Pimms Cup

This is by far my new favorite cocktail.

This picture doesn't do it justice. The backdrop should be a veranda with palm trees, some sand, a big wooden deck chair, some seagulls and of course the ocean. Oh, and it should be that time of day when you just came in off the beach, took a shower, put on some clean crisp white clothes and settled down for your first cocktail of the evening.



The husband used the recipe from the Napoleon House in New Orleans - the spot where he first tasted one.

Fill a tall 12 oz glass with ice and add 1 1/4 oz. Pimm's #1 and 3 oz lemonade.
Then top off with 7up.
Garnish with cucumber.

BTW, Pimms #1 is a gin-based liquor. Apparently, the recipe is a closely guarded secret only known to 6 people - or so it says on the bottle.

The Whiskey (or Whisky) Argument

I have a friend who is an insatiable arguer. It is impossible to win with him because he will drag the argument out to such an extent that you either a.) secede your point so you don't have to think about it any more or b.) die of old age. Sometimes you are wrong, but that is rare.

You would think that I should know better by now to not engage, but alas an argument about whiskey vs. Scotch, how they are made, and why the flavors differ arose on a recent night out. I have to be honest, I don't really remember what I bet or really what my side of the argument was, but I know that by posting this I could potentially lose something.

I am by no means an expert, I just did a few google searches and looked through some of our cocktail books. Here's what I found.

The first step to make any whiskey is to malt barley. Barley is malted by letting it soak in water for a few days. This process turns the starch from the barley into fermentable sugars. Malting is stopped by drying the mixture in a kiln.

In Scotland, the malt is dried using a fire that is often fueled with peat and the smoke comes in direct contact with the malt. This gives Scotch the smoky flavor that it has and separates it from all other whiskies. In coastal areas, the peat will pick up the saltiness of the sea air and will contribute to the flavor of the scotch.

In Ireland, the malt is dried in a closed kiln fired by coal or gas and no smoke comes in contact with the malt - hence no smoky flavor. Also, the Irish spell it whisky, not whiskey.

So, Scotch is whiskey using peat and direct contact with the smoke in the drying process.

Irish whisky doesn't use peat. I think that was one of the arguments.

The next step is mashing and then fermentation followed by distillation. I'm not going to go into these processes because it wasn't part of the argument. Except to say that many whiskeys are distilled 2 times and Irish whisky is distilled a third time and that much of the body, or mouth feel, of the final whisky is believed to come from the size and shape of the stills used in its production.

The final step is aging and by law, Scotch whisky must be aged for a minimum of three years in oak casks. The casks that are used are an important component of the flavor development. Each year in the wood reduces the alcohol content, as the alcohol evaporates through the porous oak. (Interesting side note...the lost alcohol is known as the angel's share. I linked a bar of the same name that is worth a visit.)

Single malt Scotch requires old barrels because new ones would overpower the whiskey. The most common source is American whiskey producers because U.S. law requires that bourbon and Tennessee whiskey be aged in new casks so the old ones are sold for reuse.

I did find some reference to the fact that the microclimate of an area can also lend to the flavor of whiskies, however it is not just the air that surrounds the oak (in fact that seems to be the least important factor.) The quality of the water, rock and peat is unique to each area and thus each whiskey is unique based in part on these components.

To be called a single malt the bottle must contain only a single malt (barley) whiskey distilled at a single distillery. If it contains single malt whiskies produced at more then one distillery then it is called a blended malt or a vatted malt.

American whiskeys are either straight or blended. Straight whiskies contain at least 51% of a certain grain in the mash, in addition to barley, for example to be called Rye whiskey the mash must contain at least 51% of rye. Straight whiskies must be aged in oak at least 2 years. Blended whiskies have at least 2 or more grains in the mash.

American straight whiskies are further divided into Bourbon, Tennessee or Rye. Bourbon whiskies are produced in Bourbon County, Tennessee and can be either sweet (if fresh yeast is used to start fermentation) or sour (if new and residual yeast is used.) Bourbon is made primarily from corn (up to but no more then 80%) but the remaining grain in the mash is either wheat or rye. Makers Mark uses wheat and Jim Beam uses rye if you want to compare.

Tennessee whisky is almost the same as bourbon except that it is slowly filtered through 10 feet of sugar maple charcoal. Jack Daniels is a Tennessee sour mash whiskey.

Rye whiskey is similar to bourbon but must have a minimum of 51% rye in its mash, giving it a slightly bitter flavor.

All bourbon is aged in new charred white-oak barrels and it is this step that imparts the caramel flavor that is characteristic of American whiskies.

And now I don't want to think about bourbon, scotch, or whiskey anymore so I give up and secede the argument....see how that works?!?!?

The French 75

BNO

Had a big night out on Friday. Two excellent friends were in town from San Francisco for the night. We started with cocktails and cheese in the apartment. Because it was a special occasion, we broke out the champagne. I am thinking of naming my first born French 75 after this celebratory delight:

French 75

2 tsp sugar
1 ounce lemon juice
2 ounces gin
Champagne

Shake all but the Champagne in an iced cocktail shaker. Pour into a champagne flute. Stir gently and garnish with a cherry.

(will post a picture tomorrow - it doesn't seem to be working tonight.)

The second cocktail was a Champagne Cocktail where you place a sugar cube in the bottom of a champagne flute, pour in four dashes of Angostura bitters and top with champagne. This drink really grew on me. At first I liked it, but it wasn't a standout. But as the sugar dissolved, the warmth and spiciness of the bitters played off the sugar and melted into a drink with so much depth and flavor.

We paired all of this with some cheeses from Murray's Cheese in Grand Central - a favorite spot of mine in the city. I asked the man behind the counter for some advice, which is always a good call. We ended up with a mild but tangy goat cheese, a creamy blue that melted as soon as I took it out of the wrapper, and a sheep's milk from Vermont that was mellow and firm. As accompaniments, we had quince paste and sliced apple. So good. (I'll post tomorrow with the names of the cheeses, I tossed the wrappers and forgot to write them down beforehand.)

Sufficiently cocktailed, we headed out to dinner at Schiller's Liquor Bar. Arriving at the restaurant 15 minutes late, we were greeted with a 40 minute wait. This was ok for three reasons, first it gave us time to digest all of the cheese, second we had enough time to enjoy the hipster circus that is the lower east side. And finally, we could catch up on each other's lives before stepping into the deafening din of the restaurant. Seriously this restaurant is loud.

We were crowded into a tiny table and I must have elbowed about 20 skinnyjean-clad rear ends. The food was just ok. We had lemon and garlic shrimp and calamari for an appetizer. For dinner I had the steak frites which were fine. The fries were actually very good and the house butter on the steak was great. But really, when is butter not good?

I did love the cheap wine that they serve and also the service was surprisingly excellent considering the crowd. And of course, the company was sublime!

After dinner, we headed to the Pegu Club for some more drinks. As always with this bar, the drinks were well made and did not disappoint. I had a gin, peach and jasmine fizz and then the last drink I don't remember that well, gin, cognac, lemon and soda water I think....hmmm, can we say one too many?

Oh, did I mention that we got back to the apartment at 3am and that I had to be on a train to work at 7am? Not smart.

But so worth it to catch up with old friends. On the eve of a terrible anniversary, that sentiment was never more true to me.

Fizzle for Shizzle

I actually came down with a cold on Friday which is a horrible thing to happen in the summer. But I am a trooper and I struggled through to test two different gin fizz drinks. This blog is hard, hard, work and there is no give up in me. Besides, gin fizzes are the perfect summer drinks and there is only a week or two before I switch back to bourbon, so I felt that there was no time to waste.

A little nugget about gin. Gin is made from a mash of cereal grain (usually corn, rye, barley, or wheat) and is flavored with botanicals. Juniper is the most prominent flavor but others include coriander, lemon, fennel, cassia, anise, and almond. A Dutch chemist apparently created gin in the mid-sixteenth century. He called it ginievre which means juniper in French. He declared it an attempt to enhance the therapeutic properties of juniper in a medicinal beverage. (from Dale DeGroff's The Craft of the Cocktail)

So here's to the therapeutic properties of juniper as we enjoy these final days of summer...

Gin Sling
This drink looks simple to make, and it is, but the flavor is anything but. There were subtle hints of pineapple and peach that made me forget I was in a 100 sq foot apartment...and I am sure I heard waves lapping on the pavement 7 stories below. This is a real summer drink.
1 1/2 ounces gin
1 ounce sweet vermouth
3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
1 tsp sugar
soda water
lemon peel for garnish
Shake all ingredients except the soda water with ice and strain into ice filled glass. Top with soda and garnish with a spiral of lemon.

Gin Daisy
There is only one word to describe this drink...refreshing. Enough said.
2 ounces gin
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 tsp grenadine
Soda water
Pour ingredients into an ice filled shaker. Shake, then strain into ice filled highball. Top with soda water.

Drink of the Week

As I mentioned in my first post, I have been the lucky recipient of vintage cocktails as the husband has taken the making of them up as a hobby. Did that sentence make sense? If not, then partake in a cocktail yourself, read it again, and I am sure that it will be crystal clear.

In any case, part of studying cocktails includes understanding their history. While it is not my first interest, my mind and liver have absorbed some of this information through the books lying around and the unbelievably fascinating conversations that I enjoy with the husband and the cat (she is a great listener). I plan on sharing these nuggets as I post the "Drink of the Week."

For today, an itty bitty nugget....A response to a reader's question in an 1806 publication The Balance and Columbian Repository says, a "cocktail is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters."

Here is a recipe for the Jack Rose (pictured above), supposedly named for a pink rose called the Jacquemot rose. It is sweet, but not overly so. Tart, but not overly so. And alcoholy, but not overly so. In short, it is perfectly balanced.

Jack Rose

1 1/2 ounces applejack (available in liquour stores)
juice of one lime
1/2 ounce grenadine