slkinsey
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Posts posted by slkinsey
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It's vodka. I've tried it.
I assumed as much. But, damn it Dave, you're putting a damper on my calling bullshit on their marketing hoo-ha.
If I was mistaken about the low proof, however, they do say that it is only distilled once, "Square One, on the other hand, receives such a clean fermentation that it needs only a short time in a 4-column distiller to emerge with sparkling clarity. Its unique flavor signature and cool, soft texture remain beautifully intact."I suppose that does sound like marketing hoo ha.
Especially since "once through a four column distiller" would seem to equal "distilled four times."
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Interesting. Where did you read that Square One is distilled to lower proof? There reaches a point, IMO, where if the product isn't distilled to high enough proof and isn't rectified, it's perhaps better to descriobe is as a kind of mild whiskey than a vodka. Square One's own publicity materials say that it's produced in a "four column distiller," which sounds like regular high-proof rectification to me.
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The article by Florence Fabricant is entitled Tea's Got a Brand New Bag
Here is a short quote:
Look closely at a conventional tea bag in your cupboard or in the paper cup from the local deli. Chances are that instead of leaves it is filled with indistinguishable bits, the detritus left after tea leaves are sifted and graded. The tea industry calls it dust, and the beverage it makes is likely to be rusty-looking and often bitterly tannic. But it no longer has to be, nor is it necessary to brew a whole pot of tea to achieve something better tasting.Perhaps the surest sign that the tea world is changing is this: Lipton, the world’s largest tea company and a division of Unilever, will start selling tea bags containing long leaf teas in supermarkets nationwide next month.
Instead of paper, the leaves will be enveloped by nylon mesh bags in a delicate pyramid shape.
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I'd say that the bbq is maybe not quite as good as Dinosaur -- but it could be only by a small margin. That beef rib is outstanding. Significantly for me at least, it's a hell of a lot easier to get to and there's never a wait for a table.
Their fried chicken is the first in the City (other than my own) that I've really liked, but it sounds like there may be some variability still. Ask for all dark meat.
I really like the sides. It's too bad that Fat Guy didn't try the baked beans, because I swear they're half pork.
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As far as I can tell, it's a brand.
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I totally disagree with you. Vodka makers use many chemicals when they are making the vodka and that is the reason they have to distill and filter their products many times in order to get them to be clean. With organically grown ingredients and no chemicals used during the distillation process there is definitely going to be a difference between organic vodka and regular vodka.
Scott, what chemicals exactly do you think are used in making vodka? Vodka is made by taking fermented material and distilling it to high proof, after which time it is rectified and filtered. Vodka coming out of the still is typically an azeotropic solution of water and ethanol at around 95% abv. Where exactly are these "chemicals" figuring in? Are you suggesting that the makers of "organic" vodka use a distillation/rectification/filtration process that is meaningfully different from the process used by regular distillers. If so, I'd love to hear about these differences.
In response to your comment regarding congeners, the experts believe that they may play a role in getting a hangover but that ethanal is a more likely cause. See this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CongenerYes, I know it's a mistaken premise to suppose that congeners are the primary causes of hangovers. That's why I wrote, "This is a mistaken premise." Nevertheless, it is a fact that vodka makers refer to congeners when they speak of "impurities" (and a lack thereof) in their product. It's also a fact that several vodka makers have claimed that hangovers are lessened or less likely when one consumes spirits with low levels of congeners (i.e., their vodka).
I should hasten to point out that ethanal (aka acetaldehyde), regardless of what role it may or may not play in hangover symptoms, is not an "impurity" found in spirits. Ethanol is converted in the body by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase into acetaldehyde, which is then converted into acetic acid by acetaldehyde dehydrogenase. Since the ethanol in "organic" vodka is exactly the same as the ethanol in "regular" vodka, there will be no difference.
I'm curious: If we ran two batches -- one "organic" and the other "regular, but otherwise identical -- through an identical fermentation/distillation/rectification/filtration process using the same stills, etc. Do you believe a chemical analysis of the 95% abv vodka at the end of the process could tell the two batches apart? Because I don't.
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I find that a good 100% agave tequila makes an especially good match with maraschino. Pairs funk with funk. Campari is also good with tequila.
Katie at Flatiron Lounge came up with a great tequila cocktail called (I think) the Siesta. IIRC, it's more or less a Floridita with tequila instead of rum. Delicious.
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Here's an odd mention in Gawker with what purports to be a picture of a tray of wheatgrass in the Pegu Blub bathroom. I've never seen anything like that there. Anyone else?
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Interesting. I don't find them alike at all.
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I also assume that there is no difference between "ruhm agricole" and cachaca. Right?
This gets a little complicated. Yes, there is a huge difference between rhum agricole and cachaça. They are both distilled from fermented sugarcane juice, but there are large stylistic differences. There are, of course, variations within the two categories but if I could widely generalize I'd say that cachaça is distilled to lower proof than rhum agricole and that cachaça therefore tends to be a rougher, less refined spirit. I should hasten to point out that this isn't a judgment of relative quality, but rather a generalization about stylistic approach.
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Is this going to be some kind of pousse cafe?
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Ramsay has been talking about opening in NYC for at least 4 years. This from the September 2002 edition of Condé Nast Traveler:
Now, after the opening of The Connaught, [Ramsay] is setting his sights on Manhattan. Next year Blackstone, the company that owns The Connaught and Claridge's, plans to open a hotel on Columbus Circle. Ramsay will run the restaurant. But as his friend Alain Ducasse learned when his restaurant got off to a bad start a couple of years ago, New York can be tricky.'I won't have sixteen pens for signing the check. I won't have twenty-seven rums. And I'll spend more time in the kitchen than Rocco (DiSpirito, the celebrity chef at the acclaimed Union Pacific in Manhattan, who is frequently seen in the society pages and at clubs).'
'You get only one shot at New York,' Ramsay says. 'That will be the biggest test of my entire life. And until I have a crack at it, I'm sleeping with one eye open. But one thing I'm not afraid of is intimidation.'
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Yes, I am given to understand that a copper mug was part of the original schtick. Since this drink was, for all intents and purposes, an advertising gambit, I'm sure there is a fairly unequivoical record and I don't see any reason to doubt the official story.
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There are probably many reasons. Given that the bars are not paying retail anyway, I wonder how much money they would save by buying 1.75 liter bottles. Second, as mentioned above, there are practical use and storage issues. Third, there are spoilage issues wrt fruit flies, oxidation, etc. Finally, the 1.75 liter bottles don't have a good aesthetic appearance.
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The "corned" actually refers to the coarse grains of salt ("corns" of salt) that were used to pickle the beef. Anything that has been brined to the extent that it begins to show those distinctive changes that result from long brining may be called "corned."
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The best technique I've found for braising brisket is to do it very low and slow in the oven to the point of barely fork tender. Then take it out and let it cool, reduce the braising liquid and cut the brisket into thin slices. After that, reassemble the brisked slices in a pan that is barely able to contain them, making sure to get some of the reduced braising liquid in between each slice. Then return the whole thing to the oven until fully tender. This allows for the brisket to be in slices but tender to an extent that it would fall apart if you tried to slice it. And the fact that each slice is bathed in the reduced braising liquid as it finishes cooking seems to mitigate any dryness problems.
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If there is no chemical difference between msg present in unprocessed foods and pure msg does this mean that all naturally occuring glutamates break down into an anion of glutimate and cation x?
Glutamate is the anion of glutamic acid. That's what it is. An anion.
Is it not possible glutamates taste different to different people?Absolutely. Just as it is possible that salt tastes different to different people, or that cut grass smells different to different people or that the color blue looks different to different people. We can never know how each individual person perceives a given sense, only that they tend to agree that blue looks like blue and salt tastes like salt.
One thing I don't understand is that if there is no chemical difference between using pure msg and natural occuring glutamates and that if there are such already naturally occuring high concentrations of msg (particularly in asian food, where apparently its use in common) why does adding more make any difference.Most likely because certain foods are high in free glutamate and others are not. Chicken breast stir fried with broccoli and garlic, for example, doesn't seem like it would be very high in free glutamate.
There is also the fact that, while certain foods may be high in free glutamate, sometimes you want more umami. Similarly, sometimes an ingredient is naturally high in salt, but you still may want to add more to the dish. Industrially, of course, it allows companies to make chicken soup with fewer chickens.
What I think many of us are saying in this thread is that it doesn't make sense for someone to say "I'm allergic to salt that comes from a salt shaker" when they don't seem to have any problem eating anchovies. A lot of it, frankly, is simply a lack of knowledge. It's like people who believe that sea salt is "better for them" than mined salt, when in fact all salt is sea salt (how do you suppose the salt deposits got there?).
Can anyone provide a more detailed description of how monsodium glutamate is produced? Are the topics of isolation or extraction, storage, and processing methods relevant considering the properties of msg?MSG can be made many different ways. It was originally discovered as the white crystals covering kombu seaweed. It can also be made by hydrolyzing grain or soy protein using either enzymes or hydrochloric acid. Today it is typically made by fermenting things like sugar cane, corn, sugar beets, etc. with bacteria that excrete glutamic acid. Either way, the glutamate is filtered out, concentrated and crystallized. It's certainly possible that contaminants can find their way into the process, depending on who is making the stuff. This is, of course, equally true of any number of food and ingredient production methods (decaf coffee, for example).
I really don't understand why the people who DON'T have a reaction to MSG are questioning it. I don't question your allergies to ragweed or peanuts, or wonder if you're just making a big deal out of it with epipens like you don't want to die or somethingI think the issue is that a lot of people decide that they're allergic to MSG because they get a reaction in Chinese restaurants sometimes, without really doing any of the work to determine whether it really is MSG. I can't tell you the number of times someone has told me about their horrible sensitivity to MSG while munching on a bag of Doritos or grating a big pile of parmigiano-reggiano on their pasta. This has some similarity to people who will tell you that they're "lactose intolerant" and therefore can't eat that nice piece of Stilton (which doesn't contain any lactose). Usually, people who have peanut allergies aren't telling you about them while eating food that's been fried in peanut oil. But, then again, peanuts aren't exactly something that play an important role in human metabolism and occur naturally in thousands of foods.
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The "burnt crust" bread is likely Pane Pugliese from Sullivan Street Bakery. It is indeed supposed to be like that (ironically, their picture is one of the lightest colored examples I've seen).
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LindsayAnn, I don't think anyone is suggesting that no one can ever get a headache from MSG... or rather that no one can ever get a headache from exposure to a certain amount of free glutamate, since as I mentioned above there is no chemical difference between the glutamate you get from MSG and the glutamate you get from, say, parmigiano-reggiano.
If you get migraine headache from eating Doritos and aged parmigiano-reggiano and real dashi and concentrated tomato paste and soy sauce and dried mushrooms and canned soup, etc. -- then, yea, it sounds like you have a real migraine trigger from glutamate. It's certainly true that some people do have this sensitivity, juas as some people trigger migraines from chili peppers or alcohol or caffeine or bad rap music.
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Well, yea it's sweet and syrupy. It's a liqueur. Straight creme de cacao or curacao or even Cointreau can be a little off-putting as well.
Dave Wondrich recommends a dry style of apricot brandy in at least one of his books. Maybe we can get some brand recommendations out of him.
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A friend tells me that, according to the Marie Brizard folks, "there are bottling issues" with Apry and we shouldn't expect resolution any time soon.
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Whenever I have a dinner party or some such thing, I'll just make whatever I think might be an interesting cocktail -- the same cocktail for everyone. Needless to say, if I know that one of them is a huge fan of gin I might make a gin cocktail, or if one is a Manhattan drinker I might make a Red Hook, or if one is a Cosmo drinker I might make something like a Juniperotivo.
If I get someone who says, "I really don't like anything other than vodka Gimlets" I'll usually ask them to give my cocktail a try, but reassure them that they don't have to finish it and that I'll be happy to make them a vodka Gimlet if they don't like it. After a while, if it turns out to be the case that that one friend really does only like vodka Gimlets, I'll just make her a vodka Gimlet and thank God that the only cocktail she likes doesn't have nine ingredients.
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I think it might be useful to provide some information about what glutamic acid is, what glutamate is, what "glutamates" are. This seems insufficiently understood.
Glutamic acid is an amino acid having the chemical formula C5H9NO4. This is a common and important amino acid, playing roles in the human organism in both cellular metabolism and as a neurotransmitter.
Glutamate is the commonly occurring anion (negatively charged ion) of glutamic acid.
"Glutamates" are salts or esters of glutamic acid.
Monosodium glutamate is a sodium salt of glutamate (meaning that it is glutamate plus a sodium atom).
When monosodium glutamate is dissolved in water, it dissociates into free sodium and glutamate ions, much the same way that table salt dissociates into free sodium and chlorine ions. There is, then, no difference between the glutamate ions that come into your body from monosodium glutamate and the glutamate ions that come into your body from other sources of free glutamate.
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Moderator's note: I've split out a side-discsssion from this thread on the subject of MSG. I'm reworking that into a thread, and will move it back into the forums shortly. Please continue in this thread with discussion of Momofuku Ssäm Bar only. Thanks.
NYT Articles on Food, Drink, Cooking, and Culinary Culture (2005–2011)
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
Companies that sell "regular" salt aren't exactly synthesizing it up out of sodium and chloride. They're mining it (largely by injection of water and evaporation of the brine). And how did the salt deposits get into those mines? From the evaporation of ancient seas. By federal law, by the way, edible salt must be at least 97.5 percent sodium chloride. In reality, even for "sea salt," it's typically 99 percent or more.