jsolomon

That is amazing! I may never be able to make chicken potpie for my fiance again, but amazing! I have tried the wine education thing, and it works okay. I've never dated a foodie before, and I have never had a woman try to woo me to bed unwillingly, so I have distressingly little to add

Tell you what, Sam, I'll try with a Boddington's. Then, I might see if I can do some horse-trading with a P-chem lab T.A. to see if I can borrow a viscometer. I don't know about mouth-feel vs actual viscosity, but I could ask the other members of Fond Of Omaha Dining to see if they're in for some testing. Edit to add: Jackpot

I'm in as long as the book is round, or somehow shows the round peg/square hole phenomenon I feel whenever I re-realize that, yes, I am the only one I know in a reasonable social circle. Oh, I might also ask that we re-insert the "i" into Cubicle.

No... I would say that, everything else being equal, bubbles detract from perceived and actual viscosity (the two being related, but not exactly the same thing). Try this: Open a nice heavy ale and remove the carbonation to the greatest extent possible. You want a flat beer. Then open a fresh bottle of the same beer. Sample them side by side for mouthfeel. The flat beer is more viscous. Or, again... try making two identical Manhattans, one stirred and the other shaken. Sample them immediately. The stirred drink is more viscous. All other things being equal, a liquid full of bubbles should pour faster than the same liquid without bubbles. This means it is less viscous. ← Sam, I'm not sure I agree with you on the mouthfeel of the beer, simply because of the difference of carbonation vs aeration in the mouthfeel category. I'm not going to argue any of the other points (though I disagree).

The hot-dog is an American every-person's food that really fits in with our psyche as a culture. We are the culture who wants our heroes to be "normal people" i.e. blue-collar such as John Henry, Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, Abraham Lincoln--he did grow up in a log cabin--and Davey Crocket. We idolize the Dukes of Hazzard, and every American who can lay true claim to appreciating a true hot dog really enjoyed "Smoky and the Bandit". It's a bourgeois food that resonates with our "Sixteen Ton" society where we have to eat on the run while we're working like hell to go one step forward and two steps back. The same thing with a hamburger. They are meant to be eaten while there are distractions occuring. That is why the buns aren't grilled like a reuben.

Throw in a tabasco swirl, and I'd sidle up to the bacon ice cream feed trough.

The only cautionary statement I have is in some places, it gets cold... cold enough to turn your second fridge into a freezer. If your garage is attached, or your weather doesn't get horribly severe for long periods of time, it's perfectly fine.

There are compounds of different color in wine with differing "strengths" of color. When you have finished with the glass, you may have some that have stuck to the inside of the glass either through their affinity to the glass itself, or something stuck to the glass--detergent, glycerol, etc. Either the pH of what's on the glass or other parts of its general chemical environment cause the colored molecule that is dissolved in it to change color. Then, when it is back in a mostly water environment, it changes back to its original color. It's nothing to worry about. Edit because I read the question closer.

I have to admit, I had that at some point in the past. I'm over it now, mostly due to poverty, and the wish to have more than a couple of bottles of wine on hand. I don't drink a lot of really great wine--just look at my posts about wine in the past. But, I am in AnnaN's camp. If it's being sold, it must make a passable product. And, everyone I know who IRL that has made one, has always come back with good reports. I'm looking forward to this.

I am a 15-35 year-old male, and little on the channel appeals to me. Who can I complain to at Foodnetwork to tell them that they are dunderheads?

One week post-racking, it's time to stabilize, kill, and clarify the wine. We started by assembling the Quality Assurance group. That's Kody on the left, and Gabrielle (it's her birthday!) on the right. One thing I don't have a picture of is actually adding the additives. They are Potassium metabisulfite to kill the yeast, Potassium sorbate to stabilize the wine, and Isinglass to clarify. Whenever modeling power tools in the use of food-making, one should always look quite demented. Immediately after adding the additives, the next step is to stir the crap out of the wine to liberate any dissolved CO2. This will change the pH and allow both the isinglass and the potassium sorbate to work their magic. Now, I have two more weeks to wait and then bottling. Well, bagging, mostly. I got 3 5 liter bags and 3 3 liter bags from Scholle as testers, so I'll likely use them.

docsconz, you forgot Wilde's corollary to that, "including moderation".

For currently alive educated chefs, (AB)^2, Alton Brown and Anthony Bourdain. For educational aspects, Margaret Visser and Harold McGee For sheer wackiness, George Hormel (credited with inventing Spam®) and John Belushi (as The Samurai Chef) But, my piece de resistance is the Turning Points of American Cookery couple, Thomas Jefferson (inventor of macaroni and cheese) and Julia Child (inventor of Julia Child) Anthony Bourdain, author of Kitchen Confidential. Ambrose Bierce of the cooking world.

This is true. Code for beer in my Reserve Army unit is "pork chop in a can".

What a fascinating topic! I think I fall as an outlier because I love both wine and beer, and I eat a very varied diet with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, home-cooked meats--and even planned leftovers for lunches instead of cold-cuts. My beer consumption is decreasing because it is my fiance who generally buys the beer since we moved in together, and I'm not a fan of the National Beer of Nebraska, Bud Light. When I purchase beer for myself, it is just as likely to be a six-pack of something much heavier which one simply cannot drink pint after pint of. I would love to see a breakdown of "discerning beer buyers" vs "American-style beer buyers". I.e. break out six-packs of SIAC beer vs beer that is brewed to have flavor and body, then see how things stack. However, I do buy about even amounts of butter, oil, and olive oil. They all have their places in my diet. But, responding to Tess's comment, in my area a lot of people are not just beer drinkers or wine drinkers, but you can break the beer drinkers down into groups of Bud Light drinkers, Miller Lite drinkers, Busch Light drinkers, etc. It's scary.

The comments under Wine and the Devil's Child are supremely in line with what I learned while becoming a lactation consultant. The moral boils almost completely down to this: Keep momma happy while gestating or lactating, and biology will take care of itself. I think it is fabulous that someone is championing this cause. I hope the research continues so that when I have my medical degree I can say to expecting mothers, go ahead and have a beer or a glass of wine with your meal. But, promise me two things: you'll drink in moderation, and eat all of your vegetables. I also think that it is a damned shame that chocolate showed up on that list. Here are a couple of related studies published in journals: Reading the abstracts of these shows that there is much conflicting information out there. I highly recommend that interested parties read at least one of the pre-1990 and one of the post-1990 articles to gain a better understanding of how medical opinions change based on a number of variables.

I just toss handfuls into stews. They add body and thicken the soups or stews nicely.

Hmm, it it weren't an 8 hour drive to the closest one, I'd be interested. But, I might just have to skip out of town on a weekend anyway. Do you have any tips for the tryout?

There is a reason that laboratory water baths are made with 25 pounds (or more!) of slate as the actual basin material. There is a lot of mass there, which translates to a lower temperature deviation when you stick in your what-have-you to come to the bath temperature. This being so, when I put 1 L of agar in our 45C water bath straight from the autoclave, I can still see a 6 C deviation.

Well, at least we know that the secret ingredient isn't humility.

No, this isn't ice shards, it's frozen, slushy drink... like a beer you've left just a bit too long in the freezer.

I think I would have to fall back on my military customs and courtesies and say, "Sir, with all due respect, you are an A-hole."

Weeeeeeeell, either on day 3 you were eating from a kryptonite bowl, or you added the cayenne at a point where the capsaicin wasn't going to dissociate out of the cayenne in time for you to really get its kick on the first day. Cold things don't dissolve quickly, so it wasn't permeating the ice cream on the first day. Also, capsaicin, IIRC, sublimes readily, so it has multiple means of transport through the ice cream, even while frozen--it just needs time.

Wow, you make him sound like a zombie, or something... which I suppose would be preferable to a couple of first dates I've had. At least I'd know why they were the way they were. F.Y.I. I do hold slkinsey in the greatest regard. But eating brains was something I just couldn't resist. edit: agreement in tense, case, and gender

Fourth SSB from the right here (although, I was conceived and born in wedlock). Chilling does have a direct effect on the neurons and taste receptors, though. Actually there are two things going on: cooling the capsaicin will lower its transport speed from the food to the taste receptor, and cool neurons work slower. So, it doesn't surprise me too much.