slkinsey

Oh! When you said "new" and "report on its state" I got the impression you were worried it would be reformulated or different somehow.

It's not dry. But not too sweet either. The R&W is pretty dry. Think of it as a Silver Corpse Reviver #2 subbing the R&W CdV for the Lillet Blanc. The CdV is only marginally sweeter than Lillet Blanc.

A while back in the thread on sloe gin we had a minor diversion on Mirto. Mirto is a traditional infusion from the island of Sardegna, which is a large but remote and sparsely populated island off the Mediterranean coast of Italy. Sardegna is to Italy as Corsica is to France -- technically part of the country, but not really culturally a part of the country, and with special autonomy under the state constitution. Mirto is the Italian word for "myrtle," and here are two different kinds of Mirto di Sardegna: Mirto Rosso, which is made from the berries (and perhaps some of the leaves) of the myrtle tree, and Mirto Bianco, which is made only from the leaves of the myrtle tree. Both are made by infusing the myrtle berries and/or leaves in alcohol. The rosso type is sweet. Not sure about the bianco type, as I have not had a chance to sample it. Mirto Rosso is a very interesting spirit. Definitely some berry flavors and sweetness there. But also a certain resinous quality that brings to mind fresh, sticky rosemary. As chance would have it, I recently sampled a very nice cocktail including a hint of fresh rosemary prepared by one Mister Damon Dyer at Flatiron Lounge, so I had the idea that a little resin could be interesting. So far I've been riffing on sloe gin drinks. The mirto versions are nothing like the sloe gin drinks, but many of the same principles apply. The best so far have been a Mirto Sour with 1 1/2 gin, 3/4 lemon, 3/4 simple, egg white and a 1/2 ounce mirto float, and a "Tango Sardo" with equal parts Mirto Rosso and Laird's bonded. Argiolas has good distribution in NYC of their Tremontis Mirto, which is the one I've been using (a rosso). And Zedda Piras makes both a Mirto Rosso and a Mirto Bianco. Zedda Piras is part of Gruppo Campari, but I've never seen their products in the States. If you have a chance, pick up a bottle and try it out. It's an interesting spirit that provides opportunities to create cocktails with a new and largely unfamiliar flavor.

What do you mean by "new" Rittenhouse BIB? As far as I know, they haven't changed anything.

Given the cloudiness, I wonder if this might be one where following the instruction to shake would be better.

The more I think about this, the more I suspect I am correct about time-at-temperature. Think about cooking, say, some broccoli pieces in 95C water. After you put the broccoli in the water, how long can it possibly take before the core temperature of the broccoli is approximately 95C? Certainly no more than a minute. And yet, if you pull the broccoli out of the water after 1 minute, it will still be fairly crisp. Leave the broccoli in the water for 5 minutes, and it will be soft. What's the difference? Time-at-temperature. For cooling in ice water versus cooling in air, it may be that the difference in time-at-temperature is not significant enough to make a difference. Which would suggest that cooling blanched vegetables in ice water is a waste of time. As Jack suggests, it should be a fairly simple experiment. Additionally, as Al suggests, there may be no benefit gained in chilling vegetables that have been cooked SV at lower temperatures.

Jack, I don't think you read my post carefully enough. My example of beef specifically mentioned tenderloin because it is a tender meat. There should be minimal difference, if any, between a beef tenderloin cooked to 55C for 3 seconds or 30 minutes. Both will be medium-rare, and both will have the same tenderness. A brisket cooked to 55C for 30 minutes versus 30 hours... yes, there will be a difference in texture. However, both will still be at the same level of "doneness" (medium rare). Vegetables are different. Texture and "doneness" are usually the same thing. I am hypothesizing that a vegetable blanched in 95C water for a fixed period of time and left on a platter will have a softer texture than one which is chilled in an ice bath. I may be incorrect about this, however. Nathan's charts indicate that the vegetable will reach the same peak core temperature regardless of whether the vegetable is chilled in an ice bath or not. So, if it is the case that the unchilled vegetable is softer than the chilled vegetable, then it cannot be due to a difference in core temperature. The only thing that differentiates the two vegetables, then, would be time-at-temperature, with the unchilled vegetable spending significantly more time in the higher temperature range.

This is getting somewhat out of the topic of sous vide, but I would imagine it may have to do with reactions and effects that are both time and temperature dependent. In a piece of beef tenderloin, for example, 30 minutes at the temperature of medium rare is not much different from 3 seconds at the temperature of medium rare. The meat will have the "doneness" of medium rare. In some vegetables, however, there may be some advantage to taking it up to a certain temperature range and then back out as soon as possible. A stalk of asparagus that is taken out of simmering water and plunged into an ice bath will spend not very much time at high temperature. A stalk of asparagus that is taken out of simmering water at the same time and simply placed on a platter will spend considerably more time at high temperature. This may mean that the non-chilled stalk of asparagus will have more cell wall degradation, etc. and a consequently softer texture. This is just a guess.

Absolutely! It's not a coincidence, I think, that many of the centers of cocktail culture in the US right now are cities with a relatively dense urban core and convenient access to decent modes of public transportation. This can take the form of subway, trolley, bus or even a reasonable number of taxicabs (which is what I usually take in New Orleans after an evening of boozing).

Actually, I think there would be a significant difference between a Rittenhouse BIB and a Rittenhouse 23 Sazerac. Whether one would be better than the other is a matter of taste and opinion. But the Sazerac is a cocktail that is comprised almost entirely of the base spirit, so it's not a good example. Not so something like the Last Word. I get what you're saying. . . just a bad example drink. Part of the point I think Phil is making is not only the fact that the special properties of VEP are lost in a cocktail like the last word (it's hard to see how any "special refinement" could possibly hold up alongside an equal measure of Luxardo maraschino), but that a VEP Last Word might even be not as good as a regular Green Chartreuse Last Word. I would think that a good cocktailian bartender in the appropriate setting might advise a customer asking for a VEP Last Word that the drink really works better with regular Green Chartreuse. The other thing I think Phil decries (and so do I) is the gimmickry and appeal to price snobbery implicit in the offer of a drink using the most expensive ingredient available, when that spirit doesn't contribute at least a reasonably commensurate improvement or resonably noticable difference in the drink. We're not talking about offering a Margarita made with $1.00/ounce Herradura Silver instead of $0.64/ounce Sauza. We're talking about a Last Word with $3.48 ounce VEP instead of $1.70 regular Green Chartreuse. Just doing some quick math, the VEP alone would raise the cost of the drink something like 50%. I would argue that an upgrade from Sauza to Herradura in a Margarita makes a bigger difference than an upgrade from regular Green to VEP does in a Last Word. I've had a few VEP Last Words for fun, and while I might be able to tell the difference in a side-by-side comparison, it was by no means a "special experience" one would hope for in a $18 cocktail. Sometimes, however, the upgrade to a superpermium spirit does make a difference and is worth it. PDT's "Staggerac" is a good example. The use of George T. Stagg as the base spirit in a Sazerac abaolutely makes a unique and memorable experience.

I wonder what would be a super-expensive Last Word? Something like: Kensington Reserve XO London Dry Gin Green Chartreuse VEP Luxardo Perla Dry Riserva Speciale Buddha's Hand juice or Kalamansi juice (fresh to-order, of course) Not saying it would be good!!!

The Latest Word is brilliant! I have to say that I agree a bit about using VEP in drinks like this. The ones I've had didn't taste special.

I probably go through 5 bottles of rye for every bottle of bourbon.

Not having read the paper, which is gated, I note that the authors say in the article that "we controlled for physical activity, total calorie intake and other possible explanations for the difference in body mass." This would presumably account for most of the extrinsic factors such as socioeconomics.

The UNS article says: What this doesn't answer, of course, is whether there is something about the overweight people that made them prefer higher levels of MSG. We already know that two people with the same physical activity and total calorie intake can differ widely in weight. So somehing is making the overweight person overweight. So here's the question: Is it the extra MSG that makes that person overweight, or is it the "something" that makes that person prefer extra MSG?

Definitely an interesting drink. I didn't happen to have any white industrial rum around, so I had to choose between Flor de Caña gold and La Favorite. I decided to try the rhum agricole, as I figured it would have an easier time cutting through the Cynar. I was right, it worked very well. I agree that Cynar doesn't have much of an artichoke flavor -- or rather doesn't have much of the flavor we associate with the parts of the artichoke we eat and (usually) cook. Nevertheless, is cocktail did seem to have a distinct background flavor that was quite evocative of artichoke.

Actually, barista is either masculine or feminine. Thus: il barista ("the barman") and la barista ("the barwoman"). Le bariste would properly describe a group of barpeople that is comprised exclusively of women, whereas i baristi would describe a group of barpeople that includes at least one man. It's worthy of pointing out that none of these words refers exclusively to people who work at a coffee shop and/or operate expresso machines. The guy shaking your Daiquiri is a barista, too.

The numbering of them, as far as I know, comes from the Savoy Book. The CR #1 consists of 1/4 Italian vermouth, 1/4 apple brandy or Calvados and 1/2 Brandy. There is also a "Savoy Corpse Reviver" dating to 1954 from Joe Gilmore at the Savoy, consisting of equal parts brandy, Fernet Branca and white crème de menthe.

Another tidbit from Chemical Science:

I like grapeseed a lot too, and when I used it, searing meat was a more leisurely process. But it's pretty expensive. I've gone to using inexpensive olive oil for all my stovetop use. It's not as robust. I guess it depends on how much you use. It takes me more than a month to go through a liter of grapeseed oil. On the other hand, I once ignited extra-virgin olive oil using this same technique. Not recommended. I think it's possible to ignite just about any oil using this technique, if you're not careful. I do. That's why I don't use it any more. This sensitivity may be at least partially genetically-mediated (like the ability to smell cyanide and "asparagus pee"). I don't know about that. I still get the fishy smell, which comes from linolenic acid. It's not clear to me that this can be "refined out" of canola oil (although it might potentially be bred out of the cultivar). Canola oil is 11 percent alpha-linolenic acid, the highest percentage for any cooking oil. The only familiar oil higher than that is flaxseed oil, which clocks in at 57%. I think we can all agree that we wouldn't want to cook with flaxseed oil. Next highest is soybean oil, at 8% alpha-linolenic acid. I've also found soybean oil a bit fishy from time to time. Everything else is less than 1%. Hmm. If we're fully disclosing, I should add that I have also been paid money by the Canola Council of Canada, to write lyrics for a song performed at the closing party of their convention.

Most of the time, if you get the food into the pan with some alacrity, the oil will never reach the smoke point anyway. I've left a heavy copper pan on a full-blast stove for 10 minutes before pouring in a touch of grapeseed oil and either slapping in a steak or tossing in some vegetables for a super-fast saute. I've never had the oil break down on me from the 2-5 seconds it takes in between putting in the oil and putting in the food. I agree with Dave about grapeseed. It's my go-to lipid for high heat cookery.

I honestly can't tell what, exactly, she's asking for.

Interesting list, evo- Some thoughts and questions... 1. As far as I am aware, the John Collins is made with genever (aka Hollands gin). What you have there would appear to be a Tom Collins. 2. I'm curious about your decision to standardize on Ten Cane rum for your Mojito, Daiquiri and Hemingway. These drinks call for a Cuban-style rum made from molasses, such as Havana Club or Flor de Cana. Ten Cane, being distilled from sugar cane juice and in a different style, would seem to offer a different flavor profile for these drinks. Not that they wouldn't be good, of course, just different. What was your thinking on that? 3. As you point out, Dave's "Tombstone" is more or less JT's "Whiskey Cocktail." To the extent that the Tombstone is different, I thought it was due to the specification of the whiskey (Wild Turkey Rye 101) and the fact that it is shaken rather than stirred. I note that you're making the drink stirred with scotch? These are nitpicks, of course. I like the list. All hits. No wasted space. Good variety. Something for everyone. Are the stories going to appear on the menu? If there's room, it's a nice touch. What's the cocktail culture like in Aberdeen?

Please do post.

Meh. I think it's pretty interesting that the Last Word had grown so far in popularity in only a few years that it was not outlandish to suppose that a place billing itself as a cocktail bar would know the drink. Something smiliar happened with the Aviation, which wasn't exactly a household word even among cocktailians as of ten years ago, and is now considered a firmly-entrenched classic. Ironically, considering that it was my suggestion and I have a dasher bottle of absinthe for just such an application, I've never tried it. Does it add anything?