Dried pork, ground pork, Italian sausage, and Spam: who will win? "The pork Martini serves many needs on many levels!" exclaimed Josh Karpf in his introduction to his search for the perfect pork martini. Such an illustrious quest involved soaking sweet dried pork, pan-sautéed ground pork, boiled sweet Italian dinner sausage, and sautéed Spam in separate glasses of 100-proof Absolut vodka for up to two weeks. Not every pork product was equal—the results put the Italian sausage at the top ("the taste was crisp") and Spam at the way, way bottom ("It's pure salt [...] oily, slimy salt"). Pork and alcohol enthusiasts, you should try this at home. [via Cheap Ass Food] Related: Bacon-Infused Bourbon and Maple Syrup Cocktail...
Continue reading »
In last week’s Washington Post, Jason Wilson dipped into a slowly growing trend in the bar world: wine-based cocktails. But as Wilson points out, the pleasure to be found in these drinks isn’t entirely culinary: he writes, “Using wine in cocktails is a surefire way to scandalize the serious wine aficionados in your life. Which is always fun.” Mostly ignored until recently, wine-based cocktails date back to the earliest days of mixology: drinks historian David Wondrich writes that the sherry cobbler—made with dry sherry, sugar and fresh fruit—enjoyed great popularity in the mid-19th century, as did relatives made with sauternes, and with French and German wines then grouped under the now-archaic labels claret and hock. Mixing drinks with champagne as...
Continue reading »
