mrgrotto's Profile
Un-marinated Pig in La Caja China?
Hey All-
I've seen quite a few posts about roasting a pig in La Caja China and they unanimously talk about a mojo or some other type of marinade. I'm inaugurating my Caja China tomorrow and was trying to avoid a cuban/latin/BBQ marinade in favor of naked pork goodness. My game plan was just to inject a simple brine. No rubs, no marinating, no mops, no nothing. Thoughts?
Favorite Hard Cider
Nope, mostly:
The Basque cider is distributed through Ideal. Purveyors of all the excellent throwback spirits from Austria (Rothman and Winter, et al.) and couple few dozen great wines. I think I was actually close regarding the name. I will have to track down the one you mentioned, though. I'm intrigued.
Dupont does make a blend called Pommeau which is actually a blend of apple juice and Calvados. (My mistake. I thought it was a blend of cider and calvados.) Although a cider aged in Calvados barrels sounds equally delicious.
Belgian Beer Recs?
Oh yeah... Fantome... Kinda slipped my mind... Criminal. It's so infrequently available in the MA market.
And you are correct about the Rochefort 8 being the dubbel. My mind was already onto the lambics at that point.
Belgian Beer Recs?
Actually from Belgium:
For a quad: St. Bernardus Abt. 12 or Rochefort 10
For a tripel: Tripel Karmeliet
For a dubbel: Rochefort 6
For a lambic: Cantillon, Boon or Drie Fonteinen
For the funk: De Proef or Struiss
For the flemish sour: Duchesse de Bourgogne
For the saison: DuPont or Blaugies La Moneuse
For the everyday: Pawel Kwak, Poperings Hommel, Beersel Lager, De la Senne Taras Boulba, De Ranke Guldenberg or XX Bitter
Damn, I'm thirsty...
Belgian Beer Recs?
For the record: they're "Belgian style" brews but they're actually from Canada.
Cocktails With Swedish Punsch
Ha! I literally just had that two nights ago. Figures...
A Special G&T - So it was out of season . . .
Thought of that. Unfortunately, the quinine sludge is too dense to pour freely.
A Special G&T - So it was out of season . . .
I haven't been able to find the bark online. Do you know who there supplier is?
There's a good number of Brazilian markets nearby. I'll have to poke around.
Cocktails With Swedish Punsch
Well, technically, since bitters of this sort aren't potable, it's perfectly legal to ship them to MA, but try to explain that to your mail carrier and her/his bosses. That being said, BT were careful enough to suggest not putting the name of the hypothetical store on the label which could arouse suspicion. I agreed wholeheartedly and was more than a bit relieved when the packages arrived unfettered.
Regarding the arrack (note the extra letters compared to the Middle Eastern "arak"), that's how I pronounce it as well, but I'm sure we'll both be corrected at some point. Let me know if you get it first.
A Special G&T - So it was out of season . . .
That's the can-do spirit! (Get it? Spirit? Gin? Right...)
The two things you're going to have trouble tracking down are quinine and, I forgot earlier, citric acid. Citric acid can be found online but it's probably available wherever jarring/pickling supplies can be found. I get mine from Christina's in Cambridge or Cambridge Naturals in... you guessed it. I usually go here for my quinine: ktbotanicals.com. Tell them Joe sent you. Actually don't. They'll have no idea what you're talking about. Also, buy lots cause you're gonna use it and quinine will suddenly be unavailable for months at a time.
I was originally using a Jeffrey Morgenthaler recipe like this one:
http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2008/how-to-make-your-own-tonic-water/
Well. It wasn't "like" that one, it was that one. It's a fair place to start but I find that adding the juice and zest from three citrus fruits (lemon, lime and orange) as well as the lemongrass was just too muddled; there really wasn't the defined citrus note that I prefer. So I omitted the orange juice and replaced it with the juice of two limes. I've also screwed around with using fresh ginger both in addition to and in place of the allspice with much success. Adding a bit of orange flower water is also a treat.
A few important notes:
1.) When compiling a shopping list based on the above recipe, be sure to include the agave nectar! It's not listed in the ingredients and isn't mentioned until much later in the recipe and is easily overlooked. I say this because I might not be the only person who sucks at reading recipes and always, in the excitement of the moment, gets ahead of themselves.
2.) The allspice is CRUCIAL! Crucial, I say! Don't skimp and definitely don't consider it superfluous.
3.) Definitely don't feel constrained by the recipe. Improvise with what you have on hand and with a culinary eye, screw around. A seasonal tonic with a touch of desert spices around the holidays? A perfect excuse to G&T it up prior to summertime!
4.) Depending on the type of quinine you get (red seems to be the only one available of late), the syrup you prepare will be red. You shouldn't be alarmed and neither should your guests.
5.) Filtering sucks. Most of the quinine you're going to find is a fine powder. If you find a less pulverized version, please let me know. Straining through cheese cloth is not enough. Coffee filters take FOREVER and just got clogged up and are, in my experience, useless. What I do is poor the pre-sweetened liquid into the tallest, most narrow vessel you have (a few pint glasses is good), let the sediment settle for a few hours, and with a turkey baster, gently siphon off the precious goods. Or if you don't give a hoot about some particulate, don't filter at all (just be sure you shake the bottle well each time you use it or the last use will be a sludge of spent quinine mud). The business about the pint glasses? Whenever I've used a wider--mouthed resting place, there's always a few ounces of liquid that I can't siphon off without upsetting the quinine sludge. The wider the radius of the vessel, the more liquid becomes irretrievable. A more narrow one only leaves behind a bit. Clever, no? Make a difference? Not really.
6.) Don't sweeten with table sugar. Boring, one dimensional waste of time. I've not experimented but I imagine demerara or something else would work but the agave nectar is good enough to not be tempted to stray. Except that one time when I forgot to buy agave nectar and the bag of Domino sugar was calling my name seductively. Results were less than seductive.
7.) A soda syphon becomes useful. Even more useful is one of these bad Larrys (Larries?):
http://www.sodaclub.com/
Once you've prepared your syrup, you're ready to go. In a cocktail shaker filled with ice: 1 pt. syrup plush a dash and 2 pt. assertive dry gin (Plymouth works grandly), shake. Pour into a rocks glass, and then splash in a few ounces of soda water to taste. Stir. Garnish with lime peel. Smile.
[Somehow this ended up as a reply to myself as opposed to a reply to MGZ. Sorry!]
A Special G&T - So it was out of season . . .
Well... That depends on your salary, I suppose.
I started making my own at home and it's waaaay cheaper (like, pennies on the dollar) so it's a little tough to swallow the cost. But I also get paid peanuts and disposable income is an oxymoron. My issue, price-wise, is that gin and tonics are so easy drinking and so easy to prepare that when I commit to a night of them, I often drink... well... in excess. And considering the Q tonic is $2/bottle [read: $2/serving] and then you add in the cost of the gin, it turns a casual night of refreshment into a pretty pricey endeavor. However, I think they're definitely worth checking out. And if I wasn't making my own quinine, it'd be extremely tough to go back to the utterly false Schweppes "Tonic."
The other big issue with Q Tonic, is that people are so used to Schweppes in all of its fake glory, that they find Q too light and dry and not very "Tonic-y." Fever Tree is a little more middle of the road and might be the way to go for most, both cost-wise and expectations-wise.
I've not had the 365 but it sounds like a step in the right direction.
Cocktails With Swedish Punsch
Ha! I was totally freaking about the Bitter Truth order getting nabbed by Customs! At the... ahem... hypothetical liquor store.
A Special G&T - So it was out of season . . .
You should try Q Tonic and Fever Tree Tonic. I like the Stirrings, but I find it looses its fizz a bit too much too quickly. Q is super dry and a few bucks more than the Stirrings - real quinine and sweetened with organic agave nectar. Fever Tree is, if I remember correctly, closely priced to the Stirrings and similar in taste.
If you really wanna go for it, you can also make your own at home. Lemme know if that interests you. The trickiest part is finding quinine but there's some really good online resources for that so there's *almost* no excuse.
Cocktails With Swedish Punsch
Oh! I'd love to tell you but every time I do something like that, the ChowPolice reprimand me for self-promoting.
The name of the distributor is Ideal and I'm pretty sure they sell by the bottle so any liquor store should be willing to special order you some.
Homemade Bitters
No need to sell me on the merits of Campari and it's use in cocktails. You're preaching to the choir...
Actually, the bitters I'm making are the non-potable kind, i.e. Angostura, Peychaud's, Fee's, etc. which historically were tinctures made in-house by the bartender (and pharmacists at apothecaries). That being said, there's no reason why someone should balk at the idea of making their own potable bitters based on Campari, Aperol, Fernet, etc. Plenty of folks did it and plenty of folks do it.
Costco Vodka
Maybe it's Pinnacle? As far as I know, is produced at the same distillery Grey Goose is.
Rum that you can sip??
Old Monk rum is tasty for around $17 in MA. Rhum Agricole is a good suggestion - Clement makes a nice one that seems pretty widely available. Dogfish Head rums, if you can get your hands on a bottle, are great. 10 Cane is nice but a little pricy.
Some of those brands you listed are "sipping" rums. Maybe you just don't like rum the same way you like scotch?
The best amaretto
I like the Marie Brizard one. Less sweet than the Disaronno. Luxardo is tasty as well.
Is there a GREAT Bloody Mary Mix ???
If you can't make your own, Stirrings makes an amazing one. Very thick and rich, all natural, visible chunks of horseradish... all around great.
Easter Dinner - Beer Rec's ?
Good call on the Stoudt's. Something a little heartier than the Prima Pils would be wise with all those big flavors.
Favorite Hard Cider
J. K. Scrumpy's organic cider is deeeelicious. And a great sauce base to deglaze a pan after pan roasting pork. Much more what I look for in a cider than the champagne-y Etienne DuPont stuff (which, admittedly, is the best of that ilk - just not my cup of... errr... cider).
Has anyone seen the Calvados/cider blend that DuPont put out? I've been waiting to see bottles but it hasn't happened yet.
There's also a cider from Basque whose name escapes me that is unbelievable. Very different. It's spontaneously fermented which lends an earthy funkiness to it and it's nearly still and supposed to be poured into a cup a few feet away to work some more air into it. Isastega maybe? It actually reminds me of a geuze blended with a funky, apply white wine.
cellaring beer
Fort is a good candidate for some cellaring experiments. Super boozy. In fact it pretty much just tastes like raspberries and alcohol.
Something else to consider when cellaring, which your question brings up: If you're interested in cellaring something, cellar more than one bottle of it. If you have, say, 3 bottles of cellared Fort you could crack one now and see how it was holding up. If you thought it was loosing its charm, then crack the others sooner as opposed to later. If it still tasted great and you thought was getting better over time, then you have 2 left to sit on. Then it's just rinse and repeat till you're all out.
canton ginger liquer
I've had pretty decent success with swapping out anything calling for triple sec/Cointreau. I've found it works esp. well with gin, whiskey and lime. I kind of approach it from a Thai food angle.
Where can I find some bizarre foods resturants in Boston?
Machu Pichu Charcoal Chicken & Grill in Union Sq. sells beef heart skewers that are amazing. Also have tripe, chicken hearts and other chicken bits. Very good all around. Also nearby S&S has tongue sandwiches and chicken liver dishes.
Green Street has the occasional interesting offal. I've had calf brains (like, the actually brain, not thymus gland aka sweetbread) and veal heart that were both excellent.
Savenor's typically has one or two interesting, if not unusable, non-guts proteins in stock. More to the topic of this post though, you can get any number of bits from them - sweetbread, liver (chicken, cow, pig, presumably lamb and more), trotters, marrow bones, blood - just call ahead and give them enough time to acquire it fresh (I had a lackluster previously frozen sweetbread experience once which was totally not worth the effort).
Craigie on Main had some excellent charcuterie and some great looking off cuts going out of the kitchen during my one and only visit. Eastern Standard also has some great charcuterie plates and offal (it's great when you can see half a dozen people at nearby tables picking at bone marrow). No. 9 Park had a trio of beef with, if I remember correctly, tongue, heart and short rib. K.O. Prime headcheese had a bit of hair (pig's not chef's) in it which is a party foul but it tasted great. Pretty much most of the "great" Boston-area restaurants are playing around with this stuff.
That being said, does anyone else find it ironic that these "off-cuts" are so expensive at most these places? Always kinda made me chuckle a bit...
cellaring beer
What are your cellaring conditions? Check online for beer or wine cellaring tips and see if your fridge on the warmest setting can't match the recommended temperature and humidity, give or take.
My thoughts on cellaring:
I would suggest not using a fridge to cellar beer. There are dehumidifiers that dry out corks. Also, cold actually slows the aging of beer and thus, an "aged" beer from a fridge is more "preserved" than "cellared". Unless the lowest setting on the fridge is around 55 degrees, I think it would be a bit overkill on the cold tip. Depending on where you live, you might just be able to leave it in a basement.
Another thing to consider: If you've got the space, unplug the fridge, keep it in a cool, dark closet and, using an outdoor temperature/humidity thingee (around $7), monitor the fridge's progress for a couple weeks during the warmest part of the year. If it doesn't get above, say 65ºF and the humidity doesn't drop super low (maybe below 55%?) that would work better. You can always add a bowl of water if the moisture inside the fridge isn't high enough.
Also, there's no need to "lay them down" like a bottle of wine - upright is fine and it will help keep any sediment on the bottom of the bottle while pouring. In fact on cases of some corked beer, there's explicit instruction to store/cellar upright. And make sure you don't waste your time cellaring bottles with twist off caps (sorry Founder's!). In my experience, they won't last more than half a year.
Another suggestion: don't age a saison. They're best, IMO, fresh. Their bright dryness is the first thing to disappear when cellering. Same goes for IPAs who's strong suit is their oily, fresh, citrusy, piny flavors (which is why Russian River's Pliny label reads something akin to, "Drink me now! Don't age me!" With few exceptions, when it comes to beers where brightness is the key component to the style, I would drink them as fresh as possible. And for the same reason I wouldn't cellar a saison - the brightness dies first. (One exception of the top of my head would be sours or wild yeast beers.)
Good HOPPY Cheap Beer
A few so-far-unmentioned: HopDevil, Troeg's HopBack, Smuttynose IPA, Haverhill Leatherlips, Dale's Pale Ale, Opa Opa IPA, New England Brewing Sea Hag, Trinity IPA, Harpoon IPA...
That list goes form excellent to meh in order.
Homemade Bitters
Alright. So an update is in order. Here goes:
After steeping everything in alcohol for 2 weeks (shaking daily... and tasting... mmmm...), I strained off the infusions through a fine mesh strainer and reserved the mash for steeping in hot water. I then tried to filter them through a Brita. The Brita sorta let me down; it's just not capable of catching the fine sediment. After letting the Ball jars settle for a few days after the unsuccessful Brita filtering, I've begun to carefully syphon off the liquid per ShadowedOne's suggestion. So far so good. Minimal effort, clear liquid.
Each reserved mash was then put into another Ball jar and filled with just-under boiling water (I finally got to use my electric kettle for something other than my French press and tea!). After 2 weeks (shaking daily... and tasting, etc.), I've begun to strain off the water. First through the fine mesh strain and then through the Brita. I'm hoping that most of the smaller, non-Brita-filterable sediment was left in with the liquor during the earlier stages but we'll see. So far it looks like that's the case.
After all the straining, I'll have two containers of each ingredient; for example, I'll have one Ball jar of sassafras infused rye and one of sassafras infused water. Since the rye is 100 proof, I'll plan on bringing it down to ~80 proof by cutting it with the water. However, in order to concentrate the flavor of the water, which is, well, watery, I'm going to figure out how much water I need to get each infused liquor down to the appropriate proof and then extremely gently, boil the water down to the right volume. Once boiled down, I'll add it to the appropriate liquors to achieve the correct proof.
Then comes the blending!
And more reporting...
Cocktails With Swedish Punsch
Made my own. Max Toste from Deep Ellum's recipe was in Imbibe an issue ago. Batavia Arrack, cardamom, nutmeg, simple syrup and lemon juice.
Dread Swede sounds pretty dang tasty. Are you using the St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram? Or are you making it yourself?
Cocktails With Swedish Punsch
Any good cocktail suggestions with Swedish Punsch? I'm kinda going crazy over Waldorfs right now, but would like to try a couple new ones. Also made a couple Bohannons (from Deep Ellum's Casey Keenan).
