slkinsey

40% abv cognac is 31.5% alcohol by weight, which corresponds fairly interestingly with your observed weight loss.

I would say that this would only be a major omission if the book were attempting to be a general guide to sous vide cookery. I don't know where people got the idea that it would be. The reason he doesn't need to include time-versus-thickness information in the book is that he goes to the trouble of describing in excruciatingly precise detail just how big the food items should be that are cooked in his recipes. When he tells you to split a single 455 gram side of Spanish mackerel, sandwich two thin slices of jamón serrano between the two pieces, bind with transglutaminase and cook at 61C for 12 minutes, I can't believe it is possible that there will be differences in the thickness of this food item that would meaningfully affect the specified 12 minute cooking time. Thus, no time-versus-thickness discussion needed. If he were giving an example of a kind of recipe you could to with most any sort of fish at most any size, then he would need to open it up to a discussion of time-versus-thickness, as well as a discussion on temperatures for fish in general. But, as noted, that is not the purpose of this book.

If Cherry Heering is produced in America, it's news to me. I have an old-style bottle from 2004, and it has a giant sticker across the top that says "imported" in addition to the words "product of Denmark" across he front and "imported by Charmer Imports, Co." on the back. In fact, I am quite certain that the scarcity of Cherry Heering that we had back around 3 years ago was due to the fact that Heering changed the bottle design and therefore temporarily suspended shipments to the States while jumping through our various legal hoops attendant to changing the packaging.

You'll notice that Audrey's recipe as posted above (don't have Imbibe! handy, so don't know the extent to which it might differ in there) doesn't have much booze in it. If you whip the yolks until well-thickened, then beat and fold in the whites, you shouldn't get too terribly much separation. How fast is it separating on you? I think the hot milk could be heated up quickly and in small amounts in a tweaked (stepped-down) small electric hotpot or kettle. Most places around here seem to use an electric hotpot or kettle for their hot drinks. Cream of tartare should help the egg whites to bind.

Ah yes, La Luncheonette! I had cervelles au buerre noire there on my infamous "Offal Truth" guts-eating tour of NYC with Herbacidal and jogoode. It was... er, brainy. Not something I'd go back to have again.

One convincing argument I recently heard in favor of paying full-price to buy All-Clad nonstick at Williams Sonoma. Due to their incredible returns policy, you can just bring back your All-Clad nonstick pans every few years, tell them "this isn't nonstick anymore" and they will replace it with a brand new one.

AFAIK, at Pegu it's made fresh on the day it will be used. You can see Audrey's recipe above. I've seen her make the batter in a food processor in less than 10 minutes. Honestly, I think probably the best way to dispense T&Js is to give them out for nothing on an especially cold and snowy day, or in any event push them heavily as a "rare Wintertime special you won't want to miss out on." That way, the next time there's a hint of snow in the air, people may find themselves wending their way to Veritas for some of that hot eggnog thing they only serve a few times a year. I know that when I get the word that Audrey's thinking Tom & Jerry season is soon upon us, I try to get down there when it snows. I'm not aware of anyone around here who offers Tom & Jerrys throughout the winter as a staple menu item.

Interesting how a lot of these recipes differ in alcoholic strength. Both of our recipes call for a pint plus one ounce of booze, although yours has considerably more dark rum (mine is a pint of bourbon plus one ounce of dark rum). But your recipe has exactly double the nonalcoholic ingredients: 4 pints of half & half whereas mine has 2 pints; a dozen eggs whereas mine has a half-dozen; 2 cups of sugar whereas mine has 1 cup.

I wonder if it's possible that Hoshizaki can't sell their cube ice machines in the US because Kold-Draft still holds the exclusive patent for the technology. I note that the crescent ice cubes are produced by a different method (running water) than the square cubes (more or less the same as Kold-Draft does).

That's all good and well if you want slim crescent ice like this. But only Kold-Draft is going to give you a full 1.25-inch cube like this. So, in my book, even if the Hoshizaki machine is "better" by some criteria (more reliable, etc.), it doesn't matter. The Kold-Draft ice is far superior.

Really?! It's one of Mrs. slkinsey's all-time favorites (although we follow the McElhone formulation). Fresh-squeezed OJ is a must.

The Disaronno family claims to have invented amaretto. If one believes this, then the "genuine" article would indeed be made with apricot kernels. That said, it seems fairly clear to me that it's supposed to be bitter almond flavored.

Technically I suppose an amaretto could be anything slightly bitter and mostly sweet. The "-etto" ending is diminutive of amaro, meaning "bitter." So, amaretto means "a little bitter" or perhaps "bittersweet." Traditionally, this means the flavor of the bitter almond. Almonds, almond flavored desserts, almond flavored drinks, etc. probably came to Sicily from contact with Arab cultures, and all made their way north. My understanding is that amaretto the liqueur probably came after amaretti the cookies, which are most certainly made with almonds, and indeed Lazzaroni Amaretto is made by infusing actual amaretti into alcohol. There is no doubt that amaretto is supposed to be bitter almond flavored. But there is also no doubt that apricot kernels have an almond flavor, and Disaronno's recipe claims to have been around since 1525. I doubt it's been that long, but it seems certain that they've been using apricot kernels for at least a few hundred years.

Scales?

It's slightly (not cloyingly) sweet. I think the ginger syrup has a touch of habanero in it. That, combined with the ginger and cinnamon, moves the flavor profile toward the spicy and aromatic side. Anything's possible, I suppose, but I seriously doubt it. Habanero chilis have a very distinctive flavor. Also, fresh ginger is quite spicy all on its own. Bars that know they're going to use the syrup within one service can make spicy ginger syrup by juicing ginger and mixing sugar with the fresh ginger juice. Home cocktailians generally don't want to go to this trouble, but unfortunately ginger syrup of any kind does not keep its spice very well for even 24 hours, never mind several weeks. The work-around solution is to muddle plentiful ginger with simple syrup. This seems rather more likely, considering that the specification of an eighth of an ounce of lemon juice seems highly unlikely to happen in a working bar. Does the VTR use jiggers, or do they free-pour? Doesn't strike me as any sweeter. But definitely more flavor.

Is this a very sweet cocktail? Looking at it, I see an ounce of a not-exactly-dry rum, an ounce of sweet (1/4 amaretto plus 3/4 syrup) balanced with only 5/8 ounce of citrus.

I wouldn't think that finding one free of MSG would be too terribly much of a problem. Anchovy fish extract is chock full of free glutamates. That's why it's in there. Gluten may be a different story. Some of them may contain something like "hydrolyzed wheat protein." This is something celiacs have to worry about. I have three brands of fish sauce. Only one (Three Crabs) contains anything other than anchovy fish extract, water and sugar (it contains hydrolyzed wheat protein).

We always make that recipe "a la minute" since it only takes around 3 minutes to stir the ingredients together. My experience with the day-old leftover eggnog is that it's okay but nothing like it was when it was fresh. For sure you need to whip the egg whites right before you serve it. The idea is that the egg whites form a kind of frothy "raft" that floats on top of the liquid. (We rarely make less than a double batch at a time, and in our holiday party are likely to go through 4-6 batches at least -- this in addition to multiple gallons of Fish House Punch.)

If anyone is ever looking for them. I found canned escargots in Zabar's... in the coffee section, next to the honey. Right where you would expect to find them.

Your kosher kitchen at home isn't good enough for them?

For something like the Regent's Punch, it would be relatively easy (and inexpensive) to make the "base" at home and bring it. This is to say, do the whole bit with peeling the citrus and muddling with sugar, making the green tea and pouring it over the peels and sugar, adding the pineapple syrup, adding the juice from the citrus, even adding the arrack. At this point, all the people at the venue would have to do is pour in the brandy and rum, pour in the punch base, and add the champagne.

Steven, something like that Regent's Punch I made the other night would go down pretty easily. It's delicious, not particularly challenging to even the most finicky drinker, and you can tell your friends on the PTA that you're giving them a drink that is actually on the cutting edge of mixology. Believe me, a year from now, being able to say you were on on the Punch trend and had offered the famous Regent's Punch to your nursery school "way before it was cool to you people" will confer serious bragging rights.

Isn't the Spanish word for avocado aguacate?

This technique is probably better described as "fractional freezing" than "freeze distilling." Distilling required boiling as a matter of definition. I don't think it has ever been particularly significant once people were able to get a proper still knocked together. One reason for this is that fractional freezing does not offer any way to get rid of the impurities, congeners, fusel oils, etc. that are removed or controlled through careful distillation. A lot of this is discussed over in the applejack thread where Doc had this to offer: I later offered this quote from a NYT article: So, to sum up: distillation (separation of substances based on differences in boiling points) is preferable to fractional freezing, and was practiced in the rural US extensively by the late 1600s.