dinner party "french theme" need cocktail

[thirtyoneknots]

Just spent a 3-day weekend at a rented party house with French people. One night, the host made her mother's traditional "Champagne Soup", and many of the guests acted like this was a fondly-remembered  family ritual as well.

Found this recipe online, though our host used simple syrup rather than granulated sugar...

CHAMPAGNE SOUP COCKTAIL

Soupe de Champagne (champagne soup) is an original and very good

apéritif that you can serve to everybody … 1 bottle Champagne

(you can use sparkling white wine instead of Champagne) / 1 ladleful

Cointreau / 1 ladlefull lemon juice / ½ ladleful sugar /

3 ladlefuls ice cubes

Simply mix in a salad bowl the cointreau, lemon juice, and sugar together,

then pour the Champagne and add the ice. Mix well and serve right away

with a ladle !

←

this begats one quick Off-topic "conversion" question....how much sugar(brix(?correct word use here?)-wise) is an equivalent amount of sugar (in this case a 1/2 ladle) vs simple syrup (assuming a 1:1 mix) ??

scott

←

1:1 simple syrup is roughly equivalent to 2/3 the same volume of granulated sugar. In other words to convert an amount of granulate sugar to 1:1 simple, add 50%. For 2:1 syrup, it is close enough to equivalent to be a direct sub for granulated sugars by volume.

Edit: clarity.

Edited June 4, 2009 by thirtyoneknots (log)

[thirtyoneknots]

a cassis and Aligote question...

a. how do i look for Aligote? will it be labeled as such? my familiarity with french wines is they dont state the varietal (which i assume Aligote is) on the bottle....can you hint me something to look for...??

←

In contrast to the normal practice in French wine, Aligote will in fact be labelled by the varietal. It will either (if I am recalling correctly) be labelled simply "Aligote" or "Aligote de Bourgogne". It is a fairly inexpensive wine and should be available from your favorite wine merchant...certainly they would be able to special order it at worst.

If it helps, the grape is pronounced "ah-LEE-go-tay" or so I am told. Nice picnic or back porch wine, too. We used to have a pretty good one at work, for a French grad student at the university who requested it...can't recall the name of it to save my life. If I can find out I'll report back.

[shantytownbrown]

1:1 simple syrup is roughly equivalent to 2/3 the same volume of granulated sugar. In other words to convert an amount of granulate sugar to 1:1 simple, add 50%. For 2:1 syrup, it is close enough to equivalent to be a direct sub for granulated sugars by volume.

i have always wondered this, now i can apply this in more than one place, so here is my next question...if i use 1:1 simple, in a premixed drink that wont then be shaken with ice, the extra 33% water should effectively take care of the dilution issue?? yes/no?

In contrast to the normal practice in French wine, Aligote will in fact be labelled by the varietal. It will either (if I am recalling correctly) be labelled simply "Aligote" or "Aligote de Bourgogne". It is a fairly inexpensive wine and should be available from your favorite wine merchant...certainly they would be able to special order it at worst.

If it helps, the grape is pronounced "ah-LEE-go-tay" or so I am told. Nice picnic or back porch wine, too. We used to have a pretty good one at work, for a French grad student at the university who requested it...can't recall the name of it to save my life. If I can find out I'll report back.

←

i will ask my merchant today..thanks..

[thirtyoneknots]

1:1 simple syrup is roughly equivalent to 2/3 the same volume of granulated sugar. In other words to convert an amount of granulate sugar to 1:1 simple, add 50%. For 2:1 syrup, it is close enough to equivalent to be a direct sub for granulated sugars by volume.

i have always wondered this, now i can apply this in more than one place, so here is my next question...if i use 1:1 simple, in a premixed drink that wont then be shaken with ice, the extra 33% water should effectively take care of the dilution issue?? yes/no?

←

No, it's still an insignificant amount of water (technically also equal to 2/3 of the volume of the syrup)...1/2 oz of simple is contributing only 2 tsp of water. If your drink is, for example, 3 oz--being 2 oz of spirits, 1/2 of syrup, and 1/2 of citrus--you still have nowhere neat an appropriate amount of water in the drink. You want to shoot for 20-25% of the finished volume as water, generally speaking.

This is for cocktails, the rules for punches are different.

[Alcuin]

So say you wanted to bottle some Sidecars (appropriately French as they are), this might be what you do:

I like to think from 3oz drinks, pre-dilution; for mathematical ease, I choose a 2:1:1 ratio (1.5oz Cognac, .75 Cointreau, .75 lemon juice). I figure you could just about squeeze 7 drinks into a 750ml bottle (it will be tight). So, 7 drinks is 10.5oz Cognac, and 5.25oz Cointreau and lemon juice for a pre-dilution grand total of 21oz. Let's say you want to dilute with 20% water: that's 4.2oz of water and added to 21oz you get 25.2oz to put in your 25.4oz wine bottle. Then chill for several hours (I don't recommend the freezer: the drinks will be too cold) but don't forget to taste, especially post-chill before you serve to make sure you got the balance right where you want it.

[rockdoggydog]

all sounds good, still trying to find out the apps menu, will likely be a few days, then we can narrow the selection a bit..

a cassis and Aligote question...

a. how do i look for Aligote? will it be labeled as such? my familiarity with french wines is they dont state the varietal (which i assume Aligote is) on the bottle....can you hint me something to look for...??

as for the cassis..so far all i find is Cassis de dijon and some garbage (i assume) Hiram Walker stuff...anyone know what is available to me in connecticut? or other brands other than Giffard to look for....

and whats the difference between Creme de Cassis and "blackcurrent liqueur"? (i can get matilde brand here...

shanty (scott)

←

Sorry, I just suggested Giffard's Cassis because I like it and it's what I use. I've never tried the Mathilde liqueur, but I imagine it would work well--creme de cassis and blackcurrant liqueur are one and the same as far as I know. Also, most cremes de cassis that declare their origin, such as Dijon, will likely be pretty good.

←

I'm usually a fan of the Briottet stuff.

Rocky