ChrisTaylor

I was at the local bottle-o today, searching for Cynar, when I overheard the guy behind the counter promoting a 'chilli beer'. There is a chilli maruding, Jawstyle, in every bottle. The man at the counter, he told a woman who bought this stuff that maybe she shouldn't kiss anyone, shouldn't use her lips, after drinking 'a few' of these beers. And he smiled, all lechlike. It sounded interesting--in a truly horrific, car accident way--and it was only a couple of dollars per bottle, so I figured I'd take a gamble. Who knows? Maybe it'd be okay. Turns out, it's everything I imagined it to be and worse. Take a whiff when you open the bottle (or pour it into a glass): basically it's the smell of freshly chopped, raw chillies. And the taste? They use a Mexican lager, so you don't get a helluva lot of 'generic beer flavour': it's just chilli, chilli, chilli. Think eating pickled jalapenos straight from the jar. And I do that. I like beer: ales and, yes, lagers especially. And I like chilli--I like eating pickled jalapenos from the jar. But this ... this is shit. As much as I like chilli sauce, I don't really want to drink it. It's maybe not as bad as the chilli red wine I sampled a while ago, but that's like saying having your foot run over with shoes on is better than having your foot run over when you're barefoot: it's still a horrendous experience. There's also this really sinister ... it's not an after taste, not quiet, as an after taste is something that occurs in your mouth. No, this is an after feeling. I can feel it in my stomach. My gut is asking me, in a very rude fashion, just what the fuck I think I'm doing. My girlfriend, who sampled the beer too, decided she feels like puking. I can't believe the guy at the counter raved about this shit. It's a horrid, horrid, horrid product. Avoid.

Rusty Nail w/ Glenfarclas 15 & Drambuie.

Half bottles of Drambuie and Domaine de Canton (a cognac-based ginger liqueur that's only recently been released/promoted in Australia). And, too, Angostura 5, Cynar, Pisco Control, Maraska apricot brandy and a random, spur-of-the-moment purchase: creme de cassis.

Playing with the Old Fashioned. Tonight it's a scotch-based variant: Glenfiddich 21 rum finsh w/ Fee Brother's orange bitters and Peychaud's bitters. It's okay.

Yeah, Girl & Her Pig and, of course, the Zak Pelaccio and Chris Cosentino books could be fun.

Awesome mushroom porn. A truly great and informative thread. We can get a lot--but far from all--of those locally in fresh form. I, too, had been wondering about what to do with king oysters--I'd tried a couple of methods, including my go-to recipe for roast mushrooms (usually used with Swiss browns or, say, small portobellos), without much (i.e. edible results) success. Will keep braising in mind.

Was perusing the 'St Germain' thread for ideas, mostly, on using up the 50mL mini of the stuff I purchased a while ago. I'd already used up 5, maybe 10 mL on some other cocktail and hadn't come away convinced that I needed or even kind of wanted a full-sized bottle of the liqueur in my booze collection. Anyway, I stumbled across a recipe for an 'In-Seine.' I halved the quantities as I didn't feel like drinking lot. splash of absinthe (I actually used pernod) 1 oz cognac 3/4 oz St Germain Garnished with a sliver of lemon peel. It's interesting, I'll give it that. It's not something I'd make my go-to drink, but if I can blind-buy some Cherry Heering for the shit of it I'll probably eventually pick up a full-sized St Germain bottle.

I have to say, tho', I really like the idea. Not just that you're using two of my favourite ingredients to create a greater whole, but the rich/poor thing. See also: Andrew Pern's book (and the dish that lends its name to the book), Black Pudding & Foie Gras.

The Mugaritz and Sat Bains books. Keen to see if Hideo Dekura's Encyclopaedia of Japanese Cuisine turns out to be interesting. I think that maybe Peter Doyle's est book will hit this year. And, too, Passard's Art of Cooking With Vegetables. I already have the new Nobu vegetarian book.

Have you thought about balontine or terrine? That was my first thought, I mean.

If I was serving a few different beers, I think I'd stick with the obvious: small bits and pieces of (nice) fried goods. Fried chicken and so on. Tempura. Mushrooms. As for scotch, man, it depends entirely on the kind of scotch. As an example, when I had a BBQ and whisk(e)y night recently, we found that rich, greasy smoked meat (i.e. ribs with BBQ sauce) goes really, really, really well with gutsy Islays (think a 28 year old Coal Ila). You wouldn't be serving that kind of food with a milder dram, such as a Glenmorangie.

Sloe negroni: equal parts sloe gin, Campari and red vermouth. A couple of dashes of orange bitters, too.

Cigar bitters. Is this something worth DIYing?

Hash is a foreign thing to me but, just kicking it out there, is hash limited to beef (whether chuck or tongue or brisket or otherwise)?

Last night I decided to justify my impulsive purchase of Cherry Heering by making a Blood & Sand. I don't own any blended scotch but a sensible person, when faced with my collection, would maybe choose something like Glenfiddich 12. A friendly Speyside. I opted for Talisker 10. I ended up with something that tasted just as I'd imagine a Cherry Ripe chocolate bar rolled around in an ash tray would taste like. That is, to say, it tasted very nice.

It's Friday evening and the first week of the school term. Dinner means a few (decent) BBQed sausages, hot English mustard and a few booze-heavy cocktails.

They normally stock the aged bitters but were sold out when I visited them last week. I'll buy some next time I happen to be going to Nicks's for sure. And too, I love Sazeracs ... altho' following the Gospel of DeGroff I use Pernod for the absinthe rinse stage of the recipe.

Milk in mash? All butter. Unless, you know, you're making aligot. In fact, yes, make aligot, the king of mashes. Larousse has a recipe. Try Embrasse (one of my favourite restaurants down here) if you want to sample the real deal, although iirc they don't use the bacon fat in theirs. The right cheese can probably be found at the French Shop in QV Market or maybe David Jones Food Hall. EDIT Too, stuffed baked potatoes. Or baked potatoes with awesome things like bacon and sour cream. Oh yes. My go-to cheap and cheerful lunches as a student are coming back to me now.

I'll second all of this. If you're going to use Desirees in mash, at least use some other potatoes too. as in, 50% Desiree, 50% waxy potatoes of some description. And that's a bad idea. I mean, I assume the last thing you want to be doing right now is buying more potatoes. Potato tortilla (in the Spanish sense of tortilla--not the flatbread)? Curry (I have a recipe floating around for a nice pea and potato curry)?

One of my go-to recipes as a (poor) student was along the lines of the following: saute some onion, garlic and maybe celery and carrot in a saucepan. When it's soft, add some canned tomatoes. Allow this to simmer for some time before adding the canned tuna. Allow the sauce to simmer while you prepare the pasta. The sauce can be jacked with spices and herbs if you feel the need to get 'fancy'. I can't say I've cooked it as often since becoming a full-time worker--I guess I got sick of it--but it still pops on the menu every so often as a cheap and cheerful meal. And that's just it. If I had really good canned tuna I wouldn't cook this. Too, I figure you've considered salad Nicoise. Combine that tuna with some nice anchovies and olives.

No. I've only made bourbon and rye-based Old Fashioneds but I have access to and am very keen to experiment with cognac, dark rum, scotch (mostly Islay but, too, some Speysides and a couple of others), Irish whiskey and Australian whiskey. I also have some Canadian Club floating around. EDIT Unless you count Campari as an appropriate sort of bitters, then yes, I only have Angostura, Fee Chocolate, Fee Orange and Peychaud's.

That's blood, I take it? You could use it to make blood sausage/cake, obviously. Fergus Henderson's recipe in his first book being but one example. The shoulder? Slow-cook it in an oven or, better yet, smoker. I'd keep the seasoning simple. Don't kill it with BBQ sauce. The chops? Pan-fry or grill. Pepper and maybe a nice finishing salt.

Offal, cured sausage and a touch of Chinese? Franci.

I have purchased most of these books you've been recommended through Book Depository.uk. Free shipping and good prices. Pern's 'Foie Gras and Black Pudding' is great, but so are all the other titles mentioned. I'd add the Hawksmoor book to the list, too,

Blackthorn: gin, sloe gin, Dubonnet, orange bitters.