An online speakeasy of potent potables and other pabulam.

On February 10th, the Smithsonian Associates in conjunction with the Museum of the American Cocktail are hosting a Famous New Orleans Cocktails! seminar.

I’ll quote Phil Green after the jump:

The theme for this month’s Mixology Monday was “Broaden Your Horizons”.? The first one for 2009, it’s being hosted by The Scribe over at A Mixed Dram.? So, before I forget – thanks “The Scribe” for hosting this month!

It was kind of a tough topic.? Basically, The Scribe wanted us to think of an ingredient or technique we hadn’t used before and explore it.? I don’t want to act all jaded and like “oh, you know, I’ve been there and done that, har!”? But I was also like “uhh…what to do?”

That’s ’cause I’m typically the type of guy that if there’s something I want to try I just go ahead and try it.? I do the same thing with buying stuff, so it makes me hard to buy presents for, I’ve been told.

There’s one recipe however that I found in Harry Johnson’s classic bar guide that I’ve been wanting to try mostly for one big reason: it uses an egg yolk.? Not the white…just the yolk.

He has pictures in his book of various drinks and there’s one picture of a layered drink with an egg yolk in it so I knew exactly how I wanted it to look.? I had the liquor ingredients – green Chartreuse, maraschino, and Benedictine – so I went to the store, bought a fresh batch of eggs, and got ready to make the drink!

The recipe:

Widow’s Kiss
(Use a medium size wine glass)

1 yolk of a fresh egg;
1/3 glass of maraschino;
1/3 glass of green chartreuse;
1/3 glass of benedictine, and serve.

(Courtesy of Harry Johnson’s New and Improved (Illustrated) Bartender’s Manual and a Guide for Hotels and Restaurants, copyrighted 1900, reprinted 2008 by Mud Puddle Books.)

Wow.? Hit a few issues right away.? I didn’t have a great cordial glass for this (like the ones in Harry’s illustrations).? I wasn’t certain how much to use of each liquor and couldn’t be bothered to look that up in something like David Wondrich’s Imbibe!.? I also wasn’t certain which order to layer them in because Gary Regan’s The Joy of Mixology only had Benedictine listed of those three drinks.? His book did list ingredients in order to layer them in so I figured, hey, what the heck, I’ll try it that way.

But before I actually made the drink, I thought I’d get the yolk out first.? The first egg I managed to break the yolk of and so I didn’t want to use it.? The second egg I was much more careful with and the yolk was intact.

Then it was a glass.? I ended up grabbing a tasting glass from Horton vineyards; it was one of the smaller glasses I have and it seemed like it’d be a good shape and size for the drink.? It holds six ounces, so in a bout of not-thinking-things-through-completely (see below) I decided to use one ounce of each liquor.

Grabbing my bar spoon and measuring glass, I poured out the drink.? I put the maraschino in first, then the yolk – basing that off some random thing I’d read during the day – then the Chartreuse and last the Benedictine.? Looking at the picture, it might’ve been the wrong order to do them in.

But the drink looked neat!

As you might be able to tell, the chartreuse appeared to float up to the top right away.? The egg yolk didn’t stay perfectly in the middle – there might’ve been a bit of egg white left – but hey, I thought it looked kind of cool.

Then I realized something.

How in the name of Captain Tightpants was I supposed to drink this monstrosity?!

I took a sip off the top and really, that just gets you Chartreuse.? Not that I mind a nice dose of Chartreuse, but it wasn’t going to work (particularly when I’d get to the maraschino – ick!).

So I manned up, took a deep breath, and drank that #%()!-ing thing in one long pull.

THAT WAS THE WRONG THING TO DO AND DON’T DO THAT UNLESS YOU USE SMALLER PORTIONS.

Let me reiterate that:

DO NOT DO THAT.

My eyes watered.? My throat choked up.? I haven’t reacted that poorly to a shot in a long, long time.

I can’t even tell you what it tasted like – let’s just say, uh, wow, it was intense, and I would consider trying it again if I made it smaller.? (And if you want to make a “that’s what she said” joke, go for it, just … well, that’s the kind of thing that’d happen more likely maybe over in the Mixoloseum chat room, I’d bet.)

While I had gone through all that I’d made up a new batch of simple syrup.? This syrup I was going to modify a bit.

You see, I love vanilla.? I don’t know when that happened – I guess as I grew up, I discovered a big love for vanilla.? Kind of like when I realized that my favorite color was no longer black or blue (emo SeanMike for the win!) but red.? Weird.? And — I’ve never used vanilla simple syrup in a cocktail.

I tried my best to polish off my demerara sugar and let it cool off as a simple syrup then I added some Penzey’s double strength vanilla extract.

It cooled, I added an ounce or so of 100 proof vodka to help preserve it and add in about 1/4 of an ounce or so of the vanilla.? Tasting it straight, I thought it tasted pretty vanilla so I decided to try a drink with it.

In the middle of my debates inside the aforementioned chat room, wondering what to make with it (and getting very good suggestions from Stevi for dacquiris and French 75s) a horde of future in-laws showed up and I was forced to shut down my computer rapidly less they see some of the less-than-family friendly site titles in my Windows bar.? DARN YOU VISTA!

I thumbed my way through The Joy of Mixology and through Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails before suddenly thinking: HEY!? A Sazerac!

You know how I love a Sazerac.

I grabbed my Old Overholt, the Peychaud’s bitters, my little dripper bottle of absinthe, and a lemon.

If you know my favorite recipe for a Sazerac, you know how I made it.

Sazerac

3 ounces rye
3/4 ounce simple syrup
2 solid dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
Mix the rye, simple syrup, and Peychaud’s over ice.? Rinse out a chilled rocks glass with absinthe, dump out the absinthe, and strain the stirred mixture into the glass.? Squeeze a lemon peel over it and toss out the lemon peel.

(Recipe based off Gary Regan’s in The Joy of Mixology.)

The drink wasn’t bad – though the vanilla tones to it were really wiped out after the bitters and rye.? I might need to add more extract to the mixture.

But before I do that, I’ll probably have to go ahead and make a French 75.

I’m sure it’ll be delicious.

Anyways, thanks again to The Scribe over at A Mixed Dram for hosting this month.? Me, I’m going to walk back over to my precious, precious vanilla syrup.? What?? You want me to mix you up with an egg yolk in a some kind of layered drink that doesn’t have the same ingredients as before?? Hmmmm….

Honestly, I was – and still am – rather befuddled as to what to get my friends for Christmas this year.? Thus, I’m still behind on giving most of them gifts.

Damn.

Marshall had, in fact, given me a bottle of spiced pumpkin liqueur.? For some reason that got me feverishly thinking and I announced to my roommates “I’m going to make Marshall gin for Christmas!”

My brother – the criminal defense attorney – was not amused at that statement until I pointed out that it would be an infused gin, not a distilled one.

You see, someone had shown me a recipe in Gourmet for “kitchen gin” and I’d decided to make that.? I wandered over to Penzey’s, bought some spices and herbs and what-have-you, then hit the ABC store over near West Falls Church and got a bought of vodka that I bought as much for the bottle itself as anything else.

Then something hit me (ow!).? Did I have to use vodka?? What if I used a different base…like unaged corn whiskey?

Giggling, I set about getting everything together.

Once that was done, I wrote down the recipe.? Okay, we’re starting off with just the juniper berries over night, aren’t we?? That’s fine.

Two tablespoons of juniper berries went into each bottle.? Well, they went into the Georgia Moon bottle – that was an easy bottle to use for your infusing needs!

The 360 vodka bottle, on the other hand, was a little more annoying, so I ended up having to use a different container for infusing.? Not a huge deal.

That infused over night.? The next morning I got up and went to add the rest of the botanicals, etc., to infuse while I was at work.? Of course I was running late for work, and thus forgot to take pictures, and I made a huge mess through my kitchen because I hadn’t had any caffeine yet.

But, none the less, I got it done.

When I got back I had that kind of wondering feeling – I’d used ground allspice, since that’s all I’d found, and should I have used whole allspice berries?? Unfortunately, it was too late to go back, and after filtering it – and being out of cheesecloth and coffee filters dammit – there was still some allspice in the bottom of the bottles.? I hoped it wouldn’t hurt it too much and packaged it up.

It’s definitely cloudy but I was warned that it would be that way.? I smelled it and, well, it smelled like gin.? As I had kind of hoped, the whiskey one smelled a bit like genever gin, so I was eager to see how that turned out.

How did it taste?

Well, I can’t rightly tell ya.? We were going to taste it New Year’s Eve but didn’t get around to it.? So maybe Marshall will follow up and say if he has tasted it yet.

If it sucks – hey, whatever.? Could’ve been worse.

My parents gave me my presents this year a bit later.? I’d asked for an iSi soda siphon and instead they gave me a SodaStream after doing some research online.

The SodaStream works by carbonating clean, cold water – and that’s it.? You can pick how carbonated it is by pushing a button on top.? After it’s carbonated (in the provided 1 liter bottles) you add concentrate to make it flavored.? Included was a sample pack of flavors – I found most of them pretty darn close, and pretty tasty, to their equivalents.? I will probably buy more of their diet cola and energy drink versions.

They make a tonic water but it didn’t come with that, so my big complaint is this: to buy it in a store, I have to go to freaking SPRINGFIELD to some store I’d never heard of before (Boater’s World?!) to buy it!? Even though Williams Sonoma (of which there are a GAZILLION near me in places I’d rather go than SPRINGFIELD) carries the CO2 tanks, they don’t carry the mix!

STU-PID.

I’ll probably just end up ordering some cichona bark online and making my own tonic syrup starting with Jeffrey Morgenthaler‘s recipe.? I’m going to end up a member of the Cult of Morgenthaler or something.

Of course, researching that today got me looking into making some of Jamie Boudreau‘s amer picon recipe, too…

So, the last Thursday Drink Night of 2008 was sponsored by our friends over at Sandeman’s.? They hooked us up with two kinds of their port – the Founder’s Reserve (a ruby port) and the 10 year old (a tawny).? An accurate depiction of it is shown in Sam’s cartoon about the night here.? I will have you know, however, that at no point did I hiccup!? I think.

I showed up to the TDN late having been out to dinner with some friends.? The action was already going strong when I opened up the Founder’s Reserve – not realizing that it’s one of those corks with a plastic cap on top.? Oops!

I didn’t want to open both up but at the time, I thought that both were tawny.? I was surprised but not displeased when I found my mistake.? I’m much more of a ruby port drinker than a tawny one.? I sipped a bit of it first to get some ideas because, well, I don’t think I’ve ever really mixed with port before.

My first instinct was something easy.? I said at one point in the night something to the effect of “Why not just make a ‘Portugese Manhattan’ by going two parts whiskey, one part ruby port?”

Which, evidently, had been somebody’s idea to post, and they just hadn’t gotten to it yet.? Oops again!

But I did come up with a few drinks over the course of the night.? To me, mixing with port seemed a bit like mixing with sweet vermouth, only without the vegetals/herbal notes that you get with vermouth.? It’s easy for the vermouth to get swallowed up by the ingredients so if I keep doing it, I’ll have to learn how to work with it.

For instance, my first drink I called “The Outstayed Welcome”.? I’d been stuck on the idea of mixing port (which is brandy added to wine) with brandy.? They’re also both traditionally after-dinner drinks which led to the name of the drink.

The Outstayed Welcome
2 oz. brandy (I used St. Remy XO)
1 oz. lemon juice (note: I might adjust this down to 3/4 of an ounce – I can’t remember if I did that or not)
1/2 oz. simple syrup
1/2 oz. ruby port (Sandeman’s Founder’s Reserve)
1 dash orange bitters (Regan’s #6)
Shake and strain.? Garnish with a flamed orange peel.

Basically, I made a brandy sour, and then added in the port to add some complexity to it.? It wasn’t bad for a first try and I’d like to play around with the proportions a bit.? The irony of taking brandy and port for an after-dinner drink, when both are typically drank at room temperature at least in those circumstances, and making it a chilled drink wasn’t lost on me, but I really don’t think – even if I added water to it – that you’d want to drink it warm.

The previously mentioned Portugese Manhattan was technically my second drink.? The variations of it call for a lot of discretion on the part of the person making it.? Does the drinker prefer a fruity or more herbal Manhattan?? What type of whiskey are you using – bourbon or rye – and how spicy is it?? A sweet light bourbon, like Maker’s Mark, mixed with port would demand different bitters and maybe a different proportion than, say, Old Overholt.

Portugese Manhattan
2 ounces bourbon or rye (Bulleit)
1 ounce ruby port (Sandeman’s Founder’s Reserve)
2 dashes bitters (I used cherry)
Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.? Garnish appropriately for the bitters.

There’s a lot of leeway there in the bitters.? If I’d used Maker’s Mark, for instance, I might’ve gone with Angostura or Peychaud’s, or maybe even something a bit more random like rhubarb bitters.? With the Bulleit, a fairly spicy bourbon, I used cherry bitters, but I kind of wished I used maybe some cherry-vanilla bitters I have.? I might play with this drink more tonight.

For my last drink of the night I wanted to do something a little different than what other people were doing.? I’ve been experimenting at times with the combination of tequila and falernum.? I feel like it’s a good combination and from there it’s just a matter of what to add to it.? Given the sweetness of the port, I thought maybe a bit of an herbal taste and there’s only one place to go for that…

Okay, okay, there are multiple places, but I know what *I* wanted to use!

Cactus Needles
2 ounces tequila (I used Corazon blanco)
1 ounce ruby port (Sandeman’s Founder’s Reserve)
3/4 ounce falernum (Velvet Falernum)
1/4 ounce green Chartreuse
Shake and strain into a glass.? Garnish with a piece of cactus – yeah, right – or a twist of lime.

I think that this was a fun drink, if more of a summer drink.? I didn’t garnish it that night but I have a mental image of a hunk of cactus on a sweating double old fashioned glass with this.? I’m betting that lime will also work stylistically and perhaps also with the tastes.? After all, lime and tequila get along like gangbusters.

There were a ton of other drinks that came out that night and I still have a lot of ideas for things I can do with the ruby port – and I haven’t even opened up the tawny yet!? Keeping up with the “sweet vermouth” replacement, I could see doing a Negroni with gin, Aperol, and ruby port, for instance.

I guess this will have to do it until 2009 for TDN.? Hopefully soon we’ll see the recap of this TDN and see what other port drinks are coming up…and hey, playing with port will give me something to do through Christmas-time!