slkinsey
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Posts posted by slkinsey
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In general, it is my experience that one should never ask for a drink involving citrus juice without first asking whether the bar uses fresh citrus juice. If they don't -- or if they don't know what you're talking about or seem confused about why you're asking and why you care -- that tells you a lot about the bar's cocktail program.
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Morgan... Not to put this on your shoulders, but it's a little naive to assume that this reataurant would have any real mixological expertise. This is especially true given the overall poor state of mixology in Houston, but I wouldn't assume that Smith & Wollensky in New York City would do any better. It's a sad fact that getting a well-made Sidecar (never mind a real Daiquiri instead of vaguely boozey slurpee) is by no means a gimme, even at an expensive steakhouse. You're way better off ordering something like a Martini or Manhattan, where you can specify exactly how you want it made.
Now... once the drink came in, your best bet would have been to call over the bar waiter and say something like: "Er... this isn't a Sidecar, and unfortunately it's pretty terrible. I'm sorry, but I have to send this back. Maybe I should just get a Martini instead?"
The chances are pretty good that the bar waiter didn't even know what a Sidecar is, but at some point before you got the drink someone should have told you that Smith & Wollensky doesn't exactly have a cocktail bar for classic cocktails.
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You could aways keep your beans in a separate container, weigh out the precise amount you wanted, and drop just those beans into the grinder's bean -storage area. That would help to mitigate any possible small amount of ground beans in the grinder.Personally I can't be bothered.
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Yea. Well, for sure Patsy's East Harlem is not baking pizza in the same style as Una Pizza Napoletana. Patsy's is arguably the best example of the NYC coal-fired style which, as you note, does emphasize the charred flavors in the crust whereas the Neapolitan style has more apparent bread flavors. Definitely, in Patsy's you want to order your pizzas one at a time (the best waiters there will usually ask if you want them serially or simultaneously) and you need to eat them quickly. Patsy's is also behind the times with respect to toppings. Personally, I'm not fond of any of their toppings and prefer to go minimal (their Marinara with nothing more than tomato sauce and garlic may be the best they do). Hopefully they'll figure that out and start sourcing better product, as does e.g., Grimaldi's.
I think you'll probably like Arturo's whose crust definitely offers more support to the toppings.
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Dosers are designed for high-volume professional operations. What happens is that the grinder grinds a whole lot of coffee into a hopper right below the grinding mechanism. This hopper is the doser. Inside the doser is a mechanism that (supposedly) sweeps a predetermined amount of coffee grinds out of the hopper and into a chute every time a lever is pulled. The barista places the portafilter under the chute and clicks the lever once or twice (depending on whether it is a single or double shot) to dump the appropriate amount of ground coffee into the filter. I'm sure you've seen this in Italian bars.
As you may imagine, using a doser doesn't make any sense if you are grinding your coffee to order. First of all, you really don't need to "dose" your coffee grinds in pre-determined amounts. Second, it's much more difficult to keep the doser clean of old grinds. Third, if you're not filling the doser with grinds, you're not really using it the way it's intended to be used. Thus, the doserless grinder where the coffee goes from the grinding mechanism to the portafilter without passing through a doser.
If you take a look at this page you can see a Rancilio Rocky grinder both with and without a doser.
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The Versalab is an astonishing thing but what do you make of their claim about old grounds in the grinding area?
This is a good reason to use a doserless grinder, and to keep it swept clean of old grinds to the greatest extent possible. Even so, there will usually be some old grinds in the grinding mechanism itself (Versalab mitigates this problem by dosing unground beans into the grinder). To mitigate this problem with my doserless Rocky, I simply discard the first bit of grinds that comes out of the chute in each grinding session. If I'm still getting 2% of old grinds, I cal live with that.
BTW, once you have your spanky new bottomless portafilter (is it only me that gets faintly aroused every time I type that?) how do you stop it spraying hot coffee all over the bench?That shouldn't happen. Sounds like your coffee isn't ground nearly fine enough, because the coffee shouldn't be coming out fast enough to spray anywhere. It should look more or less like the picture on this page when the coffee is coming out.
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A correlation doesn't necessarily indicate a cause and effect, and that's the only point I am trying to make.
Indeed, obesity and diabetes are also strongly correlated with things like telephone poles per capita and plastic bag use.
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I don't have it in front of me, but I looked up "confit" in McGee's book last evenening, and I recall him saying something to the effect that a slight rancidity can be part of the traditional flavor of aged confit.
WRT the evaporation, while I don't disagree with your example of the one cup on a 180F hotplate evaporating after 8 hours, it's not clear to me that you will evaporate the same one cup of water in 8 hours if it's covered up in 6 cups of fat (not to mention 8 duck legs). I can't imagine how much water would really be cooked off from within the duck legs themselves (which exude liquid throughout the cooking process), but there's no way it could even approach all of it. When I've made confit using the traditional method, there has always been plenty of liquid at the bottom of the cooking vessel. Typically, I'd try to minimize liquid in the actual storage jar by placing the cooked legs in the jar and then pouring only fat around them. Even then, some liquid still usually comes out of the legs and collects at the bottom of the jar.
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Tim, how wet was the dough?
When I'm making orecchiette, I try to make the dough as stiff as possible (too stiff to practically knead by hand, really). I also cut the disks and let them dry for an hour or so before pressing them out to shape.
I've never had any troubles with cracking after drying 24 hours.
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Also to the slkinsey, you're not actually cooking them sous-vide, are you or just sealing them after they're done? The idea of confit is that the moisture content evaporates (through the fat cover) and when there's no moisture left in the meat, it is preservable because there's no oxygen to go rancid, at which point leaving it under an airtight covering of fat is safe. If you're cooking it in a sous-vide package, the moisture is surely not escaping?
I've never heard the theory that the confit process removes all the water (which is presumably what you mean by "moisture") from the meat. And, having made confit using the traditional process many times, I have to say that this is not my experience (there is almost always some liquid at the bottom of the jar). Indeed, duck legs from which all the water had been cooked out would be tough, dry and unappetizing.
I also don't quite get the chemistry of "there is no oxygen to go rancid." What would be going rancid, exactly? And how is oxygen being removed by using an open container? If anything, I'd think that heating the confit above the boiling point of water (which would be necessary for the evaporation you suggest takes place) for a long period of time would increase oxidation of the fat, and therefore increase the possibility of rancidity developing over time. As for preservation... afar as I know, what happens is that you cook the duck legs for a long time, effectively sterilizing them, and then you "seal" them in an airtight covering of solidified fat -- fundamentally "canning" the duck legs without using a can. As far as I can tell, the sous vide process should minimize oxidation more than the traditional method.
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So, what you're saying then is that there is no such thing as a "credentialed" journalist?
Anyway, the American Heritage Dictionary says:
Usage Note: The use of the participle credentialed to refer to certified teachers and other professionals is well established (She became credentialed through a graduate program at a local college), but its more general use to mean "possessing professional or expert credentials" is still widely considered jargon. The sentence The board heard testimony from a number of credentialed witnesses was unacceptable to 85 percent of the Usage Panel.Of "credentialed journalists" wikipedia says:
Some countries impose restrictions on who may work for the press or in a journalistic capacity, and require that anyone allowed to do so carry a government-issued credential. This allows these countries to exert a substantial amount of control over freedom of the press, by selectively granting, withholding, and withdrawing press credentials.Some government and non-government entities may also require or issue specific credentials of or to persons wishing to interact with them in a journalistic capacity.
This may be done to control the dissemination of information about the entity, to ensure favorable reporting, to limit the number of persons acting as press, and so on. These credentials are often independent of any government credentials, although some entities will accept government credentials as a justification for their own, or in lieu of their own.
In the United States, for example, no national press credential exists because it has been held to violate the freedom of press provisions of the country's constitution, but individual government entities (such as the White House and the military) and many non-government entities issue and require press credentials for their own spheres of influence.
This suggests to me that there is no such thing as a "credentialed journalist" in the United States. What would that mean anyway? If the East Pawtucket Bugle hires someone to be a "reporter" or "critic" for their does that make this "credentialed journalist" more legitimate than Andrea Strong?
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I've enjoyed rooibos ever since a South African friend introduced me to it. Honestly, I'm not sure where the tobacco comparisons come from (people don't smoke it, do they?) but the thought that it resembled tobacco never occurred to me. Honestly, I don't get that at all.
Anyway, rooibos is delicious brewed as a tea, and I don't see why it wouldn't be great infused into alcohol. For one, there isn't the tannin to be dealt with.
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Although I realize this is a gross over-generalization, my impression is that cooking school faculty are usually quite firmly in the French camp. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it can have the tendency to make them insufficiently informed as to Italian (and other) technique/aesthetic/ingredients. Not knowing that there are many different kinds of 00 strikes me as an almost shocking lacuna in culinary knowledge for a culinary instructor.
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Yea... I gotta tell you, I'd be very reluctant to try a homemade infused tobacco spirit. Nicotine is a very dangerous drug. Personally, I'd want to have the assurance of some kind of testing for nicotine levels in the infused spirit before I'd think of trying any of it. People in prison occasionally use tobacco infusions to commit suicide.
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Extensive tagine thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=63502
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Question about confit: I recently did some duck leg confit sous-vide. Individual duck legs with salt, etc. and a tablespoon or so in each bag. 80C for around 7 hours.
So... how long is this safe to keep in the refrigerator? When prepared the traditional way, one hears of confit kept cold for months and months.
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If you have the capability, confit is one area where sous vide can really be a cost saver. I recently made some duck leg confit, sealing each leg in an individual pouch with some fat. The beauty of this is that you don't need to use much fat. I only used around a tablespoon of fat per duck leg. When you vacuum the bag, the leg is surrounded by a thin layer of duck fat. It's also nice to have the legs in individual packages.
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Exactly. The "00" -- if I'm remembering correctly -- has to do more with the level of refinement than it does the protein/gluten content of the flour. That's probably why the head of Rochelle's school said pasta should be made with bleached rather than unbleached flour.
My experience is that there is "00 for pasta" flour, which is low in protein/gluten, and that's the one you want (there is also "00 for bread" and so on...).
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As to professionalism - I am the first to grant that the un-appointed critics can be thoroughly competent. I am also the first to admit that not all professionals are competent. Again though we return to issue one - that of accountability. The blogger is accountable to no-one unless, he/she wanders into those horrific realms of libel, slander and, of course plagiarism.
A related and, in my opinion more important question is: accountable to whom, and how?
If you are a self-appointed "reviewer" online (or otherwise) you are accountable to your readership. If enough people decide that your writing is rubbish and your opinions are not well-founded, your readership will decline and people will stop reading your reviews. Who decides that you have well-informed opinions and something worthwhile to say? The whole internet does.
On the other hand, all too often one finds situations in which the informed readership has determined that a reviewer's 's opinion is hopelessly biased, misinformed or otherwise worthless, and yet that writer continues to be gainfully employed by an important newspaper, and to wield the influence that comes along with such employment because... well I'm not quite sure. Because some editor at the newspaper likes them?
I am more familiar with music reviewing than I am with restaurant reviewing, but I have on any number of occasions read reviews in major newspapers that diverged so widely from my own experiences that it is barely possible to believe we were at the same performance. And I'm talking about details of fact, not opinion (e.g., "cracked wide open" and "ringing" cannot describe the same climactic high note). Yet, somehow these reviewers do not get the "warm handshake as they make their way out of the door" that Daniel promises. Rather, they remain employed for year after year after year.
All of which is to say that the imprimatur of a professional writing gig and the supposed ethical/competent oversight that supposefly comes along with it is hardly a guarantee of accountability and professionalism.
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The only "shaken with mint" drinks I have tended to shake hard are either those with other things in the shaker (e.g., muddled lime quarters) that "protect" the mint from over bruising, or drinks with a lot of other strong flavors and plenty of sweetness (e.g., the Juniperotivo) where bitterness is not particularly apparent and I want maximum expression of mint flavors. This does, I suppose, account for most of the "shaken with mint" drinks I make regularly. Maybe that's why I don't think it's as big a deal. I can certainly tell the difference in a julep.
To my thinking, though, there's some room between "shaking the bejeezus out of it" and a "rolling shake." I would understand a "rolling shake" to be more less like rolling (pouring from one tumbler to another with ice), only in a closed shaker, which would be very gentle indeed -- although perhaps not what Erik is describing. There are certainly drinks both with mint and without that I think benefit from a gentler shake.
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Have not tried it. I'm not fond of Absinthe and anyway, most of the current productions have very watered-down Wormwood (Thujone) The exception might be Logan Fils top label but I understand the "private recipes" are much stronger.
Stronger in what, exactly?
I think you'll find if you read through the thread above, that real absinthe never contained much thujone to speak of, and that most of the reported affects of absinthe which have been attributed to thujone were in fact the result of alcohol poisoning and poisoning from the various adulterants and contaminants found in low quality pre-ban absinthe.
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I did an experiment a while ago hard shaking a cocktail with mint and another rolling.
It wasn't blind; but, well, there ya go.
To me the hard shake one had a bitter, sour, plant flavor.
The rolling shake one only had the mint fragrance.
Did you use the stems of just the mint leaves?
I think that shaking hard does impart perhaps a little bitterness, but not too much.
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Why not just double-strain?
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Anyone know what raw maple sap tastes like? Is it just barely sweet?
Put 1 oz of regular maple syrup into a clean 40 oz bottle, fill with water, shake and taste. That's exactly what the sap tastes like.
Hmm. Not exactly, in my experience. I think the caramelization that happens when the sap is boiled down contributes quite a bit to the flavor.
Vermont Spirits make a Maple Vodka. I've read about it; but, not tried.Great idea! Take an ingredient that is expensive, distinctive and limited in supply, and then refine all of its character away! [/sarcasm]
Cannelloni
in Italy: Cooking & Baking
Posted · Edited by slkinsey (log)
In Italy I was taught to make cannelloni by rolling out a super-thin long sheet of pasta, blanching/shocking it, laying it out on towels, smearing on a thin layer of meat sauce, drizzling on a little béchamel and rolling the whole thing up like a jelly roll. A little more sauce and béchamel over the top, and the works into the oven.
The kind of cannelloni that consists of, more or less, a tube of pasta (either fresh or dried) encasing a finger-sized filling of meat and/or cheese and/or spinach has always seemed more Italian-American to me than Italian, and is usually called manicotti (and, unfortunately, often pronounced "manigot").