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Food Thread: Don't Rib Me About My Failed Garlic Adventure!

I like lamb. I like lamb ribs. I like lamb ribs slowly grilled on indirect heat and then finished on high direct heat to get them nice and crispy!

But these did not satisfy! They are from a sort-of-local hipster company that my SiL enjoys, and she gave them to me, so who am I to say no?

But I should have. They were incredibly gamey, and not in that delicious lamb way that many people enjoy so much. They were greasy and strong-flavored and reminded me a bit of aged beef that is just a bit too old for consumption.

And the frustrating thing is that I cooked them perfectly!

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Well, our long national nightmare is over, and the garlic project has been a complete and total failure. And I have nobody to blame but myself...I just have to figure out what I did wrong!

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I recently had a very pleasant email exchange with a lurker who is as much of a loon when it comes to Manhattans as I am! Obviously he stirs his Manhattans because he is not a savage, and he uses Rye, not Bourbon, because he is not a savage.

[A friend] and I decided to craft the perfect Manhattan. It took 18-months of back and forth travel between [our homes]. We tasted 20+ ryes, 6 different sweet vermouths, 5 different cherries, and at least a dozen bitters. We could not use anything more expensive than $75 for the rye. Who wants to mix an 18 y/o Sazarac with anything?

This is the best Manhattan according to our pallet.

2 parts - 6 y/o Piggyback Rye
Honorable Mention- Sazarac OB 100pf, Basil Hayden’s Dark Rye, Mitchers Rye, Rittenhouse Rye BinB

1 part - Carpano Antica
Nothing else comes close, the complexity and depth blow everything else away.

Angostura Bitters - double shot in the glass. The original is the best for this! Tried boutique styles and walnut and orange and others but none are as good.

Amarena Fabbri cherry. One per serving. Add juice to change the sweetness to your liking. Much better than Luxardos.

STIR the rye and vermouth over ice gently until cold and pour into a rocks glass with the bitters and cherry(ies) already in the glass.

So I made a couple! The first was true to his recipe, and it did indeed make an excellent Manhattan. The second night I bumped the Rye up to 3:1, because that's just the way I roll! And it was also a delicious and pleasing cocktail.

Were they better than my recipe? No, and they were different. But I would happily drink them without looking back, especially since he introduced me to those cherries, which absolutely blow Luxardos out of the water. I think that Luxardo has ramped up production recently and their quality has suffered. Amarena Fabbri is simply much, much better!

As for the Vermouth? Carpano Antica is the class of Vermouths...of that there is no doubt. And it is also very rich and intense, so it makes a Vermouth-forward drink. If you like that, then go for it. If you like a more spirit-forward Manhattan, then you will have to play around some.

Which is the point! I had a blast trying this recipe!

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The peanut butter dilemma has been solved!

[Hat Tip: Misanthropic Humanitarian]

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I have discussed the glory that is hush-puppies, but last week I wanted to jazz them up a a bit and thought about adding shrimp. My plan was to peel raw shrimp, cut them up into small but recognizable pieces, and simply mix them into the batter. Of course I could also mince the shrimp, but I like the idea of texture, so that might be for a future experiment. The question is: will the shrimp cook in the few minutes the hush-puppies are in the hot oil?

Yes, this is how I occupy my free time.

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[Hat Tip: Powerlineblog.com]
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The garlic is harvested! And it looks...well...sigh. Send all of your excellent home-grown garlic to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.

Rumor has it that the Bourbon Bubble is bursting. I have seen no evidence of decreasing prices, but maybe the bursting started somewhere else! I think the sweet spot is $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.

The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty or fifty years, but it is worth it!