Great Scott’s 2010

Our recent weekend in NY was, not surprisingly, a perfect occasion for visiting one of the family’s favorite overeating and drinking establishments, Keens Chophouse. The general theme of an evening at Keens is – everything in excess. The hell with moderation. And to enable us to do that more effectively, more definitively, we met our cousins, the Rothenbergs – Steve and Marsha, Delilah and Spencer, and Tiffany & Matt.

Naturally, we began the evening in the bar, but only John and I partook of before-dinner malts. I had an Arran, ten year old, and John had a Benromach. Honestly, without tasting notes, I can no longer remember much about them, other than we were both pleased with our choices. Arran is one of the youngest distilleries, and when I first began drinking malts, I recall buying a bottle without age statement, that tasted a lot like a lowland malt. Light, grassy, a bit floral even. This malt was more full bodied, but still light for a highland. I think it’s a good choice for 5 pm, or even earlier. I’ll let John fill in with a comment on his Benromach.

Because there were twelve of us, Keens couldn’t accommodate us downstairs and we ended up at a round table in the back of the second floor. It was the first time I had ever sat upstairs at Keens, and I have to say we were not at all disappointed. The room was full; in fact all the upstairs rooms were full. The place was packed, which surprised me, it being a summer Saturday, and nothing was on at the Garden. Returning to the theme of excess, we promptly ordered a couple of those huge seafood medleys, loaded down with littlenecks, crab meat, oysters, mussels, you name it. They disappeared in a hurry. Then we followed with two enormous porterhouse (what else?) cooked to perfection, a mutton chop, every side that we could think of, and a big plate of tomatoes for Delilah, who abstains from eating meat. Poor thing. Cousin Steve was worried that there would not be enough to eat, but in the end, even the twelve of us could not quite polish off the meat. We noticed that after carving the steaks, Keens throws the bones back in the broiler, so the meat we later carved off the bone might have been the best thing anyone ate all night. We washed it all down with three bottles of a Ridge zinfandel blend; Ridge now being a sentimental family favorite, because we drank it with Helen at her last birthday bash, another steakhouse extravaganza at the Salt Rock Grill in St. Pete’s.

Anyway, and here’s the point of this rambling post, after dinner we shared a flight – the new Great Scott’s. That’s always been an interesting flight for a few reasons. One, they pick malts from different regions, so there is good variety in the flight. Two, they usually stray off the beaten path, allowing us to drink obscure whiskies. And lastly, they like to include a couple old malts on this flight. The new twist was that most of the flight was cask strength whisky.

We started with a 20 year old Bladnoch – cask strength. We love Bladnoch, so a great way to take off on this flight. I recall that the nose wasn’t quite as floral as some Bladnoch we’ve tasted, and I don’t think I’ve ever had a full strength Baldnoch previously. This was followed by a 14 year old Bruichladdich. Laddie being another family favorite, we were hitting two for two at this point. Now here’s the problem: the last two malts were again cask strength, and after all that wine and whisky, and without tasting notes to refresh my recollection, I can’t really recall much of anything about these two. With one exception. Unbelievably long finishes. The third whisky was a 26 year old Glen Mohr. What we didn’t know at the time, was that the Glen Mohr distillery was closed in 1986; and not just closed, but demolished. How many extinct malts have was sampled at Keens? And why didn’t we know this at the time we drank it? Oh well. We finished the flight with a 35 year old Longmorn. What I remember here was that, as I mentioned earlier, the finish went on and on.

But alas, even if the finishes on these malts went on forever, the evening eventually drew to a close, unless one was young. John, Amanda, Tiff and Matt went out afterward, I think to the Flatiron Lounge, for classic cocktails. We walked back to the east side, and fell unconscious into bed. It’s funny: we were in NY for no special reason other than to spend time with the kids, even though Susan and Steve cooked up this fairy tale that we were celebrating my birthday. Everyone knows I don’t give a shit about my birthday, but the fact is that any evening at Keens somehow turns into a special occasion. And where else could you find that many Rothenbergs in one locations?

A Cold August

It’s late in August; there’s a chill in the air; in fact it feels like fall tonight. But it’s feeling like it will be a fall without the RedSox in the post-season. There are fewer than 40 games left in the regular season; and the Sox trail both the Yankees and the Rays by six in the loss column. Too much ground to make up, I’m afraid.

Boston had a chance to make up ground on their recent road trip. Both NY and Tampa Bay faltered. But they blew two leads in the late innings, and instead of going 7-3 on that road trip, they came home 5-5, no closer to either the Yankees or the Rays. Now some times going five hundred on the road is OK, but not when they need to make up ground in a hurry. The worst game was up in Toronto a week ago last Thursday, where they took a 5-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth, and then surrendered four runs. That loss was made even more painful by contrast with the Yankees come from behind win in Texas. They made up five runs, on the road, right about the same time the Sox were blowing that lead in the Rogers Center. Teams that can do that - that can come from behind, especially on the road - are teams that end up playing when the weather turns cold. And teams that give away leads in the late innings; they don’t get to play much in October.

It would be convenient to blame this year on injuries. After all, Cuse couldn’t get past Butler in the sweet sixteen because they missed AO in the post. And the Cs lost game 7 to the Lakers because they didn’t have Perkins anchoring the D, and keeping LA off the boards. But the injuries didn’t make the big difference this year. I know the Sox rarely had their starting lineup on the field all year long. But the bench played pretty darn well. Bill Hall has 17 home runs, one more than J.D. Drew. McDonald, Nava, Kalish -- they’ve all had timely hits. Despite all the injuries, the Sox have scored more runs than every team in Major League baseball, except the Yankees.

It wasn’t the injuries; it was the bullpen. With the exception of Bard, the bullpen has been inconsistent at best, and MIA at worst. I know Pap has his 30 saves again, and he’s worked his ERA down of late; it’s now hovering around 3. But he really hasn’t been the same guy as in past years, which is really weird, considering that he’s about to become a free agent. But never mind that. Look at the rest of the pen. Either Oki has lost something, or else the rest of the AL has figured him out. Whatever, his ERA is up around 6. Delcarmen is pretty much of a disaster; Ramon Ramirez is gone; Wake is 3-9; and the rest of the pen is occupied by journeymen who weren’t really wanted by anyone else. If you think back to 2007, when Oki and Pap were virtually unhittable in the post-season, there was no way the Sox won without their bullpen. Same thing for 2004. Remember 14 scoreless innings of relief in Games 4 and 5? Remember Foulke not giving up an earned run in the post-season? So even if Boston made a run, what could they do in the playoffs with only Bard and an inconsistent Papelbon? Meanwhile, Mariano Rivera, who now collects social security, carries an ERA of only 1.18. You need a microscope to see his ERA, and the guy is older than dirt.

In 2004, I remember the Sox went on a tear in August, winning 20 of 21 or something like that. They were sweeping everyone. And from around August 7, a week or so after the big trade, they played .740 ball through the end of the World Series. I kept waiting for that to happen this year. I kept telling myself; wait till they get healthy. Beckett will come back; V-Mart will start hitting; Pedroia will rejoin the lineup. Well, all of that happened, but the streak never happened. That .740 stretch is just a fading memory.

Probably, they’ll tease us a little before it’s over. They’ll close the gap on one or both of he teams that are now tied atop the AL East. But when October rolls around, I expect it will be ‘wait till next year’ once more. There really is a chill in the air.

Modifying the Minion Method for Fish

I’m pleased to report that I have discovered a new and almost foolproof method for smoking fish on the bullet. Couldn’t be easier. The problem with fish is that the temperature climbs too high, too easily. So I decided that a smaller firebox would be useful.

Instead of filling the entire ring with briquettes, I took two of the half-moon shaped briquette holders from my Weber grill. These are the little basket like contraptions that hold the coals when grilling on the Weber. I placed the two baskets within the ring, in the firebox. I placed a layer of briquettes, and a chunk or two of hickory on the bottom of the baskets; then I sprinkled a layer of hickory chips; and then another layer of briquettes, and by then the baskets were not quite full. Then I used the chimney to light about 25-30 briquettes, and when the coals were good and hot (visibly glowing) I covered each basket with hot coals, using around two dozen total. Then put the water pan in place, and immediately loaded the fish.

On the lower rack I had a couple pieces of salmon, one nice bluefish fillet, and a few scallops. The top rack held two trout fillets, and more scallops. Initially, I had very little air-flow, but after 20 minutes, when the temp was only 115, I opened the vents to about half-way. The temp climbed to 150, and stayed there. The chips continued to generate smoke for almost two hours.

I have learned that the lower rack cooks more, even though it’s right above the water. It’s proximity to the firebox apparently means that the food cooks hotter on the lower rack. Anyway, as the top rack was not getting the brown glaze that always develops, for the last 45 minutes or so, I opened the vents even more, to around 2/3, and the temp increased a bit, to around 160.

The fish smoked for around 2 hours, 40 minutes. And was great. With the temp that low, the fish never dried out, but stayed moist and tender. I couldn’t find Corvina for this latest batch, but I have a feeling that Corvina cooking that slowly would be just fabulous. Salmon was as good as it’s ever been in our smoker.

So from now on, when I don’t need temperature above 200, and when I don’t need to run the bullet for more than four hours, I’m using this modified Minion method.

July - Big Step Backward

G-Man was right; July was telling. Only thing is I don’t like what it told us. Sox played under .500, going 12-13 against mediocre opposition, while the Yankees and Rays both caught fire. Yankees played .730 ball, and the Rays did them better, going .740 for the month. All this while they played each other five games. So as July came to an end, Sox found themselves six games out of the wild card, perhaps not an insurmountable lead, if not for the fact that in order to make the wild card, they have to overtake one of the two hottest teams in baseball. And in truth, no one is overtaking either of them if they continue to play at a seven hundred clip.

Having said all that, I can remember August 2004, when the Sox caught fire, winning 21 of 22 at one point. And who wasn’t pleased to see Beckett return from the DL in good form; to see Lackey take a no hitter into the eighth inning; and to see Papi hitting well in the late innings?

Soon Pedroia, and maybe Ellsbury will return to the lineup, and maybe for just about the first time this year, the Sox can put their starting lineup on the filed. Of course, even in the most optimistic scenario, there is still one big problem: the bullpen. Aside from Bard and Papelbon (whose numbers have declined significantly this year, but never mind that for purposes of this little illustration), the bullpen is maintaining a robust 5.5 ERA. That would be OK if they were pitching for the home run derby, but in a pennant race it’s not so good.

The trade deadline has passed, and Theo didn’t make much in the way of changes, which makes sense if you figure that just by getting healthy, the Sox will have a new team for the remainder of the season. But the trade he really should have pulled off was to get us out of the AL East. If we were playing in either of the other divisions, we’d be in good position for the stretch run. Unfortunately, that seems to have been beyond Theo’s reach, and so we’re stuck with having to chase the Yankees and the Rays. Oh well. What do you expect from a year in which the Lakers and Duke have already won championships? At least Germany didn’t win the world cup. Hate. Hate. Hate.