Science of Shaking II - recycled posts

The guys at www.cookingissues.com made also pretty amazing graphs!

The ice doesn’t matter and even the time of shaking doesn’t really matter [as long as you are shaking longer than 15-20 seconds - a problem of most bartenders...]

What matters is the amount of water, which comes with the ice.

Maybe a good drainage in the ice well, makes more sense than a “double_expensive_super_ice_machine?

Yes and no!

The results are talking to me like that:

there is no [ice] excuse anymore, when you get shitty drinks in a bar!

A proper ice machine still shows you, which drinking venue is quality oriented!

And: the results are only related to the sole shaking. If you use shitty ice cubes in a drink on the rocks, the drink will dilute much faster in the glass.

Now, thanks to Dave Arnold, we can slow down again a bit [after the ice carving out of a glacier from the moon] and apply our special skills to more customers.

Well... he didn’t only assessed the shaking - he also made experiments with clarifying juices.

Bartenders - come again up to speed!

You know, what bothers me the most? We do have so many so called Molecular Mixologists - but at the end a Chef has to solve our problems. I guess, this confirms my previous assumption, that there is a significant difference between molecular chefs and bartenders. The latter usually only uses science for the cheap trick. A pity!

Comments

How to use citric acid - and why you might not want to use it anyway!

To be honest, I shied away of this topic, because I think, people can misinterpret this - big time. I don't want to be part of the problem - I want to be part of the solution! But when Chris, over at A Bar Above discussed this subject- I literally could not resist to join into "the discussion". Here is the video: I - however take a bit slower approach than Chris. What is citric acid? Chemical Compound Citric acid is a weak organic acid with the formula C6H8O7. It is a natural preservative/conservative and is also used to add an acidic or sour taste to foods and drinks. Wikipedia Formula: C6H8O7 Molar Mass: 192.124 g/mol Melting Point: 153C Density: 1.66 g/cm3 Boiling point: 175C Soluble in: Water Why is it controversial? In my "mixology world" it is controversial, as citric acid is the stuff, which makes the nightmarish sour mix [ preferably in powder form ] sour. Yeah - citric acid is the main ingredient in one of the most

King Robert II Vodka

Who would knew, that I am reviewing a budget vodka here - on the opinionatedalchemist.com. But this isn't a normal review. I skip the marketing perception and use this product to cut directly to the case: Vodka is a "rather" neutral, colorless, "rather" flavorless and odorless distilled beverage from any agricultural source - and depending on the country, it has a minimum of 37.5% and 40% abv. As I said time and time again before: at times it is absolutely nonsense to talk about premium and luxury, when the original product doesn't really "hold this promise". Luxury water can have luxurious marketing, luxurious packaging, can be even rare and slightly more expensive "to produce". However really it is just water. Maybe it has some nuances to normal water - however those nuances (in a blind-test) are pretty small. Vodka is extremely similar - and the chain of evidence (despite a lot of people trying to proof otherwise) makes it re

Agar-Agar Clarification

Not often, I am posting here things, which are clearly not my ideas... However Dave Arnold is clearly a mad scientist [no, he really is!] - and he posted amazing stuff on his website www.cookingissues.com - no - don't click now - just follow the link later. One of the most impressive posts about mixology, besides of demystifying the mechanics of shaking, were clarification techniques. Look, after him, you could use a centrifuge [which would set you back a couple thousand bucks] and a chemical compound, which solidifies sediments. I am not a fan of that. Then there is gelatine clarification; this works quite well [I tried it several times my self] - you gelatinize a liquid [with little gelatine only], freeze it, thaw it [in the fridge] over a colander and a muslin cloth. Thats it. Unfortunately this has several problems: Gelatine is made out of animal bones - hence it is neither vegetarian nor vegan, which you won't usually expect of a beverage. You have to freez

opinionated alchemist

Search This Blog