trivial trivia

[JMixx]

I am wondering if there is any relationship between the "punt" in the bottom of a wine bottle and the tendency of red wine to accumulate a tiny amount of sediment in the bottom of the bottle.  Perhaps that indentation alters the way the wine flows out of the bottle, and reduces disturbance to the sediment, preventing it from flowing into the glasses (or decanter)?

Jennifer

[Mjolnir]

24 minutes ago, JMixx said:

I am wondering if there is any relationship between the "punt" in the bottom of a wine bottle and the tendency of red wine to accumulate a tiny amount of sediment in the bottom of the bottle.  Perhaps that indentation alters the way the wine flows out of the bottle, and reduces disturbance to the sediment, preventing it from flowing into the glasses (or decanter)?

Jennifer

That is one of the answers!

[fredk]

I'll leave my question open for a while longer

As for wine, many old practices have dropped away from lack of use. One was wine was to be poured into a decanter, then from that to a glass, whilst pouring into a decanter the wine was to be poured through a fine sieve to remove any lees [the sediment] Also, your host was to offer you the use of a tongue scraper, if you had not brought your own.

There are various explanations for the concave base of a wine bottle. Most do not stand up to study

eg; it was done by glass blowers so that bottles could stand up-right. 1. At the time the concave bottom on glass bottles was introduced carbonated soft drinks were in favour and they had a pointed bottom end. 2. both wine and the early carbonated drinks were meant to be stored laying down. Wine should still be kept this way if it has a natural cork stopper; its to keep the cork wet to stop air getting into the bottle and spoiling the wine. 3. laying flat the lees cannot collect in the ring around the concave part. 4. see above, in 'proper' use wine should be decanted through a filter before it goes to a glass; modern drinkers take the wine straight from the bottle. 5. At the time the glass wine bottle was introduced the glass blowers were blowing their glass into  moulds for the bottles so they had no opportunity to manually push the base of the bottle inwards. 6. There is evidence that clay/pottery wine bottles made in Flanders in the 18thC had a modest concave bottom. These clay bottles were to be stored laying down as well, many of them had a flat along the side so they could lay down and not roll.

A wine with lees is a fresh wine; lees is the dead yeast after fermentation. Its not harmful to drink them, but they don't taste nice. I make my own wine and I have wine over 10 years old which is still fermenting slightly and dropping lees. The older the wine the less lees. During the aging fermentation a wine should be decanted regularly into a fresh fermentation container to take it off the old lees.

 

 

[JMixx]

51 minutes ago, Mjolnir said:

That is one of the answers!

And I just guessed!  Apparently drinking wine DOES make a person smarter! (hic)

[Mjolnir]

15 hours ago, Rockoboy said:

I like all the threads where @Mjolnir has had a significant input ... I think he's habit-forming!

That is what your Nun says.

[alpha2]

5 hours ago, fredk said:

Ok, since I won that round its my turn.

What is the common link between a boot/shoe lace and something which denotes a military rank?

chevron?

 

[Mjolnir]

out of the box but... the higher the rank the higher the laces they can kick up your butt.

[tomsmith85717]

On 1/27/2018 at 10:44 PM, Jake907 said:

according to a friend "Google knows all, Wikipedia explains all". but apparently thats not the case with this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_Rock#Number_33

Edit: I hope you're proud of yourself, I was helplessly compelled to google LeAnn Rimes shoes, whats my wife gonna think when she sees that auto populate on the google search field?!? lol

That is what incognito windows are for.

[tomsmith85717]

5 hours ago, fredk said:

I'll leave my question open for a while longer

As for wine, many old practices have dropped away from lack of use. One was wine was to be poured into a decanter, then from that to a glass, whilst pouring into a decanter the wine was to be poured through a fine sieve to remove any lees [the sediment] Also, your host was to offer you the use of a tongue scraper, if you had not brought your own.

There are various explanations for the concave base of a wine bottle. Most do not stand up to study

eg; it was done by glass blowers so that bottles could stand up-right. 1. At the time the concave bottom on glass bottles was introduced carbonated soft drinks were in favour and they had a pointed bottom end. 2. both wine and the early carbonated drinks were meant to be stored laying down. Wine should still be kept this way if it has a natural cork stopper; its to keep the cork wet to stop air getting into the bottle and spoiling the wine. 3. laying flat the lees cannot collect in the ring around the concave part. 4. see above, in 'proper' use wine should be decanted through a filter before it goes to a glass; modern drinkers take the wine straight from the bottle. 5. At the time the glass wine bottle was introduced the glass blowers were blowing their glass into  moulds for the bottles so they had no opportunity to manually push the base of the bottle inwards. 6. There is evidence that clay/pottery wine bottles made in Flanders in the 18thC had a modest concave bottom. These clay bottles were to be stored laying down as well, many of them had a flat along the side so they could lay down and not roll.

A wine with lees is a fresh wine; lees is the dead yeast after fermentation. Its not harmful to drink them, but they don't taste nice. I make my own wine and I have wine over 10 years old which is still fermenting slightly and dropping lees. The older the wine the less lees. During the aging fermentation a wine should be decanted regularly into a fresh fermentation container to take it off the old lees.

 

 

Former glass blower here it is real hard to make a flat bottom and straight sides with out a mold and glass molds are a fairly recent thing.  but if you get a rounded bottom heat it evenly and then push up  with a punty stick it will push fairly evenly leaving you a smaller surface to try to flatten with out bulging and even if you didnt try to flatten the ring it would still sit more evenly  

 

[Rockoboy]

On ‎7‎/‎03‎/‎2018 at 7:16 AM, Mjolnir said:

That is what your Nun says.

Sometimes I think my ex-wife was destined to be a nun ... Anytime I tried to get a bit ... ummm ... frisky, she would say "you're getting nun of that" or when I wanted a couple cold beers, she would say "there's nun left". As for cooking a decent meal, she always gave me 2 chances "Buckley's and nun"!!

[Mjolnir]

3 hours ago, Rockoboy said:

Sometimes I think my ex-wife was destined to be a nun ... Anytime I tried to get a bit ... ummm ... frisky, she would say "you're getting nun of that" or when I wanted a couple cold beers, she would say "there's nun left". As for cooking a decent meal, she always gave me 2 chances "Buckley's and nun"!!

You are alright in my book rockoboy!

 

[Mjolnir]

On ‎3‎/‎6‎/‎2018 at 2:16 PM, fredk said:

Ok, since I won that round its my turn.

What is the common link between a boot/shoe lace and something which denotes a military rank?

You are killin' me!

[Rockoboy]

13 minutes ago, Mjolnir said:

You are alright in my book rockoboy!

Cheers @Mjolnir. You seem like a pretty good bloke yourself.

[fredk]

On 3/6/2018 at 7:16 PM, fredk said:

What is the common link between a boot/shoe lace and something which denotes a military rank?

The item and word is Aglet/Aiguillette. Two words mean the same thing. Its the decorative or functional hard piece added to the end of a cord or lace

The small metal or plastic end on a shoe/boot lace is one version. A more elaborate decorative version is worn on a cord by senior military persons, eg aides-de-camp to Presidents or Prime Ministers. The word aiguillette has transferred from meaning just the attachment at the end of the cord to meaning the whole cord. This cord is not to be confused with the 'lanyard' which is a functional cord worn by military personel

Edited March 10, 2018 by fredk

[Mjolnir]

3 minutes ago, fredk said:

The item and word is Aglet/Aiguillette. Two words mean the same thing. Its the decorative or functional hard piece added to a cord.

The small metal or plastic end on a shoe/boot lace is one version. A more elaborate decorative version is worn on a cord by senior military persons, eg aides-de-camp to Presidents or Prime Ministers. The word aiguillette has transferred from meaning just the attachment at the end of the cord to meaning the whole cord. This cord is not to be confused with the 'lanyard' which is functional cord worn by military personel

I did look up the plastic thing.

2. a long thin slice of cooked meat, especially a narrow strip cut lengthwise from the breast of a fowl.

Thank you sir! May I have another!!

[fredk]

Go on then. Keep it rolling....................rolling, rolling.... rawhide....RAWHIDE!

[fredk]

How to remove rust/corrosion from hard to clean parts metal parts

Soak in a citric acid or in vinegar. The vinegar works faster if salt is added, it also works a bit more vigorously when its hot

Last November whilst at RAF Cosford's Conservation Hangar a conservator showed me an engine he was recovering. It had spent 72 years in sea water and sand. One of he crank shafts he shewed us  [there were two] and its connecting rods and pistons were just a mass of corrosion. Here we have multiple metals; steel crank, aluminium connecting rod, aluminium magnesium piston and white metal bearings. Then he showed us a treated assembly; it had spent six months in an airtight container soaking citric acid - it looked like it had just come out of an old working engine , not totally pristine but almost all the corrosion was gone - even the piston rings were movable it their grooves.

Since then I've been using this technique to clean mild surface rust off old neglected tools. Usually a few days or a week's soaking is enough. I've also used it to clean brass electric components on a certain job order

and,......btw CokeCola no longer works for cleaning anything

[Rockoboy]

39 minutes ago, fredk said:

btw CokeCola no longer works for cleaning anything

... and it makes the Coca Cola taste awful, so don't even go there!

[Matt S]

18 hours ago, Rockoboy said:

Sometimes I think my ex-wife was destined to be a nun ... Anytime I tried to get a bit ... ummm ... frisky, she would say "you're getting nun of that" or when I wanted a couple cold beers, she would say "there's nun left". As for cooking a decent meal, she always gave me 2 chances "Buckley's and nun"!!

My dad used to be a nun. Every time he was up in court the judge asked him his occupation and he would say "nun!"

[Mjolnir]

8 hours ago, fredk said:

How to remove rust/corrosion from hard to clean parts metal parts

Soak in a citric acid or in vinegar. The vinegar works faster if salt is added, it also works a bit more vigorously when its hot

Last November whilst at RAF Cosford's Conservation Hangar a conservator showed me an engine he was recovering. It had spent 72 years in sea water and sand. One of he crank shafts he shewed us  [there were two] and its connecting rods and pistons were just a mass of corrosion. Here we have multiple metals; steel crank, aluminium connecting rod, aluminium magnesium piston and white metal bearings. Then he showed us a treated assembly; it had spent six months in an airtight container soaking citric acid - it looked like it had just come out of an old working engine , not totally pristine but almost all the corrosion was gone - even the piston rings were movable it their grooves.

Since then I've been using this technique to clean mild surface rust off old neglected tools. Usually a few days or a week's soaking is enough. I've also used it to clean brass electric components on a certain job order

and,......btw CokeCola no longer works for cleaning anything

we used to use coke to clean the connects on car batteries.

Heinz 57 will polish a penny like new!

[bermudahwin]

Good old English  British Brown Sauce (HP or Daddies) is great on some pieces, but I have never found a US equivalent, even having been there often enough to get Global Entry.

Brst

H

 

Edited March 11, 2018 by hwinbermuda
Don't know if either Brand is British rather than English!!!!

[Mjolnir]

On ‎3‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 2:52 PM, hwinbermuda said:

Good old English  British Brown Sauce (HP or Daddies) is great on some pieces, but I have never found a US equivalent, even having been there often enough to get Global Entry.

Brst

H

 

First the sauce, then steel. Where will it all end!? I would love to try HP but my only choice is the old 57 or a generic knock off!

[alpha2]

Heinz 57...57 times my steak was SO bad I had to put sauce on it. 57 reasons I won't let that mystery sauce touch my steak. 57 people I won't go to a steak house with. 57... oh well, you get idea. 

Actually, that whole bit is from "You've Got Mail". 

Now, to be fair, Mjolnir, have you TRIED Heinz 57 sauce as your "charred steak brown" dye? And what do you use as a sealer? Resolene? Fiebings spray finish? Neatsfoot oil? Enquiring minds want to know! (Ha! funny, spell checker chocked on "enquiring"! apparently they don't know of the Nation Enquirer!")

[Mjolnir]

1 minute ago, alpha2 said:

Heinz 57...57 times my steak was SO bad I had to put sauce on it. 57 reasons I won't let that mystery sauce touch my steak. 57 people I won't go to a steak house with. 57... oh well, you get idea. 

Actually, that whole bit is from "You've Got Mail". 

Now, to be fair, Mjolnir, have you TRIED Heinz 57 sauce as your "charred steak brown" dye? And what do you use as a sealer? Resolene? Fiebings spray finish? Neatsfoot oil? Enquiring minds want to know! (Ha! funny, spell checker chocked on "enquiring"! apparently they don't know of the Nation Enquirer!")

It has its place, and no, ketchup is not a steak sauce. The jus from a perfectly cooked tenderloin is the best sauce, but a $6 sirloin may need some edge trim, definitely an edge kote of black..end seasoning.

I'm going to eat a tenderloin with a round knife and a pricking iron!

[Mjolnir]

ohh yeaaah!