Back in my drinking days, it used to last for days.
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Wow! Really? Alone?! 
You can buy some miniatures. Here it exists some bigger than miniature bottles, just for cooking. I like pineau but less cognac. The percentage of alcohol in pineau is less than a brandy.
Differences
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Yes & yes.
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Pommeau is a wonderful product. Cheaper than calvados and probably more apple flavor. For us, it is very hard to source. I have suit-cased it home from France several times…then tried to keep dh away from “my” kitchen stash.
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No.
Another tremendously useful product is vin jaune, the sherry-like “yellow” wine from the Jura. Drunk straight, it is, IMHO, an acquired taste. But it is sublime with chicken, fish (trout), morels in a rich cream sauce. It also “keeps”.
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I did, yes. Vacuum sealed.
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This is an interesting topic, since it is related to alcohol, will post a new thread.
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Today lunch I made Mère Poulard’s famous omelette, from Mont Saint-Michel Normandy. We have visited the Mère Poulard restaurant in 2015, an extremely touristic city unfortunately, despite the charm and beauty. The main street was full of different restaurants all serving omelettes. Back then, we had an omelette for the main and another for dessert.
My first attempt. I looked at several recipes online, and compared them, one with well beaten egg, another recipe with milk added and some others with crème… mine was with eggs and milk beaten 3 times the original volume with salt and white pepper.
Cooked the egg soufflé with butter in a hot pan, lowered the heat after a few minutes added grate cheese (Beaufort in my case) and cooked totally for 7-8 minutes.
More success with the first one, I put more butter and the pan was hotter. Fluffy and mousse like.
The second, since I’ve washed the pan after the first use, cooled down considerable the pan. I also used less butter to avoid over brown nutty butter, the omelette stuck even with the non stick pan. It was more runny despite of the imperfect appearance.
I misread the recipe and instead of 2 eggs per person, I used 4. A very energetic meal!
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Another recipe from Normandy - Rabbit with calvados and cider. Chopped 2 carrots, 1 celery branch and 3 shallots. Browned until golden the whole rabbit cut in pieces in a cast iron pot with butter, followed by the vegetables and cooked 5 more minutes. Added 1 big spoonful of calvados and flamed. Poured a cup of cider. Cooked with a close lid for 35 - 45 minutes depending on the size of the meat. I cooked separately some bacon and sliced mushroom in a pan and added with a few spoonful of double cream in the pot few minutes before the cooking ended. Sparkled with tarragon before serving. Very tasty dish with the apple alcohol.
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Want!
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The fluffy omelette sounds lovely - I prefer omelettes fully cooked and brown on the outside! Will have to given that one a try.
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The omelet at La Mere Poulard is indeed singular, made to order and certainly hyped. It is a souffle omelet, moist and puffy. Perhaps your cup of tea, maybe not. Here is a review.
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I’m fine with moist but not runny. Maybe I’ll take my chances the next time I visit France!
You could really spend your time better chasing other dishes.
Mussel soup, a speciality from Normandy.
Heated olive oil in a pot, sweated the chopped garlic and shallot, added chopped carrot and bacon, added the white wine and lemon juice. Cooked for 15 minutes then added a cup of water. Cooked the mussels over high heat in an cast iron pot. once they were opened, remove them from the pot and kept aside. Removed them from their shells. Filtered the cooking juice, poured the juice into the broth. Mixed together egg yolks and crème fraîche, then whisked in the broth. Heated slowly without boiling. Serve hot with the mussels.
Original recipe here.
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Quenelle de brochet, bisque de crevette - Pike cake and shrimp bisque
Normally should be crayfish bisque, I’ve replaced crayfish with shrimps. I’ve used ready made pike cake instead of making the labour intensive fish cake. Quenelle is a speciality especially from Lyon, although it exists also in some other regions quenelle with poultry or veal, for example in Alsace. In the past, it was used a way to conserve freshly caught fish. Pike fish had to be grind finely into paste, with eggs, cream and mixed with chou pastry and poached in a simmering liquid until cooked. The sauce or soup is equally or even more important element of this dish.
Bisque recipe here
Similar recipe in English.
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