Friday, May 20, 2011

smiling ivy

3/4 oz Jamaican Dark Rum (Coruba)
3/4 oz Crème de Pêche (Briottet Maison Edmond CdP de Vigne)
3/4 oz Pineapple Juice
1 tsp Lemon Juice
1 tsp Egg White (1/3 Egg White)

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. I garnished with 3 drops of Fee's Whiskey Barrel Aged Bitters.

For our second drink last Friday, I spotted an interesting recipe, the Smiling Ivy, in the Big Bartender's Book from the UKBG's Guide to Drinks from 1953. Since dark Jamaican rum and pineapple juice pair up so well, such as in Iuka's Grogg, I was willing to give this drink a try. Plus, I was curious to see what a Tiki-style drink from a British bartender in the 1950's would be like.
The pineapple and egg white teamed up to make a rich froth on top of the Smiling Ivy. Through that froth, the aroma of the pineapple and dark rum seeped through and was accented by the bitter's cinnamon note. On the sip, the pineapple and peach fused together to make a novel fruity flavor, and on the swallow, the dark rum was accompanied by the dryness of the lemon juice to round out the drink. Overall, the Smiling Ivy was rather light, refreshing, and definitely worth revisiting as the weather gets warmer here.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Frederic, thanks for another great post. I love using egg white in cocktails and I see that many of your cocktails do the same. I'm curious about your methodology for the use of egg whites. What is the best way to measure a t/T/.5oz? Do you use fresh eggs or pasteurized egg white? Sometime I will get a brilliant layer of foam and other times its quite lackluster. Any expert advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Lynne

frederic said...

From a talk at Tales of the Cocktail last year entitled The Eggpire Strikes Back and from Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking:

• A some added liquid helps to increase foam. Too much, and it decreases foam. Often shaking with half the ingredients added can assist this (see pre-shaking). McGee says not to dilute the albumen to less than 40%.
• Salt and acids (ie: citrus) can help the foam form (although salt decreases its stability)
• Dairy and sugar can delay the foam.
• Pre-shaking (no ice) will help. Foam seems to set better at warmer temperatures than colder ones, plus it's not getting diluted by ice melt.
• A Hawthorne strainer spring (balled up) will aid in the pre-shake.
• Overshaking is possible.

I should read McGee more closely (I've only skimmed parts of it -- it's a big book).

For egg white amounts, I assume a large egg's white is about an ounce. So a tbsp or half ounce is half. A tsp or dash is 1/6th. I don't like to waste too much and sometimes add in more than a "dash". A tbsp or 1/2 oz is easy to do if you are making two drinks (for yourself or to share). I also don't like to waste so I will seek out egg yolk drinks at times to best utilize the whole egg.

The dash or other volumes can be done by using a squirt bottle in higher volume establishments.

See the post that I hotlinked to on top for more egg 4-1-1.

Dagreb said...

The bitters on top is a nice touch. I assume a toothpick was dragged through?

frederic said...

Indeed, a toothpick drag once through.