The simple guidelines below will ensure the best results when using vodka in cocktails:
Mixing – If using a cocktail shaker, always put the ice in the shaker first and the vodka last.
Stirring – A drink that is stirred will pour relatively clearly when strained and should have no fragments of ice.
Shaking – Shake the drink to mix the ingredients if they include thickeners such as cream, egg or juices.
As a hangover cure, the Bloody Mary has acquired a legendary curative power, but a variant of the classic recipe provided by occult author Dennis Wheatley is unusual for including Campbell’s beef bouillon. This appears never to have been made, and Wheatley probably meant to use their consommé, which would be rather rich but delicious. (Campbell’s products are currently relicensed to Batchelors in the UK.)
Dennis Wheatley’s Bloody Mary:
1 nip tomato juice, 1 sherry glass Smirnoff vodka, 1 sherry glass Batchelors/Campbell’s beef consommé, 1 nip Worcestershire Sauce, a half glass of fresh lime or lemon, ice. Shake until froth appears and serve.
4 large dashes of salt, 2 dashes of black pepper, 2 dashes of cayenne pepper, a layer of Worcestershire Sauce, a dash of lemon juice, cracked ice, 2 ounces [almost 4 tablespoons] of vodka and 2 ounces of thick tomato juice.
Shake, strain and pour.
Note that the original recipe above has no Tabasco Sauce, horseradish, celery or salt and is not garnished with a stick of celery.
Beef bouillon is the essential ingredient, along with vodka, to make Bullshot, a hangover cure, but one which does not contain tomato juice. Do not over-chill the beef bouillon as it will set like jelly.
Bullshot:
1 measure vodka, 1 measure beef bouillon, chilled (if Campbells/Batchelors is used), juice of ½ a lemon, 1 dash Worcestershire Sauce, 1 dash Tabasco Sauce, ice and salt to taste.
Shake and serve.
Before the Bloody Mary appeared, the earliest published vodka cocktails in America were printed in 1934:
Bee’s Knees Cocktail:
Dissolve 1 part honey by thoroughly stirring in one part lime juice. Then add 4 to 5 parts vodka.
Shake well.
Tsarina Cocktail:
1 part pineapple juice, 1 part vodka, add a dash of bitters if desired.
Shake.
Vodka Perfect Cocktail:
3 parts vodka, ½ part Italian vermouth,
½ French vermouth, twist of lemon peel.
Stir and strain.
Vodka Queen Cocktail:
2 parts vodka, 1 part Benedictine, 1 dash bitters.
Shake.
Tout-de-suite:
1 part Creme de Cacao, 1 part dry gin, 1 part vodka.
Shake.
Volga:
2 parts vodka, 1 part lemon juice, 1 part orange juice, dash of bitters, two dashes of Grenadine.
Here is the recipe inspired by the British television comedy Absolutely Fabulous.
Absolutely Fabulous cocktail:
Shake 30 ml of Stolichnaya vodka and 60 ml of cranberry juice with ice and strain into flute glass. Top up with Bollinger champagne and garnish the glass rim with strawberry. Less expensive brands of champagne and vodka can be substituted. The result may be less fabulous but will still be enjoyable.
The flavoured vodkas of Imperial Russia were extremely popular and were collectively known as nastoykas. The sweeter infusions such as raspberry and rowanberry were called nalivkas. Any fruit can be used, but raspberry is one of the best. The process of using fresh fruit described below takes a matter of weeks. If you are unable to wait that long, neutral vodka can be flavoured to taste with a variety of extremely good fruit syrups found in Polish delicatessens and some supermarkets under the brand names of Herbapol and Lowicz.
The nalivka is made in two stages. The first sees fresh raspberries being infused in vodka, and the second involves combining the infusion with bar syrup.
Raspberry nalivka:
Equipment: small pan, wooden spoon, large bowl, coffee filters, sieve, large glass jar with tight screw lid, small glass jar with screw lid.
Ingredients:
Infusion: 1 kg of raspberries, 750 ml of vodka.
Bar Syrup: 200 g (7 oz) of sugar, 200 ml of water, 60 ml of vodka (about three tablespoons).
Method for the syrup:
First boil the water and stir in the sugar to make the bar syrup. When the sugar has dissolved, turn down the heat and simmer gently until the syrup has thickened slightly, and remove from the heat. When the syrup has cooled, stir in the 60 ml of vodka and pour into the small glass jar. Seal with screw-top lid and set aside.
Method for the infusion:
Place the raspberries in the bowl and squash with the spoon into a mash. Transfer the raspberries with the juice into the glass jar, add the vodka and seal with the screw lid. Shake the jar to distribute the vodka and set aside in a cupboard for two months in order to avoid sunlight. Periodically give the jar a good shake before returning it to the cupboard. When the two months have elapsed, pour the contents of the jar through a small sieve into the bowl and dispose of the fruit. Thoroughly wash out the now empty jar. Open out a large coffee filter, dampen it with cold water and place the filter into the sieve. (If a coffee filter is not available, shape a double layer of kitchen towel into the sieve instead. A fine net gauze typically used for jam-making can also be employed.) Strain the liquid through the lined sieve or gauze back into the jar in small batches while taking care not to flood the sieve. Finally, add the bar syrup into the large jar with the liquid and stir to blend before pouring contents into a glass bottle with screw top. Leave for one week before drinking.
Vodka Jelly Shots
Vodka jelly varies depending on the proportion of vodka to water and the chosen flavour.
Ingredients and equipment:
1 bottle of neutral, clear vodka. Supermarket brands, especially the extremely drinkable Lidl’s Putinoff, are perfect here.
1 packet of table jelly with your preferred flavour, a bowl, a fork, 6 shot glasses.
8 ounces (227 ml) of boiling water.
Method:
Boil water and pour on jelly, stirring with fork until all the jelly is dissolved, ensuring there are no lumps of solid jelly. Let jelly and water mixture cool a little, before adding 10 ounces of vodka (284 ml).
Pour into shot glasses and chill in refrigerator until set.
In a booklet published in the late 1950s, Smirnoff suggested cooking with vodka, but its recipes were limited to flambé chicken and meats.
A recent Thanksgiving recipe for making turkey especially succulent was prepared by a New York pub and involves injecting the twenty-pound birds with eight ounces of vodka over a three-day period, using an eight-inch syringe. By the time the bird was cooked, most of the vodka had evaporated in the oven, but diners reported that it was the most interesting and tastiest turkey they had ever eaten.
One recipe using vodka in a pasta sauce has evolved into a classic. Below is a version from the north of Italy:
Specialità Pasta Vodka Della Contessa Paola – serves four.
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of butter
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons of basil leaves (2 teaspoons if dried)
1 tablespoon of tarragon (1 teaspoon if dried)
Grated zest of 1 lemon and the juice of half a lemon.
1 quarter pint of vegetable stock
2 tins of plum tomatoes (800 g or 1.76 lbs) broken up with fork or given a quick swirl in a food processor
Half a pound of mushrooms sliced thinly
16 ounces of pasta such as penne rigate or fusilli
2 tablespoons of vodka
1 small carton of single cream or crème fraîche
Method for the sauce:
Heat a non-stick pan over a medium heat. Add butter, oil, garlic, onions, sliced mushrooms and gently sweat until soft. Add the tomatoes and herbs, half-cover with the lid and stir occasionally. Simmer very gently for half an hour, then remove from the heat. Allow to cool slightly, then stir in the single cream or crème fraîche.
Method for the pasta:
While the sauce is cooking, add the pasta to a large pan of boiling water along with a small sprinkling of salt, making sure there is room for the pasta to swell. When the pasta is ready, turn off the heat, drain at once, return to the pan, then add half a tablespoon of butter and stir through the pasta in order to prevent it from sticking. Turn the heat to medium high, combine the cooked sauce with the pasta and stir the vodka into the pan over the heat. Remove from the heat when it begins to bubble gently – otherwise the vodka will be boiled off. If possible, serve on hot dinner plates and scatter grated parmesan on the top. Freshly-ground black pepper should be added to the individual servings and not be cooked in the sauce, as this would give it a bitter taste. The vodka is added to the sauce because the alcohol helps to release the flavour of the tomato without adding any other flavour, which would occur with the use of wine.
A vodka cup – 1770