What makes for a delicious steak?

The old adage says that good fat is what makes a steak good. It turns out that the famous marbling that we look for in a steak (and that the USDA uses to grade meat) is not in fact the best indicator for flavor (but was the only one that seemed to correlate well when the system was developed decades ago). Read this article -- Why Fat Doesn't Make for Flavorful Steak - Food - The Atlantic -- to find out about the latest research on it. Turns out it's fat you can't see that matters, and (not a big shocker) the way the animal is raised that impacts flavor.

I wonder what this tastes like?

Seen on our recent trip... a 52 year old Bowmore cask. It turns out this belongs to a family that bought the whiskey from Bowmore many decades ago and paid to have it cellared in the famous vaults, but then disappeared and Bowmore has not been able to contact the family in many years.

Kilchoman Spring 2010

Kilchoman, the youngest (distillery founded 2005) of the Islay whiskies, is not yet available in the US, but should be arriving on these shores in the fall. Meanwhile, I picked up a bottle of the Spring 2010 release while on Islay on our recent vacation. This release was aged three years in bourbon barrels and finished for 3 and a half months in oloroso sherry. The color, as one would expect, is a light gold. On the nose I get grain, smoke and a slight hint of sherry. There is a cloying sweetness there. The taste is round, spicy, drying smokiness with a touch of heat. Once I added water the nose calmed a bit, coming across as a softer, light smoke. There's dry sherry, perhaps candy? (Later in the week I swear it started to have a Dr. Pepper flavor to it). The taste is still spicy, with a long finish and a round mouth-feel. For a young whisky it is quite good, but I would love to see this with a bit more age on it to see how it rounds out. I don't think it has the depth and complexity of flavor yet that it really needs to be an outstanding whisky. This one is worth seeking out, however, when it comes to the States.

Tasting Three Bowmores

I have been saving this one for a while, and since I will shortly be visiting this famed distillery (the oldest on Islay), I thought I should put my notes up on three darned good whiskies produced on the shores of Loch Indaal. Two of these are independant bottlings -- one from the great Berry Bros and Rudd (which I purchased last year while in London along with their Blue Hanger) and the other from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. The third is an official bottling in the limited edition series.

The first up is the Berry Bros bottling of a 1989 vintage Bowmore at 19 years old. This was one of four bottlings from Bowmore they had last year (a 9 year old, I think, a 14, this one and a 21 year old) and the one that impressed me the most. It's bottled at 53.5% and has a very light color like pinot grigio. The nose is medicinal with light smoke and varnished wood. Without water the whiskey is wonderfully smokey and pungent. With water it becomes a beautiful, sweet-smelling whiskey with floral notes, brown sugar, vanila, orange peel and candied peel. It is rounder and smoother on the tongue with a smokey, long finish. Of the three Bowmores here, this one was the sweetest, but not in a sickly way.

Next up is the Scotch Malt Whisky Society bottling of a 21 year old distilled in December 1987 and aged in a refill bourbon hogshead (I believe all three here are bourbon aged). This one is slightly lower in alcohol (50.8%) and has a similar pinot grigio color. The nose is a little deeper than the BBR bottle, with plastic, light smoke and a rounder, meatier mouthfeel. With water the smoke becomes more prominent and I get more ocean smells. The taste reminds me a bit of fish sauce (not in a bad way) and it is still quite meaty with fine kippers and beach smells.

Finally there is the official Bowmore 16 year old, distilled in 1989 and bottled in 2005 at 51.8% alcohol. The color is the lightest of the bunch and comes from predominantly bourbon casks, but is not a single-cask like the other two. Is that marmite on the nose? Wait a moment, give it some time. It has a lighter mouthfeel than the others, but is still quite meaty and explosive on the tongue when taken full strength. With water... oh what sweet nectar this is! I get apricots, pears, all sorts of nice fruit and light smoke on the nose. The taste is round, with a bit of plastic and quite chewey. A very satisfying dram.

All in all, these three demonstrate how great Bowmore can be. I can't pick a favorite (and I have subsequent to making these notes finished the BBR -- which I first opened at Christmas -- and the SMSW bottlings).

Memorial Day Cookin'

Last weekend I embarked on a couple of experiments in the kitchen in addition to a good old stand-by. First, on the baking front I made soft pretzels for the first time, using a recipe from Peter Reinhart's latest book, Artisan Breads Every Day. The pretzel dough is mixed and kneaded the night before and then cold ferments in the fridge. Shaping them was pretty easy, actually, though I did not get a consistent thickness across the 17-19 inches of dough after I rolled them out. They are dipped in a baking soda and water bath before baking, which I think did make for a distinctive flavor, I think, that I did not find off-putting, but was slightly on the odd side. The pretzels developed better the next day, but I think I will try mixing in some whole wheat flour next time (the recipe calls for bread flour only) to add a layer of flavor to the mix. The recipe also calls for an optional egg white mixed in with the water and baking soda to add shine, which I will also try next time. Overall, though, they were pretty good for home-made pretzels.

In addition to the pretzels, I also made a basic bread loaf with a similar recipe that is really easy and quite flavorful -- mix up all the ingredients (all four -- flour, salt, yeast, and water) the night before, cold ferment and then shape and retard the next day. Bung in the oven on a stone and 30-40 minutes later you have a great loaf of bread (see the picture for both the pretzels and the bread with a piece already sawn off!)

Finally, I made BBQ spare ribs for Memorial Day. I am normally a smoker of baby backs, but these spare ribs were from Groff's Content Farm and I decided I did not want to spend the 7 hours probably required to smoke them properly. So, I went with BBQ instead, which involves putting a restaurant pan with the charcoal in the center of my smoking chamber and arranging the ribs on either side to enjoy some indirect heat. It's actually a very easy way to make them, and takes about 2 1/2 to 3 hours to get done. The meat won't be falling off the bone; some chewing is required, but they were good none-the-less. I used a rub from Cook's Illustrated's grilling book, which I think had too much cumin in it for my taste, but the BBQ sauce was excellent, especially with chipotle chile powder in place of regular chile powder (I leave the cayenne pepper out because of family members who have a sensitivity to it).

Monsanto's Seeds

Excellent article in Fortune this month on the patent issues surrounding Monsanto's Round-up Ready seeds and other agri-tech. You can read the full article here.

What if Local Food Isn't Actually Best? - Food - The Atlantic

In this posting on The Atlantic's food blog (What if Local Food Isn't Actually Best? - Food - The Atlantic), I think the thought falls into the no duh category, but I could be missing something. The central idea is that we should not become obsessed with being locavores to the extreme that we are not supporting a regional approach -- as if the only choices were either national (and international) distribution or eating foods produced only within 100 (or 150 or 200) miles from our homes. I tend to distrust such binary choices to begin with, but it is worth at least explicitly and constantly challenging the idea that we only have two choices.

Macallan Blog: On the road with Masters of Photography, Albert Watson and our Director of Malts Ken Grier

Check out this new series over the next week, called On the road with Masters of Photography, Albert Watson and our Director of Malts Ken Grier, which starts with a trip to Jerez, Spain to see how sherry barrels are put together. The Macallan actually pays for making many sherry barrels themselves and then loans them to the sherry producers in order to guarantee they will have a secure supply for aging the whisky.