montengro, this is fun.

Some observations - 56C vs 60C/48 hr short ribs. No contest. 56C wins. Amazing. - a tiny tiny tiny (etc) dab of Vegemite in the bag (with more than one tiny rib, obviously--I just bagged all the ribs together given I was cooking for my self) is amazing, too.

Too, Heston Blumenthal's most recent book, at Home, has three different vegetarian stocks--a standard (but pressure cooked) vegetable stock, a mushroom stock and a Marmite consomme.

That. And, too, if you're using, say, 500mL liquid, why not use 250mL stock and 250mL water rather than go all out on the water? No one is going to shoot you for using heavily diluted stock in place of neat water.

Most recently--a Vieux Carre. Sort of becoming a favourite.

I'd want to see results for a second experiment in which they were all brined for the same amount of time.

The advantage, too, is that even if, like Simon here, you're sving stuff that takes a lot less time than 24 hours (i.e. you need to set it up when you get home--altho', hey, you could cut that down by bagging the day or morning before), you can set it and 'forget' it while you go about doing other things. 60 minutes prep for a meal isn't as bad as it sounds (remember, we're talking weeknights--60 minutes might be a lot, depending on your circumstances) if you can do a lot of other things while it occurs. Pressure cookers and Thermomix clones have the same advantages.

A time saver for me has been the sous vide rig. Some time after dinner I'll load up a bag with, say, a piece of pork belly or chuck steak. The next night what could easily be the biggest time sink of meal prep is ready to go. Obviously I don't eat pork belly every day, but I do rely on vac packing and the water bath a lot.

What cut is it?

The thing about goat: -- in my experience, at least, goat is a funny beast. from the meat-eating perspective, I mean. young goat, as in baby goat, is already tender. it's what I'd use. I mean, it's more expensive and harder to find--in Australia, at least--but the price/effort difference is worthwhile. old goat might be flavoursome (altho' young goat is delicious too, so don't feel you're giving up flavour for tenderness) but it can be quite tough. so. in short. buy baby goat and you're half way there, pretty much.

A whole chicken? Use necks, wing tips, whole wings and, too, carcasses.