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Soul Dentist posted:Got a brand/supplier recommendation for the regulator? This is what I bought (in Canada) after watching a YouTube video of a guy using a similar one: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B086XH2FTK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 
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Aug 28, 2023 16:48
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Yeah I should set up a fizzy water station. Do people usually fill up plastic bottles and shake to carbonate, or is dispensing from a keg worth it? I've already got a tank, regulator, and various connectors and tubing from homebrewing. Unfortunately I've had to stop drinking because of meds so it would be nice to put it to use. No fridge though so I'd be tempted to just go with bottles if that works. If plastic bottles is easy, any recommendation for an adapter? And where do you get the bottles?
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Aug 28, 2023 16:51
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Here's the guide I used. When parts weren't available, I just searched Amazon for something with the same specs 👍 https://www.seriouseats.com/pros-cons-diy-carbonation-rig
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Aug 28, 2023 17:45
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Super helpful! Thanks all for the brainstorm
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Aug 28, 2023 20:01
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Alright, bringing back carbonated water chat. I want to do flavored water since that's what I like to drink. Do spices and stuff work at all? Definitely going to work on hopped water, but I was thinking gin-botanical water could be interesting, or like cloves or herbs or something. Any good brands for natural/artificial flavorings if I decide to go that route?
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Aug 30, 2023 19:55
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Only as a tincture / simple syrup. Infuse hot simple syrup or a small amount of room temperature vodka, strain and dose when serving. Best that way instead of all in the seltzer bottles, that way clean up is easier, it stays fizzier longer, and you can adjust strength. Even easier option: a couple drops of bitters when serving. Good excuse to buy a small variety pack!
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Aug 30, 2023 20:01
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Most of the botanicals in gin are herbs (or fruit), like juniper, lemon verbena or orange peel. Spices and woody herbs like cinchona or cardamom would be trickier because a lot of their flavors infuse better into alcohol or fat. I've found water pulls a lot of tannic, bitter compounds first.
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Aug 30, 2023 20:01
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Yeah you're not going to have a good time trying to get gin-type botanicals into water without doing a bit of science. An extraction using vegetable glycerin will work reasonably well, but you'll have best results making a super-concentrated high-proof alcohol tincture and using just a couple drops. ...At that point you're basically making cocktail bitters and you should consider just finding some bitters that you like and saving yourself a bunch of work.
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Aug 30, 2023 22:40
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Alcohol tincture also doesn't work if you're the kind of white-knuckle sober that I am right now
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Aug 30, 2023 22:53
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Just infuse some heavy cream with your spices, then make french sodas. I do a mace infused cream, then black cherry syrup and soda water to taste. Generally I do a pint of cream at a time. You can go pretty heavy on the spice for your infusion since you're only using a tablespoon or so of cream per soda.
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Aug 31, 2023 01:41
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Only tangentially related but a…thing… I have seen cropping up increasingly often here in Australia is espresso and tonic water served on ice which is quite strange to say the least and not something I would ever willingly drink despite enjoying both of those things in isolation.
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Aug 31, 2023 03:11
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That's pretty good, actually, when it's hot.
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Aug 31, 2023 03:24
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Espresso and soda is excellent, although even a high quality tonic would be gilding the lily with the sugar and extra bitterness imo
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Aug 31, 2023 03:29
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It's excellent and you owe yourself to try it once. It's also very pretty IMO https://i.imgur.com/xRNa2RS.mp4
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Aug 31, 2023 03:55
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Soul Dentist posted:Espresso and soda is excellent, although even a high quality tonic would be gilding the lily with the sugar and extra bitterness imo Soda I could go for; although I do prefer milk based coffees - I normally drink a Magic - it’s tonic water that weirds me out. I like a gin and tonic but tonic water is such a strong flavour.
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Aug 31, 2023 03:58
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A couple years ago I ordered an arnold palmer and accidentally was brought cold brew and lemonade. It was surprisingly refreshing and delicious, and now apparently it's A Thing you can get at a lot of coffeeshops?
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Aug 31, 2023 06:03
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I suppose adding lemon to tea is an established thing so it follows people would try it with coffee. And cold brew is already delicate and tea like. Never really been a cold brew fan, it always ends up tasting kinda weak compared to espresso and it has the most obscene amounts of caffeine.
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Aug 31, 2023 06:12
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I make coffee for a living, and one of my baristas made espresso tonic for me the other day, eh.
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Aug 31, 2023 08:38
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Torquemada posted:I make coffee for a living, and one of my baristas made espresso tonic for me the other day, eh. I'm sorry, are you saying that your reaction was just "meh" or are you posting in Canadian?
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Aug 31, 2023 14:45
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CzarChasm posted:I'm sorry, are you saying that your reaction was just "meh" or are you posting in Canadian? The former, underwhelming considering the fuss people make about it.
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Aug 31, 2023 14:56
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Recently I made this "Seafood Rice Skillet". The recipe calls for less liquid than the instructions on the rice packet say to use, but I went with it and kept an eye on it in case it needed topping up, but it worked perfectly. I'm guessing that the vegetables contained enough extra liquid to make up the difference. In the past, when I've wanted rice incorporated into a mix like that, I've cooked the rice separately and mixed it in at the end. I once tried putting the uncooked rice in with (supposedly) enough liquid before (without a specific recipe) and found it just didn't work: it took way longer than it should have and needed extra water added. But given how easy it seemed to be when using that recipe, I decided to try it again (without a recipe). And it didn't work. It took a ridiculously long time and required that I top it up with a lot more water. What's the secret that makes this work? I'm just putting vegetables, oil, spices, water, and rice in a covered pan and boiling it. Why doesn't the rice cook? What is going on here? Can anyone explain this mystery?
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Aug 31, 2023 15:56
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Espresso tonics kick rear end. The place I go to adds orange bitters and a lemon twist and it's absolutely my favorite hot weather coffee drink.
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Aug 31, 2023 17:31
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Tiggum posted:Recently I made this "Seafood Rice Skillet". The recipe calls for less liquid than the instructions on the rice packet say to use, but I went with it and kept an eye on it in case it needed topping up, but it worked perfectly. I'm guessing that the vegetables contained enough extra liquid to make up the difference. What kind of veggies and how much? One problem I can think of is if the chunks are big, or there's a lot of them they'll disrupt the steaming of the rice in the pot. The rice needs to be steamed by the water boiling, so if you get a big chunk the parts on top don't get steamed. Same with too many veggies, they just won't get enough contact. Another possibility could just be heat level and the pot itself. Cooking rice is fairly sensitive to heat. You need to have just enough water to evaporate by the time the rice is done. But if you increase or decrease the heat the cooking time will change and the evaporation rate will change, making you burn the rice or get really gummy rice. Same with different pots and pans, they'll evaporate at a different rate depending on the width and how tight the lid is.
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Aug 31, 2023 22:03
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Are there best practices for storing charcoal? I've had a hell of a time lighting my charcoal grill the last couple times I've wanted to use it, wondering if the bag of coals I'm using has absorbed moisture or something from sitting in my basement (not from flooding but perhaps humidity)
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Aug 31, 2023 22:32
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Eeyo posted:What kind of veggies and how much? One problem I can think of is if the chunks are big, or there's a lot of them they'll disrupt the steaming of the rice in the pot. The rice needs to be steamed by the water boiling, so if you get a big chunk the parts on top don't get steamed. Same with too many veggies, they just won't get enough contact. Sounds like this is just too complicated for me. I'll just stick to cooking the rice separately.
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Sep 1, 2023 05:15
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That's usually how I do it. You can roast the veggies too, which will add a nice flavor to it.
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Sep 1, 2023 05:35
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C-Euro posted:Are there best practices for storing charcoal? I've had a hell of a time lighting my charcoal grill the last couple times I've wanted to use it, wondering if the bag of coals I'm using has absorbed moisture or something from sitting in my basement (not from flooding but perhaps humidity) What kind of charcoal? Is it the match-light kind, or plain briquettes that you're lighting with a chimney starter or lighter fluid? If it's the self-lighting kind they just evaporate their starter over time so there's not much to be done about it. I wouldn't think charcoal would absorb that much humidity in a basement to not catch fire properly, but then again I haven't used any of the bag of charcoal I put in my basement.
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Sep 1, 2023 05:39
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C-Euro posted:Are there best practices for storing charcoal? I've had a hell of a time lighting my charcoal grill the last couple times I've wanted to use it, wondering if the bag of coals I'm using has absorbed moisture or something from sitting in my basement (not from flooding but perhaps humidity) I keep mine in a galvanised steel bin in my garden and it’s always home dry
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Sep 1, 2023 06:45
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Tiggum posted:Sounds like this is just too complicated for me. I'll just stick to cooking the rice separately. One other option could be doing risotto with whatever add-ins you want. You won't run out of liquid that way since you keep adding it, and stirring the pan makes sure you get all the rice evenly cooked.
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Sep 1, 2023 14:39
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I asked about noodles for a Lo Mein recipe a little while ago and I've made it 3 times now, turned out pretty dang good each time. One of the steps in the recipe is to thinly slice 8 oz. of flank steak and then rinse it under cold water for a minute or so while vigorously "massaging" the meat, and then kind of squeeze the poo poo out of it to push out moisture before putting it in a bowl with some marinade (baking soda, which supposedly does some chemical stuff to the meat, soy sauce, corn starch, sugar and oil). I'm a little inexperienced with handling whole cuts of raw meat in general, but this step of washing the meat is especially unusual for me. I'm curious how typical this is for stir fry recipes and what it accomplishes? The beef does turn out incredibly tender in the final dish but admittedly I have no idea how it would turn out if I didn't wash it. I've also been thinking about whether the recipe would work well substituting chicken thighs in as a cheaper protein. I honestly have no idea if chicken would hold up to the same kind of treatment. In my mind chicken seems maybe a little more delicate than beef, so a part of me is afraid that it would just turn into mince meat under the same process.
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Sep 2, 2023 06:00
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You do that to most meat in Kenjis cookbook. No, it wouldn’t be as tender if you skipped it and yes, it also works fine on chicken.
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Sep 2, 2023 06:25
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The washing step is normal in Chinese meat marinade, but my experience is generally you can skip it and it's not noticeable. If you add a few tablespoons of water to the marinade the meat will absorb it, beef especially, which helps. Baking soda is a tenderizer and I think it's unnecessary with pork or chicken. Your base Chinese meat marinade is light soy sauce, salt, corn or potato starch, Shaoxing, oil. You can pretty much do that to anything and you'll be good. Common extra additions are baking soda, dark soy, sugar, egg white, water. Those are for more particular uses. Dark soy is for color. I'm not honestly sure why some things use sugar and egg white and some don't, I just do what I'm told there. If it uses egg white you really need to pass through oil to avoid a weird gummy mess. Water is mostly for beef to keep it from drying out. Mix it thoroughly before adding the oil as the final step, if you weren't doing that already.
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Sep 2, 2023 07:12
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Took my little CO2 rig out for a test drive today. I bought this carbonation cap: https://www.amazon.com/FERRODAY-Stainless-Carbonation-Pressure-Carbonate/dp/B091BZYXKX. I'd give it a 2.5 stars out of 5. It works as intended, but the machining quality leaves much to be desired. It honestly looked kinda filthy inside (lots of burs and some swarf still attached to the threads, maybe a bit of machining oil). Cleaned it up twice with some powdered brewery wash-like cleaner after knocking off the swarf. It came with an attachment for a tube (not provided), which you definitely should use so that everything stays as clean as possible. Edit: Due to how it was designed you can't disassemble the poppet valve part, just take off the hose adapter on the inside. So you can only clean it so well. Carbonating a 1l bottle was pretty quick, I'm just worried it's going to blow up in my hands. I did it at 40psi. I followed the advice upthread and made a little tincture of cloves, coriander, and some raisins steeped in some leftover costco whiskey that I won't drink. I don't think the raisins added anything, they just stole the liquid and clove flavor from the mix. A little bit of that and some water and I've got a lightly spiced soda. Eeyo fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Sep 2, 2023 |
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Sep 2, 2023 21:49
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Funny, I was just test fitting my new rig as well! The stainless steel bottle cap part just arrived today and now I'll have to wait until after Labor Day weekend to pick up the actual gas (and plumbers tape)
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Sep 2, 2023 22:32
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Yeah, using a dip tube so the CO2 bubbles up is a much faster way to go, make sure you pick one up. I also use Topo Chico as my donor bottle  Plastic bottles which were designed for soda can easily hold 100 psi, so going to a tasty 55 psi is no risk at all. I just get a new bottle every 6 months or so to avoid fatigue failure.
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Sep 2, 2023 22:51
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Does it have to be all the way at the bottom or just somewhere in the liquid?
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Sep 2, 2023 22:58
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As long as it's under the water level you're good. It's mostly so you can see if the bubbles are still emitting. The main absorption happens when you shake the crap out of the bottle, then you stop for a sec to check if it's still bubbling, repeat as needed. Don't really need 0 new bubbles just need it to slow down so you know you got close to your regulator pressure.
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Sep 3, 2023 00:59
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Alright since this is apparently now the bubbly water thread: I smelled my carbonated water to see if there were any off flavors. It smells acidic, almost vinegar-like. Is that just the co2 doing that inside my nostrils? AFAICT none of my equipment should smell like that and the hoses and such seem fine.
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Sep 3, 2023 22:10
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CO2 creates an acid, carbonic acid, when mixed with water. It's possible that's what you're smelling.
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Sep 3, 2023 22:22
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Yeah I think it's just that, not sure why I haven't noticed that before. I poured some into a glass and shook the bubbles out and blew in some fresh air on top and it didn't smell sour.
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Sep 4, 2023 01:03
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