slkinsey
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Posts posted by slkinsey
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That pizza was extremely thin! If you look slightly North of center, you can actually see that the crust is so thin that you can see the green topping through the pizza. I don't remember how I took that picture, exactly, but it wasn't like he was holding up a stiff, entirely stable crust.
That said, I'm not surprised that it's different now. One thing I think is cool about Franny's is that they are continually evolving. Possibly they are using a more tender flour now?
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That's where the bartender/mixologist comparison comes into play. It is perfectly possible for someone to have relatively advanced knowledge about cocktail history and formulae, to be able to create good cocktail recipes, and to be able to mix great cocktails in one's home. Doing this in a busy bar is another matter entirely. PDT has been a somewhat unique opportuinity for some advanced home mixologists (and, again, one that Julie touches upon upthread) in allowing them to grow bartending skills out of their mixological skills when the opposite is normally the case. This is made possible, of course, by the relatively low volume and relatively high bartender-to-customer ratio at PDT. Needless to say, their bartending skills have grown tremendously due to their experience at PDT (as have their mixological skills, due to increased flexing of those muscles over their time there). That said, whether or not this particular kind of experience would prepare a PDT bartender for something like Friday night at Flatiron Lounge with four times the volume and still only two or three bartenders is another story.
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the Julie/Audrey/Sasha tree
Was there some proto bar where all three of them worked, or are those three separate roots?
No. But the three of them are fairly close, have a good professional relationship, work together on projects, tend to draw from a similar pool of talent (it's not unusual for a bartender to work/have worked at multiple bars in this group -- e.g., both Pegu and M&H), etc. All three have collaborated and/or partnered on projects, etc.
More to the point, and this is something that Julie touches on above, these three owner/manager/bartender/mixologists are the ones who really have a strong and well-developed training and mentoring system in place. This is especially true of Julie's and Audrey's bars, simply because they are so large. As Julie aludes to in her post, these places are known for taking people in as barbacks and, if they have the talent and drive, training and mentoring them into the City's cocktail superstars of tomorrow. Just like musicians or writers or athletes, cocktailian bartenders don't spring from Jerry Thomas's forehead fully-formed and armed with a shaker and spoon -- they have to be born and made. These three have done most of the making, and they're seem to be the only places that are training people from the bottom up.
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The Sazerac absolutely calls for absinthe.
Thanks. That's good to know. I couldn't remember if Herbsaint had been used from the beginning or if that came later.
As much as some would like you to think that Herbsaint is necessary or "traditional" for a Sazerac, in fact Herbsaint only dates to 1935. The Sazerac is around a hundred years older.
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The Sazerac absolutely calls for absinthe.
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NY Metromix has a nice roundup of cocktails in the city with elderflower flavor.
Some that we may know:
Death & Co. | Nina’s MoanThis East Village Prohibition-themed lounge was an early adapter of elderflower liqueur, but for reasons as methodic as the expertly crafted cocktails offered here. “It plays well with a lot of spirits, so there are a lot of things you can do with it," says manager Joaquin Simo. This champagne cocktail (named for Nina Simone—a nod to the jazz tunes regularly played here) balances the Courvoisier VSOP cognac’s bite with gentle floral notes for a bittersweet, dry finish. Angostura bitters lend a robust orange body while Paul Roger champagne imbues the drink with its tawny color and fizzy upswing that tingles on the tongue. As Simo points out, “There’s nothing that you can’t pour Paul Roger over—breakfast cereal, whatever.” (Price: $12)
Verdict: 4 stars
This champagne cocktail billows beautifully out from the initial dry, bubbly sip into a fruity, orange-flavored cognac, but ends dryly as well, which could leave a bitter taste.
Pegu Club | La Fleur de Paradis
Though elderflower is relatively new to American palates (Europeans have been sipping the stuff for centuries), Pegu Club’s head bartender Kenta Goto argues it’s not as exotic as you might think: “Its flavor is close to that of a pear or a lychee, so it’s still somewhat familiar.” To satisfy the requests of the Cosmopolitan-swilling weekend crowd here, who regularly request lychee martinis despite its absence on the menu, Goto created this delicate cocktail that replicates the sweet, floral flavor by using elderflower liqueur. The result is a soft and fizzy gin-based cocktail, whose sparkling personality is further enhanced by champagne. The walk-off is citrusy and light, thanks to freshly squeezed lemon and grapefruit juices, while orange bitters keep things grounded. Floating edible pansies makes for an elegant presentation. (Price: $12)
Verdict: 5 stars
The dryness of the gin and champagne balances their sweeter counterparts, making this cocktail as lovely-tasting as it looks and sounds.
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I always make my pecan pies with Steen's Syrup, which I bet would be awesome in a drink like this.
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Well, find it and post it!
I have been finding mirto and scotch a good combination, although they have to be balanced carefully lest one take over from the other.
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Don't worry too much. If you get grease on the inside of the bag near where you want to seal it, just wipe it off with a paper towel.
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That said, I slice the bacon in batches because I have never come up with a good way of stacking it up so I don't make a big mess. I mean, slicing a full belly results in a LOT of slices, so I just start laying them out in "package formation" and then I figured as long as I was doing that, lay them out on the scale while I am at it, and when I reach my 12 oz package size, pack it up.
So, do it like they do it at the deli: Put a square of wax paper on your scale; start cutting slices of bacon; lay them out on the wax paper side-by-side; when you cover one sheet, put another sheet on top and continue; when you reach twelve ounces, set that stack aside and put a new sheet on the scale; continue until you have used up all the bacon.
Mainly, though, I think you'd save yourself a lot of time by cutting out all the extra hand-washing. Start with clean hands and have a fresh, clean kitchen towel handy to wipe grease off your fingers. After all, this stuff has been preserved with salt and smoke, and you're going to be cooking it through anyway.
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I don't understand why you're making this so complicated. Just wash your hands once; slice all the bacon, put the bacon slices onto roughly square sheets of wax paper, stacking one sheet on top of another until you have the amount of bacon you want to seal in one package; continue this until you have stacked up all the bacon in wax paper-separated bundles; then fold a bundle in half, slide it into a pre-made FoodSaver bag and seal; repeat until all bacon is sealed. If your hands are incredibly greasy after the bacon stacks are completed, then wash then. Otherwise, a swipe with a clean kitchen towel should suffice. You're not doing open heart surgery, for Pete's sake. Your hands don't need to be sterile. If you cut the bag long enough, you shouldn't have any problems with bacon fat fouling the seal.
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I hate to jump in here, but I feel that I must. Actually, I am very serious about staffing at both of my establishments. It is quite a tough job to staff large cocktail bars like Flatiron, Pegu and Clover Club. PDT, Death & Co, and Milk & Honey are very small spaces which require a smaller bar staff. They also have the luxury of not having to deal with large crowds which can a deterrent for serious cocktail bartenders. Lately, with the influx of new cocktail bars run by people who do not have the knowledge to train new bartenders, we are facing more poaching than ever. If we want the community to grow, we all need to train new bartenders; which means that yes, you may come into one of the above mentioned bars and have a newer bartender who in 6 months will be right up there with the greats. Remember, Phil Ward was once a barback..... look at him now.
This is a really, really good point. Not for nothing did I post upthread that all the top-level cocktail spots (and even most of the second tier spots) come from the Julie/Audrey/Sasha tree. It's because these are the places that have really done the lion's share of the work in developing, mentoring and training cocktailian bartender talent in the City. Julie's and Audrey's places, in particular, have their additional challenges due to their significantly larger size. But it's hard to think of any bars that have turned out more "rock star" bartenders than these.
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I wonder how much cooking with absinthe will happen while the available examples in the US are North of 50 bucks for a bottle.
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. . . a "Tango Sardo" with equal parts Mirto Rosso and Laird's bonded.
Made this one again last night, and it was met with approval.
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Sam, as far as I've been able to tell, the major difference is that the product sold in the US (Rose's Lime Juice) is made with high fructose corn syrup and the one sold in the UK and Canada (Rose's Lime Cordial) is made with sugar.
This most likely indicates that the HFCS version is manufactured in the US, where economies favor HFCS over sugar. The non-HFCS version would therefore not be manufactured in the US. This may account for the observation some people have made that the Cordial version is often darker colored than the Juice version -- if the Cordial is imported, it's likely quite a bit older.
I've never seen anything on the subject that indicates that the cordial or the juice ever contained alcohol. The main reason that Rose's was first developed was to provide a lime juice that was preserved without using alcohol -- that's the way it was advertised as well.My understanding (and this is mentioned upthread) is that there is a special version of Rose's formulated with a nominal amount of alcohol so that it can be sold in liquor stores in states that would otherwise prohibit its sale in liquor stores. This would be purely a legal thing. It sounds like I'm wrong about the US-based differentiation of Juice versus Cordial -- but I'm pretty sure that there is a Rose's Lime Something sold in liquor stores in certain states with around 1% alcohol.
Since the legal US definition of "cordial" stipulates alcohol, it seems to me that this is probably the reason that it's not called "Lime Cordial" in the States.This is my thinking as well, and reinforces my suspicion that any "Cordial" we see in the US is imported and not originally intended for sale in the US.
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Here is the dictionary definition:
The OED has "cordial" as: a medicine, food or beverage which invigorates the heart and stimulates the circulation; a comforting or exhilarating drink. Comm. Aromatized and sweetened spirit, used as a beverage.
Here is the legal definition for the US:
§ 5.22(h) defines "cordials and liqueurs" as: products obtained by mixing or redistilling distilled spirits with or over fruits, flowers, plants, or pure juices therefrom, or other natural flavoring materials, or with extracts derived from infusions, percolation, or maceration of such materials, and containing sugar, dextrose, or levulose, or a combination thereof, in an amount not less than 21/2 percent by weight of the finished product.
This is why, I think, the Rose's Lime Cordial sold in the US has some alcohol in it (also necessary for it to be sold in liquor stores in some states). This is also why the US seems to be the only country where it is mainly known as Rose's Lime Juice (minus "cordial"), with Rose's Lime Cordial being most common internationally. If we are seeing the "cordial" version in the US with no alcohol, perhaps these are imports?
From a practical standpoint, when I hear "lime syrup" I think of just that: a lime-flavored sugar syrup. When I hear "lime cordial" I think of sweetened preserved lime juice, with acidity and some of that preserved funk that lime syrup doesn't have.
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I've got quite a few tried-and-true recipes here for Pernod and Herbsaint, but I'm wondering how people substitute in for true absinthe: when they do, don't, what drinks just wouldn't work (French Pearl leaps to mind), etc.
I think you have to look at the cocktail and decide whether the pastis was used as an absinthe-substitute or not. Generally, this can be discerned from the date of the cocktail and the amount used. If it's a dash or a rinse, you're probably okay-to-better if you use absinthe. If it's a quarter ounce or more, you should probably figure out the date of the formula you are using. The French Pearl, for example, dates to the "modern absinthe era" in the US. Clearly it was designed with Pernod in mind, and absinthe probably would not be an improvement.
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The sides of All-Clad's "French Skillet" are approximately 20% as tall as the diameter of the pan (e.g., the 11-inch pan has 2.2-inch sides, the 9.5 inch pan has 2-inch sides, etc.). This means that the sides are lower than those of a traditional sauté pan, which would be 25% as tall as the diameter of the pan. At 20%, these pans have more or less the same arrangement between diameter and sides as a traditional cast iron skillet, which usually measure out to between 20% and 14%. I haven't found this configuration particularly useful (the sides are a touch too low for truly easy tossing of food, and too high for easy spatula access) and therefore tend to use my cast iron skillets only for tasks where iron's special thermal properties are useful. Otherwise, I'd rather use a frypan or a real sauté pan. This All-Clad pan is kind of a "tweener" -- neither frypan nor quite sauté pan. Some people might like it.
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One can hope that the Pegu Club cocktail recipe will be revised in the new edition.
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What? You don't want a First Edition?
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The amazing thing is that, as a general rule of thumb, there is an inverse relationship between the "hautness" of the restaurant and the quality of the web site. Cases in point: Daniel's horrible web site versus Landmarc's pretty good web site.
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I did something smiliar not long ago. Bagged chicken thighs with buttermilk and seasonings. Cooked SV. Cooled. Added the bag liquid to some additional buttermilk (why not get the extra chicken flavor, right?), coated and fried. As you point out, one of the major advantages of this technique is that it goes much faster. And, of course, you don't have to worry that it might be overcooked. Since I like my fried chicken closer to room temperature, it doesn't even need to be heated all the way through when it is fried.
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Isn't there some kind of rule that all restaurant web sites have to suck?
Franny's
in New York: Dining
Posted
Yea, that's what makes me wonder if they're using a lower gluten flour. Honestly, I think a more pliable crust would probably be an improvement at Franny's.