Basic Recipes
AGAVE SYRUP
Dissolve equal parts by volume of agave nectar and water.
AUDREY’S GINGER BEER
Makes 1 gallon
Fresh ginger beer is strongly recommended in Audrey’s Gin Gin Mule. Commercial ginger beers are overly sweet and insipid.
1 gallon spring water
1 pound fresh ginger, peeled and broken into small pieces
8 ounces hot water
½ cup light brown sugar
2 ounces fresh lime juice
Put the spring water in a pot and bring to a boil. Put the ginger into a food processor with the hot water and process to a mulch consistency. Add the ginger mixture to the boiling water and turn off the heat. Stir and cover; let rest for 1 hour.
Strain the mixture through cheesecloth into a large bowl, pressing on it to get the sharpest ginger flavor and a cloudy appearance. Add the brown sugar and lime juice and stir to dissolve the sugar. Let cool, then store in bottles in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Audrey’s Ginger Beer, Small Batch
makes 1 cup
8 ounces water
2 tablespoons finely grated fresh ginger
½ teaspoon fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon light brown sugar
In a saucepan, boil the water. Remove the pan from the heat and add the ginger and lime juice. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 1 hour. Stir in the brown sugar, then strain it through a fine-mesh strainer, pushing down on the solids to express the ginger extract. Bottle and refrigerate.
BLUEBERRY SHRUB
makes 32 ounces
6 very fresh thick-skinned lemons
1½ cups sugar
2 pints blueberries
12 ounces spring water
12 ounces fresh lemon juice
Remove only the yellow zest of the lemons—no pith—and then juice the lemons. Store the juice for later in the fridge.
In an open-mouth quart container with a top, layer 4 tablespoons sugar, lemon zest, and blueberries as follows: sugar, one-quarter of the lemon zest, sugar, a half-pint of blueberries, and another layer of sugar, then repeat the process for the remaining lemons and blueberries. Leave this to rest for 2 hours, then press everything down with a muddler and leave it for at least another hour. When the sugar has turned to a slurry, add the reserved lemon juice and the spring water and stir to dissolve the remaining sugar. Strain off the liquid, then cover and refrigerate until use. If you’re not using the shrub immediately, add a couple ounces of pisco to slow the fermentation
BROWN SUGAR OR DEMERARA SYRUP
1 pound Demerara sugar
1 quart spring water
Mix the sugar and water in a saucepan and heat gently over a low simmer, stirring until the sugar dissolves; never boil the mixture. Remove from the heat. Cool and store in the refrigerator; it will be good for up to 2 weeks.
Note For a rich version, use 2 parts sugar to 1 part water.
CINNAMON SYRUP
Makes 1 quart
10 Ceylon cinnamon sticks, broken
2 cups Demerara sugar
16 ounces water
Combine the ingredients in a saucepan over low heat and simmer, covered, for 1 hour; do not boil. Cool, strain into a bottle, and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.
CONCORD GRAPE SYRUP
Makes 20 ounces
1½ cups Concord grapes, stems removed
½ cup sugar
4 ounces water
In a blender, pulse the grapes a few times on low speed, then purée them on low for a few seconds, until the grape skins are chopped and the grape flesh is slightly broken down. Combine the rough grape purée with the sugar and water in a small saucepan. Cook over very low heat for 15 minutes, stirring frequently. The mixture should simmer only for about the last 3 minutes of its cooking time. Remove from the heat and strain through a fine-mesh strainer, gently pressing the solids to extract any liquid. Refrigerate until completely cool. Store in the refrigerator in a closed container for up to 2 weeks.
DALE’S LEMON AND ORANGE SHRUB
1 shrub for each liter bottle of base spirit
4 firm, thick-skinned fresh lemons
1 ounce firm fresh navel orange
1 cup sugar
8 ounces fresh lemon juice
8 ounces water
Remove the zest only (the yellow and orange parts, not the white pith) from all the fruits and combine the zests and the sugar in a liter-size container with a lid. Pound the mixture with a muddler to work the sugar into the zests, then cover and shake everything very well. Set aside for 3 hours. Juice the lemons and orange and set the juices aside. After 3 hours, check to see if the sugar is all gooey and liquefied, and pour the lemon juice over the flavored, gooey sugar. Stir and/or shake until the remaining sugar is dissolved. Strain the liquid from the zests and refrigerate in a closed container until use; this is your shrub. Retain the zests for a second wash with water. Add the water to the remaining zests, cap the container, and shake. The water will remove the remaining citrus sugar; add the water to your shrub and put it back into the fridge until use. Now the zests can be discarded or they can be dehydrated (which can be done on a cookie sheet in a warm 250°F oven overnight or with a dehydrator, if you have one). Grind the peels in a spice grinder or coffee grinder and mix them with some granulated sugar; they make a pleasant frosting for the rims of glasses.
GINGER SYRUP
Makes 30 ounces
1 pound fresh ginger, peeled and julienned (cutting only with the grain)
Juice of 4 limes
4 cups Demerara sugar
1 quart water
Combine the ginger, lime juice, and sugar with the water in a saucepan. Simmer, but do not boil, until the sugar is dissolved. Strain, cool, and bottle for use.
HOMEMADE GRENADINE
Makes 28 to 30 ounces
24 ounces pomegranate juice
1 cup sugar
Mix the ingredients in a saucepan and cook over low heat to dissolve the sugar; do not boil.
HONEY SYRUP
Honey is wonderful in drinks, but at full strength it is difficult to use. A practical way of preparing honey for use in drinks is to turn it into a thinner syrup, similar to Simple Syrup (this page). To do so, combine 1 part honey with 1 part warm water and stir until all the honey is dissolved. Store in the fridge for 2 weeks.
IBÉRICO FAT-WASHED BOURBON
Makes 1 liter
100 grams (3¾ ounces) rendered Ibérico ham fat
1 liter bourbon
Mix the fat with the bourbon in a large open container. Cover and place in the freezer for 48 hours. The fat will rise to the top, clarifying the liquid. Remove the fat from the top of the liquid and strain to get any leftover bits of fat, then rebottle the whiskey for use.
LIME ACID
Makes 105 ml (3.5 ounces)
The resulting liquid here has the exact same acidity as lime juice and will allow you to produce a clear sour-style drink.
4 grams citric acid (see Note)
2 grams malic acid (see Note)
94 grams filtered or spring water
Dissolve the citric acid and malic acid in the filtered water. Store for up to 3 weeks.
Note Both citric and malic acids can be purchased online at Modernist Pantry (www.modernistpantry.com/).
LEMON MANGO SHRUB
Makes 20 ounces
4 firm thick-skinned fresh lemons
2 ripe mangos
1 cup sugar
8 ounces fresh lemon juice
8 ounces spring water
Remove the zest from all the lemons, avoiding the white pith. Peel the mangos, remove the pits, and cut the flesh into long, flat pieces. In an open-mouth quart-size container fitted with a watertight lid, layer the sugar, zest, and mango, as follows: one-quarter of the sugar, half of the lemon zest, sugar, half of the mango pieces, and another layer of sugar, then repeat the process for the remaining lemon zest and mango pieces. Set aside for 2 hours, then press the ingredients with a muddler and set aside for at least another hour. When the sugar has turned to a slurry, add the lemon juice and stir to dissolve any remaining sugar. Screw down the lid and shake well to dissolve. Strain the liquid off the peels, pressing the fruit down to get all the juice, then add the spring water to the spent peels and shake again. Strain the water, add it to the juice already collected, and discard the peels; refrigerate and cover until ready to use. If the shrub is not for immediate use, add a couple ounces of pisco to retard fermentation.
PINEAPPLE SYRUP
Mix equal parts Simple Syrup (this page) and unsweetened pineapple juice.
SIMPLE SYRUP
Dissolve equal parts by volume of granulated sugar and water. This can be done by the cold method of simply shaking the mixture until the sugar is dissolved or by warming the sugar and water in a saucepan without boiling. Boiling will concentrate the syrup and that will change the ratio of sweet to sour.
Rich Simple Syrup is 2 parts granulated sugar dissolved in 1 part water. In this new edition, you will notice that I have become more exacting in my simple syrup production and, like the rest of the world, my sours are 2 parts strong to 1 measured part each of the sweet and sour. The industry standard is 2:1:1, strong to sweet to sour. At the Rainbow Room, I used decorative Spanish bottles as vehicles for the syrup on the bar; they gave an attractive appearance to the bar top as well. I always kept a couple ready to go.
SPICED SIMPLE SYRUP
Makes 32 ounces
2 quarts water
1 cup dried orange zests
12 whole cloves
6 Ceylon cinnamon sticks (the smaller curls)
8 cups sugar
Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan over low heat. Simmer slowly until just under a boil, then remove immediately from the heat. Strain and cool before bottling.
TRIPLE SYRUP
Prepare Simple Syrup (this page), agave syrup (this page), and Honey Syrup (this page). Mix the three together in the following proportions: 1 part simple syrup, ½ part agave syrup, and ¼ part honey syrup.
UNSWEETENED HAND-WHIPPED IRISH-COFFEE CREAM
To speed up the whipping, chill a stainless steel pitcher or bowl beforehand (or if it is possible, rest the pitcher in a container of ice while whipping).
1 pint heavy whipping cream
Whisk the cream until all the air bubbles disappear, but stop short of stiff. The cream should still pour slowly.
Gently pull the cream with the whisk, layering it on top of the coffee drink and taking care not to allow the cream to mix in with the coffee. If the cream mixes in it, this indicates either that the cream was underwhipped or the pour was too rapid. The end product should show a perfect definition between the black coffee and the white cream when viewed through the side of an Irish-coffee glass.
For sweetened whipped cream: Add sugar to taste, 1 tablespoon at a time, while whipping, plus a couple drops of vanilla extract. Never use sweetened whipped cream in coffee drinks—sweeten the coffee, not the cream.