What use a feather?

May 11, 2007 8:52 PM

I read a book recently where a bottle of wine was opened using some type of tongs, heated charcoal, ice and... a feather.

OK, I get the first three. Heat the special tongs in charcoal, apply to circumference of bottle neck, dip neck in ice, bottle cracks where the tongs where, lift off top, voila!
But what is the feather for?

The book didn't give much detail of the process and all the above is assumed, as it makes sense, but the inclusion of the feather has me a bit stumped.

ideas?

posted by edgeways to food & drink (8 comments total)

Remove the tongs, and, dipping a feather or piece of rag into cold water, apply it to the neck where the tongs have held it.
posted by L. Fitzgerald Sjoberg at 8:58 PM on May 11, 2007 [2 favorites]

The idea of the tongs is to expand the neck of the bottle by thermal expansion, and the feather or rag dipped in water is suggested to keep you from burning yourself on the hot glass. You still need a corkscrew, according to the Web site linked by LFS to get the cork out. But, IMHO, it's a hack made necessary for helping corkscrews work.

Corkscrews suck. They inevitably damage any cork that is slightly dry, and frequently drop "cork crumbs" into the wine. My preferred cork tool for many years has been the 2 blade extractor. Pulls any cork, natural or synthetic, regardless of condition, without damage, first time, every time, without the need for much force or hand strength.

To use:

One blade will be longer than the other. Start this blade first, anywhere in the perimeter of the cork. After you've inserted the first 1/4 or 1/2 inch, the shorter blade will be at a point of insertion on the opposite side of the cork from the longer blade. Push a bit to start it, too. You can "rock" the device a bit, at the handle, to force the thin blades all the way down to grip the entire length of the cork. This takes only moderate force, such that arthritic people do it easily, in a couple of seconds. When the blades are fully inserted, twist the device in the neck of the bottle at least 30 degrees to break the cork from its seal in the neck of the bottle. Then, pull straight out, while rotating the bottle very slightly. Shouldn't take more than 20 to 30 seconds to decork a bottle with this device. In opening thousands of bottles of wine, I've never lost a cork fragment using these devices, and have occasionally "rescued" a broken cork, or dried out cork fragments left by corkscrews.

Some of these tools have better blades than others, the best being made of durable spring steel, formed into V shapes that firmly grip the cork after being inserted. The better versions of these tools also have generous handles, and the blades are well fastened in the handles, or are made of a single continuous piece of spring steel, shaped to a "U" and injection molded into an unbreakable plastic handle.
posted by paulsc at 9:34 PM on May 11, 2007 [2 favorites]

what paulsc said.
posted by longsleeves at 10:01 PM on May 11, 2007

I've always heard the 'two blade' called "The Butlers' Thief". Reason being, the butler could have some of your wine and then (theoretically) replace the cork.

Also, it's really the only way to open bottles that are stoppered with actual cork. With the new synthetic corks, an old-fashioned screw works perfectly fine.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 10:23 PM on May 11, 2007

This method of opening bottles was demonstrated on one of the "House" series of TV shows where they have people live with antiquated technologies for a period of time. I think it was the one aired in the US as "Restoration House Party." Or maybe it was "Manor House"? As I recall, the wet feather didn't do the trick, and they contrived some other way of getting into the bottles.
posted by Orinda at 10:57 PM on May 11, 2007

I see... you don't dip the bottle, but the feather is used to apply the "coldness" to the neck.

I am enlightened.

Thanks
posted by edgeways at 11:31 PM on May 11, 2007

Details of the process from my old-timey drinking book:

Go to the nearest good hotel or club and get a pair of bottle tongs. Heat them quite hot and fasten about the bottle neck just below the lower cork end. Count 10, take tongs away, and touch the spot with a pad of cloth soaked in cold water. The neck cracks all around in a clean break -- no fuss, no splinters.

posted by j.edwards at 1:40 AM on May 12, 2007

The idea of the tongs is to expand the neck of the bottle by thermal expansion, and the feather or rag dipped in water is suggested to keep you from burning yourself on the hot glass. You still need a corkscrew, according to the Web site linked by LFS to get the cork out. But, IMHO, it's a hack made necessary for helping corkscrews work.

I don't think so. It seems clear to me that the tongs heat the neck of the bottle to the point that, when you apply the wet feather, the sudden cooling cracks the glass of the bottle right around, and the neck of the bottle-- still containing the cork-- is supposed to come cleanly free of the rest of the bottle from a point just below where the tongs gripped it:

The tongs (see image below) should be at hand to save the wine if any such accident should happen to the cork. They are heated to a cherry-red; the neck is gripped just under the flange-when the glow has passed away (from half-a-minute to a minute).

Remove the tongs, and, dipping a feather or piece of rag into cold water, apply it to the neck where the tongs have held it. It
will come off easily and cleanly.

[from LFS's link]
posted by jamjam at 1:46 AM on May 12, 2007