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Damn... that is manly. At least the Stagg tastes good on its own... W&N doesn't have that going for it.

Hmmm... What's a "manly" cocktail? A favorite of mine, and I'm a man, is a Jasmine. Gin, Cointreau, Campari, lemon juice. Pretty and pink, but bitter and grapefruity. You can make fine riffs on this sort of drink with rums and tequilas... really depends on the flavor profile that the particular spirits bring. You need to figure out what cocktails you like and think are "manly" enough for you. The most "manly" cocktail I've ever run across is the Staggerac... 140 proof bourbon with sugar and bitters. If putting hair on your chest is your primary cocktail goal... that is a direction to look in.

Me too. Hope it lives up to expectations.

Do you really believe that any commercial entity would flog exhaust tainted gasses for culinary purposes? And I thought I was a cynic.

Is that expensive caviar Caspian? I know that international trade in Caspian caviar is banned... are the Russians still harvesting sturgeon for domestic consumption?

How do you judge "quality" of chargers? Is it a binary work/fail thing? Or are there off flavors I'm just not noticing that the bad ones bring?

Other than not being of pristine Viennese origin, what exactly does that chart tell us about the other types of Nitrous chargers? If other charger mfgs are shipping adulterated chargers, that chart doesn't say so... but implies that the non-Austrian ones are inferior. For a commodity chemical, the question is whether what they say they're selling is what they're selling... Why would I need an "EU certified pharmaceutical manufacturer" to wave a seal of approval over my commodity chemical?

The advantage of cooking a tougher cut of meat at the final doneness temp for a long time is that it permits the collagen to gelatin reaction to keep on going and break down the stuff that makes the meat tough. If you don't want that, then cooking until it just hits temp is fine... but it sort of defeats the purpose of the water bath technique.

Verbal explanations just don't cut it when direct sensory experience can be substituted for a negligible investment of time and expense. Go get yourself a Valrhona bar at your local Trader Joe's at Meadow Rd and Route 1 in Princeton. Also pick up one of their Belgian chocolate 3 mini-bar packs. Both are usually available at the checkouts. Aim to keep the %cacao in the bars somewhere near the same, e.g. if you grab a Valrhona 54% bar, don't pick the 3-pack of 72% to compare. . Don't compare milk chocolate to dark chocolate. Try them side by side. Observe both the texture and flavor notes. You'll understand what I'm talking about. And then you can generalize that experience out to other brands from the same countries... A Michel Cluizel bar will have more in common with a Valrhona bar than a Cote d'Or bar, etc. Determine what you like, and explore in that direction. Sometimes the marketing and branding obscures the origin of a particular bar... you'll learn through taste and experience that, say, Chocolove, while it says it comes from Colorado, is Belgian chocolate.

And keep in mind that in chocolate styles and tastes do vary independently of price. I am not a fan of the French style of chocolate that Valrhona exemplifies. I like the Belgian style instead. I find it less sharp and more smooth, both in texture and in flavor. I'm not a fan of sharply fruity notes in chocolate... though I love that in coffee.

My absolute favorite chocolate is sadly no longer available... the company that made it seems to have gone belly up... The Swartenbroeckx 66% bar with cacao nibs in was a wonderful thing. Found it at Zabar's in the late 90s. Then the supply dried up. Cheap in comparison to Michel Cluizel and whoever else Zabars was stocking at the time too.

It removes too much from the water... Pure H2O doesn't do so good a job as you'd expect. You want some minerality and local character in your coffee water. Hard vs. soft water can make differences in how coffee turns out, some beans like one or the other... unless you live on a sulfur spring or a bog, going so far as to distill is overkill. Have a look here: http://www.scaa.org/chronicle/2013/07/08/dissecting-scaas-water-quality-standard/

I'm also not a fan of Jamaican coffee. I prefer Yemenis or Ethiopians more often than not, though some of the big beaned Nicaraguans are also very nice. I tend to prefer coffees with a strong fruit component in them. On brewing, I find the french press is fine for cold brewing. For hot coffee I like the Aeropress. But more often than not, I just make espresso when I want hot coffee.

When you roast coffee, the set of reactions that happens inside the beans keeps on going for a few days after they are cooled down. The beans release CO2 over that period of time. Just cooled fresh roasted coffee is flat and unpleasant tasting. I find that the flavor settles down and gets good after about a week. Anything younger than that isn't as good as it is going to get.

Are you sure the bile glands were completely removed from the livers? Bile is bitter and astringent.

In your part of the country do you have competing meat providers? In PA hoagie shops/delis will ally with one of the big cured meat sources, e.g. Dietz & Watson, or Thumann's or Boar's Head... and use that alliance (and the promo swag that they hand out) in the branding of the sandwiches and shop more generally. If you've got a choice of local meat houses, make sure to pick the tastiest of the bunch, rather than just the cheapest. Look at their distro contracts to make sure that you have an option to use non-branded stuff in some product offerings if you've got local farms that cure sausage/salami, etc. that you want to use. Also, as mentioned above, get a good bakery to keep you in fresh rolls every day. A bad roll kills a sandwich. Also, make sure that you only offer and use tomatoes when they are in season and taste like tomatoes. Offer marinated roasted red peppers if the sandwiches need red in them when tomatoes are bad.

You can't. Keep the recipe secret and use trade secret law.

Welcome! Glad you came to visit. Jump right in, the forums are full of fun facts about food and cooking... you'd have a hard time not learning something new here. Bring your questions and your perspective. Have fun!

If you're in a concocting mood, Jeffrey Morgenthaler, the author of that recipe, has refined it over time. Here's the latest iteration I'm aware of.

This leads to the question-- just how thick/pasty a batter can a isi whipper push without choking or doing harm to itself? Is the air waffle batter extra runny out of consideration of the limitations of the siphon, or for its intrinsic qualities? Could one of these things really push a quenelle out of it without choking?

The trick I've seen used successfully for clear ice is to freeze a block of ice inside an insulated cooler inside your freezer... the insulation simulates pond ice freezing conditions so it freezes top down and is clear, like pond ice.

IF I could figure out how image uploading works around here nowadays, I'd show you a picture of my bottle of cooking brandy. Bisquit VSOP. OK by itself, but makes a very nice Newburg sauce. This ain't a missing Rembrandt or a lost lottery ticket. ETA, I seem to have figured it out. Can you see the attached pic? Looks like yours?

It is a mighty moon... orange and low and harvest-y looking... didn't think to eat anything special for it though...

I've gotta question the caviar recommendation. Now that Caspian caviar isn't available, the replacement options are a shadow of the past glory. Caspian sturgeon eggs are a special thing... too bad they've been so overfished. The best fish-eggy thing I've had in recent years has been trout roe, and its availability is quite limited.

Actually, you're in China, the land where everything is made. And you might have articulated a need for a new product that's not on the market that you could spec out and actually sell... What you need is a compressable container that minimizes oxygen exposure and facilitates serving ease... something like a 500ml syringe with a condiment serving cap on the needle end. Press the plunger and condiment comes out, and air does not get in. Cap the serving end when you're done. Now you need to find a factory that will work with you on the plastic molding and such. Prototype one and see if it works... then retire on the proceeds if it works as expected.