slkinsey

Update: I just rechecked the code and see the following. Apparently 27 CFR 5.22(b)(1)(i) is not sufficient to disallow whiskies stored in used barrels, as mickblueeyes suggests. However, there is an additional provision which covers just that: 27 CFR 5.22(b)(2) says: "Whisky distilled from bourbon (rye, wheat, malt, or rye malt) mash" is whisky produced in the United States at not exceeding 160 deg. proof from a fermented mash of not less than 51 percent corn, rye, wheat, malted barley, or malted rye grain, respectively, and stored in used oak containers; and also includes mixtures of such whiskies of the same type.

Well, says you. I'm not saying you're wrong or you're right. But I am saying that you're not an expert in this kind of law. I'd like to see the case law on this before I'm willing to believe that interpretation is 100% correct. I've got some friends who practice in this area. Maybe they can offer an opinion.

Chuck has a lot of gristle? I'd say you might trim out big pieces of sinew and things like that, but you want to keep the fat.

No, I understand what "new oak barrels" means. The "new" means, as you say, that nothing has previously been aged in the barrels. What I see here in the law is that, in order for the spirit to be called "bourbon" it has to be aged in charred new oak barrels. In actuality, it could literally be poured into charred new oak barrels, aged for one minute, poured back out and still labeled as "bourbon." There is a two year minimum aging time only if the product is going to be labeled "straight whiskey." So, this establishes the fact that a mash bill of >51% corn, distilled to <160 proof and aged in charred new oak barrels at <125 proof for 1 minute or more can be called "bourbon" (provided it is bottled at >80 proof). Understanding that, I don't see anything in the law saying that if you take this bourbon and dump it into a used wine barrel for a period of time it is somehow transformed into "not bourbon." Now, if the law said, "stored at not more than 125° proof in charred new oak containers and in no other kind of wood container" that would be different (I assume it's okay for the aged spirit to spend some time in stainless steel tanks before bottling).

Why wouldn't they be able to label it "bourbon"? As far as I can tell, the relevant law says: 27 CFR 5.22(b)(1)(i) "Bourbon whisky","‘rye whisky", "wheat whisky", "malt whisky", or "rye malt whisky" is whisky produced at not exceeding 160° proof from a fermented mash of not less than 51 percent corn, rye, wheat, malted barley, or malted rye grain, respectively, and stored at not more than 125° proof in charred new oak containers; and also includes mixtures of such whiskies of the same type. Subparagraph (iii) says: Whiskies conforming to the standards prescribed in paragraphs (b)(1)(i) and (ii) of this section, which have been stored in the type of oak containers prescribed, for a period of 2 years or more shall be further designated as "straight"; for example, "straight bourbon whisky", "straight corn whisky", and whisky conforming to the standards prescribed in paragraph (b)(1)(i) of this section, except that it was produced from a fermented mash of less than 51 percent of any one type of grain, and stored for a period of 2 years or more in charred new oak containers shall be designated merely as "straight whisky". No other whiskies may be designated "straight". "Straight whisky" includes mixtures of straight whiskies of the same type produced in the same State. There's nothing I see in there that says an otherwise normal bourbon can't spend a few years (or, indeed, all years after the second year in new charred oak) in a used wine barrel and still be called "straight bourbon whiskey."

Am I the only one who finds Latini long strand pasta difficult to cook without having it turn out a bit gummy?

For hamburgers: beef chuck. I like it with some short rib meat in there, too.

I think it should be possible to design an open-top ice bin that provides both easy and convenient access to the ice as well as refrigeration to keep the temperature low. A few things that come to mind: - The sides of the bin can be refrigerated - There can be "cooling fins" sticking up through the ice every foot or so - The top opening of the ice bin can be 10% smaller than the actual size of the bin

It's absolutely not psychological. There is a huge difference between meat ground fresh and pre-ground meat that was ground God knows when. When Steven and I did the hamburger experiments I mentioned above, we bought a "control" package of just-out-of-the-grinder meat from the same (very high quality) grocery store where we bought the whole pieces of meat we were grinding to order. By the time we tested a hamburger made from the pre-ground meat, our palates had become adjusted to the taste of fresh-ground meat. We both spit out the bite we took from the pre-ground beef hamburger and started laughing. It was not a subtle difference. This difference is, I think, primarily due to oxidation. But it's also a fact that you really have no idea what meat they're putting into ground beef. This is especially true if the meat is ground in a big processing plant somewhere instead of on-site at the grocery store. All this is to say that I'm not surprised that you're seeing a huge difference between pre-ground meat and minced meat from your food processor. But I bet you'd see an even bigger difference if you were able to make double-ground meat in a home meat grinder.

Interesting. I've found the opposite to be true of both Setaro and Latini, both of which seem to have a wider window of "perfect" cooking times. Alas, I don't eat as much pasta as I once did. But I am still reliably able to source Setaro for around $5 per kilo, which I think is a reasonable price. I never trust their reviews. CI's method is to establish a set of criteria, which most often do not coincide with my criteria, and then judge against that. Another common problem is that their tasting panels may not have the same tastes, preferences and experience as I. My overall impression is that their panels have somewhat pedestrian taste. I do think there is some value in having "regular people" do tastings like this, but that's not who I want evaluating my products. I want people with experience and expertise. After all, the same "regular people" tend to prefer Miller Genuine Draft and Pizza Hut over Anchor Steam and Grimaldi's.

Not to mention that you can't get "ground meat" out of a food processor. The best you can hope for is "minced" which is not quite the same thing. Bittman's no fool, I know, and I have to believe he knows that processor-minced meat is a poor substitute for the real thing. Nevertheless, it's a fact that a food processor is a ubiquitous piece of equipment in the American kitchen whereas a meat grinder (or grinder attachment) is not. In order that his article appeal and apply to the maximum readership, the responsible thing to do was give instructions for using the food processor. My favorite KA grinder attachment anecdote is when Fat Guy and I were doing some hamburger formulation experiments over at his place. Steven and Momo picked me up with my KA grinder attachment, we shopped for meat and went over to Steven's to prepare a few dozen test burgers. Here's the thing: I had previously cleaned the grinder attachment and soaked it in bleach to make sure it was optimally clean. It looked clean enough to be a surgical instrument. Nevertheless, Momo's bulldog nose immediately detected meat, and he was interested in what was inside my bag from the moment I got in the car.

As far as I know, and my knowledge is by nio means all-encompassing in this respect, Pegu Club is the only bar that has a dedicated freezer for mixing glasses and glassware. It is also the place where I've had the coldest Martinis outside of my own home. One thing I can never quite understand is why bars don't have refrigerated ice bins. Home cocktailians have a huge advantage over professionals because we're taking our cubes directly from the freezer whereas bartenders take their ice cubes out of open insulated bins. This results in a huge thermal advantage in favor of the home cocktailian. Surely it couldn't be all that hard to design aa reasonably accessible refrigerated ice bin that would keep the ice at -20C/-5F (and could be warmed up/drained/sanitized on a nightly basis). Are there any professionals who keep a thermometer in their ice bins? I'd love to hear what temperature their ice is.

Andiesenji's story is interesting, but doesn't really tell us anything except that some people are sensitive to certain things in certain circumstances. Someone could report the same story with respect to caffeine, black peppercorns or even carrot juice -- it still doesn't mean that carrots are causing autism, giving us brain seizures and wrecking our hearts. It just means that that one person, and by logical extension an infinitesimal percentage of the population, has a bad reaction to carrot juice.

Interesting, Maureen. You learn something new every day. I'd swear that's not the impression I got of the way that word is used by my friends when I'm in Italy, but then again food isn't my primary focus when I'm there. Steven: Interesting idea as well. Somehow, using 50% more fresh compared to dry seems like an awfully large increase. But maybe it isn't...

In Killer Cocktails Dave Wondrich says the original was the John Collins: The Tom Collins is a less complex version of the same, substituting London dry gin for the genever and substituting sugar for the maraschino. Dave says it probably took its name from the use of old tom gin.

"Fair-net" is a reasonable American pronunciation of the word. You could roll the R, but I feel this is a little affected when incorporating such a word into American English. In much the same way, it's fine to pronounce "Rigoletto" as rih-go-leh-toe, whereas rrrrrrrree-goh-leyt-[pause on the "t"]-oh, while technically correct, is going a bit far unless you're speaking Italian.

Hmm. That might be the original derivation of pastasciutta but I've never ever heard tit used that way by my friends in Italy. You're suggesting that one would call tagliatelle Bolognese "pastasciutta" because it's in a sauce and not in a broth? I've never heard that usage. Rather, I have heard this word used interchangably with pasta secca (secca and asciutta both having the meaning "dry"). Indeed, the Italian Wikipedia page for pasta begins saying: "In Italia la pasta secca, o pastasciutta, costituisce i tre quarti dei consumi totali" -- which indicates that they are typically viewed as having the same meaning. As for weight-to-weight conversion between fresh egg and dry semolina, that's harder to say. If I'm making fresh pasta, I generally go for one egg's worth of pasta per person, plus one extra egg. So I'd make 5 egg's worth of pasta for four people. If I were to buy fresh pasta, I'd go by eye.

Does Detroit have any strong culinary history? In places like Philadelphia, (and currently New Orleans) that went through hard economic times, at least I had the sense that there was a great culinary tradition there even if the economics weren't right at that moment for it to be a "great restaurant town."

That's what I do for mine. Just use a nice thick pizza stone (or several stacked on top of each other for more thermal mass) on the bottom of the oven so the gas jets fire more-or-less directly into the stone, and make sure you preheat at least an hour. Also, the best advice I can give you when it comes to making thin crust pizza in a home oven: use half as much topping (and this includes sauce) as you're inclined to use. There should be spots that are just sauce, there should be spots that are just cheese, and there should be spots that are just crust. This way, the sauce has a chance to cook in the heat of the oven before the crust burns. Something like this:

Unless you have a vitamin deficiency, your body absorbs maybe 10-15% of the vitamins from a tablet, and excretes the rest in the urine. My understanding is that those of us lucky enough to live in the Western World are not likely to suffer from nutritional defficiencies unless our food consumption is significantly reduced (say, less than 1,500 kilocalories per day). I only take multivitamin tablets if I have reason to suspect that I may have a temporary vitamin shortage (most often, this means taking one with a big glass of water after I've spent a long evening indulging my cocktail-related interests).

Notwithstanding the OP's use of the word "spaghetti" (which I recall from my first reading of this thread, if it makes any difference) and deliberate melodrama aside, the title of the thread made it quite clear and continues to make it quite clear, along with his follow-up post, that the OP is asking about fresh pasta and not dry pasta. That there is, technically, no such thing as "fresh spaghetti" is neither here nor there.

Well... not exactly. A pound of pasta asciutta has virtually no water content. It's all semolina flour. A pound of pasta fresca has quite a bit of water content from the egg, water or other liquid ingredient that was used to moisten the dough. This is why uncooked pasta asciutta is hard and stiff and takes a long time to cook whereas uncooked pasta fresca is soft and flexible and takes very little time to cook. Since a pound of uncooked pasta asciutta contains more dry ingredient than a pound of uncooked pasta fresca, the pound of pasta asciutta will weigh more than the pound of pasta fresca once they are both cooked (this is also due to the fact that pasta asciutta absorbs considerable liquid as it cooks whereas pasta fresca does not).

This all depends on what style/effect you're going for and what equipment you're using. For thin crust pizzas cooked at high heat, I prefer San Marzano (or other high quality canned) tomatoes, drained and lightly crushed along with coarse salt and a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil. No cooking required, as the heat of the oven takes care of that. Other people like a cooked pizza sauce with lots of dried basil and oregano, garlic, etc. This is similar to what you'd get at a deck-oven "pizza parlor."

Have a look here for a page where you can convert BTUs to kilowatt hours and watt hours, etc. For example, a 30,000 BTU stove burner is also a 8,792 watt hour stove burner (not to mention a 31650000 joule, 7560 kilocalorie or 6.863 pounds of TNT stove burner).

Right. Something like immitating the distinctive viral logo and design of a big chain is one thing. That's easy to understand. You can't be like Cleo McDowell and say: "Look... me and the McDonald's people got this little misunderstanding. See, they're McDonald's... I'm McDowell's. They got the Golden Arches, mine is the Golden Arcs. They got the Big Mac, I got the Big Mick. We both got two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions, but their buns have sesame seeds. My buns have no seeds." This case seems a little less clear-cut to me. Like Nathan, I doubt it will go to trial. But it would be cool if it did. And I do think it's likely a matter of time before someone attempts to sue someone else for "copying" or "stealing" a recipe (which could include distinctive plating, etc.).