While training the new student we started having some production issues with material pulsing that made for a great teaching opportunity. We reviewed the labview monitor and saw significant instability in the flows with overly aggressive controls. During troubleshooting I was able to catch a nice screenshot that showed different control patterns in decreasing aggressiveness. Obviously we still made some adjustments to get it tuned to prevent overshooting at all.
I am “starting a new series” where I am testing new recipes that I can premake, freeze and then enjoy at a later date. The first candidate for this is french onion soup which takes a lot of time and effort to make but making 1 serving or 10 servings takes the same time. I premade about 4L of soup with homemade stock and then froze it in ramekins. Then when I am craving it I pull it out of the freezer and bake with a bit of gruyere. It maintains taste fairly well and I highly recommend.
I was on a tour of one of the oldest distilleries in Poland. It was an interesting setup where they had a plate distillation column for their high volume high proof production and a copper pot still for niche product distilling. It was cool to see the “back room” where they had their SCADA system and showed me some of their operation process when they load form a new fermentation tank. We talked about their CIP processes and product changeovers, it was great to talk with the actual technical team and definitely a lot of passion for their process. They mentioned that they have a dedicated flow meter that tracks how much product is produced and all of it has to be accounted for with the government and “every drop is tracked”.
I had a great opportunity to tour a small vineyard and was able to get technical with the owner. Most the equipment was all on triclamps so it was nice to see standardization across the world. It was also the first time I was able to see a tracking sheet used to monitor fermentation progress. It was cool to see how they track specific gravity and seeing it drop as fermentation progresses. Additionally you can see all of the additions done during fermentation and the chemical analysis when fermentation finished.
I was on vacation in France and on a hike I was able to find a gorgeous rosemary bush just past bloom. It was over a meter in diameter and the “trunk” was over an inch thick. I put my head into the bush and it smelled amazing. Also rosemary flowers would make a cool garnish for a gin & tonic, they have a nice sweet scent but still carry the rosemary aroma.
After a recent ski trip to Austria I have fallen in love with the Bombardino cocktail. A beautiful creamy cocktail that is perfect after a cold day on the slopes (or shoveling snow). Typically this is hard to make at home as commercially the cocktail is constantly being circulated to ensure aeration for a nice smooth texture but I had a thought on how to replicate it at home. I would first whip the eggnog and brandy cocktail in an espresso machine, similar to how one would froth up the milk, and once I achieved a velvety texture I would serve it in an espresso glass with a bit of whipped cream. Though this is an imperfect imitation it is suitable enough to satisfy that itch that no other cocktail can satisfy.
These potatoes have a luxurious perception but are relatively easy to make and more importantly easy to make ahead and freeze quite well. I was a bit economical in my trimming but I still have enough surface area to brown the potatoes and I used a homemade broth to finish them off. Texture was velvety with nice crisp edges and have a phenomenal concentrated taste.
I tried my hand at making Bellinis at home and of course I couldn’t allow myself to use cloudy peach juice so I went through a 3 step filtration process using fresh Niagara peaches to get a clear peach juice which made for a beautiful clear cocktail.
I have recently started growing a few elderberry bushes and now have a perfect garnish for the elderflower 75 cocktail (a St-Germain play on the French 75 cocktail).
I found an interesting appetizer at the store recently and wanted to try my hand at it. Though the app is simple to make, roll goat cheese balls in a seasoning, there are some nuances in making it. I found that you want to use a higher moisture goat cheese as dried seasoning will pull alot of moisture out. Additionally the surface area to volume ratio matters alot as the smaller the ball the more seasoning to cheese leading to an off putting product.
