Month: October 2011
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Camper’s Cocktails in Every Day with Rachael Ray
I have a two-page spread in the November 2011 issue of Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine. It has a few trends – stuff like fresh ginger and sherry/port in place of vermouth along with some ice cube tricks (recognize that rainbow ice?). Also it has four recipes I developed- a spirit-interchangeble mint buck, a…
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A Visit to the Cointreau Distillery in Angers, France
This October I visited the Cointreau distillery in Angers, France. Angers is located southwest of Paris, about equidistant from Paris and Bordeaux. I hadn't realized, but Cointreau was not originally famous for orange liqueur, but for Guignolet, a cherry liqueur. Cherries were brought the region by King Rene', who lived at the Chateau D'Angers. We…
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Solid Liquids: The Deconstructed Midori Sour
Just for fun in the Solid Liquids Project I put some dehydrated Midori to good use. I made a Deconstructed Midori Sour. You dip the lemon in dehydrated Midori, bite into the Midori-coated lemon, and then do the shot of vodka. With people who do the lime-salt-tequila shot, they use the lime to and salt…
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Happy 60th Birthday, Golden Cadillac Cocktail
Poor Red's BBQ in the California gold country is famous for the Golden Cadillac, a cocktail created in 1952. Next year will be the drink's 60th birthday. It's a combination of Galliano, creme de cacao, and cream, thrown into a blender. Poor Red's sells them by the thousands. (They don't look this fancy at Poor…
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Which Liqueurs Crystallize When Dehydrated?
In the Solid Liquids Project I've experimented with various methods to dehydrate liqueurs into solids. I've found that not every liqueur does crystallize through conventional heating methods to boil off the alcohol and water. Ones that do not crystallize usually leave a thick, sticky, gummy glob at the bottom of their container. I have not…
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A Note About Dehydrating Honey-Based Liqueurs
In the Solid Liquids Project I found that liqueurs sweetened with honey do not crystallize. (At least the honey-sweetened liqueurs that I tried.) I theorized on why and how we might over come this in this post. However, in reading an unrelated book, I think I found the real reason these liqueurs are not crystallizing. I was…
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Orange Liqueur Dehydration with Tapioca Maltodextrin
It's nice when other people do experiments for you. Reader Jonathan Faircloth started a blog called The Zymologic Table to record the trials and tribulations of making orange liqueur dust. Though it's not my experiment, this is a continuing part of the Solid Liquids project, in which I am searching for ways to dehydrate liqueurs…
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A Trip to Italy with Pallini Limoncello
I am one lucky son-of-a-gun. This September I visited Rome and the Amalfi Coast with Pallini Limoncello. Though we began the trip in Rome and went to the Amalfi Coast later, I'll explain the process of making limoncello in the proper order. The Lemons of the Amalfi Coast The lemons for Pallini are sfusato ("elongated") lemons,…
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A Trip to Sweden with Purity Vodka
This summer I went to Sweden (twice this year!) with Purity vodka. Purity is located not far from Malmo, across the water from Copenhagen, in a building on the estate of Ellinge Castle. Now, Ellinge doesn't look like a typical castle, but there has been one in some form here since the early 14th century…