The Mixologist at work!

Well, finally I got around to initiating my “Sazerac” experiment.  I suppose this would be a nice topic for a Utube entry but I have no idea how to do that..  so this is kind of a tutorial.

One of the recipes in hand, I assembled the necessary ingredients, including two old fashioned glasses, one for mixing and ice in the other for serving:

And began:  "In one of the old fashioned glasses, muddle a sugar cube with a few drops of water"

(Notice the clever mixologist, not having a fancy “muddler” finds a low cost substitute of a ten penny nail)

Then add 1½ oz. Rye, two dashes of Peychaud’s; one of Angostura bitters with a few ice cubes

Once again the lack of specific measures confounds the (engineer and) Feeder.   Just like “splash”, how much is a “dash”?  I don’t know about you, but every time I try to “dash” with a quick invert of the bottle, I get anywhere from one to three drops of whatever.  So trying to get two of Peychaud’s and one of Angostura is a goal, but hard to regulate.  I ended up with “about twice as much Peychaud’s as Angostura”.  And, I think I mentioned it before, a lot of the recipes DO call for both brands, although many have only the Peychaud’s.   And, this was the first attempt.  Time to vary that!

"Discard the ice cubes from the other old fashioned glass and roll around a few drops of absinthe until its inside is thoroughly coated, pouring off the excess”

I should note at this point that that bottle of (Imported) Mata Hari Absinthe, was quite dear.  If I owned a bar, and made a fair number of Sazeracs, I MIGHT use that bottle, but for me it will be a lifetime supply.  And “pouring off the excess” kind of hurts.

Anyway, plunging ahead, I strained the rye mixture into the iced Absinthe coated glass

And rub the lip of the glass with a lemon peel

Here again, there are varying opinions on what to with the peel, some recipes call for putting it in the drink, others are adamant that it be discarded.  I opted for the discarded advice and voilá! You have (one version of) a classic Sazerac Cocktail!

Okay, with a trail of “ discard, excess, and remove” behind me, I finally got to taste the finished product.  I have to report that I was a bit disappointed.  However, I am well aware of the existence of the “cook it yourself’ phenomenon.  I’m sure you've noticed that whenever you make some dish yourself you've had elsewhere, it somehow never seems to taste quite as good as the one somebody else made and set before you even though it is the exact same recipe, and the exact same ingredients.  

Regardless, I thought this drink didn’t have much character. The anise of the Absinthe came through, as did the sweetness from the sugar, and the slight acidity from the lemon on the rim of the glass. I think maybe due to taking photos while I went, it may have warmed a bit more than it should have.  Another factor could be that I used the lower proof Rye, with the Pikesville weighing in at only 80 proof.  While this is helpful for sipping (when you might have more than one), perhaps in a mixed drink a higher proof would give it more character.  Next time I’ll be able to go straight through the process in much less time, so we'll see.

But, it was fun and a good initial attempt.  I’ll keep going; as we used to say in the engineering business: “Test, Analyze, and Fix”.

Buying Local

Yesterday (Friday) I had another session with the Dermatologist Surgeon who mined in my nose for some ill behaving cells, with the result I am sporting a bandaged schnoz that Clarabelle would be proud of.  This is not my first rodeo with this stuff, and normally I sort of seclude myself in the digs (a reason to have it done Fridays) for a couple of days because the big stuff can be removed in 48 hours to be replaced by a still obvious but less obtrusive dressing.   

Due to a busy week for the Flutters, our larder is quite depleted, and since we had nothing planned for tonight we thought at civilized cocktail hour and a relatively nice dinner would be good balm for my physical and mental wounds.  So while MFO went over to Tudor Hall to continue prepping for the Raiders and Invaders weekend, I decided to swallow my looks and go to the Farmer’s Market to get some local meats. Once you've had that beef and pork, Giant just doesn't do it anymore.

Of course when I got there, I saw everybody I knew, the Port of Leonardtown Winery folk, several of the vendors, and so on.  Quite naturally they all said “What happened to you?” and I had to explain my looks.  They were all sympathetic of course and commiserated with me.  When I told MFO that I was going, I quipped that I would scare away all the children at the market..

So of course while I was chatting with the winery people, a little girl walked up, pointed at my proboscis and yelled: “Mommy, look at him!”.  Mommy came over to retrieve the youngster and we joked about it.  She said that “with kids there are no filters”, which I thought was pretty accurate. It was kind of therapeutic for me, realizing that people take you for what you are, not particularly how you look.  Anyway, I came away with a few nights worth of dinner and some nice greens.  You know, that "buy local" stuff isn't just a catchy phrase, it means you get to eat fresh, great tasting food.

Have a great weekend, and don’t forget it’s called Memorial Day for a real reason. We can do this stuff because someone took it as their duty to make sure we could..  and the least we can do is

DFD