Gearing Up for Cocktails
By RC Dean
Last week’s post on the Dark and Stormy dabbled in the equipment and supplies that can be put to good use by the home bartender. This week we will survey the Casa Dean’s loadout for cocktailing, which by its nature invites a plethora of tools and ingredients.
Casa Dean Gear
In addition to the cocktail measuring glass and soda syphon mentioned last week for the Dark and Stormy (ginger beer syrup edition), and the eyedropper the week before (to dose Pernod properly for a Monkey Gland), there’s also a few other items that we use:
• Shaker. There are some variations on this, and a lot of [real] bartenders use a Boston shaker (two stainless steel containers, the top of one fitting inside the top of the other) or a variation with a pint glass and a stainless container. These are tricky to pour out of and prone to accidents, so I use a pretty standard shaker, the kind with a cap that has a strainer.
Shaking your drink does a couple of things, in addition to mixing the ingredients: it chills the drink, and it dilutes the drink a little (remember: a proper shake is 10 – 15 seconds). Both of these are Good Things – water is one of the unacknowledged ingredients of many cocktails, which just taste better a little diluted. Hell, it’s acceptable, even expected, to add a splash of water to even the finest single malts.
• Spherical ice makers. This is a recent addition to our setup, and we’ve started using them almost exclusively for “rocks” drinks. Highballs still get the usual cubes from our icemaker. The spheres have a couple of advantages; they just look cool, and they melt more slowly, so your drink doesn’t get as watery. The 1 ½ inch size seems pretty standard. It does take them a little longer to cool the drink, if it started at room temperature.
I’ve been using this SVERES Jumbo Ice Ball Tray, which makes six at a time. A little more labor intensive than just pushing the lever on the front of the fridge, but worth it, IMO. I’ve also got a pair of these Tovolo Sphere Clear makers, but they’re kind of a pain in the ass to use. I think they make somewhat better spheres than the tray.
• Glasses. For highballs, we just use whatever. For rocks drinks, I’ve been using these Bodum double wall glasses. They slow the melting of the ice balls even more and look pretty cool. These used to be pretty fragile, but they’ve been beefed up enough we haven’t had any problems.
Casa Dean Supplies
Confession time: I don’t fresh squeeze my citrus juices; I get good lime, lemon, and orange juice in bottles and just use that. I also don’t generally garnish. When I’m thirsty, I get lazy, OK?
For liqueurs, we have the following:
• Pernod, for Monkey Glands. I haven’t found another use for it that I liked, so that’s about it. Its basically licorice concentrate, to my palate.
• Amaretto, mostly for Polar Vortexes (to be written up one of these weeks). It’s a sweetener, mainly, but even in small amounts it changes up the drink.
• Salerno, for margaritas, sangria, anything that calls for orange liqueur. I’ve got some Grand Marnier, but just don’t really use it much since I found Salerno, which isn’t as sweet and “heavy” as most orange liqueurs.
• Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur. I pretty much just use this to make my own maraschino cherries, which are completely different than the dyed candied cherries passed off as such in the grocery store. Real maraschino cherries on chocolate ice cream is just divine, BTW, and justifies making your own all by itself.
• Drambuie. For the occasional Rusty Nail. Mrs. Dean also likes it sometimes just over ice.
• We also have Rivata sweet and dry vermouth. I mostly use the sweet to make Rob Roys and Manhattans. I’ve tried olde schoole martinis, but just don’t come back to them.
For bitters and mixers, there’s a few standards and a lot of interesting stuff to try. As mentioned last week, Pickett’s Ginger Beer Syrup is excellent. The Jack Rudy Classic Tonic syrup gets a real workout in hot weather, as well – it produces a vastly more flavorful gin and tonic than what you get in the store. You need a soda syphon to use these, or you can just crack open a soda water or club soda and pour in. But the soda syphon’s more fun.
I like the Bittermilk lineup, and use several of their mixers off and on (the Charred Grapefruit with light rum is way too easy to drink in hot weather). Others make their way in and out of the pantry from time to time as experiments (I have this Maple-Bacon Syrup going through testing right now), and it is remarkable how many smaller companies are putting out good stuff. These will get called out as needed in future recipes.
Derpetologist’s Spot the Not: Leonard Peikoff (a famous Randroid)
1. [Regarding the so-called Ground Zero Mosque] Any way possible permission should be refused and if they go ahead and build it, the government should bomb it out of existence, evacuating it first, with no compensation to any of the property owners involved in this monstrosity.
2. Responsible parenthood involves decades devoted to the child’s proper nurture. To sentence a woman to bear a child against her will is an unspeakable violation of her rights: her right to liberty (to the functions of her body), her right to the pursuit of happiness, and, sometimes, her right to life itself, even as a serf.
3. Every argument for God and every attribute ascribed to Him rests on a false metaphysical premise. None can survive for a moment on a correct metaphysics.
4. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon facts.
5. Statism and the advocacy of reason are philosophical opposites. They cannot coexist—neither in a philosophic system nor in a nation.
6. What is is. Perceive It. Integrate it. Act on it. Idealize it.
Comments
105 responses to “Belly Up to the Bar”
Ice balls wasn’t my nickname in high school.
Made with an ice pick, right? Love those things. All the local pubs/bars make those like that and it builds the anticipation of getting your whiskey on the rock(s).
I bet that guy hates his job. I wonder how many times he’s stabbed himself?
They all do it. It definitely a point of pride among the bartenders. I think it’s just a transfer of the tea ceremony formality. They really do take it seriously. I love it.
That’s cool. Except for the Enya. That’s not bar music.
He’s making a “White Lady” so I guess we can forgive the music.
Valid
Sung to the tune of Cher’s “Dark Lady”.
Now that is a goddamn professional.
For a measuring cup, I highly recommend these. Up to 2 oz, cheap, and easy to read.
Yeah, I have one with a handle and really like it. Very convenient to read.
I use the lid on the shaker if I measure. I usually go with my gut and stop pouring when it feels like the right pour. I run out of booze often.
I have Boston Shakers but they can be messy. Need to get one with a lid.
On the shaker side, I’ve got the standard steel one that allows a shaker glass to fit into it, and then a Hawthorne strainer to strain it out. I’ve never had an issue with it.
I have a strainer but I always just end up using the two shakers to strain so my own fault really.
That is what I wanted when I was shopping for one. I couldn’t find one in the store and ended up with one similar to the one in RC’s link. It seems to work, so I go with it.
^This is my setup, too. I mostly make martinis or martini variants (Manhattans, etc.) so I typically stir vigorously rather than shake, but even when shaking I typically use the strainer or just dump the ice in with.
The westernsloper household rocks this ice maker.
I say 1 on the not. That is insane talk.
He did say “leonard piekoff”
I remember Peikoff going nuts about the Ground Zero mosque, but I can’t remember what he actually said.
The not. Not sure. 1 seems out of place. 4 seems somewhat Randian and a little fucked up. 6 seems like a Chris Farley skit line.
I thought 6 was from a film we watched in high school P.E. class. “Higher, faster, stronger”.
We had to watch gladiator movies in P.E.
Sounds like a Turkish prison, Roger.
Yeah, P.E. teacher liked to show Midnight Express with the lights off.
Did he walk into the locker room holding the hands of two little kids?
Oh, you know him.
Was your PE teacher Captain Clarence Oveur?
Surely you can’t be serious.
I’ve been rocking a set of these for about 20 years – just replaced them a couple weeks ago. The lack of caked-on crud is a nice touch.
#1 seems so flat-out crazy it must be true.
Ok, I have a friend who swears by the frozen rock things for drinking whisky.
I literally had to repress a shriek of disgust, like i brushed aside some leaves only to discover the body of decomposing lena-dunham.
He’s British so he has that going for him.
Just to be clear, when you say, “Frozen rock things”, you mean those plastic things that look like they belong in an infants playpen?
i thought the whole point of ice in whiskey wasn’t actually to cool it down as much as to mildly dilute it (and encourage you to drink it while its in that optimally diluted range). e.g. anyone who lets the ice completely melt in a glass of good whiskey is wasting good whiskey
I see that i am wrong
I don’t know what to think about those. I will remain aloof and mildly suspicious, like a racist meeting a tanning-salon-browned stranger.
I thought the same. And this is deep into de gustibus territory, so I still do.
nope, the whiskey stone thing Nephilium just said. I myself like ice as well.
I drink a lot of bourbon, not so much scotch any more, but I would never put ice in a whiskey (or whisky, if you’re nasty) that I actually wanted to taste. Maybe one cube, max. I can’t science, but the colder something is the less vibrant the taste, which is why crappy beer absolutely must be served cold lest you start to actually taste it.
I’ve always heard that the correct way to enjoy a good scotch is to add just a teaspoon or so of warm water in order to “open it up”. It might be in my head, but it seems to be a real thing. Then of course there’s “cask strength” scotch, which to my mind benefits from being cut with some water unless you’re really into drinking firewater.
you and i are on the same page.
there was a “barbecue and bourbon” place down the street from me that was off the charts on the hipster-scale (and i lived in Williamsburg, which is by itself raising the hipster-bar an impossible degree)… and they had like a few dozen good brands at any given time…
… and the barkeep there (yes, he had the requisite handlebar mustache and a first name like, “hawthorne”) kept little droppers for people to add like a teaspoon of room-temp water to their whiskey glass. He would make this “ugh” face if anyone even said, ‘rocks’, and half the time would try and talk people out of it.
*i was friends with someone who worked there and so suffered the intense pretensions in exchange for half-off everything.
The benefit of water in a whisk(e)y is that anything over about 73 proof is going to numb your tongue, so eventually you won’t be tasting anything. Personally, I still don’t add anything to the finest of scotches or bourbon, but I do like my everyday bourbons with a little ice.
I agree entirely, Nap.
G, that’s just bad service, Blecch.
Whiskey Stones. They’re awesome, and if you don’t like the idea of soapstone in your glass, there are now stainless steel versions available.
Ha. I didn’t know there were fancy-pants versions of these.
I think that would actually be worse than the rocks.
metal – and i have absolutely zero chemistry to back up ‘why’, but will assert this nevertheless – changes the way things taste.
It would depend on the metal, based on my knowledge, the point of stainless steel is that it is non-reactive. Which means it won’t impact flavor as the tin and aluminum cans of the past may.
Stainless steel whiskey rocks don’t cool worth half a damn. Save your money.
This sounds like something from a self-help book. Like Dr Phil. So i’m going with that.
Hello, everybody.
Whassap
Hola
What and where are we drinking tonight? I always imagine you’re at the Congress Lounge on Colfax. Don’t burst my bubble.
Fuck. It’s closed. Interesting owner. RIP.
Never been, that I remember (pretty big caveat).
I’m at some hole in the wall that is convenient because:
A. Location is near light rail, bus, liquor store, pot store, and 7-11
B. Extremely cheap
C. Good food at good prices
D. Free buffet on Friday
E. Nice looking wait staff/bartenders
Is called The Night Shift. Has very old clientele but not everybody is old. No pool tables. S. Peoria and S. Parker.
Actually, s. Peoria and Cornell
Also, Straffin’, you are planning on flying to Denver for the meet up Sunday, right?
Lol. Love you guys, but not enough for a 12 hour flight, a couple thousand bucks and a TSA fondling. Cheers! though.
They throw the TSA fondling in for free.
Guten Abend
Gruß Gott, Herr J.
*raises glass*
Servus
Y’all were supposed to yell “Norm!” in unison.
This is what I use for my single ice spheres.
That is taking ice to a new level of dork there. I might need to get some of those.
I WANT!
I gave up on ThinkGeek after a bad Customer Service experience, but I did jump in on this, and I believe they’re still selling them.
Drink for tonight. I might have another Cooper’s.
6 is the not.
Also, if any of you are in the area and would like to join me in getting the death penalty for spree killing, the Furry Fiesta is going on this weekend about 20 min. from my house.
Suffer not the furry to live.
It sounds much less perverted than i’d expected.
Make no mistake my friend, that’s just their cover. Those people are into what they call “yiffing”, which is dry-humping each other while dressed up like animals.
Then it leads to bjs in the bathroom.
I’m struggling to see any drawback here.
You say this like it’s a bad thing…
Oh, C’mon giant lizard thing, we all know you are going to be the MC there. You aren’t fooling us.
My LARPing days had me playing a Gangrel at one point, and I walked into something that has been burned into my memory. I back Gojira.
How The New York Times Contributed To Ukraine’s ‘Bitter Harvest’ In The 1930s
The gloves came off for this article.
Walter Duranty is scum.
“Walter Duranty”?
i thought that was more or less common-knowledge.
I think what’s probably more contemptible is that most public high-school/college history tends to be heavy on the “People’s History”(zinn)-ish angles, and rather light on the whole “Cultural Revolution”/Stalin-mass-starvation bits.
Or maybe the History Channel as well, which seems to be ‘60%’-hitler related, but i can’t for the life of me ever recall seeing a single show about Stalinism.
Maybe it is common knowledge. I’m not a historian.
Fucking vermin. They murdered close to 20 million Ukrainians.
Die. painfully. You are human garbage.
Meant for Duranty, et al. not Gilmore.
But for the starving people there was equality.
How about the NYT and their Castro love back in the day? They are a hideous bunch of commi’s the lot of them to this day.
I fucking hate progs.
Yes they are. That cage liner cant die quick enough to suit me. Burn the fucking thing to the ground. Bunch of goddamned lying slimy pinkos.
Anytime I hear someone quote the NYT I ask “You read that in the NYTs? You know, you aren’t supposed to read that unless you are a parrot”
Most of the time they dont get the double entendre. Come to think of it, I dont think any of them ever have.
Hell, it’s acceptable, even expected, to add a splash of water to even the finest single malts.
*squints suspiciously*
6 is the not? Sounds like a hippy.
Listening to Sadiq Khan and Theresa May claiming they won’t be bowed by the forces of hatred. We are brave and will stand up to those who would kill the innocent. Are you kidding me? You are going to be surrounded by scary, armed men that would vaporize anyone that even took an awkward lunge at you. I miss the warrior king. Hell, even Caligula went on campaign.
They don’t care how many peasants have to die.
OT: Dean, I don’t know if you ever found it, but I believe this is the report you referenced in the afternoon links, regarding rise in premiums due to Obamacare.
Milliman 2015 commercial health insurance
At a glance, I didn’t think that was it. Thanks,I’ll check again.
You know who else… um… you know who else had a belly?
Me now that I am getting old and sedentary?
These people?
Second beer
You’re only on your second? I had higher hopes for you DEG. I’ve shifted to helping to kill my homebrew, which means drinking Kolsch and Irish Red.
I’m cutting back.
Checking in: dry vodka martini. I’ve got the last twelve or so saisons from a batch I made in the fall sitting conspicuously on a shelf, but I’ve been trying to avoid beer for a while as I’m trying to get back into something resembling shape.
‘Round’ is a shape.
Some music for your evening
Mood lighting, walls lined with too many books, thick carpet to warm the sound, two pistols and a cleaning kit on the oak table, a half empty bottle of Bulliet whiskey and sipping over ice from a pint mason jar. The room smells has a musky smell of leather, wood and oils, the most pleasant of which is the gun oil. I am very calm and focused. Listening to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC5-pbJ4cBY
and this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd5AV9H14m4
and this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_DOnKJ232M
More: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Che00FhqXQg
I like R. L. Burnside. I had an opportunity to see him live, but skipped out because I had bronchitis.
lol and RL Burnside went on tour with Jon Spenser around exactly the same time (mid 1990s).. they put him on their record. they were my favorite band of the period. weird coincidence.
That Toure/Cooder record was one of my most-played CD’s in college. don’t even remember how i came across it. Maybe someone left it in my car. But i played the shit out of it for years.
USA! USA!