The Great Gin Twist Adventure

I like cocktail parties. I like parties where we roast pigs. But, what I like the best is pig roast cocktail parties.

Saugatuck Craft Butchery  approached me a few days ago and asked if I wanted to supply the booze for their First Annual Pig on the Plaza event. It's a pig roast that originated as one of their butchery classes that turned into a bad ass event. Of course I would supply the booze! I don't want to talk about the beer or wine that we're serving. So, let's get right to the cocktail. The Gin Twist.

I've been thumbing through a cocktail book originally printed in 1902 by Farrow & Jackson called Recipes of American and Other Iced Drinks. It was a marketing ploy by Farrow & Jackson, who manufactured tools and equipment for bars. Buy the book. It's pretty cool. Charlie Paul was the man who provided most of the recipes in this little goodie. I'm only assuming that he came up with the Gin Twist recipe back in the day. But, I may be wrong. So, don't quote me on it.

As with a lot of the recipes found in these antique printings, it leaves a lot up to interpretation. The actual recipe goes as follows <as printed in the book>:

Gin Twist. S.D. (short drink)

Take a wine glass ; put in a small piece of ice, a

teaspoonful of strawberry syrup and half a tea-

spoonful of lemon juice ; fill up with Old Tom gin,

then pare half a lemon, twist, and drop in.

This is an amazing action shot

Awesome. So, when I say "interpretation" that means that when I made this recipe for the first time, I didn't have the exact ingredients on hand at that exact moment. So, I "interpret" the shit out of it. Really, what happened was, I didn't have Old Tom Gin and I just made lemonade with all of the lemons i had in house. Bare with me here. Old Tom gins stylistically are sweetened gins. So, what would happened if the sweetener was misplaced and put into the lemon juice? It's all sugar right? Who cares how it gets in there, just as long as it gets in there? Right? Right. Moving on. 

The Pig on the Plaza event has grown to at least 150 people at this point. That's a lot of Gin Twisting.

Fifty lemons, two bags of oleo saccharum and 14 cups of lemon juice, I'm ready to move on to the strawberry syrup. Now, I haven't had any scholastic or culinary training and I haven't done any true research on it. But, I'm pretty sure any kind of strawberry syrup contains a shit load of strawberries and a whole bunch of sugar. Some might say there is some water in there, too. There is water in strawberries, right? Good enough.

I guess you're supposed to boil and simmer fruit and sugar to create syrups. Let's interpret "syrup" here, too. I'm lazy.

Hull the strawberries and cut them in half. Yes, all 4lbs of them.

Throw them in a bag and add 2 cups of that lovely granulated sugar.

Smoosh them together a bit to jump start that sugar/fruit magic.

Yup. vacuum seal it, too. If you don't have a vacuum sealer like this one, I would assume you can use a Ziploc bag and take as much air out as possible.Just let it sit out on the counter at room temperature for a few hours or until it looks like a lot of the sugar is dissolving.

Okay. You're done for today. Let all of that hard work you just did sit overnight in the fridge.

I know we all have busy schedules nowadays. This will keep fresh in the fridge for a couple days.

You have a blender or a food processor, right? Take it out of the cupboard and dust it off. Strawberries+sugar+blender=strawberry syrup in my Gin Twisted head.  Blend the strawberries until they're smooth. Voila! You have strawberry "syrup". Now you can funnel this syrup into Ball canning jars,  swing-top bottles or whatever resealable vessel you feel like. Personally, I think this tastes better than that nasty syrup crap from a can you get at diners. The sweetness here ends up being a bit brighter and you still have a little texture to it. And, guess what? No boiling, simmering or reducing! Plus, it's works better in cocktails.

The next step was to make my famous and ridiculously delicious oleo saccharum lemonade in large format. I won't bore you with the details.

Gin Twist

2oz Plymouth Gin
1/2oz Strawberry syrup
1oz oleo saccharum lemonade

Combine in a strainer. Add ice and shake.
Strain over fresh ice in a Highball glass
top with 1oz club soda
Garnish with a lemon twist and a sprig of mint

Grapefruit Syrup - The Amazing Way

Don't frickin' freak out. It's only grapefruit syrup.

I must confess that I have gone the majority of my life without even knowing what a Paloma was. But ever since having one at Rosa Mexicano in New York City, I've been hooked. It was so simple. It was so delicious. It was so amazing. When I ordered it, they gave me a Collins glass filled with ice and garnished with a lime, a shot glass of Partida Silver Tequila and a bottle of Jarrito's Toronja grapefruit soda. Holy shit. It blew me away.

Like anything else that I love in the name of alcohol, I wanted to carry Jarrito's in my wine shop. But, for some reason, I couldn't find the vender for Jarritos. So, in typical "me" fashion, I decided to give it a go myself. Of course, I geeked out.  I needed to dissect the All Mighty Toronja.

Ingredients: carbonated water (water, carbon dioxide), natural sugar, citric acid, natural flavor, sodium benzoate (preservative), yellow 5, yellow 6. Look for yourself.

Gross.

Now, I don't know about you but I HATE yellow #5 and yellow #6. Actually, that statement isn't entirely true. I never understood the point of food coloring. Just kidding. I do understand why companies use it. It's another marketing ploy to make you believe something is more delicious than it actually is. It keeps the food coloring companies in business. I blame the Irish. After all, I am half Irish. What does that mean exactly? I don't know. It just makes me feel better when I blame the Irish. It's just like using food coloring.

Okay. Enough rambling and on to the recipe.

Grapefruit Syrup

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup water

2 cups fresh squeezed Grapefruit juice

Grapefruit oleo saccharum

Cold process the sugar and water until sugar is dissolved. You can find my cold process method here.  Add grapefruit and oleo saccharum and shake. Let it sit over night. It makes all the difference in the world. Remove grapefruit peels and press out remaining juice of peels. Store in fridge up to one month.

Oleo saccharum of grapefruit

Grapefruit rind of 3 grapefruits

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Combine ingredients in a sous vide bag. Rub sugar and grapefruit peel together to release oils from the rind. Vacuum seal and let sit at room temperature for a few hours until the sugar and oil combine. You see what I mean when you do it.

Here's how to make the most amazing Paloma you'll ever have in your life. Seriously.

1 1/2 oz of your favorite blanco tequila (I use Partida)
1 1/2 oz Grapefruit syrup
2 oz carbonated water (club soda)
*2 drops Bittermens Hopped Grapefruit Bitters
juice of 1 lime wedge (a 1/4 lime)

Combine ingredients in a Collins glass filled with ice. Give it a quick stir. Garnish with an  orange peel.

*A note on the bitters: You can use any bitters you like. I've tried Fee Brothers Grapefruit and it ended up offering more floral notes on the nose and a sweeter taste profile. It didn't work as well with the syrup, in my opinion. You can also sub in Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Spanish Bitters if you'd like. It works well and it adds a different dimension to the cocktail that is truly refreshing. If you use Adam's bitters, I'd bump it up to three drops. If I make two of these cocktails for myself on a hot day, I use Bittermens in one and Adam's in the other. I like the contrast.

If you're not a fan of tequila cocktails, you can sub in gin in this recipe.

Gins that work in this recipe:
Plymouth - Nice, well balanced. The grapefruit brings out more herbaceous notes in the gin
DH Krahn - Sweet and citrusy. Very playful on the palate. I would garnish this with a lemon peel
Beefeater Summer Edition - Floral and airy. The sugar in the syrup pull the botanicals together nicely
No. 3 - Citrusy and soft - The orange peel in the gin plays nice. Use Adam's spanish bitters
209 Gin - Rich and complex. I tend to use Fee Brothers Grapefruit bitters in this one.

The only thing that I ask of you is, make sure there are no children around when you say "That's fucking delicious."

Delicious Lemonade for Your Summer Soiree

Jeff Marron’s Delicious Lemonade

Simple Syrup (about 1 ½ cups) – recipe to follow

1 cup fresh squeezed lemons (about 6 lemons)

3 cups of water

Combine in a pitcher, refrigerate and smile now that you have just

made the most delicious fresh lemonade in the world. This recipe is designed to be poured over ice. If you wish to opt out of ice in your glass, just add one more cup of water to the pitcher.

Simple Syrup – Cold Method

1 cup White Granulated Sugar

1 cup water

1. Combine in a seal-able jar (i.e. Ball canning jar with a lid) or cup, bowl, Tupperware container – whatever allows you to shake or stir without spilling

2. Shake or stir until dissolved

For those lazy types out there, this recipe only takes 7 minutes and 43 seconds from start to finish. Well, actually, I forgot to shut off the timer when I was done. So, it's probably more like 6 minutes and 43 seconds. Don't be lazy. Make yourself some delicious lemonade.

Barrel o' Cocktails - The Negroni

1910 Club Cocktails ad

Aging cocktails is not a new thing. It's been around for a long time, longer than I've been breathing the air on this planet, in fact. The oldest print ad I could find mentioning barrel-aged cocktails dates back to 1910. It was the G. F. Heublein & Brother line of Club Cocktails that brought the concept to mainstream. Though the Club Cocktail line seems to be fading off into the sunset, the craft of aging cocktails is experiencing a rebirth.


The process of curing the barrel is an easy one. Fill it up with hot water and let it sit for a few days until it stops leaking. Don't worry if it takes longer than three days. It's not a defective barrel. You can speed up the process by submerging the water filled barrel in your bathtub or deep-well sink over night. Have patience.

Now that you are ready to figure out which cocktail you'd like to age, you have to take a few things into consideration. The most important topics would be freshness and safety. You'll be aging the cocktail at room temperature. With that said, you wouldn't want to drink milk that has been left out of the fridge for six weeks, right? Good. Rule number 1 will be "No Dairy Products". Rule number two will be "No Fruit Juice". The same logic applies to fruit juice, too. The third rule of thumb is that you want to stay away from carbonated drinks. They will lose their carbonation and you'll end up with a funky mess. If you're hellbent on using soda, use a soda syrup. But, refer to rule #2 when choosing your syrup.

For our example, we will be making a Negroni in a five liter barrel. A Negroni cocktail has three components: equal parts Gin, Campari and Sweet Vermouth. For our five liter barrel, you can fit 2 750ml bottles of each component comfortably. You'll have to eyeball it if you want to fill it up to the tippity-top. Or, if you want to be anal retentive like myself, the exact amount you need would be 56.3 ounces of each ingredient. Each individual barrel will hold a slightly different amount. So, don't freak out if you're short or have some left over. Also, you'll need to hang on to the empty bottles. You will need them in later steps about six weeks from now. Wash them out, soak the labels off and set them aside.

When choosing your ingredients, keep in mind that the flavor will change after spending time in the belly of your new oak friend. In addition to extracting tannins from the wood and adding some caramel and vanilla notes to your cocktail, there are some other lovely little scientific events happening. There are reactions with the alcohol and congeners in the spirit through oxidation and extraction of chemicals from the oak. How they react depends on the size and age of the barrel, how many times it was used, percentage of alcohol in the cocktail, humidity, temperature and, most importantly, the time spent in your baby barrel. The only two factors that you really should care about here are the time spent in the barrel and the alcohol percentage of your drink. The higher the level of alcohol in the barrel, the more the spirits will interact with the chemical compounds of the wood. Thus resulting in more "flavor". The harshness of the spirits within will tend to mellow as well.

The age of the final product will be totally subjective to your taste. With the Negroni, let it age at least four weeks before you sample it for the first time. To be quite honest, you can do whatever the hell you want. It's your barrel. It's just in my experience that the flavors of your cocktail go through some funky phases that might give you second thoughts about continuing on this journey. Again, have patience.

The first time you use your barrel, you'll probably want to think about bottling your cocktail right around 6 weeks if you want to halt the aging process. You're going to need to use the original booze bottles for this step. To sanitize them, throw them in the dishwasher for a cycle. That should do the trick. When you pour the cocktail back into the bottles, you might want to strain it through a couple layers of cheese cloth just to make sure you catch some of those wood particles.

The final step is simple. The only tool you need is your phone. Call me up when you're ready to drink your delicious cocktail. I'll be over in 15 minutes.

The barrels and booze can be purchased at Saugatuck Grain & Grape in Westport, CT. We have 1 liter, 2 liter, 5 liter and 10 liter barrels in stock.

The Importance of Ingredients

Nobody actually wants to drink a crappy cocktail. Nobody says "Let's head down to that bar that serves shitty cocktails because I'm tired of drinking things that taste good." Just like food, the ingredients and their flavor profiles are uber important in the recipe you are using. If you use lamb instead of beef in your burger patty, do you think it will taste different? Of course it does. But it's still red meat. If you use Bourbon in your Manhattan cocktail do you think it will taste different than Rye? Of course it will, even if they both are a whiskey. Scotch whisky tastes totally different than Bourbon whiskey. I know I spelled whisk(e)y differently. They do, too. Don't get me started.

My question is to everyone that posts recipes on the internet, "why be so broad in your ingredients list?" If you discovered the perfect combination of specific quantities of specific spirits for your cocktail and have decided to post it on the World Wide Intertubes, let everyone know what those ingredients actually are. Give me brand names.

At some point in time I bought a terrible cocktail book or maybe someone gave it to me. I don't remember. Flipping through the book, I realized that, although the stories were well written, the cocktail recipes seems to be have written by someone who doesn't drink alcohol. They flat-out suck. To quote the recipe:

Martini
The undisputed heavyweight champion of the world

3 ounces gin
1/4 ounce dry white vermouth
Lemon peel for garnish

Place the gin and vermouth in a shaker, along with plenty of cracked ice, and shake vigorously to combine. Strain into a well-chilled martini glass. Garnish with lemon twist, or olive if your guest prefers, and serve immediately.

Now, I can nit pick here. But that's not the purpose of this post. I am disappointed with the fact that they only listed "gin" and "vermouth". Out of all the spirits on a liquor store's shelves, one brand of gin couldn't be more different than the next brand. The same goes with vermouth. A lot of white vermouths are made with the grape varietals Clairette blanche, Piquepoul, Catarratto and Trebbiano. Without getting into a lot of technical detail, wine is made and then it is aged with herbs, roots and/or bark. It's kind of the same process as gin. There are so many different variables that can change the flavor profile from vermouth to vermouth and from gin to gin. So, it bothers me that an author of a cocktail book just writes "gin" and "vermouth" in a recipe without clarifying which brands they used.

Here's your homework. Try two different brands of premium gin, say Hendrick's versus Tanquerey 10 side by side neat. Don't do a shot of them. Just pour them in separate glasses and take a sip of both, one right after the other. Give enough time in between to actually taste the first gin. Pay attention to the herbal, floral and spice notes to the first one. Then do the same with the second. Wow! Totally different, right???? Would you agree that these two gins would make two different tasting martinis? The same goes with the vermouth. Did you notice in their recipe that they didn't list the olive, "if your guest prefers" in the ingredient list?

Was that a beef burger with Swiss cheese and a pickle or was it a lamb burger with smoked Gouda and Cole slaw? Eh, they're both burgers. Who gives a shit?

I hope you do.