Posted by Lucy Baker, May 29, 2008 at 2:45 PM
What's an ice cream sundae without a cherry on top? This week, I set out to learn the history of maraschino cherries, and also to make a homemade version on my own.
According to an article published last summer in the Seattle Weekly, maraschino cherries originated centuries ago on the Adriatic shores. There, small, extremely sour marasca cherries were pickled in a combination of sea water and cherry cordial. It wasn't until Prohibition in America that the candy-colored, super-processed adaptation of maraschino cherries was born—since booze was banned, the liquor was replaced with almond-flavored syrup.
To make real maraschino cherries, you need maraschino liqueur. I went to several liquor stores in Brooklyn and couldn't find it, so I decided to substitute regular brandy. And that's where I committed the fatal error: I went cheap. Really cheap. Like, dusty bottom shelf, plastic-bottle-with-a-handle cheap.
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Posted by The Gurgling Cod, December 20, 2007 at 3:45 PM
For those of you who may have been intrigued by the Charleston Punch but do not have plans to entertain groups of 300 people over the holidays, consider this saner yet festive alternative from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook
.* Matt Lee and Ted Lee are Charleston denizens, but Matt developed the prototype of this punch for a black-tie holiday dinner at a Harvard eating club, so make of that what you will. It is possible that lower indigenous levels of gentility call for lower levels of alcohol.
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Posted by Paul Clarke, December 14, 2007 at 5:00 PM
Let's get this weekend started right. Here's a cocktail recipe from Paul Clarke (The Cocktail Chronicles) to kick things off. Need more than one? That kinda week, eh? Here you go. Cheers!
Think of it as an easy, no-egg eggnog. Or think of it as a classic Southern tipple, with an alluring blend of sweetness and richness, and a deep-flavored kick. However you approach the milk punch, just be sure to think of it sometime during the holiday season.
I had a great time sipping one of these on a July morning in New Orleans, but with its fullness of flavor, its silky texture and its nutmeg finish, the milk punch seems particularly well-suited to this time of year. Classically made with a combo of brandy and rum, the milk punch also works well with bourbon in the place of either or both. And while it’s lovely to drink the punch when poured into a glass full of crushed ice, you can instead serve it hot, for a rich and potent warmer. Either way, this drink that dates back to horse-and-buggy days has a way of slowing everything down, taking the edge off a hectic holiday season if only for an hour or two.
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Posted by Paul Clarke, November 23, 2007 at 2:45 PM
Let's get this weekend started right. And since it's a day off for many people out there, let's kick it off a bit early today. Here's a cocktail recipe from Paul Clarke (The Cocktail Chronicles) to get things going. Need more than one after yesterday? Here you go. Cheers!
While retailers started gearing up for the season weeks ago, now that Thanksgiving is over it’s one long sprint to Christmas. Shopping malls opened at midnight in the suburbs around my Seattle home, and some crowds had been gathering since early Thursday morning. Without delving into news from around the country – really, checking out what’s happening at the malls in Des Moines isn’t my idea of a good time—I’m sure the story was repeated nationwide.
Whether you’re settling in after a long day of shopping, or letting the swarm blow past you while biding your time until closer to the holiday, the dawn of the Christmas season calls for some refreshment. The Stinger isn’t a seasonal cocktail, per se, but its crisp minty snap always puts me in the right frame of mind for the festive weeks to come.
While early recipes call for two parts brandy to one part crème de menthe, many contemporary palates find that way too sweet; a more brandy-heavy 4:1 ratio is much easier to handle. And while brandy is traditional, the stinger is comfortable with other spirits: I’m quite fond of substituting bourbon for the brandy, and rum works well, as does vodka, so I’m told – technically that’s called a White Spider, though I doubt you've heard anyone call it much of anything lately. However you choose to fix yours, be sure to make a toast to the long holiday season ahead.
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