slkinsey
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Posts posted by slkinsey
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And the flamed oils also make a nice garnish for certain drinks.
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I find that I get flimsy twists if I use a vegetable peeler compared to using a paring knife and trimming off the pith.
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If you're willing to consider bubblies from outside Champagne, you might have more options.
Like what? I don't necessarily need somehing from Champagne. I just don't want something that's going to be a lot sweeter, for example, or something lighter and more acidic. "Reasonably Champagne-like" would be fine.
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The freshness of the fruit does seem to make a difference.
Take a lemon. Take a very sharp paring knife. Cut a strip of peel down the long axis of the lemon, maybe as wide as your little finger. If you like, and I usually do, flip the peel over and trim off the pith from the underside (needless to say, you don't need to bother with this last bit if you're not dropping the twist into the drink).
When you flex the peel over the surface of the drink, you should be able to notice citrus oils spraying out from the peel. The oils should be apparent on the surface of the drink, unless there is foam on the surface.
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I like the occasional cocktail topped with champagne, but each cocktail only takes a few ounces and when making cocktails at home I rarely want so many that it would be worthwhile to open a whole bottle of champagne.
So, I'd love to pick up a case or two of decently-priced, good quality in the context of cocktails champagne in half-bottles or, better yet, splits (quarter-bottles). That way I could have a few in the refrigerator ready to be used, and it wouldn't be such a big investment to crack one open for 3-4 cocktails.
Any recommendations? I'm thinking I really want to stick with champagne or very champagne-like. I tend to prefer prosecco if I'm drinking it on its own, but it doesn't have quite the richness of champagne for cocktails.
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Nice. I've thought of doing something like that as well, as I am given to understand that there is more to grenadine than simply pomegranate flavor.
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I think it's also often the case that restaurants advertising prime beef only sell one cut of prime beef, and all their other cuts are of lesser quality.
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According to this guy the short loin accounts for 16% of the dressed/hanging/carcass weight. Of that, approximately 42.5% is ground beef, stew meat, fat and bone. That leaves us with 9.2% of the carcass that can find its way into porterhouse, strip steak, tenderloin, etc.
If we apply that 9.2 % to the 24.68 billion pounds from 2005, that gives us around 2.27 billion pounds of beef that can potentially be used in these steak house cuts. Three percent of that is 68.1 million pounds of USDA prime. Take away the 80% going to Japan, and we have 13.6 million pounds of USDA prime for the American market. Figure that maybe 10% of that is top quality "prime of the prime" and you get 1.35 million pounds to split among every super-high end steak house in 2005. If you're talking porterhouse only the supply shrinks even more, to around 945 thousand pounds. That's not a lot of beef. Even 13.6 million pounds is not a lot to split among the many establishments that would like to serve it.
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re: shelf-life...
I've always wondered about that...
books tell you to keep your simple syrup refrigerated...
so I do...but invariably someone confuses it with water and dumps it (seriously!)
The way to increase room-temperature shelf life is to make a more concentrated simple syrup. People talk about adding vodka to simple syrup to improve stability, and I confess to thsi practice myself. But I don't think it really makes much difference. Adding an ounce of alcohol -- even 96% abv alcohol -- to a pint of simple syrup won't raise the alcohol content enough to make a difference.
As for people throwing out the simple in your fridge... I keep all my simple syrups in bottles like this:
Never had anyone mistake those for water.
Then I discovered bottled "Volcano Orange Juice" -- available at both Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. This is richer and more full-bodied than any orange juice you can squeeze at home. Try this in a Monkey Gland and it will be a revelation.Actually, the richness and concentration of bottled orange juice is one of the things to which I object. If I can tell the difference, then I don't want it. There is also a certain fresh quality to just-squeezed orange juice that bottled simply cannot match. I assume this is due to oxidation. Don't even get me started on bottled versus fresh grapefruit juice.
No matter how careful you are with sanitation, things grow in Simple Syrup eventually, especially the 1-1 versions.Adding a touch of alcohol and/or keeping them refrigerated helps lengthen their life. Though, I still don't find they last much longer than a month or two.
I refrigerate all my syrups, so I can't say much about keeping them at room temperature. But maybe I've had tremendous good luck, because I've never had a simple syrup turn on me. Not once. And I don't have the advantages of a dishwasher to sterilize my bottles in between batches.
As above, I'm not sure that adding alcohol really makes much difference.
I keep the grenadine in the freezer. It turns into a kind of slushie; but, thaws quickly enough once you get it out and give it a couple shakes.In the freezer? Why? Is it a 1:1 sugar and POM grenadine? If so, I'd really encourage you to make my version of grenadine. I do a four-fold reduction of POM, then melt in as much sugar as it can possibly hold. After that cools, I stir in as much fresh POM as it takes to be reasonably pourable, shooting for a texture roughly similar to 2:1 demerara syrup. Much richer flavor than the 1:1 version, better shelf stability, and it still has some of the fresh kick of the uncooked version.
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I think there are too many steakhouses chasing not enough prime beef. Over the last 2-3 years, there's been an explosion in the number of steakhouses. The number of cows yielding the best cuts of meat cannot possibly have grown by a similar proportion.I went to Wolfgang's a couple weeks ago and was completely underwhelmed.i've often said that, but i don't believe it. i think cows are slaughtered for steak under 3 years of age or so. and why can't the number of Prime graded steaks increase? it's set in stone? God's work only? i doubt that.
This seems like elementary mathematics to me.
The USDA certifies something like three percent (actually 2.4%, I think) of graded beef as prime. If ranchers were able to increase this percentage by repeatable, cost-effective means such as slaughtering at an earlier age or changing feed, they would have done so. These guys are in the business to make money. The margins are low enough as it is, and I feel quite sure that they would do anything that would reasonably increase profit. If it doesn't increase profit, they aren't going to do it. My understanding is that prime cows more or less come "by accident" from cows that are treated just like all the other cows, and it's discovered at slaughter. Wow, this one is prime! It's like making 100 pancakes with the same batter the same way. If you're lucky, maybe 3 of those pancakes will really be awesome. Maybe you could whip the whites and make a higher percentage of awesome pancakes, but you're only going to do that if it means that there's more money in your pocket at the end of the day. A 100% jump from three percent to six percent? Probably not worth it. Fat Guy and I had a long discussion on the ecomonics of beef production with Mel Coleman, Jr. of Coleman Natural Beef. It's a very complicated business.
Who knows? The percentage of prime may change with cloning technology. But for now, I think it's reasonable to suggest that this percentage won't meaningfully increase. Of this three percent, something like eighty percent is exported to Japan. That leaves around half a percent for the American market. In reality, high priced NYC steak houses are playing with a much smaller percentage, because run of the mill USDA prime isn't good enough. They're all competing for "the prime of the prime" sold in America (perhaps five hundredths of a percent of USDA graded beef).
Now, there are three ways the amount of prime graded beef available for the American market can increase. First, ranchers can grow more cows. More cows turns that five hundredths a percent into more prime of the prime beef for the American market. Second, the USDA can relax its grading standards. This has already happened to a certain extent, which is exactly why high priced NYC steak houses seek out "the prime of the prime." Third, we could export less prime beef to Japan. Given the high prices the Japanese are willing to pay for USDA prime beef, this seems unlikely. From the perspective of the diner, only the first solution makes any difference.
All we have to do is think: How many high priced NYC steak houses did we have in, say, 1990? Of course it's possible that there was more "extra" prime of the prime around back in 1990, so we should figure that in. So, if we surmise that there has been a 1000% increase in high priced NYC steak houses over the last 17 years, then there would have to be at least a 200% increase in American beef production over that time period in order to maintain the same prime of the prime quality across all those high priced NYC steak houses. This model assumes that high priced NYC steak houses account for 100% of the increase in demand for this beef over the 17 year period, which seems highly unlikely. In reality, we're probably talking about a minimum of a 500% increase in beef production to satisfy demand for 1990-quality prime of the prime beef. I feel confident that we have not increased beef production by anywhere near this amount,* so it must follow that there is not enough prime of the prime beef to go around to all the restaurants that would like to serve it. This means a net decrease in quality when averaged across all high priced NYC steak houses.
* According to these statistics from the USDA, United States beef production actually decreased over the period 2002 to 2005, from 35.735 million head/27.09 billion pounds to 32.387 million head/24.68 billion pounds.
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Garnishes
I'm unlikely to use a garnish that doesn't add any flavor to the drink. But many of them do ad something appreciable.
I actually find that twist garnishes make a big difference. I'm not saying I use them every time at home, because that depends on whether I have citrus of sufficient freshness (the peel tends to lose its pizzazz before the juice inside). But a big twist of lemon makes a huge difference in, say, a Sazerac, Martini or Old Fashioned.
Like other posters, I am less likely to use an olive or cocktail onion. I'm also not overly fond of cherries, so even though I have a big jar of homemade maraschino cherries, I don't use them very often. I do like the Luxardo cherries, though, so I may find myself using more cherry garnishes if I ever get around to buying some.
Juices
There's no substitute for fresh juices, in my opinion. I've got an Orange-X mid-size professional juicer in permanent residence on my kitchen counter, and squeeze citrus juice to order. If I don't have any fresh citrus around, I don't make citrus cocktails.
Other juices, such as pineapple juice, are inconvenient to keep around fresh and the canned versions seem perfectly acceptable.
Syrups
Just like anything else, high quality syrups can make a difference. I make and keep on hand most of the syrups that are shelf-stable. This includes things like 1:1 white simple, 2:1 demerara simple, 2:1 lime-infused syrup (I mix this 1:1 with fresh lime juice to order for a friend who loves gimlets), 4:1 light cane syrup and homemade grenadine. I've been meaning to pick up some gum arabic at Kalustyan's and make real gomme syrup to see what that's like.
I have made other syrups, such as spice or ginger-infused syrup, but I haven't been thrilled with their shelf stability. The flavors seem to dull fairly quickly. This is especially true with something like a cold infused or hot-then-cold infused ginger syrup. It doesn't take too long for the syrup to lose its zip.
I'm also not afraid to use good commercial syrups where they exist and when making the syrup at home is not a simple task (I would never pay for simple syrup or cane syrup). If I could buy decent grenadine in the store, I wouldn't bother making it myself. In my cocktail battery, this mostly means Al Wadi pomegranate molasses.
Homemade Ginger Beer, Ginger Juice, etc.
As others have pointed out, homemade ginger beer like the one Audrey uses at Pegu Club can make a huge difference. Ginger juice is also really nice in the right drink. However, they are also a real pain in the butt to make for home use. Because these products depend on volatile ginger compounds for much of their impact, they're not the sort of thing you can make and keep around for more than a day or two. I would make (and have) a big batch of Audrey's ginger beer if I were planning on pouring from a pitcherl of Gin Gin Mule at a party. But I'm unlikely to make it to order just so I can have two GGMs at home. I'll confess that I, too, have used commercial ginger beer in making this and other ginger drinks. But I'm always disappointed.
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Or, I don't know... the FDA could decide to follow what most every European government has decided is okay. Sigh. Of course they won't.
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Kara, what was the absinthe you tried? Was it home-made?
I ask because, I have a hard time understanding why you wouldn't like real absinthe if you like Pernod. There are differences between, say, Pernod pastis and Pernod absinthe (Pernod is once again making absinthe). But I wouldn't call these huge differences. On the other hand, homemade infused absinthe tastes horrible.
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I have been led to believe that it's not a controlled substance like, say, marijuana, where you would get into real legal trouble if you were caught by Customs bringing some into the country. Rather, you're just not allowed to have it. You won't be arrested, but they will take it away from you. Read upthread.
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What I think happened is that they changed bottle designs. Apparently, when you do something like that with a product that is exported to the United States, there is all manner of red tape to be jumped through. If you're not ready for this, it can mean interrupting the supply for a year or more.
Frankly, it seems unnecessarily burdensome to bring new liquor products into the US via importation. I know of a few products that have been in the works for at least a year.
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For what it's worth, one should note that the tenders at D&C are some of the most expert in the business at banging out specialty cocktails quickly at volume. These guys cut their teeth at places like Pegu and, more to the point when thinking about speed and volume, Flatiron Lounge. They're not "taking their own sweet time, and you'll get it when it's ready" like a cocktail equivalent of Dom at Di Fara. This is not to say that Dom is thumbing his nose at customers, but rather that we're not talking about bartenders who aren't concerned with speed.
However, as noted, it takes longer to make a Jersey Tenor than it takes to make a vodka soda. So if some customers who are there for the buzz are complaining about the wait, well... that's part of the price to be paid for a location in hipster central. Once the "new bar buzz" wears off and D&C finds its real clientelle, no on will say anything about waiting 90 seconds for a proper drink.
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Per my post <a href=http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=4059&view=findpost&p=939190>upthread</a>, I think Oppenheimer Prime Meats strikes a great balance between quality and price. I also love the fact that you're not just pointing at a pre-cut piece of meat under glass. They cut to order.
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I've tried samples of two different iterations from Angostura, as have several people around NYC. Good stuff. I hope they'll get off the pot and start production.
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Reading him over the years was interesting as he was very insightful when it came to world affairs and the inner workings of government - his writing was excellent. Why he chose to take his current position is a mystery to everyone but him.
By all accounts, Bruni was well known at the Times as a huge restaurant fan. Whenever people visited Rome, Bruni was (allegedly) like a walking Zagat Guide, so encyclopedic was his knowledge. I suspect that, having made his chops at more serious reporting, he wanted to do something fun. Johnny Apple is evidence that it is possible to be an entertaining food writer without having been trained for it.
This is not all that surprising, really. And maybe he could have been an amazing food writer about Roman restaurants. Here's the thing: Almost all of the restaurants worth knowing in Rome are making Italian food. More to the point, most of them are making Roman food. This is a significantly narrower field in which to operate compared to the NYC restaurant scene.
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Not exactly. According to my understanding, single malt whiskey comes from a single distillery and is produced from a single type of malted grain (in practice this almost always means barley). Since bourbon is produced from mixed grains by law (corn, barley with wheat and/or rye), and not all of these are malted, it is not a "single malt."
Anchor Distilling makes several bottlings which are produced from 100% malted rye. These would qualify as "single malt whiskies."
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Steven: Any truth to the persistent rumor that you and Bruni were both offered the job, which Bruni eventually won by defeating you in a hot-dog eating contest at Katz's?
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"Single barrel" whiskey is also often, although not always, at barrel proof.
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Here is an old Daily Gullet article by Nina Planck: The Billion-Dollar Myth : How did soy get its reputation as a cure-all for modern ailments? Follow the money . . .
Soy can be bad for your sex life too, especially if you’re a man. It contains high levels of phytoestrogens -- plant compounds that mimic estrogens. Like many environmental pollutants, phytoestrogens act as "endocrine disruptors," which means they interfere with our hormones. By acting like estrogens, these plant compounds are bad for the sexual development and virility of boys and men. Buddhist monks knew this; they ate tofu to reduce their libido.Women should also be wary of soy. Studies show that high doses of phytoestrogens from soy may contribute to breast cancer. The soy phytoestrogen genistein encourages cancer in breast cells. Yet soy proponents claim that phytoestrogens protect women against breast cancer. A British government report found little evidence that soy protects against breast cancer, and some evidence that soy foods increase cancer risks. Soy foods can stimulate the growth of tumors that feed on estrogen. Genistein is also linked to thyroid trouble, which affects appetite, mood, and sex drive in both men and women. The soy industry also claims that phytoestrogens reduce the symptoms of menopause, including night sweats and hot flashes. But the Journal of Clinical Oncology reported that soy isoflavone -- a phytoestrogen -- was "no better than a placebo" in controlling hot flashes in women with breast cancer. That means candy would be as effective.
For what it's worth, I'm not entirely sure I'd take Nina's word for everything here. She certainly has her viewpoint, but I don't buy some of the stuff she says about glutamate, which she characterizes as a "brain poison."
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Has anybody out west tried 209?
I reported on an initial tasting back upthread and wasn't impressed. Too much citrus, I thought, to the extent that it seemed a little artificial. Of course, it might be different in a drink.
What's Really Necessary for a Good Drink?
in Spirits & Cocktails
Posted
Yea, yea, yea. Allow me to let you in on a little secret: none of us really pays attention to anything Dave says.