slkinsey

Sounds about right to me.

Looking at what seems to be the oldest recipe on cocktailDB, I see that it called for gin, egg white, cream, lemon juice, sugar and grenadine (the versions with strawberry are listed as "variations"). Could it be that cream and egg white together with grenadine create a peach-blush color? Maybe that's the origin of the name? I wonder what makes something a "blow fizz." Googling for "blow fizz" only brings up the Apple Blow Fizz and the Peach Blow Fizz, with the former substantially more commonly found.

I think it works best if you steam. Boiling the corned beef almost always results in dry meat. It does take a bit longer to cook the meat that way, however. Since this is a work day I don't really have time to cook my corned beef by traditional stovetop methods, and have had to resort to alternative techniques. So I'm cooking the corned beef sous vide for around 9 hours (which can happen while I'm out of the house) and will finish it this evening by steaming it for an hour or so above the potatoes, carrots and cabbage.

I didn't. I pan-fried them to get the crust, then finished them in the oven. They are so thick that I just stood them up on the end bones in the pan and roasted them to temperature. There was no need to flip them.

Oppenheimer Prime Meats on Broadway and 98th. Great full service butcher. When you say you want porterhouse steaks, they bring out a whole prime short loin and you talk about how you want to cut them. These were each over three inches thick.

Since corned beef is by definition beef that has been pickled in brine (a saturated salt/water solution), I'm not sure how one could make a low-salt version that would be particurlaly corned beef-like.

HACCP article on Wikipedia.

I think it's part of Alton Brown's schtick to use "alternative" non-traditional lowbrow equipment. For example, in one episode he advocates wrapping meat and liquid in a tinfoil envelope and "braising" it in the oven instead of using a proper braising vessel on the stovetop.

I think champagne cocktails are good for a romantic feel. If you like Mojitos, you will love Audrey's Old Cuban, which is a luxe version of a Mojito with aged rum and champagne. The Old Cuban 1.5 oz : Aged Cuban-style rum (Bacardi 8 Year suggested) 1.0 oz : simple syrup (1:1 sugar-to-water by volume) 0.75 oz : fresh lime juice 6-8 : mint leaves 2 dashes : Angostura bitters 2-3 oz : good champagne (chilled) Muddle mint with lime juice and simple syrup. Add bitters, rum and ice. Shake well and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Top with chilled champagne. The little flecks of mint that make it past the strainer are a fun garnish for the drink, but don't go overboard on the muddling or you'll be picking mint out of your teeth. For other ideas along these lines, there is a whole thread on Cocktails with Champagne.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words... so here are a few thousand words on my idea of man food:

Gary's latest SF Chron article features an interesting cocktail with Chartreuse just in time for St. Patrick's day: The Tipperary. It originally appeared in Hugo R. Ensslin's Recipes for Mixed Drinks as equal parts of Irish Whiskey, sweet vermouth and Green Chartreuse. cocktailDB has a version with slightly less vermouth and Chartreuse, but still a sweet drink. Here is Gary's version, dried up a bit more for modern tastes: Tipperary 2 oz : Irish whiskey 1 oz : sweet vermouth rinse : Green Chartreuse Coat the inside of a chilled cocktail the glass with Green Chartreuse, discarding excess. Stir whiskey and vermouth with ice and strain into prepared cocktail glass. Cocktails like this are an interesting demonstration of how even just a touch of Chartreuse can change what is essentially an "Irish Manhattan" into something entirely different.

Yea, I really don't get the point of it. Not only is it less effective and more work, but you're sure to get more melting of the ice which will result in a watered drink.

There's a special name for muddling with the ice (which I think is kind of useless). Can't remember what it is, though.

Have a look in this thread.

Mine is store bought. Look for something like this. What you'd like to have is wood that isn't covered with laquer. For the creme de la creme, you want a PUG Muddler by Chris Gallagher (information and an image may be found about halfway down this page. While on the subject of muddled drinks, one of my favorites is Julie Reiner's "Mint Jules" at Flatiron Lounge. It's a simple concoction of a few ounces of Maker's Mark, muddled mint, smashed (i.e., aggressively muddled) limes and a touch of simple syrup, all shaken and strained.

This looks very impressive. I have to try it! I also think that there is a definite textural difference between hand pulled and cut noodles. There used to be a place in my neighborhood that did hand pulled noodles, and I've been sad about it ever since they closed.

Hmm... I wonder what would happen if you deep fried those cucumber slices.

IMO Absente is the best absinthe-substitute out there. I like it better than pastis.

This really isn't a very valid argument. Body temperature is 37C. Frying oil is typically something like 190C, for a difference of 153C. The boiling point of liquid nitrogen is -196C, for a difference of 233C. In order for there to be an equivalent difference in temperature, the frying oil would have to be 270C, aka 518F. Do I think that people should wear safety gear if they are working with an oil at 518F? You bet I do. Liquid nitrogen also has a significantly higher specific heat than typical frying oils. What this all means is that being hit in the eye with a splatter of LN2 would be much worse than being hit in the eye with a splatter of oil from a fryer. Somehow I have a hard time imagining someone working with their bare hands a few inches above the surface of a 518F fryer.

It's all about balancing the language. We from New England leave out some of the Rs to make up for all the extra ones people are using in other parts of the country. Indeed, so careful are we to balance the R usage in American English that we will occasionally balance the Rs in the same sentence, to wit: "I went up the packie with Liser and Petah to get some tonics."

My father used to win bets around MIT by gargling liquid nitrogen. Just like dipping your hands into a pot of boiling water, I imagine there are ways to dip one's hands into liquid nitrogen without being burned. Still, though, I wouldn't recommend it. Liquid nitrogen is still something that can hurt you quite badly if you're cavalier about the way you use it. I'd much rather be hit in the eye with a splashed droplet of boiling water than a splashed droplet of liquid nitrogen.

I wonder if there is any sense that the US ban on absinthe will end any time in the foreseeable future? I think it's interesting already that, if they catch you coming into the country with a bottle of absinthe, they just take it away from you. You don't get fined or arrested or anything like that.

There is definitely the sense in Italy that the high Michelin-rated restaurants aren't very Italian.

Well, I think it also speaks of the fact that the rating system, and indeed the whole restaurant heirarchy, was designed around and serves best the French restaurant concept. So there is an inherrent difficulty in trying to make an Italian four-star restaurant that still retains its Italianità.

This is veering away from the main topic of this thread, but in an interesting way that may lead me to split off a new topic if we continue... Sneakeater, I think you make an interesting point about Del Posto, and perhaps a correct one. But, I think there has always been a belief that Batali's food could be four-star worthy and that what kept his restaurants from achieving four stars was primarily the atmosphere and service component, along with a need for a touch of added complexity and luxury ingredients. In other words, the thinking was, I think, that Del Posto simply needed to be "fancier."