slkinsey
-
Posts
11,151 -
Joined
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by slkinsey
-
-
It's impossible. They're adding something back in. The secret is that they're allowed to add stuff back in below a certain amount, and they don't have to admit it to anyone. It seems likely that the 9X rectification stripped away so much flavor that even a minute amount of vanillin would create a relatively "huge" flavor impact (for a vodka).
-
To what use will you be putting this knife?
George Tichbourne makes a chicken slaughtering knife that sounds close to what you're looking for (see here and scroll down to the section on Kosher slaughtering knive).
-
For general purpose salt, there is not going to be anything "better" or "cleaner tasting" than Diamond Kosher salt. This is because this salt is 100% sodium chloride. There is no potassium iodide which, as Steven points out, some people say they don't like; there is no glucose (added to prevent breakdown of the potassium iodide) and more importantly there are no "free-pouring" anti-caking agents such as calcium silicate or, less commonly, ferric ammonium citrate, silicon dioxide, sodium ferrocyanide, magnesium silicate, magnesium carbonate, propylene glycol, aluminum calcium silicate, sodium aluminosilicate/sodium silicoaluminate, or calcium phosphate.
Sea salt is actually less "clean" than refined table salt -- although the reality is that all edible sea salts are >99% pure sodium chloride (sea salts are also refined, they're just refined by solar evaporation in combination with other techniques). As Steven points out, sea salts are largely distinguishable due to their shape and size, so unless you are sprinkling the salt on at the end so that it does not melt, there is no use in using expensive sea salt.
-
In NYC these days, I'd say that around 16 bucks for a fifth is an average retail price.
-
No. Avery is explaining why it was possible to buy Angostura in the US during Prohibition. Angostura is a "non-potable" alcohol -- which is to say that the government decided that it is impossible to get inebriated drinking nothing but Angostura bitters.
-
I have also owned several bottles of Stoli Elit. I would never buy it, but have been fortunate to work a number of events where Stoli was a sponsor and was able to snag some bottles. The bottles are awesome, and I figured why not have Elit if I'm going to keep some vodka around.
Nothing particularly noteworthy or special, has been the universal reaction. And, really, if you are going to sell your product based on what tiny amount of finish remains when you take everything away, how much can possibly differentiate them (hint: it's the things they're allowed to add back in, like glycerine, sugar and minute amounts of flavorings and aroma agents)?
It's okay to not like Luksusowa. But, on the other hand, there are plenty of other vodkas at that same price point. Don't like Luksusowa? Try Smirnoff.
-
These are quite a bit more potent (or at least the potency is more apparent) than the typical type of thing whose name indicates that it is for the ladies. Is there some kind of joke at work here that is lost on modern readers or what? They both look enjoyable on some level but hardly the kind of thing one thinks of Maidens drinking (the Savoy is full of those, and thats not a bad thing).
I'm guessing the name is based on the color, which could be said to be similar to the blush on a young and as-yet innocent woman's face. "Maiden's blush" is a common name for things with a pale pink color.
-
I think that they figured (and probably rightly so) that they would do much more business to consumers than they do in bars, in consideration of the fact that none of these spirits is likely to be used in the well by any but a very select few establishments.
What about Tanqueray and Cointreau? Are those bottles any more "bartender friendly" than the St. Germain bottle?
-
When I hear someone declaring a particular brand of vodka to be their favorite, especially when it's a heavily marketed brand like Grey Goose or Absolut, I usually wonder if they've just been conditioned to think they like it. I can't help but think, "Are you claiming that you've really tried most of the brands of vodka out there and genuinely came to settle on that one as your favorite?" "If your palate is really that discerning, why are you drinking vodka in the first place, and not something more challenging?" I'm convinced that Stoli Elit is a marketing experiment to see how far they can push the envelope.
Just pour them Smirnoff or Luksusowa out of an Elit bottle and see if they can tell the difference.
-
I thought (wrongly) 65C would yield completely grey and dry meat, I should have asked if there is a difference SVing at any temp above "fully cooked" (OTBE)?
It depends on temperature but also on time at temperature. Think about it: If you put a chunk of stew beef in simmering water and take it out after 2 minutes, it's going to have a different texture from a piece that has been in the simmering water for 20 minutes... which will be different from a piece that has been in there for 2 hours.
The red coloured liquid expelled from meats when cooked lightly is not blood?Right. It is not blood.
I'm quite confused at the doneness of meats: when the meat cells are heated beyond 53ish (not sure exactly) the protein denatures and changes shape, "squeezing" out the "juice?" stored inside (or between?) the cells. Is this in stages (maybe only 10% of "juice" will be expelled at 53C even after a long time) or is there an absolute temp (once above 53C it starts and the higher the faster, but if kept at 53C for a long time it will eventually all come out)? And then there's the change of colour from red to brown due to the myoglobin, there are also "stages": red pink light pink etc is this absolute or stages?....Maybe you might want to ask this in another thread, as it isn't entirely topical for sous vide.
-
Some Random answers...
1. For cuts of meat low in collagen (tenderloin?) is there a difference to SV at 65C compared to 95C? Both temp will overcook the meat but will the 95C be more mushy?
The 65C meat will be cooked to a uniform medium-well. The 95C meat will be hammered through like braised meat. Whether one is more "mushy" than the other, or indeed whether one is "mushy" at all will depend on time-at-temperature.
2. In meat, how is the water "stored", all as blood? When overcooking and the meat expels juice is that all cooked blood? Beef cooked below 54C shouldn't loose any "juice" right?
This is really two separate questions. To answer the first one, there is no blood in beef. Beef is exsanguinated as part of the slaughtering process. To answer your second question, any time you heat meat to the point where it is "cooked" there will be some loss of liquid. 54C steaks definitely lose "juice" in the bag.
3. Can one "fix" or "retrograde" meat cells before cooking to "strengthen" meat cells?
No.
-
Seriously though, I do agree with Sam's issue about the price/value thing, but also realize that by having a chef and probably one or two other kitchen helpers, the food production cost at a place like Pegu or Death & Co. is probably pretty high.
I agree that the cost of having a kitchen on that level is probably pretty high, so they probably have to charge 14 to 16 bucks a plate no matter what is on the plate. What I'm wondering is what it would do to the bottom line to make the portions of some of these things twice as big. My guess is that the majority of the cost isn't in the ingredients. And, for me, I find the price/value is a barrier to ordering. If two $14 plates isn't going to fill me up, it's not like I'm going to order three $14 plates. Instead, I'm likely to order zero plates. Most of the time, when I've had two $14 dollar plates, I've still needed to eat dinner afterwards. So, at that size, they really are snacks. $14 is pretty steep for snacks.
I guess I'm suggesting that some of these places might actually move more food and ultimately make more money from the kitchen if the plates were larger. Maybe I'm completely wrong about that. I don't know the economics. But, for the sake of comparison, you can get a generous plate of bucatini all'amatriciana at Lupa -- enough to call "dinner" -- for 16 dollars.
-
Not always, though. Here is the back bar at Eagan's in Milwaukee. One of the most impressive collections you are likely to see. Probably the only bar in Milwaukee with Luxardo maraschino. And yet... crap cocktails.
-
Various treatments of potatoes are the most common uses of rendered duck fat, and that's always a good choice.
I have also found it to be very felicitous in combination with beef. I have my doubts as to whether "marinating in duck fat" has any particular benefit, especially if the beef is grilled. On the other hand, I have found that using duck fat when preparing beef in a hot pan (either entirely pan-fried or finished in the oven) makes a big difference. Ironically, the steak seems to come out "beefier" this way, rather than with much identifiable duck flavor.
It's also hard to put a foot wrong by using a little duck fat when browing poultry. I like to use a bit of duck fat in the pan when I do pan-fried and oven-roasted spatchcocked chicken or squab.
-
Julia Moskin has an article in today's NY Times entitled "Drop the Swizzle Stick, Grab a Fork" wherein she discusses the trend for cocktail bars to serve "thoughtful, tasty food beyind the usual burgers, bowls of pretzels and cheese plates." Several top cocktail spots in NYC are mentioned.
It has long been possible to get "advanced bar food" while sitting at the bar of a restaurant or at a swanky hotel bar such as Bemmelmans Bar at the Carlyle, but the movement in this direction for stand-along cocktail bars really began in earnest with the opening of Pegu Club in 2005. And Pegu Club's current menu garners some attention from Moskin as "the most elaborate and successful in the city." It's no surprise by now that the kitchen is now under the direction of Philip Kirschen-Clark formerly of wd-50 and more recently of Jimmy's No. 43. They're offering food along the lines of snail-stuffed pancakes with fennel seeds, nigella seeds, Pernod and spicy mayonnaise. Says the chef, "I wanted really bold flavors because cocktails are so explosive." Moskin calls his duck confit, slow-cooked in a paste of ginger, garlic, kaffir lime leaves and cilantro, shredded over polenta and served with pickled cherries, radish and shiso "one of the great flavor compositions of the year." I haven't tried these two dishes, but I've had the chance to sample a number of dishes-in-process at Pegu, and have been quite favorably impressed. It's great to see the bar that started the trend taking it up to the next level.
As one could imagine, PDT gets a nice mention as well for taking more traditional, "non-haute" bar food (namely, deep fried hot dogs) and bringing it to a level of "high and low" sophistication with a touch of the modern, unexpected and recontextualized with offerings like their John John Deragon with cream cheese, scallions and everything bagel seasonings, and of course the Wylie Dog with its iconic deep fried mayonnaise.
I know that Clover Club and Death & Company are offering interesting and innovative food. Perhaps people would like to post about what they've liked there, and I'm sure we'd also like to hear about the "advanced bar food" offerings at other cocktail bars across the country.
If I had one "complaint" about some of the "advanced bar food" on offer, it's that I find much of it portioned too small. Economically, I can understand that they have to charge, say, 15 dollars a plate just to pay for the kitchen to run. I don't mind paying that price. But if I am going to spend 30 bucks on two plates of food, it should be enough food that I don't need dinner afterwards. For me, it's definitely a barrier to ordering bar food if I'm going to spend "dinner money" but still need a meal later. For example, Brandy Library's merguez sausage "lambs in a blanket" wrapped in puff pastry with harissa and dijon mustard is $14 for 8 smallish pieces. Others may know better than I whether food cost is a significant concern in these contexts, or whether they could put more food on the plate.
-
For that money, you could pick up a slow cooker on eBay and rig it with an Auber PID.
How do they work? I know that this is probably a stupid question but do they control the temp or just monitor it?
http://auberins.com/index.php?main_page=pr...&products_id=44
-
For that money, you could pick up a slow cooker on eBay and rig it with an Auber PID.
-
On the other hand it is a bit over the top to call Grey Goose "filth" and "swill"! It's a good spirit.
I think there's nothing wrong with it, as far as it goes. On the other hand, there is absolutely nothing about it that makes it worth 250% more than Luksusowa -- especially in a cocktail. And don't even get me started on (570% more than Luksusowa) Stolichnaya Elit. In that sense, they and their ilk are all "swill."
-
There's a thread from 2005 about cost of spirits and suitability for cocktails, wherein I offered the following that may have some relevance to this discussion:
In a strict dollar model, I think it probably goes something like this:
But there are many reasons why this is so.
On the cheap end of the curve, you're dealing with ingredients that fundamentally don't taste very good to begin with. This speaks to Dave's rule to "never mix a drink with anything you can't choke down straight (although I suppose this doesn't account for bitters).
In the middle part of the curve, you're getting a lot of ingredients that not only taste good and have a refined flavor profile, but also often have good intensity of flavor. I don't think anyone would argue, for example, that Booker's doesn't have a more intense flavor than Jim Beam White Label, or that Cointreau doesn't have a more refined flavor than Hiram Walker triple sec. In the middle point of the curve, you're going to find more liquors bottled at higher proof, and you're going to find liquors with some age on them, but not so much that they begin to become less assertive or overly mellow in character.
In the expensive part of the curve, you're going to find two categories of ingredient. The most obvious example is an ingredient that is simply too expensive to be consumed in anything other than its pure, unadulterated form. This is where you find your $300 bottles of XO cognac, etc. As Dave pointed out, it's unclear that his "Paradis Sidecar," which would retail for around $120, actually tastes all that much better than a still very expensive "XO Sidecar" that would retail at around 35 or 40 bucks. All the stuff you pay for in a $300 bottle of cognac would be obscured by the other ingredients in the cocktail.
The less obvious example is an expensive ingredient that actually doesn't work as well in a cocktail compared to the less expensive one. Many liquors come to be dominated by wood flavors after a certain amount of aging and to lose some interesting characteristics that are present at a younger (aka, less expensive) age. A perfect example is apple brandy. A younger calvados still tastes strongly of apples, whereas one with more age often tastes more of "aged spirit." Other expensive spirits are too subtly flavored to be employed to good use in a cocktail. If you're going to obscure all the subtle floral character of a boutique grappa di moscato by mixing with it, you might as well be using vodka.
So, looking at the curve we can think about something like the Jack Rose, a simple cocktail composed of applejack, lemon juice and grenadine. At the lowest end of the scale is regular 80 proof blended applejack, 30% apple brandy blended with 70% neutral spirits. This is actually pretty good. More expensive is Laird's bonded applejack, 100% apple brandy at 100 proof. This has a stronger apple flavor due to the increased percentage of apple brandy, and has more intensity of flavor due to the higher proof and is even better at making its presence felt through the lemon and grenadine. The Jack Rose is better made with the bonded applejack. More expensive still is Laird's 12 year old apple brandy. A Jack Rose made with this wouldn't be very good, because it doesn't taste all that much like apples. Lemon and grenadine would also obscure much of the delicate character.
-
I see what you're saying, Erik. It's always a bit disheartening to see a bar menu where all the cocktails feature the most expensive products available, and yet they are all clearly unsophisticated, poor quality sugar bombs. There's nothing quite like seeing an ingredient listing that calls for both Hendrick's gin and Sprite.
The irony is that the best cocktail bars do not use the highest-priced spirits in their cocktails as a matter of course. You will never see a top cocktail bar menu that features Hendrick's in every gin drink. They're not using the lowest-priced ones either, of course. You'll see almost all of the drinks being made with Tanqueray and Plymouth rather than Old Raj or Gilbey's; Herradura Silver rather than Patron Platinum or Cuervo Silver; Rittenhouse BIB and Old Overholt rather than Michter's 10 year or Jim Beam. And in the case where a cocktail is made with Old Raj or Michter's 10 or George T. Stagg, there's a damn good reason why they're using the more expensive spirit: because it provides something that can't be had any other way in that particular drink. And there are some drinks that really demand a certain spirit or certain quality of spirit. PDT's Staggerac is an obvious example, but even something not so spirit-centric can sometimes need a more expensive spirit. A good example of that is the Juniperotivo, which really just isn't quite right without Junipero gin.
-
I also prefer the Zyliss. I don't think any of the pump types can approach the maximum RPMs you get on the pullcord types.
-
I don't think anyone disagrees that the bartender should ultimately give the customer what he asks for, if that's what they're selling.
But I don't think it's incumbent upon the bar, if it aspires to be a cocktailian bar, to stock 23 different kinds of "superpremium" and flavored vodkas, for example. In these instances, I think it's perfectly fine to say: "We don't have Gray Goose. We have Smirnoff and Ketel One, if that would be okay. Or perhaps you would like something from our menu." Similarly, they don't have to stock Crown Royal if they think it's a crap spirit. So long as they're offering it for a similar price point, they can offer Forty Creek or Alberta Premium to people who want Crown Royal.
-
okay, i am sure i am now labeling myself as a heretic here, but c'mon. do really have a "responsibility" to make sure people learn to enjoy vermouth? if anything, the only responsibility you have is to make your customer doesn't get overserved and harm himself or others. i think you may be taking this a little too seriously.
I think it depends on your perspective. As a cocktailian bartender interested in spreading the gospel and growing the craft I think there is some "responsibility" to make an attempt to influence customers towards in the right direction. I can't count the number of times I've seen Toby Maloney offer "citrus and juniper flavored vodka" (aka Plymouth gin) to customers who asked if there were any flavored vodkas in the house -- always to good effect.
Otherwise, you know... just open a shot and beer place, staff it with surgically enhanced twentysomethings in halter tops and watch the money roll in. Just make sure no one gets overserved.
On a better note the popularity of St Germain I believe is due to the fact that it is a new quality liquior in a market desperate for new modifyers.I think there are a number of things going on here. First, St. Germain is a quality spirit. Second, as Phil points out, there just aren't that many high quality modifiers around, and bartenders are enthusiastic about something new. Third, St. Germain isn't nearly as emphatic as many of the common high quality herbal modifiers such as Chartreuse, Drambuie, Benedictine, etc. (which are used a quite a lot as well!), making it an easier mixer for bartenders and an easier taster for drinkers. Fourth, we can't ignore the fact that St. Germain has done a significant promotional campaign since its introduction into the United States, with noted cocktailian bartenders signed up and lots of liquor store displays, etc.
-
I should add that Diphillobothrium tapeworms can infect humans through salmon, as discussed in the Gourmet article but this is MUCH more rare than anisakids.
Worrying about Diphillobothrium is pretty futile, it is extremely rare in comparison with anksakids.
Freezing to kill anisakids will almost certainly kill Diphillobothrium, but the condition is so rare that the FDA does not even know this for sure - here is the FDA report on Diphyllobothrium.
Mmmmm. Anisakis.
Scotch Whisky: The Topic
in Spirits & Cocktails
Posted
What's the average price they charge for a bottle once you join?