:: mixology monday announcement ::

MXMO XCII: Apples!

While discussing all of the way apple flavors pair well with different spirits and liqueurs such as mezcal and Yellow Chartreuse, I figured that apples would make a great Mixology Monday theme if I were to ever host it again. Due to a gap in the MxMo roster (hint: see how to host here), I am back here to run the show!

Apples have been an American booze staple with Johnny Appleseed as its symbolic hero. John Chapman became that legend by planting apple tree nurseries across the northern Appalachia and the Midwest. He did not choose grafting techniques to reproduce sweet edible ones, but bred them to make sour apples perfect for cider and applejack. Michael Pollan in The Botany of Desire proclaimed, "Really, what Johnny Appleseed was doing and the reason he was welcome in every cabin in Ohio and Indiana was he was bringing the gift of alcohol to the frontier. He was our American Dionysus." Apple products began to enter into the mixed drink literature in the 19th century with the Stone Fence appearing in Jerry Thomas' Bartender Guide and got quite refined by the end of the century such as the Widow's Kiss in George Kappeler's Modern American Drinks. Indeed, apples have found their way into modern cocktails via Calvados, applejack, sparkling and still cider, apple butter, and muddled apple.

Here's how to play:

• Find or concoct a recipe that features apple as one of the star ingredients whether it be fresh, cooked, fermented, or distilled. If not a recipe that already utilizes apple, perhaps substitute apple brandy for say Cognac or whiskey in a classic to make a novel variation.
• Make the drink and then post the recipe, a photo, and your thoughts about the libation on your blog, tumblr, or website or on the eGullet Spirits and Cocktails forum.
• Include in your post the MxMo logo (whether the classic or any of the three apple ones provided here) and a link back to both the Mixology Monday and Cocktail Virgin sites. And once the round-up is posted, a link to that summary post would be appreciated.
• Provide a link to your submission in the comment section here, tweet at @cocktailvirgin, or send an email to yarm-at-verizon.net with the word "MxMo" somewhere in the subject line.

The due date is Monday, December 15th which I will interpret as whatever gets posted before I get home after my day bar shift on the 16th (and yes, I will tack on late entries since it is part of the act of cat herding). Yes, we are doing this earlier in the month so that we can pack in all the MxMo excitement before the December holidays begin to take over.

Cheers,
Frederic

shrubbed-up 1933 cosmo

The recipe below is for the Shrubbed-Up Cosmo and parenthesis is how I made the 1933 version:

1 1/2 oz Citrus Vodka (1 1/2 oz Tanqueray Gin)
3/4 oz Cointreau (3/4 oz Cointreau)
1/2 oz Apple-Cranberry Shrub (1/2 oz Raspberry Shrub)
1/4 oz Lime Juice (1/4 oz Lemon Juice)

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wedge (lemon twist).

A few Thursdays ago, I was in the midst of reading Michael Dietsch's Shrubs: An Old Fashioned Drink for Modern Times (which has a great page long quote from me on shrubs!) when I skipped ahead to the recipe section. There, I spotted Dietsch's shrub variation on the popular Cosmopolitan born in the 1980s. While I did not have apple-cranberry shrub or the ingredients to make it on hand, I did have raspberry shrub in the refrigerator and thought about doing a shrubbed-up version of the strangely similar gin-raspberry-lemon Cosmopolitan from Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars 1903-1933.
The Shrubbed-Up 1933 Cosmo began with a lemon oil aroma with hints of raspberry and vinegar; I highly recommend using freshly expressed citrus twists with shrubs for their bright aromas do help to mask a lot of the vinegar notes in shrubs that can be off putting to some. The sip was citrus-driven with a vague fruitiness from the raspberry. Finally, most of the raspberry flavors appeared in the swallow where they mingled with the gin's juniper and other botanicals, and the swallow finished with orange peel notes from the Cointreau and a zing from the shrub's vinegar.

maximo blue

2 oz Lunazul Reposado Tequila
3/4 oz Salers Gentian Liqueur
1/4 oz Benedictine
1/2 oz Pineapple Juice

Shake with ice and strain into a Single Old Fashioned glass.
A few Tuesdays ago after work, I walked over to Bronwyn in Union Square, Somerville, for a cocktail. There, I asked bartender William Weston for the Maximo Blue as the combination of tequila and gentian liqueur worked rather well in the Copper Canyon. Will explained that the name Maximo Blue stemmed from the tequila's Blue Webber agave used in fermentation. Once prepared, the cocktail presented an agave aroma. While the pineapple dominated the sip, the swallow offered a more complex combination of tequila, earthy gentian, and herbal notes.

sebastian

1 1/2 oz Palo Cortado Sherry
1/2 oz Xicaru Mezcal
1/2 oz Zucca Rabarbaro Amaro
1/2 oz Drambuie

Stir with ice and strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with 2 drops of Regan's Orange Bitters.
For a second drink at Estragon, I peered into Sehil Mehta's recipe book (pictured above) and spotted the Sebastian. Sahil explained that one night two of his guests, Sebastian and Gopal, requested drinks made up for each of them. Once in a glass, the Sebastian shared an orange and grape bouquet with a hint of smoke. A grape sip preceded the smoky swallow that ended with lightly bitter herbal complexity. The Drambuie here seemed to hold the disparate elements together as well as smooth out some of the mezcal's and amaro's rougher edges. Moreover, the Zucca and sherry flavors were rather complementary in the mix.

[camellia]

2 oz Amontillado Sherry
3/4 oz Benedictine
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/4 oz Absinthe

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail coupe. Garnish with a lemon twist.

A few Mondays ago, we ventured down to the South End to have dinner at Estragon. There, I asked bartender Sahil Mehta for his drink of the day that he posted on Twitter and Instagram as the sherry and Benedictine combination seemed alluring. The recipe itself later reminded me of Bergamot's citrussy riff on the Chrysanthemum called the Calla Lily. Given that concept, I dubbed this drink another 'C' flower name, the Camellia, which we have grown a variety or two of here at home.
The Camellia offered a floral-herbal aroma from the absinthe and a bright citrus note from the lemon twist. The lemon and grape combined on the sip, and the swallow presented a nutty and herbal swallow with an anise spice finish. The sherry here did take the drink in a different direction than the Calla Lily, but it was equally as light and aperitif-like.

guggenheim

Jigger 2/3 Sherry (1 1/2 oz Lustau Amontillado)
1/3 Italian Vermouth (3/4 oz Dolin Sweet)
Dash Benedictine (1/2 oz)
Dash Cointreau (1/4 oz)

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. I added an orange twist.
A few Saturdays ago, I began to flip through Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars: 1903-1933 and soon found myself in the wine section. There, I spotted the Guggenheim sherry cocktail that had caught my eye before. The Guggenheims during the 19th century amassed one of the largest fortunes in the world through their importing and mining activities. While the Guggenheim Museum was well after the publishing of this cocktail book, the family did use the money for philantrophy in aviation and other aspects of the arts during the book's time. In the glass, this tribute offered a grape and orange oil aroma that led into a similar grape and orange sip. Next, the swallow shared nutty sherry notes with herbal accents followed by a chocolate-orange finish.

port of call

1 oz Daron Calvados
1 oz Plantation 5 Year Barbados Rum
3/4 oz Sercial Madeira
1/4 oz House Falernum
2 dash Peychaud's Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a rocks glass.
A few Thursdays ago, I ventured over to Alden & Harlow after work. For a drink, I asked bartender Amber Carbino for the Port of Call. One of the servers later mentioned that it was "fall in a glass," but I was drawn in by the Madeira element. Once prepared, the Port of Call donated an apple and clove spice aroma. Grape and caramel on the sip led into rum and apple on the swallow and a smoky grape and spice on the finish.

:: fermentation... an ancient trend ::

My restaurant's general manager organized an outing to the Harvard Science & Cooking Lecture Series on Monday where Jody Adams of Rialto and Trade was speaking about "Fermentation... An Ancient Trend." While he thought the talk was going to be more about boozy drink topics, I figured that the theme would be a bit more broad than that given the talk's full title. Either way it was fine by me.

Fermentation is rather helpful to people for few reasons including preservation, flavor intensification, intoxification, and ease of digestion. The microbes doing this work take complex molecules, digest them, and spit out some combination of acids, ethanol, gas (such as carbon dioxide), aromas, and flavor molecules. While these molecules can be of use to us, the microbes are secreting some of these molecules as part of their chemical warfare system against other species of microbes. For example, the alcohol that brewer's yeast produces can kill bacteria, and the acid that lactobacillus churns out can poison out competitors.

Cooking is not so far from rotting, and fermentation is rather tied to this trend. Adams showed images of Klaus Pichler's pictures of rotting food to demonstrate some of these concepts, and the photos reminded me of Peter Greenaway's A Zed & Two Noughts. However, fermentation is your friend and it's more than just rotting food. The bans on cured hams and unpasteurized cheeses have helped to confuse this matter. The sterilization of our food and our bodies has caused multiple issues such as with colds and allergies, and there has been a buzz about probiotics as of late to return our internal flora to regain the health benefits.
Fermentation is important for flavor, and can help to create a Proustian experience with the intersection of flavor and emotion. Good fermentation microbes take the energy in carbohydrates and return changes in flavor, texture, preservation, and health benefits via pre-digestion of food and probiotics.

Adams presented the history of microbes starting 7000 BCE with the first recorded mention of China making alcohol out of rice. It took a while for microbes to be identified with 1837 and 1840s yielding the identification of yeast and bacteria, respectively, and it was not until 1856 that Louis Pasteur connected yeast to alcohol fermentation. In the United States, the health benefits were first sought after around 1910 with the importation of yogurt as a health food and digestion aid. Trends slowed down with the prohibition of fermented beverages in the 1920s, the advent of anti-bacterial deodorant soap in 1948, and the widespread use of anti-bacterial soaps in households in the 1990s.

In bread, activated amylase enzymes in wheat and the various enzymes in yeast begin to break down large starch molecules into simple sugars such as glucose, fructose, and maltose. While yeast will break the glucose and fructose down into alcohol and carbon dioxide, bacteria such as found in sour dough cultures will break down the maltose sugar in lactic and acetic acid. These bacterial acids generated in longer, slower fermented breads can yield longer shelf lives; bread becomes more interesting when left to rise overnight or for two days in the fridge. As an example, Adams passed out to the audience a quick rise, a one day, and a two day slow rise; the zero day was the sweetest, the one day was drier, and the two day had a bounty of additional pleasant flavors in the mix. As for health benefits, the microbes help to reduce some of the gluten in bread and to produce acids to inhibit molds. Additionally, during the baking process, the heat combines acids and alcohol into esters that offer the delightful freshly baked bread aroma.

In yogurt, the bacteria eats the lactose that many people have a problem digesting. Moreover, the bacteria add intriguing flavor with the lactic acid production and donate health benefits as probiotics for the digestive system. The acid in yogurt is helpful in cooking as it can be added to sweeter foods for balance. Adams showed off her home unit that maintains temperature to make a batch of 7 servings of yogurt overnight.

In fermented pickles, the naturally occurring lactobacillus on the surface of cucumbers works with brine to turn the sugars in the cucumber into lactic acid and carbon dioxide. Vinegar-processed pickles are not fermented -- the acetic acid in the vinegar itself is fermented, but not the pickles. While Adams did not cover shrubs, most of the quick hot- and cold-processed shrub recipes are not fermented either. Some slower methods of making shrubs can be partially fermented though. In pickling, the lactic acid-producing bacteria like salt and 70°F. Bad bacteria generally do not like this environment though; too much or too little salt (outside of the 3.5-5% salt solution range) or too hot or too cold will give other microbes an advantage. Pickling offers several advantages. First, it preserves fruits and vegetables; moreover, it adds flavor, increases the memory of food, and adds vitamin B to the diet.

For further information, Adams cited as her bible Sandor Ellix Katz's The Art of Fermentation. I also took photos of Adam's pickle and Rialto's bread recipes in order to share some of the details not covered here.

the eldridge

1 oz Edinburgh Gin
1/2 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth
1/2 oz Cinzano Sweet Vermouth
1 oz Amaro Montenegro

Stir with ice and strain into a rocks glass with a large ice cube. Garnish with an orange twist.

For my second drink at Viale, I asked bartender Patrick Gaggiano for the Eldgridge which was labeled as the "house Negroni." Patrick described his creation as "[we are] not re-inventing the wheel, just twerking it a bit." With the split dry and sweet vermouth, the structure reminded me of Evan Harrison's Perfect Pal at the Independent. Moreover, the Amaro Montenegro in a Negroni riff made me think of Paul Manzelli's Montenegroni, but that kept the Campari element and used the other amaro as a substitute for the vermouth.
The Eldgridge began with bright orange oil aromas from the twist. The grape sip contained citrus notes from the Amaro Montenegro, and the swallow shared a combination of gin and bitter tangerine flavors. Overall, the Eldridge was a good drink and a solid entry Negroni for those not ready for Campari. In addition, the dry vermouth in the perfect structure helped to keep the sweetness in check here.