Camper English's Blog, page 21

Is Pure TDS 0 Water Actually Bad for Making Clear Ice?

Here's an interesting problem and solution: James Hogarth reached out to me to describe the following. He is using water filtered with a Zero Water filter in a clear ice system. This filter removes all the major dissolved solids in the water, and it comes with a little TDS meter to verify it. But the supposed-to-be-clear ice that comes out from this water has streaks remaining, but regular tap water doesn't. 

My tap water has a terrible taste, however, when I freeze tap water [in the Wintersmith’s Phantom] it does freeze perfectly clear. The bad news is that if I then thaw the water it still retains a bad taste. It is improved but still not good.

Curiously, the ZeroWater filter comes with a Total Dissolved Solids meter, and while not the most sophisticated meter in the world, it reads around 110-120 on tap water and perfect 0 for the thawed water. 

So right now I either get great tasting ice with air bubble streaks, or perfectly clear ice that tastes terrible.

Even distilled water gave me streaks of air bubbles. My freezer was always right around 0 degrees, and multiple different molds, no mater what, boiled or not, still got streaks.

 

He theorized that his water was actually freezing too fast without salt and other minerals in it that would naturally slow the rate of freezing. 

So to test the theory, he tried adding table salt to TDS 0 water - and it was successful! He added a concentrated salt solution to the rest of the water to try to bring it around 135 ppm before freezing. 

I know that ice crystals will push out salt molecules as the ice crystalline structure does not have room for it. Freezing water is one method for desalination of sea water for this reason, it just isn’t very energy efficient.

The melted ice tastes just as good as the filtered water. From the top half [the clear part], the meter reads 6 and the bottom half 163.

So after a few more batches of ice, and a few bottles of whiskey, it seems that around 140-180 ppm of table salt in the ZeroWater is ideal. I get crystal clear ice, and when I melt the ice and test it, it’s usually 6ppm salt or less.

 

We knew that freezing water pushes the trapped air and impurities (including the minerals) to the last part of ice to freeze. What's interesting here is that at least in this case, the presence of "impurities" while freezing seems to improve the clarity of the ice, and we can theorize that is because they slow the rate of freezing. 

 

Hogarth later tried other minerals, including mineral drops that are sold to supposedly make water healthier. He found they acted in much the same way, concentrating in the cloudy part of the ice. 

Trace Mineral Drops: starting at 204 ppm, melts to 23 ppm. So something is clearly less filtered from directional freezing than salt or calcium chloride. Both of which could be as high as 240-250 ppm and the melted ice would be around 6ppm. I don’t have the tools to tell you what it is though.

 

So I'll leave this at that. To replicate it, I (or better yet, you) could try freezing two identical quantities of water in identically-shaped insulated trays: one with TDS 0 and one with some dissolved solids.

This might not be an issue if your freezer temperature is higher and closer to the freezing point, but most freezers have maximum temperatures much lower than that for food safety. 

 

Ice with Streaks

 

A Theriac in Digestif Form

If you read my book Doctors and Distillers you know that cure-all theriacs often contained viper flesh. Now one person has recreated a recipe for a branded theriac called L’Orvietan, with everything but the snake.

Bernardini had to travel across Europe on the trail of L’Orvietan. He scoured historic archives and antique bookstores. He acquired rare medical books and documents, and met with scholars, herbalists and pharmacists. Finally, in a Venice library, he found the missing link in his search: a 1623 recipe, written by Ferrante’s son Gregorio, which lists the ingredients, and, importantly, their measures, for the original L’Orvietan. Bernardini says he left just one ingredient out of his modern mix: burnt viper’s flesh.

Yet the mixture of herbs that Ferrante developed and others copied wasn’t necessarily all that original. L’Orvietan and its imitators had their roots in a more antique antidote called theriac. Theriac was a preferred preventive and cure of Roman emperors who were justly afraid of being poisoned, either from something slipped into their food or drink or by a venomous snake slipped into their bed at night. In fact, Theriaca Andromochas, developed by Nero’s physician, also contained viper flesh — similar in concept to antivenoms made of snake venom — and became the gold standard of antidotes.

Check out the story in Discover. 

Doctors and Distillers/The Perfect Tonic a Finalist for the André Simon Food and Drink Book Awards

I was delighted to learn that The Perfect Tonic, the name in the UK for Doctors and Distillers, has made it to the short list for the André Simon Food and Drink Book Awards. 

The four finalists are: 

A Sense of Place by Dave Broom
Drinking with the Valkyries by Andrew Jefford
Imperial Wine by Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre
The Perfect Tonic by Camper English

Some good company there! 

 

The organization put out a statement: 

This year's Drinks assessor Matt Walls discusses the shortlist: "Our final drinks shortlist contains four contrasting styles of book, all of which are equally absorbing. Dave Broom's A Sense of Place transports you to Scotland so vividly you can almost smell the whisky, as he looks at its links to people, place, culture and community. In The Perfect Tonic, Camper English covers the fascinating and peculiar medicinal history of beer, wines, spirits and cocktails with irrepressible flair and wit. In her eye-opening, meticulously-researched Imperial Wine Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre examines how deeply the roots of the international wine trade are embedded in Empire and settler colonialism. And finally, in Drinking with the Valkyries, Andrew Jefford lets us share his wonder of wine through his peerlessly precise use of the English language."

 

 

Smoothing Thermos Ice Spheres Using an Ice Sphere Press

I have several ways to make ice spheres at home, but the one that takes up the least amount of space is using a thermos and ice ball mold. 

This method produces nice large ice spheres but they're not as smooth and perfect as those made in the IceOlogy trays or big cubes pressed into spheres using an ice ball press. 

So I thought I would try using the ice ball press to smooth off the surfaces of ice balls made in the thermos method. It works only just okay - because the ice ball press makes larger spheres than the ice ball molds I have. They come out a little odd shaped as the fit is not perfect. A better size match would be better.  

 

Drinking the Drinks at Cavaña SF

San Francisco went from a city of very few rooftop bars to... a few I guess. I remember when El Techo de Lolinda was new and exciting, then we had Charmaine's, Kaiyo Rooftop, and now Cavaña. There are several new ones in the East Bay also. 

Well I just had the chance to check out the new 17th floor rooftop cocktail bar Cavaña in the Luma Hotel near the baseball park in San Francisco.  

The lounge spans the top of the building with outdoor balconies on either end and the main bar in the middle, indoors. One of the balcony areas has a second bar; I'm not sure if that will only be open for private rentals of that area but that would be my guess. 

There are great views on either side. One side looks downtown at the Salesforce Tower; the other faces Potrero Hill but from one corner you get a stunning view of the Sutro Tower. There was a line of people waiting to take selfies in that one corner. There is a narrower strip of balcony along a third side with two-top tables that faces Oakland across the Bay. 

 

 

My Three Favorite Drinks

The food is small plates shareables, as this is a cocktail bar rather than a restaurant. The drinks (menu also ) I failed to photograph well, because when the sun goes down all the lighting changes and it's not great for indoor photography. It's great for looking at the view instead, and that's better. 

The drinks have Latin American ingredients in both the spirits and the mixers, and the sourcing of them can be an interesting challenge, according to beverage director Emilio Salehi (his twin brother Miguel is the bar manager; both were previously at The Beehive). He told us that for the hoja santa he's getting it from a woman in the Mission who has a plant in her back yard, and he's going through tons as it's in a popular drink.

 

That drink is the Kiwi Hoja, a clarified milk punch with hoja santa, mezcal, brandy, and kiwi. It was my first drink order and my favorite drink on the whole menu. (I kind of have a knack for choosing the best drink first.) Bright, fruity, clear; nailed it. 

 

 

Other favorite drinks were the Caña Parchita (oaxacan aguardiente, bajan rum, passionfruit, coconut ancho chile, lime) that is served on pebble ice,

and the Papaya Uva (pisco acholado, papaya, grapefruit aperitif, elderflower, meyer lemon) which despite how it reads is more like a Martini than it is a tiki drink. This was my third boozy drink here in a row and I was feeling fine. 

 

The Other Drinks

The Palo Mandarina (gin, mandarin, palo santo, bitter aperitif, goldenberry, bianco vermouth) is not a White Negroni but somewhat in the mildly bitter zone.  

Elote Pasilla (mexican corn whiskey, reposado tequila, blackened corn, pasilla chile, bitter vermouth) smells of corn and is a boozy rocks drink. Corn-fashioned? 

 

Coco Cafecito (venezuelan rum, toasted coconut, px sherry, coffee, almond, orange salt) addresses the Espresso Martini and is super coffee-forward.

The Sangrita Chela (mezcal espadin, sangrita verde, cerveza clara, poblano salt) is drinkable as hellll but would be even greater as a brunch drink. Come to think of it, this would probably be a great spot for brunch, if only they were open before 4PM. Are rooftop brunches a thing? Maybe not yet. 

 

Set-Ups

They also offer a sort of bottle service for half and full bottles of tequila, mezcal, or rum. They brought us a mini-sample of mezcal that came with a board of fruits (passionfruit, grapefruit, apple slices) sprinkled with tasty Oaxacan salt. I believe the regular service will come with agua frescas or other mixers too.  

 

The below drink is the Chicha Tonica. 

Definitely worth checking out, and if you want to take better pictures of your drinks than I did, get there at 4 when it opens!

 

Want to see better pictures? Check them out here on Eater. 

 

How to Make Clear Ice, for Martha Stewart

I provided lots of quotes for this story on making clear ice on MarthaStewart.com. 

 

 

When Mineral Water Was Medicinal Water

I provided some context for a story about carbonated water for Wine Enthusiast. 

 

“Naturally carbonated mineral spring water was thought to be extra healthy compared with regular mineral water, and far healthier than surface water from rivers and streams,” English notes. “European and American mineral springs rich in iron or other mineral salts were recommended to settle the stomach or treat conditions including anemia.”

 

A Review of Doctors and Distillers by Bar Convent Berlin

On the website for Bar Convent Berlin, Jan-Peter Wulf reviewed Doctors and Distillers. 

Read it here. 

 

Booze on the Move

In my first story for Bevvy in a while, I wrote about the various ways spirits producers are aging or finishing their spirits in barrels on trains, trucks, boats, and floating docks. 

 

 

The Soothing Nature of the Hot Toddy

M. Carrie Allan of the Washington Post writes about the Hot Toddy, with a few quotes from me related to Doctors and Distillers. 

 

A hot toddy won’t cure your cold, but it will warm your spirits

The hot toddy anecdote in his book calls to mind too many more recent stories of overwhelmed health-care personnel: “During the 1918 influenza epidemic, staff at one hospital reported, ‘We could give them a little hot whiskey toddy; that’s about all we had time to do.’ The effectiveness of whiskey against the flu was debated, but many doctors agreed it could soothe the suffering of patients in any case.”

Note the distinction between soothing and curing: Essentially, these poor nurses and doctors were using alcohol as a sedative, not as something they expected to get patients off their deathbeds. I want to make sure that’s clear. Not only are the health risks of alcohol abuse clear, but in the wake of a pandemic (are we in the wake? The side-sploosh? The doldrums?), in which people have seized upon bits of data and half-truths to promote horse dewormer, volcanic ash and UV light as “cures” for covid, I am no longer as tickled by folk remedies as I once was. Snake oil is snake oil, even if the snake you’re lickin’ is a delicious hot toddy. Or as the disclaimer in English’s book puts it: “If you need medicine, talk to your doctor. If you need a cocktail, see your local mixologist.”