[Best of the Bottom Shelf!]

Have never had Totilla Gold and probably never will (not sure if it is available around here and I pretty much gave up drinking a mixto 30 years ago after college anyway) so I can't say for sure but it seems hard to believe that a mixto colored with caramel is the same or better than a number of 100% agave tequilas that can be found for less than $30. Espolon, especially the reposado, comes to mind immediately. Matter of personal taste I suppose.

Might give the Angostura and soda a try just to see how it tastes although I like an occasional pink gin which is more interesting to me. How much do you use?

An awful lot of interesting bitters out there these days so whether others have "the same quality" is probably subjective at best.

In local prices, $35 seemed to be where 100% agave actually starts being good. But compared to low end 100% agave, I've always been surprised how this particular mixto holds up. I'll give the Espolon suggestion a try - a quick google search on it seemed promising.

With the bitters, it's usually just a few shakes to a normal 16oz glass with ice, but it's completely a matter of taste. I have friends who prefer much more and less. Also, pink gin sounds really good.... I just have trouble finding sweet gins in Utah. I'll have to see what I can track down.

[Best of the Bottom Shelf!]

I find that I enjoy being a connoisseur of the accessible things as much as the finer things. I like knowing the best place to eat in town, as well as the best McDonald's.

What are some gems - techniques or bottles - that you've found exceptional and exceptionally cheap?

A couple I know...

Brita filters DO transform cheap vodkas with top shelf smoothness.

190 proof Everclear mixes amazingly if you use 40% as much as you'd use vodka. With so little actual volume in a cocktail, you get more of the other flavors without sacrificing strength.

Tortilla Gold brand tequila. $9 and it'll beat or compare to anything up to $30 on the tequila scale.

Cruzan Light Rum is easily the best light rum I've had, with Mount Gay being my favorite amber, but it seems you need to pay decent money for a good spiced rum - any suggestions for a good "accessible" spiced rum?

Angostura bitters mixed with club soda... it is an acquired taste, but once you do it is incredibly refreshing and tasty. I've found other brands of bitters don't have the same quality and aren't nearly as good.

[The state of fancy sharpening gizmos in 2011?]

Generally speaking folks who use water stones either freehand (IMO the best way to sharpen) or on an expensive adjustable system, like EdgePro, loath pull-through gadgets, electric or otherwise.

The pull-through people usually find water stone based sharpening burdensome and reason their knives are sharp enough even though they may eventually ruin good knives.

It is my experience that many people have never used a sharp knife in their lives. "Not dull" does not equal "sharp." I've been to people's houses, where all they have are serrated knives -- and even those were dull. Hand them a sharp knife and a tomato and it is a revelation to these people.

Speaking in terms of gifts, and people with a vast collection of serrated knives; they may be amazed by the edge of a honestly sharp knife (or likewise, flavor from real stock), but chances are they aren't going to be converted to hobbyist-like obsession with stoning to a mirror finish (and you'll probably still find Chicken Broth in their pantry). Of course not every $20 sharpener is decent, or suitable to every knife, but would I give a Victorinox knife and a well-suited gizmo as a gift? Most definitely!

[The state of fancy sharpening gizmos in 2011?]

Generally speaking folks who use water stones either freehand (IMO the best way to sharpen) or on an expensive adjustable system, like EdgePro, loath pull-through gadgets, electric or otherwise.

The pull-through people usually find water stone based sharpening burdensome and reason their knives are sharp enough even though they may eventually ruin good knives.

I think pull-throughs have their place, and the line is much grayer.

I can put a really nice edge on my Globals with some time and waterstones. However, if I get to work and find that my edge needs a touch-up, I can't drop everything to break out the stone, even though I prefer it.

So long as your pull-through doesn't remove a lot of metal, and doesn't reform the edge at the wrong angle, I don't see the harm, it just wont be everything it could be.

Which my 2 cents is that as a matter of practicality, home use knives don't need to be razors, whereas it makes a big difference in my day if my work knives aren't keen. That being said, hobbyists will be hobbyists and I'm sure we all have unreasonably sharp knives in our home kitchen

[Modernist Ingredient Kits]

After a lot of browsing and comparing I found that Modernist Pantry and the Artistre kit off Amazon offer pretty complimentary components. The only overlap is Xanthan Gum and Agar Agar (edit: oh and tapioca maltodextrin I just noticed)..... which are common use anyway. So for a grand total of about $180 shipped I picked up both kits, a caviar spoon, syringe, a 100g by .01g scale, and a 1000g by .1g scale. I decided to hold off on the calibration weights for the scales since a stack of nickels will typically suffice.

MP:

Gelling:

50g Agar Agar

10 Gold Strength Gelatin sheets

50g Iota Carrageenan

50g Methylcellulose HV

Thickening:

50g Perfected Guar Gum

50g Locust Bean Gum

50g Xanthan Gum

Foams:

50g Soy Lecithin Powder

50g Versawhip 600K

pH Buffering:

50g Malic Acid

Transformation:

70ml Pectinex Ultra SP-L

25g Tapioca Maltodextrin

Tools:

3-pack Small Anti-static Weighing Dishes

Artistre Kit:

Transformation:

Tapioca Malto-Dextrin

Spherification:

Sodium Citrate

Calcium Chloride

Calcium Lactate Gluconate

Sodium Alginate

Calcium Lactate

Thickening:

Xanthan Gum

Emulsification:

Lecithin

Glycerin Flakes

Gelification:

Agar Agar

Methocel F50

Kappa Carrageenan

[The state of fancy sharpening gizmos in 2011?]

For Japanese knives, Minosharp 3. Essentially designed for use on Global knives, but works on anything Japanese.

http://www.amazon.com/Minosharp-3-Sharpener-Grey-Black/dp/B000WZFBOS/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1320204365&sr=1-1

The pull-through-wheel mechanics operate a lot like a stone, but none of the hassle. The wheels are made to create lower angled edge that most Japanese knives are designed for. The only downside is the fine grit wheel isn't like taking your knife to a 6000 waterstone, so you wont get that insane mirror-finish edge. But for the average user....

[Q&A -- Knife Maintenance and Sharpening]

I'm curious about the MinoSharp wheel systems - more accurately, I have one, but I'm curious about it's relative effectiveness compared to an actual stone.

They are somewhat curious in how they apply the techniques in this course. Both in how they achieve it, and in that I now know how much is going on when you push the blade through the wheel.

First, as the wheels spin on the blade, I imagine they make a motion more akin to pushing it over a stone than dragging across a V-shape, as it typical with hand-held gadgets.

Second, the wheels are angled horizontally, as well as beveled vertically. This seems to keep the edge away from direct contact with the bottom, allowing it to be ground from the sides. But I'm not sure if the angle that it contacts the wheel matters at all. Being a rounded surface, it only makes contact with the highest point.

Third, the wheels do both sides at once, so I imagine no discernible burr should appear on either side, but how does this relate to the stropping techniques? Do you need to strop an edge with no burr?

Fourth, they are ceramic wheels. Chad covers ceramic only in reference to steels, but doesn't go into detail on how well they'd work as the primary abrasive - is there any reason to think it wouldn't be a good abrasive surface?

-Aaron