slkinsey
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Posts posted by slkinsey
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I love Fernet Branca. One good drink is simply to make a Fernet Branca and coke. It's a great drink.
Branca Menta has more mixing possibilities, though, because of the mint flavor. Just use it in any drink where you might use creme de menthe. For example, I like Dr. Cocktail's Delmarva Cocktail (original recipe here. And changed it as follows:
2.0 oz : straight rye whiskey
0.5 oz : dry vermouth
0.5 oz : Branca Menta
0.5 oz : fresh lemon juice
simple syrup to taste
1 fresh mint leaf, for garnish
The simple syrup is added for balance because Branca Menta isn't as sweet as white crème de menthe
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In the Cooking forum someone mentioned how different Steen's Cane is from Lyle's Golden. how? are they interchangeable or just two different animals altogether?
Um... I think that person was me.
Are you familiar with light and dark Karo? Lyle's is like super-awesome light Karo. It's heavier in texture, but it has a golden color (duh!) and a nice clean flavor. Steen's, on the other hand, pushes the envelope on the dark Karo side. It's dark and funky and.... well, this doesn't sound quite right, but it's a little sulphur-ey too -- but in a good way, in a good way.
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substitute the Golden syrup for Karo in Pecan Pies. This was a trick we used at Windsor Court Hotel. I still make my pecan pies that way. It is a little more expensive, but I love the flavor.
Exactly my thought! Lyle's provides a clean flavor in a pecan pie which can be a nice change of pace from the funky "dark Karo" flavor one normally expects. For pecan pie, I think it's Lyle's Golden Syrup on one end of the spectrum, and Steen's Cane Syrup on the other. Both are very tasty, but in entirely different ways.
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I'm looking for some Steen's Cane Syrup. I know I've seen it somewhere in NYC, but can't remember where. I looked in Fairway yesterday, and didn't see any.
Anyone have any ideas?
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Interesting observation! What we really need is a good espresso machine and one of those pressure chambers they use for deep sea divers. Hmmmmm....
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Pyewacket, I would simply call you (and others who would fall under this "flexitarian" label) as an omnivore who eats a diet that includes, but does not necessarily feature, meat and other animal products. This would include many traditional dietary practices, such as the pre-20th century Italian peasant diet, for example.
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Since the NY Times review just came out, I'd like to remind everyone of my Brief Note on New York Restaurant Threads, and the following in particular:
Our primary rule of thumb for New York restaurant threads is that those threads are for discussion of the restaurant. It is certainly relevant to discuss whether Bruni's review (or that of any critic) and star rating are correct for a given restaurant, whether his review captured the important aspects of the dining experience at that restaurant or what aspects of the star/reviewing system led to that rating/review. But all discussion in a restaurant thread should reside firmly in the context of discussion relating to the restaurant. Once it heads in a direction in which the context of the particular restaurant is not crucial to the discussion, it really belongs in a different thread.Let's do what we can to keep this already very long thread focused on Per Se, and do any reviewing of the review/reviewer in other threads. In particular, there is an ongoing thread I created following the Babbo review entitled "Bruni and Beyond: NYC Reviewing" that is more appropriate for much of this discussion. As always, new threads can also always be created for tangential discussions of this nature provided they are non-repetitive. If you're wondering what happened to a recent post of yours in this thread, the above referenced thread is a good place to check.
Thanks for your understanding and cooperation.
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Below is a relevant quote from the review:
The jicama was sensational, so packed with moisture and so faintly sweet that it could have been a new, undiscovered fruit, and the cilantro and avocado that came with it were like idealized essences of themselves, so flavorful that they seemed to have been cultivated in a more verdant universe. The bite-size marble potatoes in the potato salad popped like grapes in my mouth, and an exquisitely balanced mustard-seed vinaigrette gave them a subtle zing. -
No, I am just looking for places other than Lobel's that carry it. I can't believe you would accuse a man as commited to meat as MISTER CUTLETS of stinting on cost.
Never!
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$50 for a 12-inch square? Wow. I paid much less for 2 of them at Costco.
The non end-grain ones may be significantly less expensive, but they're a waste of money at any price.
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my recent liquor purchases include the item in the title. have not tried it yet but it smells good. anyone know anything about this 1761 recipe?
It sounds like you have a bottle of "regular" Bombay Gin. This is, IMO, much better than Bombay Sapphire. Bombay Sapphire is of much more recent provenance, and is far less interestingly flavored (indeed, one hears from reputable sources that Bombay Sapphire was developed to be marketed to vodka drinkers).
the label on the side indicates that it is distinctive because of a process called "vapor infusion" and possibly also the 8 specific aromatics that are usedThis alludes to Bombay's chosen method for infusing the spirit. At some point during the distillation/rectification process, the vapors travel up the column of the still and through baskets of various aromatics which flavor the distillate. Both Bombay "regular" and Bombay Sapphire are infused via this process.
this ran me about $18--cheaper than tanqueray and the regular bombay spirits company products, and i am the cheapest bastard in the 80304.Better than Bombay Sapphire and cheaper too. That's why Bombay will occasionally be found in my pantry, but rarely Bombay Sapphire. In NYC we can get it for around 20 bucks a liter, compared to around $28/liter for Sapphire.
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Harder is not necessarily better when it comes to a cutting board. Quite the opposite, in fact. A hard cutting surface will quickly dull the edge of a knife that is used on it. This is one reason you always want end grain and never cross-grain cutting boards. Given what they're charging for bamboo cutting boards (50 bucks minimum for a 12-inch square), I don't see why anyone would want one. You can get a nice end grain cutting board from Ikea for around $20.
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You want a liquid mint flavoring? Other than putting it into a sugar base or an alcohol base, I don't know how you would do it.
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They have it at Citarella sometimes. I don't get what you're after when you say you want "some good retail sources in the NYC / Long Island area." What's wrong with Lobel's? Lobel's falls pretty squarely into "NYC / Long Island." Or is it the case that what you're really looking for is waygu beef in metro-NYC for a lower price than Lobel's?
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Asserting vodka has little or no flavour with that TTF legal description will dig me out of the woodwork.
Here's a recent and fairly decent press release on vodka tasting and judging.
First, we should understand that the referenced press release is from a company that sells vodka. So they clearly have a point to make.
Next there is the question about the flavor of vodka. First, we should have an understanding of what flavor is. Flavor and taste are not quite the same thing. Taste is the sensation produced by the activation of taste buds in the mouth and throat area by certain chemicals. Smell is the sensation produced by the activation of olfactory receptors by certain chemicals. There is another chemosensory mechanism called the "common chemical sense" through which various nerve endings (especially prevalent in the naturally moist areas of the body) react to certain chemicals to create sensations such as the burn of capsaicin, the sting of ammonia, etc. These senses combine with other sensed elements such as texture and temperature to produce the impression that we call "flavor." As many people understand, smell is perhaps the most important contributor to the perception of flavor.
Understanding the foregoing, it is impossible for anything to have zero flavor. Anything you put in your mouth will have some kind of flavor. One could even argue that having nothing in your mouth has a flavor too! So, on that score you are absolutely correct that one cannot say that vodka has no flavor. Whether or not one can say that it has little flavor becomes a bit more complicated. It strikes me as an inescapable fact that a major part of the vodka-making process is to reduce to a great extent the presence of substances that would produce a strong or distinctive neurological response in the sense areas of taste and smell (and, to the extent that vodka is refined to remove congeners, common chemical sense as well). This makes the vodka-making process and aesthetic fundamentally different from any other alcohol-producing method, where the idea is to create an impression by increasing and/or shaping these sensory components rather than by reducing them and basing the character of the libation on what's left behind. One could argue that there is an upper level of flavor, above which a vodka is not judged a quality libation. Smaller concentrations of strong sensation-producing chemicals equals less intensity of flavor. I don't think there can be any argument that vodka isn't the least flavored liquor from a purely chemical standpoint, and I have yet to hear an example of any alcoholic beverage with less flavor.
The end result, of course, is that vodka indeed has very little flavor. This doesn't mean that it doesn't have any flavor, though, and more doesn't necessarily equal better. The makers of vodka, in choosing their fermentable materials, their distillation/rectification process, theit filtration methods and materials, and especially the water they use to dillute the spirit for bottling, are controlling what small contributors to flavor do remain in the beverage. As both the article and press release suggest, some of the main distinguishing characeristics are texture (touch) and "finish" (common chemical sense) which, not coincidentally, are the two least significant contributors to flavor. Of course, there are other characeristics of flavor that allow one to distinguish between vodkas, but they are not nearly as present. It is almost as though the goal of vodka is to remove the smell and taste to a large extent so that the flavor is comprised mostly of texture and common chemical sense perceptions.
That said, it doesn't make sense to claim that the qualities that allow one to make distinctions among vodkas exist in vodka to the extent that they exist in other liquors, nor that the differences that do exist between vodkas exist to the extent that they exist within other liquor families. This is one of the reasons one continually hears the word "subtle" in any discussion of high end vodka. All this is not to say, however, that it can't be fun and enjoyable to perceive and enjoy a barely-flavored beverage like Vodka. Under a certain aesthetic, less can become more. This is one of the things that makes Audrey's smoking martini so interesting. By dilluting the smokey single malt way down with vodka, certain elements of flavor come to the 'fore that are largely obscurred among the many strong flavor sensations present when the scotch is at full strength.
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Interesting Fig Newton trivia: The Fig Newton is named after the place where I grew up: Newton, Massachusetts. It was originally called just a "Newton" and the "Fig" part was added after the fact because people liked the fig jam filling. The machine that makes Newtons was invented by James Henry Mitchell in 1891, and the Kennedy Biscuit Works started making and selling them around that time.
The fig ones do seem to be the best by far. Figs are an interesting fruit because the dried version still retains a lot of softness. Other fruits (say, blueberries) really aren't all that great when dried to this extent, and need to be treated with too many preservatives. Most of the other Newton variations seem too artificial tasting to me.
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Try this - instead of meatballs add some browned short ribs your tomato sauce instead of meatballs. Simmer for a few hours. Serve the ribs as a main course after you use the tomato sauce on your pasta for the first course. Recommended pasta: fresh or dried fusilli
Exactly! I like to do bracciole in the sauce and serve those as the second course.
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And yes I have personal experience with high end steak houses uses a Jacarder.
What's your definition of a "high end steakhouse?" Are we talking Peter Luger, Wolfgang's, Sparks, Berns, et al. or Ruth's Chris, Zentner's, Shula's, Gibson et al.?
I would be shocked to learn that the former are using a Jacarder.
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As far as Perfect Manhattans, or Perfect Martinis for that matter, I have pretty much given up on being able to order one in any bar at all
And I've given up on figuring out what a Perfect Martini or Manhattan is.
Yep, "perfect" usually means using half sweet red vermouth and half dry white vermouth for the vermouth portion of the drink. An example of a Perfect Manhattan would be 2 oz of rye or bourbon with 1/4 oz of sweet red vermouth and 1/4 oz of dry white vermouth.
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On a day that has now become somewhat legendary in the Kinsey family, my parents awoke one morning around 15 years ago to find the front yard awash in morels. They picked them all -- an obscene amount -- and freeze dried most of them in my mother's lab. They still have a bag of them in the freezer.
We have occasionally found incredible amounts of Craterellus cantharellus near our place in the Western North Carolina mountains, but not this year for some reason.
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Richard, what you are describing is what I would call a "low casserole." This is essentially a saute pan body with two small loop handles instead of one long handle.
My gut feeling is that a low casserole isn't really all that useful. I have one, and it's the least-used pan in my battery. More to the point, however, I can't think of any reason why enameled cast iron is an advantageous material to use in this kind of pan.
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Since spaghetti and meatballs is a totally American-Italian thing, I figure it makes sense to go the American-Italian direction. This means a long cooked Am-It style sauce (see here), plenty of meatballs (beef, pork, veal, bread crumbs, parsley, garlic, onion, egg -- lightly browned and briefly simmered in the sauce, served on the side), maybe a braciole or two. Spaghetti, never fresh pasta.
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Most high end steak houses Jaccard there meat. You can purchase a decent Jaccarder for about $30 or so. It makes all the difference in the world in a cut like a strip loin or sirloin. Some cuts like tenderloin don't really need it.
I'm curious: what's your basis for saying this? I have a hard time believing that a "high end steakhouse" is poking its dry aged prime beef full of tiny holes to tenderize it. My own personal experience in cooking dry aged prime beef, and even lesser grades/treatments, has also demonstrated that such treatment is not necessary for a strip, sirloin or similar "steak cut" of beef. I've certainly never cooked a strip steak from Lobel, Citarella or Fairway and found myself thinking it wasn't tender enough.
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Now to bring up another situation.....why, when ordering a martini and specifying a twist do bartenders automatically dump olives in the drink? When you point out that you wanted a twist instead of an olive they fish out the olive and add the twist right in front of you and then get upset when you refuse the drink.
If I asked for a martini with a twist, I would absolutely expect there to be no olives. And I think it would be totally fine to ask the bartender to mix another one if it came with olives in it. This is fairly dependent on the type of bar you're in, though. In bars of a certain kind it is not reasonable to expect a high level of mixological skill, so you order a martini at your own risk and take what they give you.
The original Bombay dry gin
in Spirits & Cocktails
Posted
Well, I'd say that the major difference is that Bombay Sapphire is substantially less assertively flavored, although there are other differences of course.