Imbibe! (36 page)

Read Imbibe! Online

Authors: David Wondrich

 
NOTES ON INGREDIENTS:
Other recipes call for two parts or even one part cognac (and don’t skimp on the quality!) to one part liqueur. This way’s better. In any case, the only crème de menthe to use for a top-flight Stinger is the French “Get” brand; well worth tracking down. And whatever you use, it must always be white, not green. Report has it that Reggie liked a dash of absinthe in his. He would, wouldn’t he?
 
NOTES ON EXECUTION:
Even though it has only spirits in it, this drink is always shaken. That bolsters the Vanderbilt story: If you were a millionaire making drinks for show behind your replica Norman bar in your Fifth Avenue mansion, wouldn’t you want to shake them? As for the glass: Use a Cocktail glass, on the small side.
CHAPTER 8
CHANNELING THE PROFESSOR—NEW DRINKS FROM SIXTEEN OF THE TOP MIXOLOGISTS OF OUR TIME
For someone who has been dead for 120 years, Jerry Thomas is doing pretty well. His book is in print, his name flits through the mouths of men, his drinks are mixed and dissected and even enjoyed. In contemporary cocktail culture, he is frequently evoked as an arbiter and a benchmark, one of the (pathetically few) authorities every serious drink-mixer has to know.
But the Professor’s work is more than a point of academic reference; it also serves as a source of inspiration, a jumping-off point in the creation of new drinks. And rather than merely asserting this, I can prove it. When assembling this book, I asked a bar full of the world’s best mixologists if they would be kind enough to contribute any original recipes they might have that were inspired in some way by Jerry Thomas and his drinks. Their responses, which you will find below, should put to rest any thoughts that the Professor’s work is a mere historical curiosity.
Not that they all agree exactly how his legacy should be used; like all artists, mixologists are a diverse-thinking bunch. Between them, they manage to box the compass of inspiration, so to speak, from taking one of his recipes, brushing off its shoulders, straightening its seams, and sending it on out there, to filling in the blanks in one of his categories (even some blanks he would never have thought existed, like the one in the Sour category that calls out for horseradish), to bringing different classes together, to . . . well, to the Regans. The incorrigible Regans. The thing about Gary and Mardee, they just won’t—can’t—follow the rules, color between the lines, stay on the reservation. You ask them for a drink inspired by Jerry Thomas and they send you something sweet and dangerous that (almost) swipes the name of a highly toxic Australian gold-miner’s drink employing controlled substances (it’s not the rum, not the cayenne, but the opium you’ve got to watch out for) and claim that somehow it fits with Thomas’s life and character. And, come to think of it, somehow it does. So they get off the hook—this time.
The only way I can justify insinuating a drink of my own in this august company is because it uses one final way of honoring the master, which is robbing him blind. The alert—or even not-so-alert—reader will immediately recognize my so-called Tombstone Cocktail as nothing more than a plain old Whiskey Cocktail, fitted out with new identity papers. But I will plead in my own defense that it nonetheless deserves a name of its own. Not because of any slight originality in conception or execution (the only way it differs from the Professor’s drink is in its use of Demerara sugar syrup instead of white), but because of the occasion its name commemorates: It was first served on October 3, 2004, when a group of New York writers and bartenders—including Audrey Saunders, Julie Reiner, Toby Cecchini, Del Pedro, and John Hodgman—accompanied me to Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx to help me look for Thomas’s grave. Upon finding it we broke out the enormous shaker we had brought with us, unpacked the freezer bag full of ice and the Cocktail glasses (no plastic for the Professor), assembled this Cocktail, passed the shaker around so we all had a jiggle, and had a drink with the Professor.
I’ll close this discussion with some of the words Eben Klemm and Francesco Lafraconi sent in along with their recipes. Mr. Klemm, I believe, correctly assesses the continued relevance of Jerry Thomas and his great contemporaries to the modern art of mixing drinks mixographer when he notes that
 
Even with all the flim-flam shaken up these days (some of which I myself indeed produce), most mixology past the 1890s I believe is but a footnote. For the most part, the sense of what we want and what works has been determined long before we were born. The contrapuntality of sour, savory, bitter and sweet found in the best of cocktails is now a centuries-old motif, and one not found in only the most suspect of current drinks.
 
But the Professor’s legacy extends beyond the nuts and bolts of combining liquors, sugars, and acids. As Mr. Lafranconi notes, “although he was an incredibly committed and creative individual behind the bar, full of ingenuity and know-how, his personality wasn’t only related to mixing drinks; he also had that savoir-faire; that elegance and class behind the bar. Above all, he was a man of trust. God bless JT!” I heartily concur.
(ALMOST) BLOW MY SKULL OFF
BY GARY REGAN AND MARDEE HAIDIN REGAN
 
2 OUNCES COGNAC
 
½ OUNCE PEACH SCHNAPPS
 
½ OUNCE JÄGERMEISTER
 
Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
BAKEWELL PUNCH
BY BEN REED
 
Author and IPBartender
 
1 LIME WEDGE (SQUEEZED TIGHTLY AND DROPPED INTO SHAKER)
 
5 RASPBERRIES
 
35 ML
[1¼ OZ]
WRAY AND NEPHEW WHITE OVERPROOF RUM
 
35 ML
[1¼ OZ]
FRESH PINK GRAPEFRUIT JUICE
 
10 ML
[2 TSP]
CANE SYRUP
 
10 ML
[2 TSP]
ORGEAT SYRUP
 
 
Gently muddle the lime and the raspberries to extract essential oils from the lime skin. Shake all the ingredients sharply over cubed ice, strain (through a fine strainer) into a small bar-glass filled with cracked ice, and garnish with two raspberries and a lime zest (edge the glass). Serve with two straws.
BERRY INTERESTING
BY FRANCESCO LAFRANCONI
Director of Mixology, Southern Wine & Spirits, Inc.
 
1½ OUNCES PLYMOUTH OR TANQUERAY NO. TEN GIN
 
¾
OUNCE COINTREAU
 
2 DASHES FEE BROTHERS PEACH BITTERS
 
3-4 WHOLE FRESH RASPBERRIES
 
1 OUNCE FRESH SWEET & SOUR (PASTEURIZED EGG WHITE—OPTIONAL
FOR A FOAMY LOOK)
Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass or serve over crushed ice in a tumbler glass.
Garnish with lemon twist and fresh raspberries on a cocktail stick.
CALVINO
BY EBEN KLEMM
Director of Cocktail Development, B. R. Guest Restaurant Group
 
2½ OUNCES PLYMOUTH GIN
 
TINY SPLASH MYRTLEBERRY AMARO
 
½ OUNCE GRAPEFRUIT JUICE
 
Shake all ingredients over ice and strain into cocktail glass that has approximately 2 tablespoons Campari-rose foam
8
in the bottom. Garnish with a petal of yellow rose or Chicago peace rose.
Soak two sheets gelatin in ice water.
In a saucepan over medium heat, stir ¼ liter rosehip jam into
¼
liter Campari until it dissolves. Bring to 60 degrees Celsius, to a light simmer at most.
Remove from heat.
Remove gelatin from water, gently squeeze out excess water, and whisk into Campari mix until completely dissolved. Strain. When mixture is cool (you may keep for a couple of days in refrigerator beforehand or accelerate by putting in ice bath) add to whipped cream canister following the instructions of the manufacturer.
Charge with two nitrogen canisters, shaking gently each time. Store in cooler. I recommend storing the canister upside down for 1 hour just before the first use.
CHERRY SMASH
BY JULIE REINER
 
Co-owner and Mixologist, Flatiron Lounge, New York
 
1½ OUNCES COURVOSIER VS COGNAC
 
¾
OUNCE ORANGE CURAÇAO
 
¾ OUNCE FRESH LEMON JUICE
 
½ OUNCE CHERRY HEERING
 
 
Muddle 4 brandied cherries in a mixing glass.
Add all other ingredients and shake well with ice.
Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with 2 brandied cherries.
HORSERADISH EGG SOUR
BY RYAN MAGARIAN
Mixologist at large
 
1½ OUNCES HORSERADISH-INFUSED VODKA*
 
¼ OUNCE NOILLY PRAT SWEET VERMOUTH
 
¾ OUNCE FRESH LEMON JUICE
 
½ OUNCE SIMPLE SYRUP
 
½ OUNCE FRESH ORANGE JUICE
 
1 DASH ANGOSTURA BITTERS
 
1 WHITE OF AN ORGANIC BROWN EGG
 
Combine ingredients in a pint shaker glass.
Fill glass with ice, shake vigorously for 10 seconds, and strain into a 7½-ounce cocktail glass. Garnish with flamed orange peel.
 
*HORSERADISH-INFUSED VODKA:
1 750 ML BOTTLE OF VODKA (I GENERALLY USE FRÏS, BUT MOST MID-
RANGE WHEAT-BASED VODKAS WILL BE FINE.)
 
½ CUP CLEANED, PEELED AND THINLY SLICED HORSERADISH
 
Let sit for one turn of the earth and strain through cheesecloth into a sealable glass container.
LULU COCKTAIL
BY TED “DR. COCKTAIL” HAIGH
Author,
Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails
(2004)
 
2 OUNCES ST. CROIX RUM
 
3 DASHES OF PEYCHAUD BITTERS
 
2 BARSPOONS OF PORT
 
1 DASH OF CRÈME DE NOYEAU
1 PINCH OF NUTMEG
 
1 BROAD SWATCH OF FRESH ORANGE PEEL,TWISTED SMARTLY
ATOP THE COCKTAIL SHAKER AND DROPPED IN.
 
Combine ingredients in a well-iced cocktail shaker. Shake well and strain into a 3½-ounce stemmed cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.
“MISTER” COLLINS
BY WAYNE COLLINS
 
Brands Mixology Senior Manager, Maxxium Worldwide
 
1 OUNCE FRESHLY SQUEEZED LEMON JUICE
 
2 DASHES ANGOSTURA BITTERS
 
2 BARSPOONS LYCHEE SYRUP*
 
1½ OUNCES PLYMOUTH GIN
 
Shake ingredients well with ice. Strain into a chilled sour glass and charge with American dry ginger ale.
*TO MAKE LYCHEE SYRUP SIMPLY ADD THE SWEET JUICE FROM TIN OF LYCHEES (OR RAMBUTANS) IN SYRUP AND MIX WITH A LITTLE PLAIN SUGAR SYRUP OR,ALTERNATIVELY, USE A GOOD-QUALITY LYCHEE LIQUEUR IFYOU HAVE IT.
MODERN TEA PUNCH
BY FERNANDO CASTELLON
Author,
Larousse des cocktails
(2004)
 
(OLD-FASHIONED [ROCKS] GLASS.)
 
METHOD: SHAKER
 
TYPE OF ICE: CUBES
 
½ OUNCE SUGAR CANE SYRUP
 
½ OUNCE FRESH LIME JUICE
 
3 OUNCE COGNAC (HENNESSY VSOP)
 
2 BARSPOONS OF RAW GREEN TEA (SENCHA TYPE)
 
GARNISH: LONG LIME TWIST
Pour the ingredients in the glass part of the shaker (except the lime twist) and add 4 to 5 ice cubes. Fit the stainless steel part of the shaker and shake vigorously until the shaker is very cold. Strain into an Old-Fashioned glass full of ice using a cocktail strainer and a tea strainer (fine-mesh strainer). Twist the long lime peel over the glass and drop it in the drink. Serve immediately.
ROCHESTER COCKTAIL
BY ROBERT HESS
 
 
2 OUNCES RYE WHISKEY
 
1 OUNCE DUBONNET
 
½ OUNCE LICOR 43
 
¼ OUNCE ABSINTHE
 
2 DASHES ANGOSTURA BITTERS
 
Stir, up, garnish with a lemon twist.
SIERRA COBBLER
BY DANIEL ESTREMADOYRO
 
Head Bartender, Pucara Bar, Cordoba, Argentina
 
Fill a large bar-glass with cracked ice and add:
 
1 TABLESPOON SIMPLE SYRUP
 
2 OUNCES PERUVIAN PISCO ITALIA
 
A FEW DROPS OF FERNET BRANCA
Fill to the top with
Cedron
(Lemon verbena) cold infusion.* Finally, place several strips of lemon and orange peel on top.
Shake well, garnish with berries and fresh
cedron
leaves. Serve with straws.
*
CEDRON
COLD INFUSION: PLACE 5 OR 6 DRIED LEMON VERBENA LEAVES INTO A PINT OF BOILING WATER AND LET IT COOL AT LEAST FOR 1 HOUR, IN ORDER TO EXTRACT FULL COLOR AND FLAVOR.

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