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Posts posted by Fernet-Bronco

  1. Dunno... Warm-climate syrah is often high alcohol and unbalanced, meaning it tends to fall apart quickly once opened. You say you're not experiencing this with your CA zinfandel, but much of that is made in the same style. I've had restrained Ridge Geyserville that lasts for a couple days opened, but riper, bigger Turley that falls apart in a few hours, let alone overnight. I've experienced what you're talking about, wine getting bitter and acrid overnight; it just hasn't been limited to Australian shiraz.

  2. I've recently discovered a series of videos on You Tube made by Small Screen Productions. There are various presenters but I particularly like Robert Hess. The problem has often been that we couldn't create his cocktails due missing ingredients, often a certain type of bitters. These seem relatively expensive to buy full size when so little is needed per drink. I was delighted yesterday when the Post Man delivered this selection of miniature bottles, obtained from Amazon


    The set at least gives us a chance to widen our experience without need to buy full size bottles before we are sure that we like the resulting drinks.


    Nice, those celery bitters are fun.

  3. I had a refrigerated 3-day-opened French rose turn bitter on me the other day.  Was quite surprised.  No idea why that happens.


    It happens because it oxidizes, which is what happens to all wines when they are exposed to air for a while. Three days is quite a long time to me... I usually cork it and put it back in the fridge and drink the next day if I can't finish it all in one night.


    Jo, I'm not sure of the cause in the discrepancy you're seeing between red and white table wines. It's not one I've really noticed myself, though I have found that sweeter Rieslings will last a bit longer opened in the fridge. In my experience it's been bolder wines, meaning those with a big nose and strong fruit flavors, that last longer--it seems like they can cover up the off smells that naturally occur.


    A few perhaps related points: fortified wines such as port last considerably longer than table wine, due to their higher alcohol and sugar content. Madeira can last open for months or years and may actually improve as it is exposed to air. Of course, Madeira is also a higher alcohol (and in some styles residual sugar) wine, but was intentionally exposed to heat and air during production, so it's a lot more resilient. I know that some sommeliers swear by opening their Madeira days before serving it, and some of my favorite wine programs have included a spread of Madeira bottles that have been open for months. Personally, at home, I can't keep an open bottle around for more than a week--it's just that delicious.

  4. Oh, I see. Apologies for confusing things. I've never had the yellow label that I know of. I tasted the Hamilton 151 against the red label. Never having had the original, I like the red label a lot, but if it's a different recipe perhaps that's what accounted for the difference in taste against the Hamilton 151.


    tanstaafl2, the yellow label is what someone at TikiRoom spotted in the wild recently: http://www.tikiroom.com/tikicentral/bb/viewtopic.php?topic=49099&forum=10&start=30&32

  5. mm84321,


    I also would love more info on your chicken roasted in hay. It looks beautiful, as all your photos do, of course, but what is the purpose of the hay?


    Yes, I fourth or fifth this! More info please.

  6. I've had it a few times at Mexican restaurants but always really hated it. It's a drink I want to like more than I actually do like. May try it your way, without the clamato.


    What beer do you Michelada drinkers prefer?

  7. Yeah, ours is a centrifugal juicer. I've had trouble doing any real volume of pineapple juice in it (a few chunks in a juice blend is fine) since the fiber tends to gunk up the blades and filter quickly. Ignoring this added hassle, side by side with the stick blend and strain method, I feel like it doesn't extract quite as much juice (pulp is wetter in juicer) and the juice has less sediment after hand straining.

  8. Wanted to comment on pineapple juicing process since this is something I've been struggling with in my exploration of tiki drinks. The problem, for me, is that when you juice or blend pineapple, you basically just get a delicious, wet fibrous goop that clogs up your strainer, textures the drink, and doesn't measure consistently. It's also a hassle to do in a juicer--we've got a powerful Breville but even still pineapple has sometimes gunked up the blades and required us to stop and clean it mid-juicing.


    What I've settled on is buying a whole pineapple (Whole Foods sells them whole, denuded and cored for a bit more money than you'd spend on a regular one... saves a ton of hassle for the home cook who doesn't have some poor sap peeling potatoes and pineapples all day), chopping it into strips, and then blending them with an immersion blender in a large shaker tin. That gives you the goop that might be fine in a pina colada, but won't work for non-blended drinks. I've then been straining it using an almond milk bag I bought on Amazon, Ellie's Best*. Works well, extracts a ton of juice, and the pulp left over is basically bone dry and flavorless. One ripe pineapple and ten minutes have yielded me around three cups of juice using this method.


    *I have no economic interest in this product and am not trying to plug it. It's effective and super easy to clean, and saved my ass straining juices and making orgeat. It greatly exceeded my expectations so I wanted to share.

  9. While planning a July 4 trip to New Orleans (I know, awful time to go, right? No wonder our favorite hotel still had rooms), I was heartbroken to find that Stella! has shuttered. We were latecomers to Stella and only got to visit once in Winter 2014. It was one of the best meals we've had in New Orleans, and on some days I think it's topped dining at August.


    Has anyone eaten at Stanley, their new project? Any suggestions on a replacement for Stella? We've hit Gautreau's (which we didn't love), Emeril Legasse's restaurants, the John Besh empire, the Link restaurants, and plan to return to August. Was looking at Square Root but between the $50 corkage fee (real southern hospitality) and lack of information about their food, I got kind of turned off to the place. I liked the fun, precision, and creativity of Stella and am sad to see it go.


    Or, you could try the eponymous cocktail for his new spot, Lost Lake:

    2 oz Appleton V/X
    3/4 oz Passion Fruit Syrup (B.G. Reynolds’)
    3/4 oz lime juice
    1/2 oz pineapple juice
    1/4 oz Maraschino
    1/4 oz Campari
    Shake with ice, strain over crushed ice.



    Made a batch of these last night. So delicious. I think Campari is my favorite tiki secret weapon. (Looking at you, Jungle Bird--which also pairs it with pineapple juice.) I love the grassy, chocolatey funk that the Maraschino brings here too. Trying to use up a bottle of B.G. Reynolds' passion fruit syrup before it goes off so there may be many more Lost Lakes in my immediate future.

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  11. I made my first at-home orgeat last night, using Kaiser Penguin's "Perfect Orgeat Syrup" recipe: http://www.kaiserpenguin.com/the-perfect-orgeat-syrup-recipe/


    It is a truly easy recipe, which I halved:


    1. Toast .75 lb whole raw almonds in oven.

    2. blend or smash such that some are ground fine and others are nearly whole.

    3. combine almonds with 2 cups sugar and 1 cup water on stove.

    4. bring to a simmer and simmer for a few minutes to combine sugar and water.

    5. let rest combined for at least twelve hours.

    6. strain and stir in 1-2 drops each orange flower and rose waters.


    This has a dark color (darker than any storebought orgeat I've seen), as well as a nice lightly viscous texture with a great sheen from the oil. I didn't love that it tasted basically like an almond version of the peanut brittle my mom makes around Christmas--very blunt and powerful. I think this is from how toasted the almonds were and I may try again without toasting them. My issue with storebought orgeat is that it tends to have a chemical or medicinal flavor to it. This doesn't have that but I'm not sure it'll be great either. Guess we'll have to test it with a round of mai tais tonight!

  12. Mint julep is pretty easy and you don't need the silver cup (though it adds to the overall experience). Put a bunch of mint leaves (6-10) in a six-or-so ounce glass with one tablespoon simple syrup. Lightly muddle against the glass with the back of a spoon. Add 2-2.5 ounces bourbon, mix with the spoon. Pack the glass with crushed ice, garnish with mint if you want and drink with a straw.


    Easy enough. Can add a couple shakes of angostura or orange bitters, or squeeze the oil out of some orange zest if you like. Or try it with rum.


    I like a mojito as well for a hot weather long drink but find they get exponentially better with higher quality rum and tinkering, so a good mojito may not deliver the same time-value you're looking for. I'd ditch the Jack Daniels if you can though... probably not advice you're looking for, but it tastes kind of medicinal to me to mix with other ingredients.

  13. Well, I side by side tested Ed Hamilton's new 151 Demerara against the original Lemon Hart 151 and the Mosaiq re-issue.


    Long story short, as much as I hate to give him credit, it's pretty damn good and WAY closer to the original than the Mosaiq was - should work perfectly in classic Tiki recipes calling for LH151.


    I picked up a bottle of the Hamilton 151 after following a couple threads on TikiRoom discussing replacements for LH 151. (A limited supply of Hamilton's available now at Spec's downtown Houston, for those in the area. I understand that Hamilton distribution is tiny. There is no more LH in Texas as far as I know.) I don't recall anything about this in what I've read online, so I'm a bit skeptical, but the guy who ordered it for me said the distributor told him that Hamilton bought the old LH production facility and is using the same recipe as LH 151 for Hamilton 151... taking that with a big grain of salt.


    Hassouni, I'd agree with your conclusion--Hamilton 151 is a good sub for LH 151. Side-by-side, they taste pretty similar, if perhaps a little weaker and less concentrated in flavor than the LH.


    People on TikiRoom are saying there's a yellow label LH 151 floating around... not really sure what this means for the product's future.

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