slkinsey

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.

Certainly. Tortellini in brodo is very traditional. I'm not big on tortellini in soup that has many other ingredients floating around, but tortellini in a clear broth is one of the best ways to appreciate them.

Get a ricer and do Jack's retrogradation trick next time. I guarantee a substantial improvement.

I was there on Saturday myself (and, er. . . a good bit of Sunday morning too). It was filled to capacity at around ten or eleven o'clock, at which time was a wait at the door. This was precisely to make sure that it was never "packed to the gills" inside. Inside had the feel and bustle of a filled room, but never felt crowded. Without crowd management at the door, it would have been a madhouse inside. By the time 1:00 or 2:00 rolled around, I don't think there was a wait. As a general rule of thumb, Saturday night at 10 or 11 is the worst possible time to be out looking for a peak cocktail experience, because even the best places are going to be packed with weekend barhoppers. By limiting the door to control capacity, Pegu Club is actually doing something unusual for an "open admission" bar: they are making it possible to get a peak cocktail experience in a comfortable setting with the full attention of the barstaff even at 11 on Saturday night if you're willing to wait for a while. This, of course, is something restaurants have always done -- we're just used to the idea that bars will cram in as many people as are willing to come through the door. As another general rule of thumb, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights are the best possible times to be out looking for a peak cocktail experience. I'm sure there is no wait at the door to get into Pegu Club tonight, and last night you might have shared the bartender at Flatiron Lounge with only a few other people. Five or six o'clock is also a good time just about any day except Friday. On another subject: Check out the web site at peguclub.com. If you click on the "Ethos" tab, there is a nice video of a bartender making a Pineapple Pisco Sour and swizzling a Ti Punch (with a real swizzle stick, natch).

Those oxtail ravioli look delicious, Ellen! For something really rich like that, I've often found that I like it best minimally sauced (perhaps just moistened with a little reduced braising liquid and butter) and with a lump of cold chevre on top. You take a bit of chevre with each tortellino, and the cool tartness of the cheese really cuts the warm richness of the meat.

Gnocchi really should be made as soon as possible before they are cooked. I wouldn't rest them uncooked more than an hour or two. Here's what I do: While you are making up your gnocchi dough, have a pot of water simmering on the stove. Make one gnocco and toss it in the water to cook. Take it out and taste it. Is it too soft? Add more flour. Is it hard and gummy? Start over or default to something else. Once you have made gnocchi a number of times, though, your skill and judgment will increase and you will gain confidence that it will turn out right every time. If you're worried about a gummy texture from overworking the potato, you can always do Jack Lang's retrogradation trick, which eliminates this concern. Especially if you are not doing Jack's trick, a potato ricer is absolutely de rigeur. Thinking about potato gnocchi, I decided to make some for dinner last night. I riced Yukon Gold potatoes directly onto a pastry cloth. Sprinkled on flour and a small grating of nutmeg. I like using a pastry cloth, because it makes combining the ingredients easy with minimal manipulation of the dough (I didn't have time for Jack's trick tonight). I just pick up one side of the cloth, use the cloth to fold the dough in half, press firmly, repeat until dough holds together, adding a bit more flour as and if necessary. Divide the dough and roll into "snakes." I find that it's much more efficient and easy to "snake" all the dough at once, rather than making one snake of completed gnocchi at a time. Continuing the bulk production theme, all the snakes are cut into sections. This also makes it easy to make sure that all your gnocchi are the same size. Flick each one off the back of a fork. In my opinion, the dents in the back side of the gnocchi are just as important to sauce adhesion (if not moreso) than the grooves on the front side. Cooked and sauced with my favorite tomato sauce for gnocchi: San Marzano tomatoes, a halved onion and a good lump of butter started together in a cold pan and slowly brought up to temperature until the butter and tomato emulsify and the onion has given up its flavor.

Sam, for the infusion-impaired among us, can you give a simple how-to here about the ginger syrup? I get the 1:1 but not the "hot and cold". And how much of what kind of ginger? There are two fundamentally different ways you can infuse a flavor into simple syrup: 1. You can heat the simple syrup up and "cook" the flavoring ingredient in the hot syrup; or 2. You can put the flavoring ingredient into room temperature (or colder) syrup. Different characteristics will emerge depending on how the syrup is infused. With ginger, I find that infusing "hot" by simmering the ginger in the syrup creates a certain roundness and depth of flavor that it not possible to achieve with cold infusion. However, hot infused ginger syrup doesn't tend to have much of the "bite" and "zing" associated with ginger. In order to get the zingy bite of ginger, it is necessary to cold-infuse the syrup. If you want depth and roundness and zingy bite, one may hot-infuse the syrup; allow the syrup to cool; strain off the ginger; then add more fresh ginger to the cold syrup for an additional cold infusion.

Yes. . .those sauces went to the Western world in the form of Worcestershire sauce (anchovy based). Fascinating. I've been led to believe that Worcester Sauce is actually Indian in origin. Or rather I should say, created in England (by Mssrs. Lea & Perrins, natch) either from Indian ingredients or influenced by a recipe or sauce brought back from India.

mbanu, I think fortification does extend the shelf life of a vermouth compared to regular wine. But that doesn't mean that the shelf life is extended indefinitely. I also don't think it's accurate to call the vermouth process one of controlled oxidation, any more so than this is part of the normal winemaking process. Noilly Prat ages its wines for a year in oak casks outside in the open air with the snow, rain, summer sun, etc. That's kind of unusual. But I wouldn't characterize this as controlled oxidation like I would, say, making sherry. I'm not sure that I agree 100% with Alchemist that vermouth is inherently delicate, although it is delicate, I suppose, compared to bourbon. I've kept bottles of very high quality vermouth (Vya) sealed with "Wine Saver" corks in my refrigerator for months without any detectable drop in quality compared to a fresh bottle. But part of Alchemist's point (I think) is that this is not the way vermouth is stored in a professional setting -- it's just not practical. The best vermouth in the world isn't going to keep very well unrefrigerated and open to the air with a speed pourer stuck in it. Any bottle of booze maintained in this condition for a long period of time will eventually decline -- but vermouth will decline a lot faster than vodka.

The "velvet rope" involves selecting people based on how "cool" they are to create a certain "scene" in the bar/lounge/club/restaurant/whatever. Places that "limit the door" may turn people away, but the door is limited for the purpose of making sure the place doesn't go over capacity rather than to create a "scene," and people are admitted on a first come/first served basis rather than what kind of clothes they are wearing, etc.

As I understand it the doorman is for controlling volume of people and not doing the velvet rope thing. This is my understanding as well. As I think I mention upthread, I was there one Thursday night when the place filled almost to capacity -- at which time there was some mention of limiting the door for a while in order avoid overcrowding. Of course, as you say, I am quite sure the velvet rope thing will not be happening there, as this is antithetical to the philosophies of the people involved.

The EU investigatory group argued that because the ducks couldn't engage in "normal" activities (within the universe of livestock animals), it constituted poor welfare. But I thought their case was much weaker without battery cages (which is why they requested a ban on them). But even they, with their noticeable anti-foie-gras bias, had to acknowledge that the few experiments that have tried to measure stress in foie gras birds couldn't come up with any chemical indications that the birds are stressed during gavage. Right. And the EU group still doesn't address the issue of inherrently inhumane. It is, of course, absolutely possible to raise ducks and geese for foie gras in a way that is inhumane. The question is whether it is impossible to raise ducks and geese for foie gras in a way that is not inhumane. As to the question of what is and is not a "normal activity" in the contect of domesticated livestock animals, I'm not convinced that gavage prevents this any more than finishing cows on grain in feedlots, cooping chickens in henhouses, keeping milk cows in stalls, etc. As far as I know, by the way, Hudson Valley Foie Gras does not use battery cages.

Bruni, er. . . he doesn't really get it, does he? It's really too bad that Grimes didn't write this piece, because he's someone who really understands and appreciates a cocktail. It seems odd to me that he felt constrained to write mostly about the food -- even going so far as to state that it was the food that allows Pegu Club to "earn it a place in this column." Would one write about a serious wine bar by spending 75% of the column writing about the bar snacks? It's also interesting to see how much Bruni's perceptions differ from those of more experienced cocktail enthusiasts in these forums. We have been rejoicing in the Pegu Club's "Fitty - Fitty" Martini as a return to the true form of the drink, while he characterizes it as "awfully wet." And while members like Joerg Meyer have been calling the droppers of lemon, lime, simple and bitters "a really great invention" Bruni finds it a "cute additional gimmick." Oh well... They may feel the same way. I don't think they'll ever allow Pegu Club to become a "three deep at the bar" kind of place.

Since this is a "stuffed pasta & gnocchi" cook off, I decided to combine both and make stuffed gnocchi. These are stuffed with a mixture of mushrooms and chicken livers cooked with a little tomato paste, smoked garlic, a touch of aged balsamic and a tiny grating of fresh nutmeg. In the pan On the plate Looking inside

25 bucks?! For what size bottle? 750 ml bottles of Navan are going for something like $37-40. If the Montgomery County prices are for 750 ml, it's a remarkable bargain.

Before you commit to buying the Navan at Astor Wines, take a look at Warehouse around the corner on Broadway. They might not have Navan yet, but they often have substantially lower prices than Astor on certain items. For example, I've bought liter bottles of Cointreau at Warehouse for thirty bucks when other places are selling 750 ml for thirty-three.