Category Archives: Rye

In which I flip for rye whiskey

Posted on by
4

Among the many booze blogs in my feed reader is Lauren Clark’s Drink Boston. I’m a real softie for Boston, for reasons too numerous and personal to detail here, so I love reading Lauren’s blog and traveling vicariously through the cocktailian haunts of that fine city.

I especially enjoyed her most recent post, which starts with this money quote: “You hard boil your Easter eggs. We separate and shake ours.” — Misty Kalkofen

Upon reading that, I knew what I was doing for Easter cocktails.

We had the food down–a small ham from Vermont’s Tamarack Hollow Farm, scalloped potatoes, and roasted asparagus. Jen has the full rundown, if you’re interested.

I needed a good cocktail, though, and I was at a loss until I saw Lauren’s post, at which point the idea of shaking up my eggs just seemed too perfect to pass up. A comment on that entry, about the rye flip, seemed to point the way to exactly what we wanted.

So in honor of spring, the Rye Flip.

Rye Flip

  • 1 egg
  • ½ oz. simple syrup
  • 2 oz. Sazerac rye whiskey
  • Nutmeg, for garnish

Technique: Shake over ice. Strain into an ice-filled rocks glass. Grate nutmeg over top of drink.

MxMo XII: Whiskey

Posted on by
2

MxMo WhiskeyJimmy Patrick’s hosting this month’s Mixology Monday, and he’s chosen the theme whisk(e)y. As I noted earlier, I came across a tasty recipe while researching uses for Cherry Heering (I’ve slightly adapted CockailDB’s proportions):

High Hat

  • 2 oz. rye
  • ½ oz. Cherry Heering
  • ½ oz. lemon juice

Technique: Shake, strain, etc.

The interplay of the rye (Rittenhouse BIB, in this case) and the Heering is fun. The cherry notes play well with the peppery qualities of the rye. This drink belongs in our rotation, for sure.

I’ve been enjoying another group of drinks, as well, also based on rye, and these are a couple of Manhattan/Brooklyn adaptations that have arisen fairly recently: the Red Hook and the Greenpoint. The Manhattan, of course, is whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters; whereas the Brooklyn is traditionally whiskey, dry vermouth, maraschino, and a dash of Amer Picon.

As a word of explanation, Red Hook and Greenpoint are both waterfront neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Red Hook was a hardscrabble shipping neighborhood–the inspiration for the film On the Waterfront. Greenpoint is a Polish-immigrant neighborhood–the northernmost Brooklyn waterfront neighborhood before you cross Newtown Creek into Queens.

I’m not sure of the Greenpoint’s origins (and, in fact, I’m not sure the name derives from the Brooklyn neighborhood), but as Paul Clarke notes, the Red Hook originated at New York’s Milk and Honey. I’ve assumed that the Greenpoint is simply a Red Hook variation with a green liqueur, named after a “green” Brooklyn nabe, but that might be erroneous folk etymology on my part.

The Red Hook starts with a Manhattan base (rye and sweet vermouth–or, preferably, rye and Punt e Mes) and adds a small amount of maraschino–about one quarter or one half an ounce. The Greenpoint takes the same recipe and substitutes Chartreuse (green, natch) for the maraschino.

These are both delightful drinks, and I thought it might be fun to riff on them a bit. But my reach exceeded my grasp, I’m afraid. I figured I’d mix up some rye with sweet vermouth and Cherry Heering. Ugh. I even borrowed the lemon juice from the High Hat, and still… no. It was like the War of the fucking Roses in that glass.

I suspect there are ways, without getting cutesy, of crafting a Williamsburg or a Park Slope, but I’m afraid I didn’t find that answer tonight.

Party drinking: Ward 8

Posted on by
2

For my friend’s birthday party a couple of weekends ago, I wanted to take a special cocktail. One that I’ve been wanting to try at home is the Ward 8–which is rye, lemon and orange juices, and grenadine–but Jen’s allergic to orange juice, so I’ve never mixed it up here. However, I thought it might go over well at a party.

Rather than trucking oranges and lemons, though, I decided to premix the juices and grenadine the morning of the party, mix, and bottle them. For the grenadine, I used Paul Clarke‘s recipe from Imbibe magazine. I used equal parts Pom and superfine sugar (half a cup each), which I shook together in bottle. I added an ounce of pomegranate molasses (which we found at Whole Foods) and shook it some more. (Paul, by the way, has a couple of other variants on grenadine recipes on his blog, if you want other ideas.)

Ward 8 recipes come in varying proportions depending on the taste of the mixer. I looked at a number of recipes and decided on these proportions:

Ward 8

  • 2 oz. rye whiskey
  • 1 oz. fresh lemon juice
  • ¾ oz. fresh orange juice
  • ¼ oz. grenadine

Technique: Shake over ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

To scale this up to party measurements, I had to do a little math. Since I was planning to add the rye and ice at the party and then shake, I didn’t add any water to the mix. (If you’re fully premixing a cocktail to prechill and then serve later–that is, if you’re mixing up the base spirit and all the modifiers and you’re not planning to shake it over ice just before serving–it’s good to add water since you won’t have the water you’d get from the ice.)

A 750-ml bottle of spirit equals just over 25 ounces, and I was using an 8-4-3-1 ratio of rye-lemon-orange-grenadine. I ignored an ounce from the rye and came up with these proportions:

Ward 8, party style

  • 24 oz. rye
  • 12 oz. lemon juice
  • 9 oz. orange juice
  • 3 oz. grenadine

Technique: Shake the last three ingredients in a 24-oz. bottle.

When ready to serve, pour equal parts rye and juice-grenadine mix into a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a glass.

Whiskey, rye whiskey

Posted on by
Reply

Jack o’ Diamonds, Jack o’ Diamonds, I know you of old
You have robbed my poor pockets of silver and gold
It’s a-whiskey, you villain, you’ve a been my downfall
You’ve kicked me, you’ve cuffed me,
But I love you for all.

And it’s a whiskey, rye whiskey
Rye whiskey, I cry
If I don’t get rye whiskey
Well I think I will die.

It’s a beefsteak when I’m hungry
Rye whiskey when I’m dry
Greenback when I’m hard up
Heaven when I die.

I’ll a-go to yonder holler
I’ll build me a still
I’ll give you a gallon
Fer a five dollar bill

Whiskey, rye whiskey
Rye whiskey, I cry
If a tree don’t fall on me,
I’ll live ’til I die.

If the ocean was whiskey
And I was a duck
I’d dive to the bottom
An’ never come up

Now the ocean ain’t whiskey
And I ain’t a duck
I’ll play Jack o’ Diamond
And trust to my luck

Ha ha ha whiskey, rye whiskey
Rye whiskey, I cry
If whiskey don’t kill me,
I’ll live ’til I die.

–Tex Ritter, “Rye Whiskey”

Flatiron Lounge: Red Hook Fizz

Posted on by
Reply

Flatiron Wedding-Melee AftermathThe day we got married, Jen and I corralled our wedding party and celebrated with drinks at Flatiron Lounge. Six months later, it’s time to celebrate, so my bride and I convened Friday evening at Flatiron for after-work drinks.

Because I leave work at 4:15 each day, I find it fun to arrive at a good bar like Flatiron or Pegu early so that I can sit grab a stool and talk to the bartender before he or she gets weeded with the after-work crowd. We’ve been back to Flatiron twice now since the wedding, and both times bartender Katie has provided our drinks service. She’s friendly, professional, and easy to talk to, so it’s fun to go in and chat a little about drinks.

I knew already that I wanted to start with a rum-based drink. I’m still learning rums. Too many experiences with badly mixed Captain Morgan drinks have turned me off the taste, I’m afraid, but I know it’s important that I rectify that if I’m to be serious about this hobby. So it’s time to develop my palate.

Luckily, Flatiron had mai-tais on its guest-mixologist menu; a classic drink for all the right reasons, a well-mixed mai tai is balanced and tasty. I know I’ve had them before, with cheap rum, poured to the point of overpowerment. Sad. But Flatiron does them right, of course, so I asked Katie what rum she used for it, and she showed me the bottle of Appleton Estate. This sparked a good conversation about rum brands, distilling methods, cane syrup vs. molasses, and so on.

I had nearly finished the mai tai when Jen arrived. I let her sample some of the remainders, and she liked it too. It’s one for the repertoire.

Jen and I worked through the menu. My second was a Singapore Sling, while Jen ordered a Gin Shagler for her first–muddled cucumber and mint, mixed with gin and topped off with Champagne. Quite tasty.

I then ordered a Negroni, but Jen stumbled her way into something interesting. I blogged earlier about going to Dressler and getting served an impromptu Seelbach. We’ve experimented a bit with the recipe at home, and Jen wanted to see how Katie would make one.

But when Jen asked, Katie said she’d never heard of it. We described the drink, but by this point, I couldn’t remember the proportions, just the ingredients. (And not even those, really–I forgot the triple sec.) So she thought for a moment and said, “Do you mind if I offer you my take on that?”

When she came back, she sat down my Negroni and a fluted drink for Jen, who took a sip and was pleased. Katie said, “That’s a Red Hook, but topped with Champagne.” Paul’s got more on the Red Hook at Cocktail Chronicles, but it’s basically a variation on the Brooklyn cocktail. Made with rye, Punt y Mes, and maraschino, the Red Hook is hard-bitten and ribald, and the champagne smooths it out without sacrificing its character. Think James Woods in a tux.

Jen liked it enough to have two.

What’s pig got to do with it?

Posted on by
1

What’s pig, but a foodie-blog emotion?

I know, this ain’t a cooking blog, but one thing I do want to discuss here is using spirits in cooking. I’m just a novice here, but it should be fun to discuss what works well for us and what fails miserably.

One night last week, my lovely wife brought home a couple of nice pork chops from the Greenmarket. We had planned on grilling them over hard-wood charcoal, but the rains had other plans, so I started prepping them for the iron skillet. Jen recommended a bourbon reduction to glaze the chops, but as I seared the chops, I had another idea: pork chops and applesauce.

Continue reading →

I weep for the future

Posted on by
3

Today’s New York Post describes 25 Things Every New Yorker Should Know, and I certainly can’t argue with most of them. You should know how to swipe a MetroCard, make an egg cream, work a room, or befriend your bodega guy. But item 16…oh my.

Look, just–

Look. Every New Yorker should know how to make a perfect Manhattan. I don’t care if you’re only 10 years old, you should know how to make a Manhattan. Why did mommy and daddy bring you into this world except to stir them up a cold drink? But don’t take your cues from the Post, fergodsake:

16 How to make a perfect Manhattan

One Little West 12′s beverage director Bernie Bernstein says you can make a Manhattan the normal way or the perfect way. “The key difference,” he says, “is the regular uses sweet vermouth and the perfect uses both sweet and dry. To me the perfect is the greatest Manhattan there is; it just makes the bourbon that much smoother.”

Step one: Fill the shaker three-quarters full with ice.

Step two: Pour in 2 ounces bourbon – preferably Woodford Reserve.

Step three: Pour in three-quarters of an ounce of sweet vermouth. Then pour in same amount of dry vermouth.

Step four: Add 3 dashes of bitters, then a dash of maraschino cherry juice.

Step five: Put a pint glass on the top and shake vigorously for 20 seconds or until the shaker is cold with a slight frost.

Step Six: Strain the drink into a martini glass and garnish with a pristine cherry.

So right, and yet still somehow so wrong. Use rye, stir it, and skip the fuckin’ cherry juice. What is this, a Slurpee?