Gold Rush Cocktail

Gold Rush Cocktail

2oz bourbon
3/4oz honey syrup*
1/2oz lemon juice

Pour all ingredients into a shaker tin. Add ice, shake and strain into a coupe or a rocks glass with a big cube. No garnish.

{*to  make honey syrup, use 2 parts honey to 1 part water and stir or shake in a sealed jar until dissolved}

This is a really delicious drink. It is sweet and tangy but still boozy, especially if you use 100 proof bourbon, which you should.

Surprisingly, it was only invented recently. It is one ingredient swap away from several classics like the bee's knees and brown derby but somehow no one ever came up with honey, lemon and bourbon, or at least never wrote it down. Sam Ross created this at Milk & Honey in Manhattan in the past ten years or so.  I don't know which he made first but it's also like a simplified penicillin cocktail.

North & South

I missed this months mixology monday but I made a maple pecan old fashioned. I had infused pecans in bourbon after seeing a post about it awhile ago on the Post Prohibition Blog. This was the best thing I've made with it so far.

North & South Cocktail

2oz pecan infused bourbon
1/2oz maple syrup (2:1)
Angostura bitters
Maple bitters
Whiskey infused pecans for garnish
Lemon peel for garnish

Stir with ice. Strain into an old fashioned glass with a big rock. Wipe the peel around the rim and toss it in.

I love this. Neither flavor overpowers the drink. It is still very spirit forward even with the maple. I even bump up the maple flavor a bit with maple bitters (but only because I happen to have them, they are not as crucial as angostura) The pecan garnish is also incidental. I still had some left in the fridge so I used them to add more pecan aroma. They were still soft from being full of booze, so they skewered easily. The lemon peel brightens the heavy whiskey and sweet maple flavors and should definitely be used.

Tiger Woods Cocktail

Since this blog focuses on all my food hobbies, you may not know that I really like video games. I have 11 consoles, hundreds of games and an enormous trash picked tv that a wealthy person owned in the 90's. They are mostly all older but I do have a Wii. The new Wii was just released last year and the new xbox and ps were just released, so now everybody is trying to get rid of all the old jawns fast and for cheap. So I have been stock piling all the interesting Wii games I can find, generally at $10 or less.

There was a time in the early 2000's when my friends and I were all really into Tiger Woods golf for playstation 2. In my opinion videogame golf is far superior to real golf. On the environmental level golf is one of the worst sports for the planet. So much water resources and obscene amounts of chemicals are used to keep those well manicured lawns looking their best, sometimes even in the desert. How absurd! It's also a sport for rich people to impress their friends mostly. The egalitarian, environmental sound way to enjoy this game is through the magic of videogames.

I recently got a new (to me) version of Tiger Woods golf for Wii. It came out years ago but has a billion courses, an insanely detailed create-a-golfer and really accurate swing control with the Wiimote. The game is really fun even though i go to unnecessary lengths to justify it. I always over analyze things. Fake sports make really fun videogames for playing with friends and hanging out. Bowling fits perfectly in this category as well. One person plays at a time. Everyone else sits around with a drink waiting for their turn, feeling the pressure of their rivals amazing shot or learning from their terrible mistake.

Perhaps this is all way too much background for a simple drink but it was created for a reason and tastes especially delicious when drank in this context. Also it's Mixology Monday time again and Joel from Southern Ash said he hoped his simple theme of highballs would bring out some background stories along with some simple barely-even-a-recipe recipes. A highball is a tall icy cocktail consisting of a spirit, a mixer and sometimes a garnish. {Think rum and coke or gin and tonic, or blank and blank, etc.}



Tiger Woods Cocktail

2 oz black tea infused bourbon
3-4 oz San Pelegrino Limonata soda
lemon wedge garnish

Fill a highball with ice. Add bourbon and then soda. Stir gently to combine.

To make some tea flavored bourbon for this drink or old fashioned's or anything else you can do a cold infusion. Add 4 tea bags (I used Irish breakfast because that's what I have for making kombucha) to 2 C of bourbon. Let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes. Squeeze out the tea bags and discard.

San Pelegrino is an Italian mineral water company. They also make sodas with real fruit juice and cane sugar. I found tiny little 6.5ish oz bottles which are great for mixing because they don't get flat like huge bottles that sit in the fridge for a week. If you can't find the soda, you could make a similar drink using club soda, simple syrup and lemon juice. That's how I first made it but then I found this soda and it is easier and as good if not better. Try .5 oz each simple syrup and lemon juice with 3 oz club soda to start and adjust to your liking if necessary.

This drink is simple and absolutely delicious. It's like an Arnold Palmer only made out of boozy tea and soda-y lemonade. Perfect on the green or on the couch.

Foraged Fig Butter

This summer, while walking my dog farther than he wanted to go, we found a new fig tree. Well, its new to me anyway. Each time I've been there now that they're ripe, I see several people within 15 minutes. They pull over in their car, walk across the lot (its too small to call a field but its a big lot) and pick a small handful of the ripest figs. I had been checking on this tree for weeks and it seemed like they never ripened up. I know learned they are just well looked after. Except no one prunes it. Its a crazy jumble of branches that touch the ground on all sides. Its a 15 foot shrub.

Walter Crumpkin resting at the multi-trunked base of the fig.

The last time I went, a man offered me a few of his ripest figs and told me of another tree in the neighborhood. I thanked him in Arabic, which surprised him. (That is about the extent of my Arabic though.) He also told me I should climb into the tree because I am little and others didn't climb up. I took his advice and collected about 3 pints total. I gave a few of my ripest figs to the next man that came to check on the tree.

When I got home I sorted them. The very ripest I put in the fridge. These were all yellow with a purple blush. Some were greenish yellow but still fairly soft so I picked them, wondering how close they were. By the very next day, they were super ripe, they looked just like the ones in the fridge. Fruit flies were invading my kitchen. I was doing lots of food projects that day, so I decided to just cook them down into fig butter. I used honey and bourbon to make my small batch efforts even more worthwhile.

Honey Bourbon Fig Butter

1 quart fresh Figs
1/4 C Honey
2 Tbl Bourbon Whiskey
another splash of whiskey at the end to deglaze the pan, help preserve the preserves and add a tasty alcohol bite to the sweet gooey fig mush.



Destem the figs and cut into 1/8ths. Add to a pot with honey and bourbon. Simmer over medium low heat for 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Turn down heat to low, mash with a potato masher and continue cooking for another 30 minutes. A this point you need to stir very frequently and it will start to stick to the pan a bit. Take off heat and add a big splash of high proof bourbon, if possible. Let cool completely and then put in a jar and keep in the fridge. I didn't even consider properly canning it as I only had one jar. Eat on toast or with cheese.

Benedictine

Benedicitine is a french liquer traditionally made by monks. It is a cognac base infused with a blend of herbs and sugar. Its in a few classic drinks, so I finally bought a bottle. Most of the drinks I've made call for it in very small amounts, but they wouldn't be the same without it. (Actually they all call for 1/4 oz which is a tricky measure with a jigger. I usually do 2 barspoons or try to eyeball half of my 1/2 oz jigger if Im already using it.) If anybody has made any other good drinks with it, please let me know! First up is a cocktail whose name I've been familiar with, although I've never ordered one at a bar, the Singapore Sling. This drink goes back to at least the early 1900's, although the recipe has changed slightly. Here's how I made it:

Singapore Sling


2 oz Gin
1/2 oz Cherry Heering
1/2 oz Cointreau
1/4 oz Benedicitine
2 oz pineapple juice
3/4 oz lime juice
dash Angostura bitters
splash club soda

Shake everything except the club soda.
Strain into a Collins glass filled with ice.
Top with soda.

Its pretty good. I recommend it if you have all those ingredients at your house...



I had never heard of this next one, even though its made with very normal ingredients. Except for Benedictine, which I forgot was in the drink until I saw this picture. I found this recipe in Gary Regan's Joy of Mixology. This is one of my favorite cocktail books. (The Sling recipe above is his as well...) Regan delves into the history of a lot of the drinks in this book. Unlike some cocktail tomes, this book doesn't have that many recipes. The drinks that are presented are well explained and really well organized. I liked it okay when I made it with Bourbon and Martini Rosso. It was even better when made with Carpano Antica.



Preakness Cocktail

2 oz Bourbon or Rye
1 oz Sweet Vermouth
1/4 oz Benedictine
Angostura Bitters
Lemon twist

Stir with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with twist.








The Vieux Carre is a New Orleans classic. It is booze forward without actually having that much booze in it, compared to say an old fashioned, which I usually make with 3 oz of bourbon. It is kind of like a more complex whiskey old fashioned. I love it. Its an easy to remember recipe and it has rye in it. This recipe is from the newest Mr Boston, which is great because it has pretty much every drink worth making in it.

Vieux Carre

3/4 oz Rye
3/4 oz Brandy
3/4 oz Sweet Vermouth
1/4 oz Benedicitine
dash Peychauds bitters
dash Angostura bitters

Anise Hyssop Julep

I decided to tryout a new made up cocktail for Mixology Monday (Hey cocktail virgin). {heres the roundup of all the drinks that month, linked ultra late..}The theme was flip flop, in which you substitute one or two ingredients in a cocktail recipe and make a new drink. This was appealing because I had just picked some herbs from the garden (and chard but it didn't cross my mind to make a drink with that.) This summer was the first time I truly appreciated both Mint Juleps and Mojitos. Last week I made a Gin Basil Smash for the first time, and it was so good. And I have so many herbs growing!

One of the odder herbs we have around various gardens in Kensington is Anise Hyssop. They all came from the Frankford Garden, its in the mint family and reproduces prolifically. It grows out of cracks in my sidewalk now, with the marigolds, and the violets, and the strawberries. It is native to the great plains region of the U.S. and was used medicinal by Native Americans, although it doesn't seem to hold great importance in their pharmacopoeia.

It tastes like a sweet fennel and makes great tasting tea. It is good in blends and by itself. I think most of the mint family (Lamacieae) plants combine well with true mint and this got me thinking about Mint Juleps. I tried, earlier in the summer when my mint was sparse, to make a Julep with Lemon Balm and it was crap. Not this time....


Anise Hyssop Julep

3 oz Bourbon
2 oz Simple syrup (1:1 <cane sugar>)
3 stalks of Anise Hyssop
ice cube tray of ice crushed in a blender

Take a few leaves of Anise Hyssop off of the stalks. Muddle gently in the bottom of a Collins glass. Fill glass 3/4 with crushed ice. Add whiskey and syrup. (1 oz syrup much if you don't like sweet things but I think it goes nicely with the herb and offsets the strong amount of booze in the drink) Stir until glass is frosted. Top with more crushed ice. Insert herb and a short straw, so you smell a face full of herb every sip. Don't forget to eat dinner.