slkinsey

He asked "which of the better known or well thought of pizzarias use a wood-fired brick oven, & which use a coal-fired brick oven. . . (note: NOT interested in those with gas-fired ovens)." That rules out DiFara, as it is a gas oven place. DiFara obviously belongs on any list of NYC's best pizzerie, but not on a list of coal and wood fired pizzerie.

Yes, this is a very odd and, to my mind, somewhat sad aspect of Dom's personality -- one that hints at a certain kind of narcissism under the exterior of the humble artisan. Not only has he to my knowledge made no real attempts to pass on his expertise, experience and craft to his children, whom he uses as gofers in his Brooklyn shop, but he seems to have actively resisted. You'd think that Domenico DeMarco's kids would be so experienced and steeped in their father's techniques by now that there would be little difference between a pizza from his hands and from his daughter's. But, as far as I know, he is the only one who has made a pizza at DiFara since the doors opened.

For example, I think a quick cooked tomato sauce or Alfredo sauce can be done very well in something like an 11 inch curved sauteuse evasée or sauté pan. For a longer cooked tomato sauce I'd probably reach for something that would be good for making a stew or braise, like an enameled cast iron casserole. Exactly. And if you have these pieces it drastically reduces your need for a large expensive straight gauge saucepan. I'm not sure that I agree with Alton that the heat needs to go all the way up the sides, but it certainly doesn't hurt. I also disagree with his recommendation of All-Clad. Personally, I'd go with Staub or some other enameled cast iron. If you read through the class again, all the differences between a saucepan and a casserole are explained, along with recommendations for different design types. I don't think there is any hard and fast rule as to the difference between a "pot" and a "pan" -- except that I would say as a generalization that "pans" have one long handle and "pots" have two short handles. In the home kitchen, a saucepan also tends to be smaller in volume than a casserole, as we typically use casseroles to do braises, stews and large volumes of things like Ragù Bolognese, whereas we're not typically making 6 quarts of Bordelaise sauce in a gigantic saucepan at home. This is an enameled cast iron casserole in an oval shape, which makes it good for cooking certain things that wouldn't fit very well in a circular pot. You could certainly use it to cook tomato sauce, braises, stews, etc. -- anything you would cook in a circular one. Two things here: 1. I don't agree that the slight grayness of certain Falk pieces in any way inhibits the ability to judge color. This is especially true since the pieces that have this interior color are pieces that should not be used for browning things anyway (more on this below). 2. The only Falk pieces of which I am aware with a matte finish are the regular straight sided sauteuses evasée (for making reductions and sauces). All the other pieces I have used have a brushed interior finish that is quite bright. Yes, it is similar in terms of brightness.

They both use regular stainless steel deck ovens. Sal & Carmine's is very good for what it is, a neighborhood slice joint, but not a destination pizzeria. DeMarco's is an attempt on the part of Domenico DeMarco's children to duplicate DiFara pizza in Mahnattan. I understand that they are not getting much in the way of support or advice from their father, who the last I had heard had not even visited his children's pizzeria, and it shows. (Here is a thread on DeMarco's.)

These are all interesting questions. I don't really have any answers, but am hopeful that others among us will be able to offer some pearls of wisdom on this subject. The only thing I can think of is that I'm not sure that the mere action of swizzling a drink with crushed ice makes that drink a "Swizzle" -- just the same way that every "up" drink in a "V" glass isn't a "Martini." So, for example, I'm not sure taking gin and dry vermouth swizzled with crushed ice and calling it a "Martini Swizzle" would be entirely consistent with tradition. On the other hand, gin, white vermouth, fresh lime juice, simple syrup (or falernum) and Angostura bitters does strike me as more or less consistent with tradition. But I hope others who can speak from a position of greater knowledge will contribute their thoughts on this.

Hey, I didn't say it was my Swizzle recipe. Just a Swizzle recipe. Yes, this is an excellent Swizzle, and partly what inspired me to start this thread. Two ounces of rum, I see. What size highball glass (how many ounces) would you say you're using for this drink? I think you can certainly call it the Prince Parker Swizzle. It seems pretty different to me: Prince Parker Swizzle Queens Park Swizzle (scaled) 1.0 oz : light rum 2.0 oz : demerara rum 1.0 oz : aged rum (Cuban style) 0.5 oz : 2:1 demerara syrup 0.33 oz : 2:1 demerara syrup 0.75 oz : fresh lime juice 0.50 oz : fresh lime juice 7 mint leaves 7 mint leaves 3 drops Angostura bitters 3 dashes Angostura bitters 1 dash Peychaud's bitters Muddle mint leaves in highball, Build in highball with crushed drawing mint up side of glass. ice and swizzle. Garnish with Add crushed ice. Swizzle. Top mint sprig. with bitters and garnish with mint. What sets the PPS apart for me is the fact that the QPS is originally made with a big, dark heavy demerara rum which will taste entirely different from your combination of light and aged rums. That, combined with the unique treatment of the mint and the different bitters makes it different enough to have a different name. Certainly it's a much bigger difference than there is between a Martini and a Gibson. Swizzles are, of course, not limited to just rum. I'd be interested to hear some Swizzle recipes using other base liquors. How about a Gin Swizzle or an Applejack Swizzle? Are there any characteristics that we think belong in an old-school Swizzle besides crushed ice and the actual swizzling of the drink? In my observations, it seems like classic Swizzles almost always contain some citrus juice (most commonly lime) and bitters.

As far as I know, the Giorgione oven is just a small prefab wood-only oven. In any event, it's nothing like the massive technical masterpiece at Fornino. Fornino's oven can go up to something like 1000F (although they don't heat it that hot, and it may even be illegal to do so). Giorgione's seems to stay around 600. I've been to Giorgione a few times. Thought it was okay, but not worth the trouble of going all the way over there. If I'm going to that kind of trouble, taking the L one stop into Brooklyn and going to Fornino is what I'll do.

There are many of both. Off the top of my head, and in order of my preference: Wood-fired Franny's Una Pizza Napoletana Fornino (special gas/wood hybrid oven) ápizz Celeste Waldy's Wood Fired Pizza & Penne Coal-fired Patsy's in East Harlem Grimaldi's Totonno's Arturo's Lombardi's Angelo's All locations of the Patsy's chain (not related to the East Harlem pizzeria, and not as good either) Others worthy of note Gonzo (grilled) Otto (griddled)

They have a wine license In the context of a discussion on this restaurant, it would be a pizza made in the "classic Italian tradition" -- which is to say thin crust, sparsely topped, baked at high temperature in a wood fired masonry oven, individual pizzas rather than "share" pizzas, and most likely featuring certain topping combinations that have become Italian pizzeria requisite standards. In my experience, the pizze at Celeste were very close to the Neapolitan style when they first opened, but have been modified somewhat due to the pressures of Upper West Side tastes. I'd say that the pizza there is good, but I wouldn't make a trip there just for the pizza and I'd have a hard time sticcking to pizza and not ordering some of their other dishes which I know to be first rate. For some reason I can't quite understand, a lot of the opening press on Celeste focused on the pizza and made it seem as though it were fundamentally a "pizza place with some other food." This was a mistake because in reality it's quite the opposite. Celeste could easily drop the pizza making and would still be a very good little trattoria. I'd actually love to see them make more creative use of their wood fired oven, maybe roasting some dishes in there. A Pizza Margherita consists of tomato, mozzarella and fresh basil. In the most classic preparations the tomato will consist of uncooked San Marzano tomatoes (they cook in the heat of the oven) and the mozzarella will be mozzarella di bufala (or at least fresh mozzarella). However, in the US it is not uncommon to see cooked tomato sauce and low moisture mozzarella on a "Margherita" pizza. A Pizza Napoletana consists of tomato, anchovies, capers and mozzarella (although occasionally without cheese) -- sometimes with oregano. Have a look at THE BEST: NYC Pizza Favorites and the NYC Pizza Survey for thoughts on DiFara and other pizzeria. IMO it is hands-down the best place in the City for a certain style of pizza (Italian-American stainless steel deck oven "pizza parlor" pizza). For those people for whom the toppings are the focal point of the pizza, DiFara almost always comes out as the best. Those of us whose focus is primarily on the crust find that DiFara lags behind many other pizzerie (primarily those using wood or coal ovens) in this aspect. Bottom line, though, is that it's a damn good pizza. Perhaps we should continue any discusion about DiFara in the DiFara Pizza thread.

Here is the bit from NY Metro. And here is a brief quote:

It may be a mistake to think it's a "waste to order off the menu," unless you've tried everything on the menu. The menu was compiled by Audrey Saunders and features many of her creations. Audrey is one of the foremost creators of cocktails working today, and it would be a shame to miss out on any of her drinks. Don't miss out on the Tantris Sidecar, the Punt e Mes Fizz, the Gin Gin Mule, the Old Cuban and the Earl Gray MarTEAni. . . and don't be afraid to ask about any other Saunders specials (the "Dreamy Dorini Smoking Martini" is a favorite of mine). This is to say that a big part of what makes Pegu Club special is what Audrey and partners have done in bringing together one of the top bar staffs in the country, laying down the vibe and giving the talented staff unprecedented space in which to work and materials with which to work. But a big part of it is also just Audrey.

It still depends on what you already have in your kitchen, what volumes you are cooking and what size pan you are talking about. In the size saucepan that is likely to be useful for blanching vegetables, it's still not clear to me that there is a great deal to be gained by purchasing a straight gauge pan. For something you are likely to make in small amounts -- like melting chocolate -- it can certainly make sense to buy a straight gauge pan in the 1 - 2 quart size, although of course you can always just use a metal bowl above a saucepan of simmering water. For the other things you describe, it strikes me that either a) extra control isn't particularly required; or b) a saucepan isn't the pan I would choose anyway. I've picked up a few of the pieces to see how they feel. Ultimately, I'm not convinced that it's all that different from their previous lines and isn't just a marketing strategy. Reports are that the larger diameter pieces are still just as prone to warping from high heat cooking as they always have been, which is an inherent problem with aluminum cookware at this thickness. It's also not clear to me that they are substantially easier to keep clean, which is a major issue with anodized aluminum. That said, someone with a different cooking style than mine (in particular someone who uses smaller diameter pans and doesn't like to preheat over high flame) might like them very much.

I do think it is taking local pride a little overboard to suggest that San Francisco is the best cocktail city in the nation. That said, they do have a number of excellent bars and some highly skilled bartenders there, if not in the same density that we have in NYC, and have their own piece of the cocktail renaissance. I may be mistaken on this point, but if memory serves, think SF was probably ahead of NYC in terms of cocktail bars using only fresh juices. I wonder if any eGulleters familiar with the SF scene could comment on whether there is any identifiable "SF style" at the best San Francisco watering holes. In NYC, I guess I would broadly assert that the leading places have a decidedly old school outlook, and that even new drinks which are invented have a basic foundation and design consistent with traditions from the cocktail's glory days (not too many of them are working with flavored vodkas mixed with fruit juices and Alizée, etc.). On the other hand, SF is quite close to some of the best makers of flavored vodkas (Hanger One, etc.), and I wonder if this has influenced the style there. Many of the drinks mentioned in the article seemed to be flavored vodka drinks.

Fee's mint bitters is one of those products that sounds like a great idea to most everyone who hears about it. But in practice, reception has been quite mixed. Some people enjoy it and others hate it. Overall, my impression is that most people fall into the latter camp. Regardless, I'm not sure I like the idea of adding mint bitters to something that is already mint flavored. Similarly, I probably wouldn't add orange bitters to a cocktail that already had a strong orange note, Angostura to something with cinnamon, etc. I guess I feel that there's not much point to adding more of the same flavor because it's not adding any complexity. This is why I find a lot of modern "new school" cocktails uninteresting (e.g., orange vodka with orange liqueur, orange juice, an orange twist and, of course, a splash of cranberry juice). So, for a Mojito, I'd much rather see a dash of some other bitters that complements rum. Angostura comes to mind, as does Fee's excellent aromatic bitters.

A certain amount of showmanship has been part of the bartending craft ever since there has been a bartending craft. Think of Jerry Thomas pouring a flaming arc of whiskey, boiling water and sugar between two tumblers as he made his famous Blue Blazer (click here for a picture of JT making one). Snapping the shaker back after pouring the last drop into the glass, flaming a twist, twirling the Sazerac glass to coat it with absinthe, flipping a closed Boston shaker in your hand to put the mixing glass on top before shaking, breaking the seal with a special slap, lifting the mixing glass high to watch the last few drops fall back into the metal cup, twirling the muddler in your fingers to shake off the rinsing water, pouring from the crack between the metal cup and the mixing glass instead of using the Hawthorne strainer, etc. -- these are all the sort of things that have been part of a skilled bartender's repertoire. I think we all agree that there is a big difference between these things and the kind of juggling one sees from Vegas-style bartenders. This is not to say that there is anything wrong with simply measuring the liquors, shaking the drink and straining it into the glass. And there are plenty of highly skilled bartenders who prefer this method. Ultimately the proof is in the product. If the drink is made with a certain amount of joie de vivre and, dare I say, flair -- that's okay by me so long as the drink is good. All too often for the juggling bartender the product is secondary to the show. Needless to say, this is not the case with respect to the bartenders at Pegu. In terms of "authenticity" and "old school vibe" it strikes me as entirely appropriate that some of the bartenders at Pegu have more flair in their technique than others. I do have to say, having been to Pegu Club many times at this point -- sometimes straight to closing -- that I've never seen any flair go over the top there. Maybe once or twice I've seen a metal cup dropped (never one with anything in it). That happens sometimes no matter where you go. I've also been there when the ice in a shaker exploded and the shaker slipped open and rained a little liquid on a customer at the bar. These things happen when you sit at a bar and someone is shaking a drink three feet away from you. I should point out, I suppose, that whoever was doing the shaking when the shaker slipped open was not someone who incorporated any flair -- might even have been Audrey, so it can happen to anyone. Flair is an interesting topic of discussion in and of itself. If we would like to continue discussion of flair in general, please let's start a thread in the Fine Spirits and Cocktails Forum. I've been wanting to sound out thoughts on flair ever since I saw a competition on television for "World's Best Bartender" -- which as far as I could tell was a juggling contest.

Here is the original article: Beauchamp GK, Keast RS, Morel D, Lin J, Pika J, Han Q, Lee CH, Smith AB, Breslin PA. Phytochemistry: Ibuprofen-like activity in extra-virgin olive oil. Nature 437, 45-46 (1 September 2005) Abstract: I'm not sure why they say "newly-pressed," since a perusal of the supplementary materials indicates that they used "10 commercial Greek, Italian, and U.S. extra virgin olive oils (Falconero, Laudemio, Frantoio, Calonna, Spitiko, Horio, Lucini, Caroli, Sitia, Olio Santo)" to test for pharyngeal irritation and oleocanthal. It doesn't sound like these were "fresh out of the press" olive oils, although I am sure they hadn't been sitting on the shelf for 18 months. For what it's worth, pharyngeal irritation and oleocanthal concentration were positively associated, with Falconero, Laudemio and Frantoio oils having the most of both (interesting to me, since Frantoio is my "house" oil).

Interesting, Kevin. It doesn't really strike me as a "Swizzle," though, when it's made in bulk and strained into a cocktail glass. I'd much rather do something like this: 1.5 oz : Gosling's Black Seal Rum 1.5 oz : Gosling's Gold Rum 1.0 oz : Pineapple Juice 1.0 oz : Orange Juice .75 oz : Falernum Dash Angostura bitters Build in a highball glass with crushed ice, swizzle, top with additional crushed ice and tip in one additional dash of Angostura bitters.

Great to see more attention being paid to rye whiskey! It's so much more interesting than bourbon, in my opinion. Here are the ryes sampled by the Times: Black Maple Hill Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey, 18 years old Hirsch Selection Canadian Rye Whiskey, 10 years old Hirsch Selection Canadian Rye Whiskey, 12 years old Hirsch Selection Canadian Rye Whiskey, 8 years old Jim Beam Straight Rye Whiskey Michter's Single Barrel Straight Rye Michter's Straight Rye, 10 years old Old Overholt Straight Rye Whiskey Sazerac Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey, 18 years old Wild Turkey Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey I'm a little disappointed that they didn't try Rittenhouse bonded rye, as I think it is one of the very best on the market. There is also some issue having to do with the "old Michter's" and the "new Michter's" rye, that I would have liked to have seen explained (the old Michter's distillery closed and now it's not clear that the stuff sold as "Michter's" is really the same). Has anyone had any experience with Old Potrero's 18th Century Style Whiskey, which is 100% rye and only aged 2 years? It's always seemed interesting to me, but is very expensive. Also glad to see a recipe for the Ward Eight there. Good drink. (I like this recipe better, though.)

Having gone to C46's brunch any number of times, I guess I think it's okay. . . good, even. And a remarkable bargain. But having eaten regular meals at C46 any number of times as well, I can also say that I think brunch at C46 pales in comparison to dinner at C46, which is outstanding. For me, since I'm hitching a ride and devoting a fairly substantial chunk of time every time I go to C46, I've decided that it's really only worth it for the food if we go for dinner (which is not to say that brunch isn't often worth it for the company).

The difficulty is in getting the bottom crisped & slightly charred in spots while still preserving the soft pliability of the crust and without browning the toppings. This is more or less impossible to do in a home oven. By the time the bottom is cooked properly, the crust is inevitably dried out a bit too much and the toppings a bit more done than you would like. I've been cooking pizza at home for years, and have refined my technique quite a bit to get the best result. Here are some examples of pizza I made at home cooked on top of a massively preheated heavy slate stone. They are more or less Neapolitan style. Sausage and ramps. Margherita. The yellow color is from olive oil, not browning of the cheese Browning on the bottom of the crust. This is possible with a very wet dough, stretched very thin, minimally topped and baked on a very heavy stone that has been preheated on the bottom of a gas fired stove for at least an hour. Total cooking time maybe 5 minutes. Even then, the crust tends to be stiffer than I would prefer. This has always been a major sticking point for me in using a home oven. I don't want the mozzarella to brown. IMO, a pizza should be dotted with snow white blobs of just-melted fresh mozzarella.

I've being developing a growing appreciation of Swizzles, and thought to start a thread where we can discuss our favorites. A Swizzle is loosely defined as a (tall?) drink (usually but not always rum) with crushed ice in which a swizzle stick is rotated so as to aerate and chill the drink (forming a layer of ice on the outside of the glass). Common secondary ingredients include lime juice, bitters (especially Angostura), Falernum and mint. Here is a fairly common recipe for a Rum Swizzle: 1.50 oz : white rum 0.75 oz : fresh lime juice 0.50 oz : Velvet Falernum Dash : Angostura bitters Build in highball glass with crushed ice. Swizzle until frost forms. Top with more crushed ice. Here's a picture of a rum based swizzle I made with Barbancourt white rum (which is very much not traditional for this drink) and mint. Any favorite swizzle recipes out there?

It depends on your definition of "a decent pie." Can you make a pizza that is as good as what you're likely to get in 95% of American pizzerie out of a stainless steel deck oven? Absolutely. Better, probably. Can you make a pizza like they're pulling out of the ovens at Franny's or Sally's or Pizzeria Bianco in your home oven? No way.

Another thing I learned from observing bartenders like Alchemist flaming twists is that it works best if you use a "disk type" twist rather than a "strip type" twist. A strip is harder to flex sufficiently to get that big spray of oil into the flame (especially without breaking it in half).

Heh. Since acquiring a case of "Marie Antoinette" glasses (smaller than the typical "V" glass) I've scaled down my Tombstone to 2 ounces. But I still prefer the drink stirred rather than shaken. I use cracked ice, so dilution is not much of an issue. But I like the heavy silkyness from stirring. Since I'm using home ice straight from the freezer instead of taking ice from a bar bin, I also have the advantage of starting out a lot colder (with home ice, stirring with cracked ice in a chilled pitcher seems to result in the coldest drinks).

You know, I've tried these various tricks to make gnocchi lighter. . . baking the potatoes, etc. But ultimately I've never seen any reason to go away from my usual practice of boiling sliced potatoes in water and allowing them to dry in the colander for a few minutes. I don't use eggs in my potato gnocchi, so perhaps I've never needed to take extreme measures for drying (presumably these techniques are used so that less flour is required to bind the dough). But I also feel that it is possible to go too light. If you don't use enough flour, you end up with little lumps of mashed potato that don't have enough integrity to stand up as dumplings.