Entries tagged with 'alcohol'
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Longtime Green City Market veteran fruit slinger Peter Klein, of Seedling Orchard in South Haven, Michigan, unveiled a hard cider a few weeks ago here in Chicago. Like me, he's a huge fan of Normandy ciders and was inspired by the tipple to make his own. All apples for Klein's cider are hand-picked and pressed on a hydraulic press "soft" cider mill on his property. Seedling's hard cider is made from a mix that is heavy on tarter varieties and a fall blend of apples with good sugar content. He says, "Historically, I think we would like even more tart and tannic apples in the mix; but we don't grow these yet." Klein adds, "If we have a good year,...
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From cookbookjj.com Cocktail books, like cookbooks, tend to have a fairly short lifespan. While there are some on the shelf that are worn and stained from years of use, there are many others gathering dust, and that wind up in used bookstores and boxes at the Salvation Army after their relevance has waned and they no longer have anything tasty or novel to offer. In the category of mixology books that are not only kept, but collected and even treasured, are the books by Charles H. Baker, Jr., a writer and bon vivant who penned two sets of globe-trotting books in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s that focused on food and drink: the two-volume Gentleman’s Companion (1939), and a follow-up...
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Photograph by Becca Dilley of Heavy Table. "What’s the best way to deliver a beer-resistant friend or family member into the warm and loving arms of craft beer?" asks James Norton of Heavy Table. As a nondrinker my answer would be, "Lie to me and tell me it's something else," but Norton has more helpful advice. He says to steer clear of lagers and hoppy craft brews and to appeal to the personal tastes of your craft-beer newbie. His group taste tests nine beers in three categories—fruit beers, wits, and stouts—for an introduction to "the joys of craft beer." Read his group's reviews to find out which ones they would most recommend....
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Photograph from Savvy Housekeeping If you really like apple cider (the alcoholic kind, that is), Savvy Housekeeping shares a tutorial for how to make apple cider at home. Apple juice, brown sugar, wine yeast, beer-making equipment, and a few weeks of patience will reward you with 42 bottles of apple cider. Related Bathtub Gin and Other DIY Alcohols Make Your Own Wine at Home How to Make a Watermelon Keg...
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On Fridays, Deb Harkness (Good Wine Under $20) joins us to talk wine. Take it away, Deb! Photograph from viZZZual.com on Flickr Gewürztraminer is one of those grapes that’s hard to spell. Because of this, it's often overshadowed by wines like Riesling that are so much easier to pronounce. Despite its tongue-twisting name, it's easy to fall in love with Gewürztraminer because the grape produces wines that are aromatic, spicy, and pair brilliantly with spicy food—especially Asian food. I love Gewürztraminer with Thai cuisine, seafood (especially oysters), and grilled chicken or fish. If you're interested in trying a Gewürztraminer, remember that the grape is grown all over the world. The wines made from the grape range from fruit-forward treats to...
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Grappa by Nardini Virtually everything in the world of spirits is an acquired taste, but some tastes take longer to acquire than others. In today’s Washington Post, Jason Wilson tackles a tipple that can be a particularly rough one to get accustomed to: grappa. Wilson doesn’t beat around the bush when it comes to the way most people view this spirit (which is made from the grape pomace left over from pressing wine), asking rhetorically right at the outset, "You’re afraid of grappa, right?" Wilson writes that Italian winemakers looking to jump on the grappa bandwagon in the 1980s and 1990s bear a lot of responsibility for the spirit’s shabby reputation; by viewing grappa as a marketing tool for their...
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My skål shot finally went up on the French Culinary Institute's blog Cooking Issues. It's part of Dave Arnold and Nils Norén's Skoal/Skål Project. I'm in good company. Cheers!...
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All you need to know when you're looking for cookout wines is this: ZEST. It stands for Zinfandel, Easy on the Oak, South America, and Tempranillo.
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When attending a party at someone's home, the drink options are usually right out in front of you: A beer? Glass of wine? Or maybe a cocktail or some punch? While many people have their standard go-to drink that they choose, there are also the indecisive guests who may want a cocktail but don’t want to deal with the alcohol payload in a martini, or who want to enjoy the flavor of a glass of wine but want something a little more exciting to get into the party mood. Wine cocktails have been making a bit of a comeback at bars and restaurants in recent years, and now Seattle writer A.J. Rathbun has a guide to wine cocktails for home...
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Alan Richman, "GQ" magazine food writer. Visiting Sweden? Hope to impress a Swede? Just want to appear worldly and stylish? The French Culinary Institute's Cooking Issues blog has been posting an ongoing series of photos it calls the Skål!/Skoal! Project that can school you in one small social custom. The series includes such food-world luminaries as Jeffrey Steingarten, Harold McGee, Wylie Dufresne, and Alan Richman (above), who has perhaps the most extreme skål to date. More pix after the jump....
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