jrshaul

That's about what I pay here in Atlanta. But FdC also has ridiculous pricing on 1.75s: about $15. That's three bucks for an additional liter. Cripes. Mr. Boston costs about that much around here.

I just sort of whacked on them with my hands for a while. It seems to have worked - I added a bit more pomegranate later, and the stuff I've smashed diffused much more quickly. Freezing and unfreezing also seems to make a difference.

How much does it cost?

Thanks for the information. I run my vodka twice through an activated charcoal filtration system. It takes an entire day to filter a gallon, but the end result is much better. As a result, I can use a wide variety of cheap vodka, though at the rate I seem to go through the stuff I'd like to be able to start buying it by the oil drum.

Infusing alcohol with black pepper is simple. The tricky part I suspect is figuring out what to do with it.

I probably should have mentioned that the cranberry has lime zest in it already. The original recipe called for orange zest - I removed it for exactly this reason. I'm curious about the use of cacao nibs. I've got a mixture of cocoa powder and everclear I've had in the basement for aeons, and I'm not entirely sure what to do with it. I'd like to try diluting it and using a centrifuge to separate the oils and solids.

I've tried the lime juice because it's mostly citric acid and ascorbic acid - very potent antioxidants. (The kind that keep apples from turning brown, not the kind that keep you from getting cancer.) I've never heard of this. How does it work? I generally shoot for a 40-60 proof end result, and instead of a simple syrup I dissolve a homemade taffy (less aftertaste.) Anything more than 80 proof is overkill. The fact that 1 bottle of everclear is as expensive as two gallons of vodka doesn't help, either - and my filtration equipment doesn't work so good above 100 proof. This sounds like the ticket. I may substitute Mr. Boston, though - just don't tell him that.

That's good to hear - Dole is as ubiquitous as anyone could ask for. Any thoughts on particular varieties of berries?

It seems like a lot of the problems folks are having here are related to the inability to program the thermostat. Has anyone tried using an Arduino or the like?

I make liqueurs as a hobby, and I've had a great deal of frustration trying to make a mango liqueur. My methods for making flavored booze are almost identical to those used to make jelly, only except that I replace the fruit pectin with moonshine. I've been pureeing mango and mixing it with a roughly equal part of vodka, then allowing it to infuse for a few weeks. Even though I'm using good-quality mason jars and adding a great deal of lime juice, the end result still becomes disgusting very rapidly. Due to the massive alcohol content, it's definitely not a bacteria or fungus, and oxidation doesn't seem possible - so what is it that's causing my problems?

I've got some recipes that require blackberries and blueberries, and I'm wondering what brand is the best. All of these are admittedly out of season, but even the appropriate time of the year they're mind-bogglingly expensive.

I've been making liqueurs for a while, and I'm starting to get pretty good at it. I'm now able to produce some fairly decent fruit flavors, but I'm a little stuck as to how I might be able to enhance them through additional flavorings. Specific concerns include: 1. Cinnamon. Cinnamon infusions generally taste exactly like licking bark, which I suppose is reasonable considering as that's what they're made out of. I've tried adding nutmeg, but it doesn't seem to do much. What can I add to cinnamon to produce a more convincing crème de cinnamo? 2. Pomegranate. I actually have some of this stuff infusing, and I'm debating adding something to it - maybe a little anise? 3. Orange. I think I've finally cracked orange liqueurs - maybe it's just better oranges, but I've had good luck toasting the orange peels first. I might add just a little bit of cardamom. 2. Cranberries. I really like using cranberries - they're incredibly consistent, widely available, and pretty cheap. Of course, they taste..well, quite pungent. I don't want to dilute the flavor, and I don't want to go for the standard "holiday mix" with cinnamon and the like. Any suggestions?

Sounds....all-encompassing. I'll try and find a copy. I love bread pudding, but my attempts haven't been to successful. Suggestions?

I'm actually moving in about four months. I'm currently stuck living at home again for financial reasons and commuting to school, but should be able to rectify that shortly. Of course, because I can't afford an on-campus apartment, I'll likely be far enough out that I won't be able to share too many meals, and too broke to be able to eat out very often. I've found from past experience that I can get along just fine on breakfast cereal for two meals a day, but I'd hesitate to call it enjoyable. Does anyone here have any experience with freezing chili or soup? I've seen some chili recipes that were completely unfazed by freezing and thawing, and others that gained the consistency of wallpaper paste. Between canned beans and hominy, chili is an extremely affordable food, but I'd rather not have to learn to make it through trial and error.

Given the massive cost and low quality of exotic citrus around here, I'd probably trade my firstborn for some of those. Nice find!

Interesting. My blender is something of an all-or-nothing affair (it was made back when Japanese cars were unreliable and people thought tiki bars were a good idea), so I'm not quite so sure this approach will work. Has anyone else tried it?

I'll try the spice rubs. Out of curiosity, have you tried making a spice rub and then freezing the chicken? Using the soy sauce as a glaze is a good idea, too. Everything I've seen uses it as a marinade, which isn't too economical if you're using the real deal. If I remember correctly, authentic teriyaki is made from soy sauce, honey, and a rather odd Japanese rice wine called Mirin, though I'm told you can substitute cheap sake and a bit of lemon juice for a very similar effect. I'm curious - what do you pay for a rotisserie chicken? Around here, it doesn't seem to be very economical; not a lot of suepermarkets sell them and for simple food/$ buying Subway makes more sense.

A reviewer's obligation is to his readers - not the restaurants. If an honest review means torpedoing someone's life work, well, that's journalism. In theory, a stunt like this could actually be a major boon to the restaurant: in a highly competitive environment like LA, all publicity not involving health code violations is good publicity. However, the restaurant - in my opinion, not unreasonably - may be unofficially blacklisted, and never receive any mention in the press. Either way, in the long term, the restaurant is just plain screwed.

I'm curious - what's the go-to water heating method for DIY sous vide? I'm pretty handy with a soldering iron, but the old go-to of connecting two razor blades to line power and submerging them in water seems just a little crude.

I'm a college student, which means long hours, short budgets, and the sort of cooking equipment generally associated with FEMA disaster trailers. I'm a half-decent cook, but most of what I know how to make really doesn't scale well down to single portions, and dorm freezers just aren't suited to freezing lots of leftovers. The ability to do most of the work ahead of time as prep is a major bonus - chicken in various marinades is terrific, though good quality sauces are often a bit spendy. As a side note, the local Trader Joe's has some fairly affordable swordfish steaks - about $6/pound. They're fantastic sauteed with a little lemon juice and some capers, but there's only so many times you can eat anything before you go bonkers. Suggestions?

I'm an amateur liqueur enthusiast, and have started to get pretty good at brewing them. I've managed a pretty good coffee, cranberry, blueberry, and cinnamon liqueur, and have slowly been getting better at dealing with citrus - but I just can't seem to make mango work. Every time I make the stuff, it goes all brown and horrible. I've tried adding ascorbic acid, but to no avail - the color stays okay, but it still smells like bile. Campden tablets don't help, either. I'm using mason jars, so the air seal should be pretty good - is there something else I'm forgetting? Or maybe just the air trapped in the jars is causing the problem? Also, has anyone done anything with pomegranate? Trader Joe's has frozen pomegranate pips better than a lot of the fresh stuff (I'm in midwestern USA), and I'm hoping to make a liqueur. My standard approach of liquefying the fruit and mixing with alcohol might not be so useful here - the seeds are very bitter - and the recommended option of a mechanical push-down citrus juicer isn't available. Maybe a mallet and a ziploc bag?