Cooking Issues with Dave Arnold

09/22/2026

What makes ice good or bad? In general, fancy ice is clear ice, and clear ice is clear because it was grown from crystals forming in one direction slowly enough to get rid of trapped gases. The super fancy ice I’m talking about here Morihiro is super fancy Kuramoto Ice imported from Japan. It looks fantastic. But all ice. Fancy or crappy, has the exact same chilling power per gram. So when looks are important. Use fancy ice. When looks aren’t important, unless you’re rich or a purist, it’s unnecessary. Next is shape. Shape is super important. Bigger cubes melt slower in glasses and will dilute a drink more slowly than crappy ice. Small crappy ice also tends to have more water on its surface, so instantly brings more surface. When stirring , the size and shape matters because it drastically alters how long you need to stir, but (and this is important) you can correct for any type of ice with stir technique to make identical drinks. When shaking you need a big cube for texture (or just use crappy ice and one of my cocktail cubes if I ever sell them again). This is just a basic rant. I could go on for weeks. Need I say more? Are you still here?

09/17/2026

DANGER. DONE WRONG THIS TECHNIQUE WILL CAUSE SEVERE INJURY. Unlike the video make sure you are wearing a cut proof glove on the hand holding the can and always wear safety glasses/goggles. Here is the technique: Whenever you can or bottle a non carbonated drink Oxygen is your enemy. It can ruin vermouth based drinks in hours. In cans, you also have the problem that most cans you can get hold much more than a single stirred drink, which means the can has a lot of unpressurized space and feels squishy (bad). We use LN to solve that. Using a long handled teaspoon we put a little LN into a “filled”can and lid that we’ve zeroed on a drug scale, then put the lid back on. As the extra LN boils away, oxygen is removed from the can. If you wait for all the LN to boil off, the drink will be preserved, but the can will be squishy. If you look at the scale and seal the can when there is NO MORE than 0.75 grams of LN left for every 100 ml of headspace, you will get a tight can that won’t explode. If you overfill the can, or seal too soon, the can becomes a BOMB. Because there is more compressed gas space in the can than in a carbo drink, it is more dangerous (because gas expands violently causing potential shrapnel). When they blow they are LOUD and it’s like holding a firecracker in your hand. Wear safety gear, point the lids away from your face, and don’t do it at all unless you really know what’s up.

09/07/2026

STUPID KITCHEN GADGETS EP 3: S’more machine. Going to test the indoor gadget against the tried and true bon fire. Also, light it on fire and blow it out or slowly brown? There is a right answer.

08/30/2026

The perfect B(acon) L(ettuce) T(omato). Yes, I said it: the bacon is the least important part.

08/22/2026

Family dinner: TOMATO tips. Don’t argue with me Stokes Farm takes the crown. Preparing Aunt Rubies and German Stripes, here’s some tips and tricks.

08/15/2026

Little custom build for House of the Dragon HBO Max with Bar Contra 🐉

08/12/2026

Good times all around partnered with hbomax to come up with a special menu to wrap up the season of House of the Dragon ! We brought Bar Contra out to showcase some of our favorite techniques.

08/09/2026

It’s all about separating variables. Booker and Dax 🍸

08/03/2026

ANNOUNCEMENT: Let’s build a dream kitchen from scratch! Ideas? Must haves? Things to avoid? Recommended brands? Tag them below. We’re going to document it step by step from empty room to finished kitchen.

07/20/2026