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| Photo l Felicia D'Ambrosio |
| Bronx Cocktail |
This is the time of year we're supposed to crave nothing but whiskey drinks and comfort food, infusing our layers of fat with anesthetizing oaky potions to sustain us through this wintriest winter since recordkeeping began in 1884.
I say, to hell with that. What I want are raw vegetable salads bright with chopped parsley and lemon juice, the watery crunch of cucumbers and affirming bitterness of endive. Such food needs a drink partner with a lighter touch, something to remind us that the sun will melt the heaps of dirty, porous snow eventually.
Enter the Bronx cocktail, allegedly invented by Johnny Solon at the Waldorf before Prohibition. Gin, sweet vermouth, dry vermouth, freshly-squeezed orange juice and bitters are shaken hard into a cocktail that's not too boozy to serve as an apertif, stiff enough to be manly and refreshingly sweet, tart, bitter and spicy.
Locally distilled Bluecoat Gin, with its restrained botanicals, provides a blank canvas that allows good quality (or at the very least, fresh) vermouth to shine; Bluecoat is the ideal gin for folks who claim to hate the spirit. I'm one myself, having had the bad judgement as a teenager to sneak swills straight from the Tanqueray bottle one grim night.
With Angostura bitters currently in short supply in the U.S., Fee Bros. Old-Fashion Aromatic Bitters make a cinnamony, complex addition. Since citrus is in season and dead cheap right now, I juiced a few sweet tangerines to add the final touch.
Check out Dale DeGroff's recipe from his amazing book, The Essential Cocktail, after the jump.
Bronx Cocktail
adapted from Dale DeGroff, The Essential Cocktail: The Art of Mixing Perfect Drinks (Clarkson Potter)
1.5 oz. Bluecoat Gin
0.5 oz. Punt e Mes Italian sweet vermouth
0.5 oz. Tribuno dry vermouth
1 oz. fresh-squeezed tangerine juice (or orange, or clementine)
Dash of Fee Bros. Old-Fashion Bitters
Tangerine or orange peel for garnish
Combine the gin, sweet and dry vermouths, tangerine juice and bitters in a mixing glass with ice and shake well. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a tangerine or orange peel.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by The Best Of Food.com, Meal Ticket. Meal Ticket said: Felicia D mixes a gin cocktail for gin haters: http://bit.ly/cNUveB [...]
Sounds brilliant, I'll certainly give it a try, with my own favourite Martin Miller's. Its similar to Bluecoat in that its quite light on the juniper but still very balanced. Not sure if my other fave Hendrick's would work though, too cucumbery!?
Jake: could be worth mixing up a Bronx with Hendrick's; I've never tried it. There is also a version of this drink DeGroff calls "Satan's Whiskers" where you reduce the gin to 1 oz. and add 0.5 oz of Grand Marnier. I think even a London dry gin like Plymouth would be pleasant.
Mmm! Love me a Bronx! Fresh squeezed is a must. Gin and snow must go hand and hand! I fixed up Bee's Knees for the roomies and I last night!
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