slkinsey

Chris, it sounds to me like it might have been created at your local.

If I had discovered a trove of nine extremely rare "near-extinct" single malts, the very last thing I would consider doing is blending them together. Now, I'm not a total single malt snob (Compass Box makes some amazing blends), but to my mind this is like finding an amazing rare old Bordeaux in good condition and deciding to make "the world's most expensive sangria" with it. Well, maybe not quite that bad... but that's the idea. Of course, if you only have 75 liters of these rare single malts all told, and you can blend them together along with 75 liters of neutral spirits and still charge twenty-seven large for 750 mils -- that's a pretty good racket.

Well... here's the thing: There are times you shouldn't have to pay attention to prevent burning. This is generally during the "low/slow" part of the cooking process. You shouldn't have to pay attention to your slowly simmering tomato sauce to avoid a burn ring on the bottom. If that happens, the cookware is flawed. On the other hand, high heat searing/browning is one of those things where you do have to pay attention. If she burned in the Staub and not in the Le Creuset it is only because the Le Creuset takes so much longer to brown.

With all due respect to Donna Deane of the LA Times, this comparison is so horribly flawed as to be worthless. Just to point out a few of the problems: 1. She did all the braising in the oven, which does much to mitigate Staub's advantage of having a heavier construction. It also more or less eliminates the function of the "basting spikes" by making the lid too hot (how will steam condense on a 225F hot metal lid?). 2. She compares a 5.5 quart Le Creuset against a 5 quart Staub and then "rewards" Le Creuset by saying that it has more surface area. Had she compared the 4.4 quart Le Creuset against a 5 quart Staub, of course, the advantage would have gone the other way. 3. She mentions nothing about the fact that Le Creuset is notoriously poor at browning and says that "against [staub's] dark interiors, our lamb shanks inadvertently went past searing and into burn territory." I use a special technique called "paying attention" to make sure that burning doesn't occur, but I would also suggest that this demonstrates that Staub is far superior at browning compared to Le Creuset. 4. She claims that Le Creuset has a tighter/better fitting lid. Not true in my experience, but I suppose there is some variation from piece to piece. 5. No mention is made of the fact that the knobs on Le Creuset's bakelite knobs are notoriously faulty, often falling off as one is trying to pick up a hot lid. Staub's brass knobs never have this problem. 6. Finally, she didn't cook the two dishes the same way. She somehow concludes that because Staub has "basting spikes" in the lid, she would leave that pot entirely alone. She does, however, "[pull] the Le Creuset out twice to baste and once to turn over the shanks" (emphasis mine). I doubt that her basting had much effect, but turning the shanks over will definitely have a big effect, and even if she decided to not baste the Staub shanks in order to evaluate the "basting spikes" she still should have turned the Staub shanks over at the same time she did the Le Creuset shanks. Later she observes that "the exposed parts of the lamb shanks were also quite dry" as a negative. If she had turned the shanks that wouldn't have happened. I'm not saying that there aren't reasons to prefer Le Creuset over Staub. Just that this "comparison" didn't do anything to enlighten.

This bit is interesting. I'm a little surprised that there is no test that can tell the difference. Wouldn't a test for IGF-1 show a difference, per our discussion above?

Eau de vies? Since I am not sure where you are from you will have to tell me what you mean here. I live in the US, so to me, eau de vie usually means very expensive fruit infused liquor.Cool looking stuff! This is from a while back, I see, but I thought I might as well offer a little clarification. Eaux de vie are not infused. An eau de vie is, rather, an unaged distillate of fruit: the fruit is pressed to extract the juice; the juice is fermented, and the fermented juice is distilled. A feature of eau de vie is that it is colorless and unaged. So Calvados, for example, which is an aged spirit, would not commonly be called an eau de vie. Common eaux de vie are cherry, pear, strawberry, raspberry and apricot.

Cool. Glad to see Philip Ward's drink there!

hungry for knowledge, I think it also has to do with the "organic" milk as well. Some organic milk comes from small, local farms where the cows are fed mostly grass, graze outdoors to the greatest extent possible, the milk is heat treated the minimum amount, etc. This milk is more costly to produce, for these reasons and also due to economies of scale, and the farmers likely need to charge more simply to stay in business. That said, it is also true that a large number of the best local farms doing this kind of thing (e.g., Ronnybrook) are actually not certified as "organic." This is because certification is expensive and also because they their sick with antibiotics if/when they get sick (they do not, however, give subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics). This milk also costs more than regular supermarket milk for reasons similar to those given above. There are also large organic megafarms. These places operate more or less along the same lines as conventional dairy megafarms, the main difference being that the cows eat "organic" feed and the cows are not given hormones or antibiotics. This is somewhat more expensive than making conventional milk, but with economies of scale and competitive pricing, this "organic" milk shouldn't be all that much more expensive at the grocery store. On the other hand, it also won't taste much better than the conventional stuff either.

While the tests were done on rats and not humans, it would seem reasonable to say that according to the best scientific evidence we have before us, there is no supportable reason to suppose that the amounts of IGF-1 likely to be consumed by humans in even the most dairy-centric diet pose a significant health risk. The data are not saying that a human would have to drink 5 liters of rBHG milk every day to approach the levels that were found to have no effect in rat studies... the data are saying that it would have to be over a million liters. Yes, I suppose we can say that IGF-1 may have some risks. But we can also say that aliens may live on the dark side of the moon. Neither one seems very likely according to the best data we seem to have (and rat studies have a long history of correlating highly with human outcomes).

John. Maybe next time blowtorch the pork before bagging it?

Continuing the evolution of my Thanksgiving tasting dinner, I'm thinking of something like this: Cocktail and amuse: TBD 1st course: Raw scallop in the shell with shaved cucumber Wine TBD 2nd course: layered soup consisting of (from the bottom up) two oysters lightly poached in butter, spinach purée with crispy shallots, cauliflower purée, LTLT "poached in the shell" quail egg, garnish of curry-infused evoo. Wine TBD 3rd course: arctic char tartare with chive gelee and herb salad. Wine TBD 4th course: Brussels sprouts four ways (slaw, gratin, sautéed with guanciale, Brussels sprouts crème brûlée) Wine TBD 5th course: sorbet TBD Sparkling Moscato d'Asti 6th course: turkey two ways: A small base of wild mushrooms simmered in butter; then shredded dark meat that has been braised in port/turkey stock and combined with a chiffonade of Savoy cabbage and foie gras; then the whole works topped with a piece of turkey breast cooked sous vide with black truffles. The plate sauced with a reduction of the braising liquid and accented with a few "tadpoles" of sage cream. Wine TBD (but I know I like Coturri Albarello for this course) Dessert: bourbon bread pudding, sugarless apple pie, etc. Coffee Dessert II: chocolate truffles Bourbon, grappa, cognac and other postprandial liquors/digestifs.

Admin: Split from thread on Brown Liquor for baking. Sounds good! I love making pear tartes tatin. This is perhaps getting away from the booze subject, but why Asian pears? Don't they have kind of a grainy/sandy texture? Getting back to booze, I like making pear tartes tatin with a little Poire William added, and perhaps flamed over the top at the end. Just ramps up that pear flavor.

My understanding is that "lime" isn't a very precise term. It simply describes a smallish, green, sour citrus fruit and does not necessarily mean that all limes are closely related. The most commonly used in the Western world is Citrus latifolia, the "Persian lime." Then there is Citrus aurantifolia, the "Key lime." There are also things like Citrus australasica, the "Australian finger lime," Citrus hystrix, the "Kaffir lime," and Citrus limetta, the "Sweet lime" -- among many others. Personally, I like Key limes for food and Persian limes for cocktails. Key limes are substantially more sour than Persian limes. Key limes are great for a salsa or squeezing over roast pork, etc. but is a problem for cocktails because the drink often becomes unpleasantly sour and rough before it has any appreciable lime flavor. Key limes also have a certain spicy flavor that I find very enjoyable in food, but not so much in a cocktail. Persian limes, on the other hand, have a good balance between lime flavor and acidity for a cocktail, and a smooth flavor that works well in a drink. I'd be interested to look into whether citrus-based cocktails came into such prominence in the US before or after 1926 when most of the US Key lime trees were destroyed by a hurricane and Persian limes came to be the main lime of America.

Yea... I'm not sure brandy or cognac would really come through and make much of a distinctive contribution in a baked item.

If you're going to be baking -- which is to say, actually cooking with the booze rather than soaking it in after the fact -- you want something with a strong taste, but also something that doesn't cost very much. Any subtle flavors are going to be lost in the cooking process. So, for rum I'd suggest something like Myers. It's not very expensive and it has a very strong rum flavor. For bourbon, I'd suggest you go with whatever is least expensive. There are laws regulating what can be sold as bourbon, and any of the cheap ones will have enough flavor for baking purposes. Although something like the Knob Creek that Katie recommends has a great depth and intensity of flavor, I'm not sure this makes up for the fact that it will be more than twice as expensive compared to the cheap stuff, and I'm not sure that a cake with Knob Creek will taste all that different from a cake made with Heaven Hill. I wouldn't recommend baking with rye, because I don't think any of its special character would come through. That said, Old Overholt is a quality product and well priced. If you want to use scotch, maybe to soak a trifle or fruitcake after baking, just pick up a reasonably priced blended. I like Famous Grouse.

I would just like to point out that while Kathleen has been making drinks with my booze and cooking delicious food, I've had to content myself with a bowl of cereal after rehearsal.

Well... don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that I'd go to Regional if it were next door to Lupa. It's clearly not in that league. Nor am I saying that they do everything well. And, yea, part of my interest in Regional is because it's in my neighborhood, which doesn't have many good restaurants. I'm not sure where the closest Italian restaurant is that's any better. Probably Celeste 20+ blocks to the South. For my money, neither Regional or Celeste is a destination restaurant. But I'd say it's similar in look/feel and cuisine to many inexpensive trattorie I've been to in Italy, and I feel that some of their dishes are very good. Then again, my experiences may be different from yours. Most of the times I've been in Italy I was working in a city, and seeking out "special little trattorie" like a vacationer or student might do was sometimes secondary to finding a convenient and good place around the corner that knew what I liked. I like Regional's bigoli with duck ragu. Bigoli (fresh extruded pasta made with whole wheat flour) are naturally a little grainy. Like any restaurant at this level, not everything on the menu is equally good. I've found that some of their specials try too hard and don't appeal to me, and in general I think their pasta dishes are much stronger than their secondi. That said, I think someone could go there and have the piadina with prosciutto and stracchino as a starter, the casoncelli al burro e salvia or the garganelli al ragu' di vitello or the bucatini alla gricia or the spaghetti alla chitarra con ragu' d'agnello as a pasta, the involtini di vitello as a secondo (the only one I think is particularly successful), porri gratinata or carciofi fritti as a contorno, a bottle of Barbazzale Cottanero Rosso and the ricotta fritters for dessert and do very well.

Michael, this may be going further astray from the topic and I don't know whether it describes your parents, but I have found that most people who seemed disappointed with Regional went there really expecting Italian-American food, and what they got was fairly straightforward Italian trattoria food. I can easily see how someone with those expectations who ordered, for example, Regional's cavatelli con cime di rapa, and got a dish of consisting of nothing more than small shaped dry pasta, turnip greens, red pepper flakes and evoo (no sauce, no cheese, etc.) might be disappointed. But this is actually a dish that is very traditional in the Italian aesthetic. In my experience, the only pasta dish that is a little disappointing is their culingionis al pomodoro, which suffers from a too-sweet tomato sauce that conceals the flavor of the sheep cheese in the ravioli. That said, the secondi are mostly okay, but not at the same level as the pasta dishes. If someone went to Regional and had only a secondo, I can see how they might not be impressed. As mentioned above, they also don't seem to have their stuff quite together all the time when it comes to delivering the courses. It's not unheard of for them to try serving the primo and secondo together, or to bring the secondo out before the primo is finished. And if, for example, I am having a half-order of pasta as a primo and then a secondo while my dining partner is having an appetizer and then a full order of pasta, it is highly likely that the appetizer will come out alone, then the two pasta dishes, then the meat dish -- even though I specifically requested that my half-prder of pasta be delivered together with her appetizer and then her full pasta order be delivered together with my meat dish.

Right. I was thinking more like 6 chopped apples to 1 liter of spirits.

Grappa is typically fairly high in alcohol, so you shouldn't have any spoilage problems. Just make sure you take the stuff out of the grappa after achieving the flavor you want (and obviously you can't put in so much watery flavoring ingredients like apples that the alcoholic strength is diluted). Most infused grappa I've had has been a relatively straightforward herbal infusion, which is the traditional way: rue, licorice root, that sort of thing. If you're going to do something like an apple, vanilla and cinnamon infusion, I think you're wasting your money on grappa (which isn't cheap in the US). Better to do it in a bottle of vodka or overproof rum. Nardini is one of the less expensive brands, for example, and you're still talking 40 bucks a liter.

Hi raji! I was probably unclear before. I know they refire the oven a few times a day: before lunch service and before dinner service. It's important, I think, just to make sure that you go as close to that time as possible. My personal experience is that a lot of the people who don't particularly like Grimaldi's (and there are plenty) are those who tend to go at, say, three o'clock in the afternoon to beat the crowds. Well, this is the worst possible time to go there, since the oven was last stoked sometime around 11:00. This is what I've been saying about the inconsistency. 12:00 or 5:00 will get you a mind-blowing pizza. 3:00 or 8:00. . . a very good pizza, but not in the same league. I guess I just don't agree with their oven management technique, which seems to be doing two or three big burns a day but otherwise not fueling the oven. This could, of course, be economics. They may have decided that it doesn't make good financial sense to keep the oven at peak heat at three o'clock in the afternoon when they won't be doing all that much business. Still, I've never been to Patsy's East Harlem and had a pizza that seemed to come from an underheated oven. Great picture of the oven, by the way! It's image DSC_1466 for others who may wish to give it a look. How were they about letting you take pictures? Did you arrange with them beforehand to take pictures? I ask because we were told (fairly rudely, I might add, even by NYC standards) that they did not want us taking pictures of the oven.

Strangely, Vanilla Pepsi is pretty good. And it's hard to understand why Coke would have made such an artificial-tasting product. Artificial vanilla is usually simply vanillin, which is the main flavor component of vanilla. It's not as complex as the real thing, which has a zillion subtle flavor components, but it doesn't taste all that "artificial." On the other hand, I read somewhere that a big reason behind the flop of "New Coke" was the substitution of vanillin for vanilla extract.

If you're speaking of the presumed connection between aluminum and Alzheimer's disease , the jury has been in on that one for years. There is no danger from using aluminum cookware. Some quotes: I don't think retinning is terribly expensive, but it's not cheap either. Perhaps there is some kind of test for lead you could do? I think there are tests for lead glaze in pottery.

Berentzen seems to be the apple schnapps of preference among my shaker-wielding fans. Here's another one from Audrey: There's also the Apple Core from First as featured in Anthony Giglio's Cocktails in New York (thread here) which is: Apple Core 1.25 oz : apple vodka 0.75 oz : Berentzen Apfelkorn apple schnapps 0.25 oz : fresh lemon juice 1 tsp : apple cider Fill cocktail glass 1/3 with apple foam (1 sheet gelatin per cup of fresh apple juice, charged in a charger). Shake with cracked ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

The bonded applejack is 100 proof and 100% aged apple brandy.