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Over in the Stomping Through the Savoy topic in a bit of accidental molecular mixology I discovered that substances high in pectin gel in alcohol solutions. Might it be possible to use pectin to form something like a caviar? Would be more like a jelly ball...

Froth Blower Cocktail The White of 1 Egg. 1 Teaspoonful Grenadine. (homemade) 1 Glass Plymouth Gin. (2 oz Tanqueray Gin) Shake well and strain into port wine glass. As someone who is interested in technique, egg whites frustrate me. Sometimes you get a good amount, and sometimes they don't work. This isn't totally shabby, I suppose. A good eighth to a quarter inch. Still, darn that Thomas Waugh, currently at Alembic. I don't know how he consistently gets an half inch or more every time he makes an egg white drink. The drink is, well, gin and egg whites with a touch of grenadine, which seemed enough of an epitath until I googled "froth blower" and discovered the Ancient Order of Froth Blowers or AOFW. "A sociable and law abiding fraternity of absorbitive Britons who sedately consume and quietly enjoy with commendable regularity and frequention the truly British malted beverage as did their forbears and as Brittons ever will, and be damned to all pussyfoot hornswogglers from overseas and including low brows, teetotalers and MP`s and not excluding nosey parkers, mock religious busy bodies and suburban fool hens all of which are structurally solid bone from the chin up." Whose slogan, "Lubrication in Moderation," seems as apt today as ever.

I blame Sammy Hagar.

Sam makes good points. A couple others. First, spirits prices seldom make actual sense. There is always an aspect of "what the market will bear" and also the fact that spirits have to be at a certain price point to be taken seriously by the connoisseur market. Many 100% Blue Agave Tequilas are in the $50 range these days. This is a more craft distilled, natural product. I don't see why they shouldn't charge more. Craft distilling, anywhere, is expensive and time consuming. As Sam points out, it takes time to grow Agave, several years, as opposed to corn or wheat which only takes a season. During that time, the farmers still have to make a living, and be compensated enough to convince them not to pull out the Agave and just plant corn for methanol. Also, like everywhere else, the small farmer in Mexico is something of an endangered species. If it doesn't seem like it is worth it to you, don't buy it. But, it makes more sense to me to spend $60 on a bottle of well distilled and tasty Mezcal than the same amount on a bottle of Stoli Elit (not saying that you would, mind you, just making a point.)

Digest: San Francisco Chronicle Wine Digest and 96 Hours section, Friday, February 15, 2008 When Syrah met Pinot: One's Feisty, the other's finicky - but they're finding common ground, Jon Bonné THE SIPPING NEWS: In our glasses: What we're drinking The Celebrator Beer News turns 20, Jane Tunks New search engine revs up for wine, Jon Bonné Ceja tasting room opening, Tara Duggan An easy wine pairing for those extra herbs, Lynne Char Bennett Beer: All the president's porters, Jay R. Brooks Uncorked: Mark Ellenbogen's spicy dish from behind the Slanted, Amanda Gold The Tasting Room: Understated experience from a legendary Napa Valley winery, Amanda Gold Pairings: An egg-cellent match for Sauvignon Blanc, Lynne Char Bennett Recipes: Scrambled Eggs with Goat Cheese & Herbs Chronicle Wine Selections: Napa Sauvingon Blanc, Lynne Char Bennett The Cheese Course: Hirtenkäse fans party when the cows come home, Janet Fletcher 96 Hours Bargain Bite: Turkish Kitchen, Carol Ness "The soft, chewy, house-baked pita (without a pocket, as it's done in Turkey) is reason alone to plop down at this busy new restaurant in downtown Berkeley. But it would be a mistake to stop there." Bar Bites: Daru Lounge, Mandy Erickson "France holds the patent on romance, but Daru Lounge proves that India is at least as sexy ("daru" is the Hindi word for alcohol). With a bar backlit in rose-colored lights, delicate flower lamps descending from the ceiling and hot young Bollywood stars dancing on TV screens, the lounge adjacent to the Indian-Californian restaurant Mantra is sure to stoke some fires. It's the kind of place where you and your sweetheart can snuggle together, sipping drinks and nibbling snacks, for hours - or where you and your friends can bond over being single. Sugary cocktails satisfy a sweet tooth, and spicy appetizers awaken the senses."

Got a chance to meet Kirk during his tenure at Death & Co and have a pretty amazing Chartreuse Swizzle. Quite the spectacular start to a very good evening. Loved the falernum he had brought with him. He was definitely rocking the flaming drinks! I can't speak to the bar's perspective, but he seemed like a nice man and a talented bartender.

The French “75” Cocktail 2/3 Gin. (1 1/2 oz Aviation Gin) 1/3 Lemon Juice (3/4 oz Lemon Juice) 1 Spoonful Powdered Sugar. (1 tsp. Caster Sugar) (Shake with ice? - eje) Pour into tall glass containing cracked ice and fill up with Champagne (Louis Bouillot, Cremant de Bourgogne Rose ''Perle d'Aurore''). Visually quite attractive to use a Rose Champagne ...errr... Cremant de Bourgogne here. The French "75" and 75 cocktail have been discussed in some detail in the following eGullet topic: Frank Meier & the "Soixante-Quinze", Frank, of the Ritz, had a 75 cocktail. Long story short, there are two cocktails, the "75" Cocktail, (grenadine, Gin, Calvados, and lemon juice. served up.) and the French "75" cocktail, (Gin, sugar, lemon, crushed ice. Top up with champagne.) Both are apparently named after a French field gun of some sort used during World War I. I guess the most common mis-conception about the French "75" is that it is made with Brandy or Cognac instead of Gin. On more than one occasion, out in bars, I've heard it ordered that way. The other big thing is ice or no ice. Judge Jr., Patrick Gavin Duffy, and the Savoy Cocktail Book, all say cracked ice in a tall glass. It seems like it is more common these days to skip the ice and just build it in a champagne flute. I've made them without ice in the past, and thought the over ice version this time was quite refreshing. It seems like it would be nice on a hot day. I shook the gin, lemon, and sugar with ice before adding it to the iced glass, because it seemed kind of weird not to mix them. I guess you could just dump the sugar in there? Or mix them in the bottom of the tall glass a bit before adding the ice? Judge Jr., in his book, "Here's How" makes the illuminating connection, quoted below, noting that this is nothing more than a Deluxe Tom Collins.

Here's one developed by Erik Adkins for a bar in Oakland: Thad Vogler also had a really nice cocktail on the Jardiniere menu with one of the Single Village Mezcals. Single Village Fix, I think it was called, sweetened with Pineapple Syrup and also had a touch of spice. Great feature for that tremendous Mezcal. I'll have to email and see if he'll give me the goods, since I don't believe he is at Jardiniere any longer.

Whew! I was afraid I should be using something like Tuthilltown Spirits' Corn Whiskey or Stillwater Spirits' single malt, pot still, barley vodka for my blue blazers.

I recently turned up a letter from a New York bartender (Patrick J. Duffy - sic) in the New York Times of October 22, 1927. To me, one of the interesting passages was the following: Had they really not been storing or aging Scotch Whisky in charred barrels by that time?

I will just point out that there are a couple non-alcoholic swedish punch type things on the market. The idea being, of course, that you add the alcohol and make the punch when you get it home. I hate to be too much of a food snob, but the content declaration of the Saturnus Arrack Punch doesn't make it sound particularly appealing:

Frank Sullivan Cocktail 1/4 Glass Lemon Juice. (3/4 oz Lemon Juice) 1/4 Glass Kina Lillet. (3/4 oz Cocchi Americano) 1/4 Glass Cointreau. (3/4 oz Cointreau) 1/4 Glass Brandy. (3/4 oz Cerbois VSOP Armagnac) Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. I guess Frank preferred Brandy in his Corpse Reviver No. 2! This is a fine, light cocktail, but I have to admit I really missed the dash of Absinthe. Not sure entirely which Frank Sullivan this was named after, but there was an American journalist, humorist, and author associated with the New Yorker magazine for much of the 20th Century with that name. Sullivan also had some associations with the Algonquin Round table of the 1920s. According to this website, Guide to the Frank Sullivan Collection, he was a Cornell Grad and corresponded with the likes of P.G. Woodhouse, E.B. White, James Thurber, and even James Cagney and Eleanor Roosevelt(!). Seems like you might need a drink after composing the New Yorker Christmas Poem for half of the 20th Century!

My personal feeling is, during prohibition, gin was probably used more as a lengthener than anything else. Pretty much any other aspect of the cocktail was probably more expensive than the gin, especially if we're talking about gin cold compounded from flavor essences or spices and grain alcohol. Sort of like vodka is used today. I guess it just didn't occur to barkeeps of the time that someone would want flavor free booze in their drink... edit - That was kind of flip. Most likely, the grain alcohol was of such low quality, that it would probably be undrinkable without at least some flavorings.

There's a letter to the New York Times in the archive attributed to one "Patrick J. Duffy" from October 25, 1927. THE FIRST SCOTCH HIGHBALL; Claim of the Adams House, Boston, Disputed by a New Yorker. An English actor came in to Mr. Duffy's bar and asked for a "Scotch and Soda" and was surprised to discover that Mr. Duffy did not stock Scotch, except in casks and mostly for winter warmers. The actor provided a reference or source for Scotch, presumably in bottles, and soon Mr. Duffy was selling nearly nothing but Scotch and Sodas or "Scotch highballs" as the actor called the "new" drink. It doesn't sound like Duffy invented the drink, as the English actor asked for it, or that he named it, as he also gives the credit to the actor for that. Maybe adding the lump of ice was Duffy's "new" touch? Here's the first paragraph: edit - added quote.

The Frankenjack Cocktail 1/3 Gin. (3/4 oz North Shore No. 6) 1/3 French Vermouth. (1/2 of 3/4 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth) 1/6 Apricot Brandy. (3/4 oz Haus Alpenz Blumme Marillen Apricot Eau-de-Vie) 1/6 Cointreau. (1/2 of 3/4 oz Cointreau) Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. About a million years ago (OK less than a year) we made this very same cocktail as the Claridge Cocktail. At the time, there was some speculation about whether Apricot Liqueur or Apricot Eau-de-Vie was the appropriate "Apricot Brandy". Knowing the Frankenjack was coming up eventually, I put off giving it a try. I also asked Matt Rowley what he thought the appropriate substance would be. He thought neither distilled Apricot Eau-de-Vie or imported Apricot Liqueur were particularly likely for a prohibition era cocktail. He felt, more likely, it was a home made concoction made from rehydrated dried apricots macerated in alcohol and sweetened enough to take the edge off. This time, though, I was going to use the Apricot Eau-de-Vie. I gave the Blume Marillen a smell, and tried to imagine which gin would go best with it. Tanqueray was handy and didn't seem promising, nor did No. 209. Aviation seemed kind of close. Then I checked the smell of a recently purchased bottle of North Shore Distillery Gin No. 6. "Ding! Ding! Ding!" as Mario Batali would say. Initially, I didn't really have a lot of hope that this cocktail would be very good, but the unusual flavors of the No. 6 work really well with the Apricot Eau-de-Vie. The No. 6 is not at all a traditionally flavored gin, but it has some floral-fruit flavors and smells that really complement the Blume Marillen. The flavor of the cocktail brought back real or imagined memories of some half remembered European hard candy from my youth. I was actually kind of chortling as I was tasting it. I think a dash of orange bitters, a decent cherry garnish, and this would be a real winner of a cocktail. According to Judge Jr, the Frankenjack was: Hmmm.... I wonder if they were Frank and Jack of the legendary Frank and Jack's? From "On the Town in New York" by Michael Batterberry: And, uh, oops! I didn't realize until I wrote up this post, that I had gotten the amounts for the Vermouth and Apricot Brandy flipped. Well, damn it, it looks like I have made a new cocktail. Maybe the FrankErikJack?

Fox Trot Cocktail The Juice of 1/2 Lemon or 1 Lime. (Juice 1/2 lemon) 2 Dashes Orange Curacao. (1/2 teaspoon Luxardo Triplum) Bacardi Rum. (1 1/2 oz Flor de Cana Extra Dry) (1/2 oz Inner Circle Green Rum) Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. The "character rum" which I had previously been deploying in cocktails calling for Bacardi rum was a flop here. I added too much of it for such a lightly sweetened and flavored cocktail. Just use the Flor de Cana, or keep it down to a dash. Another proto-Margarita?

Duffy doesn't claim to have invented the cocktail, just that he brought it to America. From the "Foreward" to his "The Official Mixer's Manual". He suggests making them with Applejack, Bitters, Bourbon, Cognac, Cordials, Dubonnet, Gin, Grape Juice, Irish, Mint, Rye, Rum, and Scotch. Glass number 12 is an "Eight oz. Highball" and, if the pictures are to scale, is significantly smaller than the "Tom Collins" glass. He also includes the slightly more elaborate Picon Highball, (Amer Picon and Grenadine or Curacao,) and the Cederlund's Swedish Punch Highball, (Cederlund's Swedish Punch and Bitters).

To me highballs are spirits, ice, and fizzy mixer built in a highball glass. With the fizzy mixer being preferably club soda, selzer, or ginger ale. Lemon-Lime soda is probably also OK. Anything else is another drink. Am I being too picky by not thinking Rum & Cokes, Cuba Libres, Gin and Tonics, or Bull-Dogs are Highballs?

I really like Italian wines generally, and Barolo Chinatos specifically. I need to give the chocolate pairing a try some time. Would pairing Barolo Chinato in a drink with the Mozart Black Chocolate liqueur be too weird? Hmmm... Didn't someone here promise to find their grandmother's recipe for a red wine based vermouth? I'm going to have to track that post down.

Jimmy has summarized the contributions. Pretty good turn out, both here on eGullet.org, and at large in the blogosphere... Mixology Monday - Variations Wrap-up

Check page one of this topic, where you'll find both Thomas' Imperial Arrack Punch, United Service Punch recipes, and a practical procedure for a sort of hybrid of the two...

I won't tell Diana Kennedy about your guacamole if you don't tell Rick Bayless about mine. ;-)

Now, see... I'm a guacamole purist, as well. However, onions, chiles, cilantro, tomatoes, and salt are all that should be in it. No lime, no garlic. Black pepper? That's just weird. edit - Anyway, that was my point above. Once you go down this road there's always someone who's going to out purist you. And for the record, I used to think Guacamole was supposed to have cheese in it. But, then I am from Wisconsin...

It's been a while since I last tortured you with a culinarily inspired original cocktail with at least one difficult or nearly impossible to obtain ingredient. Seemed like a MxMo about "Variations" would be a fine excuse. I was paging through the February, 2008, Gourmet magazine. You know, looking for recipes that wouldn't involve a million steps, a million dollars, or a trip to the gourmet grocery store. I ran across a dessert topping (or is it a floor wax?) which involved Clementines in a Spiced Ginger Syrup. I had clementines and all the spices required. But, then, I thought, hey! if that's not a drink, I don't know what is. And, hey! that's a variation! So in the original recipe we've got a syrup spiced with ginger, star anise, and cardamom. Sliced Clementines. And a pomegranate seed garnish. How to parse that out and translate it into drink-i-ness. The easiest way would be to simply make the syrup as the recipe calls for, pick a spirit, add clementine juice, and away you go. Ha, we do not take the easy way! (Actually, we do take the easy way, as there is no pesky pantry work involved here.) Dozier Cooler* 4 Cardamom Pods 2 oz Pisco Alto del Carmen Grenadine, hopefully homemade 1 oz Clementine Juice (or Mandarin) 1/8 oz Clandestine La Bleu Absinthe** (or another not too wormwoody Blanche) Bundaberg Ginger Beer (or other spicy ginger beer or ale) Cardamom Leaf (Yeah, I know. I'm probably one of three people in North America with a Cardamom plant. You can order one of your own from: Mountain Valley Growers. Failing Cardamom, use Thai Basil. Failing Thai Basil, Mint.) Crush 4 cardamom pods and combine with 2 oz Pisco in a mixing glass. (Ok, we've got our cardamom.) After at least an half an hour, or whenever you finish making dinner, cover the bottom of a collins glass with grenadine. (Ok, we've got our pomegranate.) In a mixing tin, combine the Pisco, Clementine Juice, (Uh, duh, clementines,) and the Absinthe (OK, we've got our Anise.) Ice and shake. Add ice cubes to the highball glass and strain the Pisco mixture in. Top up the glass with ginger ale. (Ta da! We've got ginger!) Spank a cardamom leaf and add it to the glass. Serve with a straw or swizzle. *According to this website, the Clementine, ."..was created at the beginning of the 20th Century in Algeria by a French missionary by the name of Clément Dozier, hence the name Clementine." Hence the name Dozier Fizz. **The original recipe is supposedly based on the spices used in Algerian sweets. If you really wanted to stick to North Africa/Middle East, you could use Lebanese Arak instead of Absinthe. I think it was pretty true to the original recipe and my wife gave it the thumbs up. Perhaps a Valentine's Day Cocktail, as well! edit - I'm going to change the name from the Dozier Fizz to the Dozier Cooler, since it seems to have more in common with Coolers than Fizzes. Fizzes pretty much just soda, eh, with Coolers you have a bit more leeway to use Ginger Beer. Also, aside from the salad, the variation is on a classic cocktail called the Bull-Dog.

Thanks Jeff! Nice to know Craddock and his editors occasionally get a recipe right... One Question... Is it Harry MacElhone or McElhone? I've seen it both ways and am a bit confused which is correct.