Cocktail Hacker

This week seemed to fly by and during the course I made a lot of Pegus and enjoyed all of them, well, for the most part at least. As I mentioned at the start of the week my starting recipe was the one from The Joy of Mixology (2 oz gin, 1 oz Cointreau, 1/2 oz lime juice, Angostura to taste, orange bitters to taste). First, a bit of a gripe about recipes. I personally don’t like recipes that list an ingredient’s quantity as “to taste.” Seeing as I came to this recipe never having made the drink I at least need somewhere to start. Now, I’ll grant you that with bitters it’s not terribly hard to guess, the number is likely between one and four dashes. So, to end this mini rant, if you ever write your own cocktail book I suggest giving a range (2-4 dashes) rather than “to taste.”

My whining aside, I went with two dashes each for the record, this recipe resulted in a nicely pink colored cocktail that was quite tasty although not as sour as I would like. Although, with this recipe as it is written I could drink a lot of these, they go down quite easy and I would be very pleased to receive one mixed in this manner at a bar. My parting thought on this particular recipe is that I would like the bitters to be more present, at least the Angostura.

Next came Pegu Master Doug’s recipe. As I mentioned earlier in the week Doug was kind enough to share all of his Pegu secrets, but to add to the awesomeness I received this picture mid-week. See! 9th level Pegu mastery, right there, with photographic proof. Doug’s recipe (1 1/2 oz Bombay Sapphire, 1/2 oz Cointreau, 1/2 oz Lime Juice, 2-4 dashes Angostura) had the additional sourness that I was looking for balanced nicely with the sweetness of the Cointreau. I decided to go with four dashes of Angostura after my previous batch. The additional spice flavors and smells were extremely pleasant and I really like the deeper pink color that results. Much more photogenic as you can see from the pic above.

Finally, I mixed up the recipe from Esquire (2 oz gin, 3/4 oz Cointreau, 3/4 oz lime juice, 1 dash Angostura, 1 dash orange bitters), although I upped the Angostura to three dashes and the orange bitters to two dashes. This recipe very slightly ups the sour and sweet components from Doug’s recipe and adds some additional flavor with orange bitters. Although I must say the orange bitters don’t really add a ton to this cocktail they certainly don’t draw from it. If you have some in your bar add a bit, if you don’t add the Angostura and know you’re still going to drink a fine cocktail.

Both Doug’s recipe and the one from Esquire are very good. If you’re looking for something slightly sweeter and more sour then go with Esquire’s recipe. If you’re looking for a drink that puts more emphasis on the gin then Doug’s is the hands down winner. Doug also mentioned during our long months (minutes) of training that on occasion he’ll add half an egg white to the mix and shake violently. I’ve tried this technique in the past, most notably with the Whiskey Sour, to varying degrees of success. I decided I’d give it a go and ended up mixing it up three separate times. The first ended badly when I knocked my shaker closed too hard and couldn’t get it back open. A bit of a tip in the event you experience this; run water as hot as you can get it out of the tap over your shaker for about a minute. Two things will happen. One, the metal will expand slightly and two, the air pressure will increase inside the shaker. You should then be able to pop it open.

Mixes two and three came out of the shaker okay, but I failed to produce the nice foamy top that I look for with this technique. I’m not sure was caused the foam failure. My current speculation is either the increased percentage of alcohol, some ingredient in the Cointreau (I’ve had trouble foaming with it before), or poor shaking on my part. Matters not, though, as I was not a fan of the flavor of the Pegu with egg white added. I felt it muted the flavors of the bitters and the gin far too much for my liking.

When you want to learn to be a plumber you apprentice with a master plumber. When you want to be a blacksmith you apprentice with an experienced metal worker. When you want to make good Pegus you seek the wisdom of Doug Winship. Doug is known in cocktail circles for his website, The Pegu Blog, through which he explores all manner of cocktail topics. This month Doug is focusing his efforts on Tiki drinks which is, as always, proving to be both entertaining and educational. In conjunction with his cocktail efforts Doug heads Killing Time, Murder Consultants. Quite an ominous name for a very fun company. Killing Time offers “custom, unforgettable, murder mystery entertainment events to corporate and private clients.” Sounds like a damn fine time to me.

Knowing that a master existed I began my harrowing training regimen. Picture a scene from Karate Kid only with me, a well rounded (physicall) geek, standing on one foot atop a pole embedded in the sand. Each moment requiring the utmost of concentration lest I fall to my certain death. Ok, let’s face it, it wasn’t at all like that. But I did email Doug and he quickly offered up his Pegu secrets. The first key lesson to be learned was the proper pronunciation of Pegu. Pee-zhoo for those of you playing along at home. Second lesson was the master’s recipe which is currently the front runner in my taste tests and his suggestion of Bombay Sapphire works wonderfully. I’ll give you the full run down at the end of the week.

Pegu (Doug Winship)

3 parts Gin (1 1/2 oz Bombay Sapphire)

1 part Cointreau (1/2 oz)

1 part Lime Juice (1/2 oz)

2-4 Dashes Angostura Bitters

1/2 Egg White [Optional - Smoother but less subtle]

My sincere thanks go out to Doug for pointing me in the right direction this week. Much appreciated.

My bottle of Creme de Violette finally arrived from Sam’s Wine last Tuesday. I eagerly opened the box and pulled out a bottle of lovely violet colored spirit. The beautiful color is the first and most striking thing you’ll notice about a bottle of Creme de Violette. I admired for only a short time though before I had to break the seal and sample. The smell, and not surprisingly the flavor, are distinctly floral. This is a medium sweet liqueur, a little less sweet than Cointreau for comparison sake. Ok, so enough about the Creme de Violette, you’re here to find out what impact it has on the Aviation. Quite a lot I must say.

I started off with Erik Ellestad’s approximation of the original recipe. The resulting Aviation is much less sweet than some of the other recipes that I’ve tried, but at the same time not overly sour which is interesting. In other recipes as the sweetness decreased the drink became quite a lot more sour. I think this flavor profile is a direct result of the addition of a small bit of simple syrup. My big gripe about this recipe was that the flavor of the Maraschino and Creme de Violette were not as present as I would like.

Aviation (Erik Ellestad)

3/4 oz Lemon Juice

1 1/2 oz Plymouth Gin

2 Dashes Maraschino (~1/2 tsp)

1/2 tsp Creme de Violette

1/2 tsp Rich Simple Syrup

So, on the tasting continued with a modification of my prefered non-Violette recipe. I found that the Violette added an entirely new level of complexity in the flavor profile of this drink. The result was nicely floral and exceedingly pleasing. In addition the color of this recipe was absolutely gorgeous. As you can see from the picture above the color is a light violet color that you rarely see in cocktails. Still wasn’t exactly what I was looking for though.

Aviation (Mod of Dan's Recipe)

2 oz Gin

1 oz Lemon Juice

1/4 oz Maraschino

1/4 oz Creme de Violette

Touch of Simple Syrup

I next turned to the second recipe list in Diffords Guide #7. This recipe upped the Violette to 1/2 oz which sounded appealing but lowered the lemon juice to only 1/2 oz as well. As with the others the color is very striking, really in love with the look of this cocktail. The aroma of the Violette comes through very nicely. Although the Violette is the primary background flavor the Maraschino is still there as well. This recipe has the perfect level of sweetness in my mind but due to the cut in the lemon juice the sourness isn’t where I’d like.

Aviation (Diffords #2 - Classic Recipe)

2 oz Gin

1/2 oz Creme de Violette

1/4 oz Maraschino

1/2 oz Lemon Juice

So where do all of these experiments lead us? Well, I enjoyed the Violette level of the Diffords recipe, but the sourness was too low. The sourness and sweetness of the modified recipe are right where I wanted them, but the Violette was a touch low. A simple combination of the recipes leads to the Cocktail Hacker Aviation. This recipe produces a cocktail that has a nice level of both sweet and sour. The Maraschino is present but the Violette becomes the background star.

Aviation (Cocktail Hacker Recipe)

2 oz Gin (Junipero)

1/2 oz Creme de Violette

1/4 oz Maraschino (Luxardo)

1 oz Lemon Juice

The Aviation is an amazing cocktail with or without the Creme de Violette. However, if you can find a bottle of Violette it will bring this cocktail to a new level of flavor complexity. The added floral aroma and flavor are amazing, not to mention the color the Violette brings. If you can’t find Violette at your local liquor stores turn to the internet, there are a few suppliers that can get you a bottle, for a price of course.

Suppose you’re a British colonist in Burma in the early 1900’s. Work is over for the day. You need to relax and have a drink. But where do you go? You’re likely not going to be welcomed in the local watering holes frequented by the Burmese. No, you certainly can’t go there. Well, if you’re in Rangoon then you’re in luck. You can head over to the Pegu Club, an ex-pat bar quite near the parade grounds. Like many clubs and bars the Pegu Club had a signature drink of its own. The Pegu Club Cocktail as it was known, now referred to simply as a Pegu or Pegu Club, is a refreshing mix of gin, lime juice, Cointreau and bitters.

The first known printing of the recipe for a Pegu is from Harry MacElhone’s “Barflies and Cocktails” printed in 1927. A likely more well known instance of the recipe can be found in the 1930 edition of Harry Cradock’s “Savoy Cocktail Book.” At that point in time it’s clear the Pegu had become quite well known as Harry noted that the Pegu is “one that has traveled, and is asked for, round the world.” For my experiments I’ll be starting, as has become customary here, with the recipe printed in the “Joy of Mixology.”

Pegu (Joy of Mixology)

2 oz Gin

1 oz Cointreau

1/2 oz Lime Juice

Angostura Bitters to Taste

Orange Bitters to Taste

Combine ingredients, shake and strain.

As you may have gathered from this week’s other food posts I firmly believe that no matter how healthy you eat the rest of the year, a Super Bowl party is no place for salads and rice cakes. That said, there is one key category I haven’t touched on as yet, sweets. I can say with near absolute certainty that if a dessert is present to me I’m going to love it. That’s just how I am. What about your party though? What are your guests going to want and like? Not surprisingly I have some thoughts on that.

Think homemade. Even if its something dirt simple I think it always has a bigger impact if you put some effort in to it. Like the other foods this week, I’d stick with something fairly simple and quick, unless you can make it the day before. If that’s the case, go nuts. Some quick, easy options:

Cupcakes – Tiny cakes are always good. Get a good quality mix, or make them completely from scratch. For the frosting I’d highly recommend whipping up a batch of your own as it will always taste better than the tubs of frosting you can buy. My personal favorite is carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. So good.

Brownies – Another one you could buy at the store but will be much better made at home, even from a mix. I usually reach for the Ghirardelli Double Chocolate brownie mix and throw in about 1/2 – 1 cup of walnuts.

Cookies – You name it and they’re going to be awesome. Were I coming to your house for a party I’d vote for some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that are still a little moist in the middle, but that’s just me. Colton suggested some sugar cookies iced to look like tiny footballs. Although they do sound good, it sounds like a lot more work than I’d be willing to put in to sugar cookies.

Chocolate Fondue – This is Lucas’ choice for this year. He’ll be serving it with fruit and cookies for dipping. Some other tasty dipping options are pound cake and marshmallows. If you’re wanting to booze this one up you could also add a bit of a flavorful liqueur to your dipping chocolate. Amaretto and Kalhua spring to mind as winners.

Those are all great options but I have one final suggestion that ties in to the theme of a Super Bowl in Florida. Make up a homemade key lime pie or two. If you’ve never had real key lime pie made from scratch you are missing out on some serious deliciousness. Below is the recipe I was given via a food newsgroup back in the mid 90’s when the internet was just getting rolling. It’s always come out fantastic and I’ve never felt the need to change it up.

Key Lime Pie

4 Egg Yolks

1 14 oz Can of Sweetened Condensed Milk

1/2 cup Key Lime Juice (I use Nelly and Joe's)

Zest of One Lime

8" or 9" Graham Cracker Crust

Fresh Whipped Cream

1) Preheat oven to 350F

2) Combine yolks, condensed milk, lime juice and zest with a mixer.

3) Pour the filling in to the crust and smooth with a spatula.

4) Bake for 15-20 minutes to firm filling.

5) Chill for at least an hour.

6) Top with fresh whipped cream.

Some quick comments on this recipe. The filling that results from this recipe will only fill about 1/2 of the pie shell, the other 1/2 can be filled with whipped cream. However, what I usually do is double the recipe so that it fills the crust completely and bake for 30-40 minutes. Then still top the slices with fresh whipped cream. Another twist is you can chiffonade mint and add it to the whipped cream once you’ve gotten to firm peaks. This adds another layer of flavor and works well with the lime.