Michael Ruhlman » Cocktails

Friday Cocktail Hour: The Cranky Kaplan

Michael Ruhlman — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:00:37 +0000

The Cranky Kaplan Cocktail. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.

As my dear friend, the eminent biographer, Blake Bailey, knows, I am not to be trifled with in the morning. He actually tweeted that he'd sooner breakfast with a cobra. I'm angry that I'm conscious, I'm angry at the world, I'm angry at the stupidity in every direction, the mirror most of all. After I get a few hundred words under my belt and the writing work is underway, well, birds start to chirp and hope begins to dawn. So it was last Friday was when I made the error of checking Twitter first thing only to find this weird Dr. Hyde version of venerable journalist Peter Kaplan, making demands of me. He's lucky I checked my twitter feed ...

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Friday Cocktail Hour: The Meyer Lemon Fig

Michael Ruhlman — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:19:22 +0000

Michael Pardus's Meyer Lemon Fig cocktail. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.

This is a boldly flavored cocktail created by my chef, Michael Pardus, who teaches the cuisines of Asia at the Culinary Institute of America. Flavors galore—Meyer lemon, vanilla, ginger, American whiskey. I especially admire the clever use of ginger from a chef who uses it all day long in class (he taught me to peel ginger with a spoon—works great; he sometimes adds fine julienne to the glass to chew on as he sips). All the elements swirl beautifully together (regular lemon juice will work too if you can't find Meyers). For a light summer cocktail, he tops it off with a couple ounces of seltzer (and maybe an extra splash of whiskey if you're Chef Pardus). The ...

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Friday Cocktail Hour: Key Sunrise

Michael Ruhlman — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:00:25 +0000

Key Sunrise, Goddammit. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

So my oldest and dearest pal, Lester, feeling a bit fidgety several Fridays ago, texted to coax me off work early. I had cooking to do so I said, "Come over. I'll make us some Clover Clubs while I finish prep." After imbibing, I recalled the savvy note from Danny Guess of Fly Bar & Restaurant and video "host" of the iBook 25 Classic Cocktails, that if you add applejack brandy, you have a cocktail called a Pink Lady (all of which were covered in this post). Having finished our drinks and with more egg white on hand, I made us a second, this time a Pink Lady. Killer cocktail, but such an unfortunate name! This is something ...

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Friday Cocktail Hour: El Diablo

Michael Ruhlman — Fri, 03 May 2013 16:00:17 +0000

El Diablo is the perfect answer this weekend. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.

Cinco de Mayo is Sunday. How many of you know what it celebrates or why? Shaw Lash is one of the key cooks and brains in the Rick Bayless Chicago operations, places I really admire. Last year she wrote why, having grown up in Texas and later lived in Mexico, the Cinco de Mayo madness drives her mad. She wants you to know what it means and asks should we celebrate it at all. Her short answer: It's a celebration of being Mexican. And it's a brilliant American marketing gimmick. Shaw Lash is one of those aware people I admire, so when my able cohort Emilia suggested a tequila cocktail, I emailed Shaw. ...

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Friday Cocktail Hour: The Man About Town

Michael Ruhlman — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:58:05 +0000

A rum Negroni, otherwise called a Man About Town. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.

I pay for a service called SaneBox to deal with email overload, so much of it mass PR mail. Somehow a diligent soul, Sally Alfis of M Booth, who represents the company's spirit clients, got though the barricades. Having seen my Friday cocktail hour posts, she asked if she could send me some premium hooch. I never turn down free premium hooch. Thus, the most excellent rum in the photo (it's very good). Surprisingly, though, she continues to read Friday posts and, following my hasty Negroni post (no link, Donna unhappy with photo), sent me a new cocktail made by Scott Fitzgerald (no, relation, though he does beat on, like all ...

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Friday Cocktail Hour: Sour Cherry Daiquiri

Michael Ruhlman — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 16:00:40 +0000

Sour Cherry Daiquiri. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.

Some cocktails are spontaneous given what's at hand. I happened to be making nougat, the French confection created by pouring cooked sugar and honey into whipped egg whites, then folding in nuts and dried fruits. The pix were so stunning in the Bouchon Bakery book, I simply had to give it a go and attempt a paired down version for the home cook. I considered adding rum-soaked dried cherries and so prepared these. But by the time the eggs whites and sugar had cooled to glossy perfection, I worried that the red-tinted rum, attracted by the sugar, would leach into the stunning whiteness of the nougat. When the shooting was done for the day, I had a bowlful of rum soaked cherries. Hmmm. How to ...

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Friday Cocktail Hour: The Lemon Drop

Michael Ruhlman — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 15:29:55 +0000

Lemon Drop. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.

A couple weeks ago, inspired by my BFF Blake Bailey's latest bio, Farther and Wilder (boffo WSJ review here), I offered a Tom Collins, gin-lemon-soda. But on retrospect it was only OK—it would be the perfect libation on a hot summer evening, but it was March. Also, I could hardly taste the gin, and what's the point of that unless you're drinking the cheap shit? Just to check, I ordered one last weekend at a restaurant and it was so bad I didn't even finish it (which is not like me, that's how bad it was—how do you screw up something as simple as that?). But I loved the idea of the heavy lemon. I loved the idea of, every now and then, not being ...

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Friday Cocktail Hour: The Hasty Negroni

Michael Ruhlman — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 16:00:21 +0000

The Hasty Negroni. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.

There was no other way given everyone's schedule. We arrived from a relaxing vacay with Mom in West Palm on Monday night, and Donna's sister, Regina, a professional cake whisperer, arrived first thing the next day ready to work (and teach). I am cake challenged. I'm sweets challenged. My idea of sweets is pictured above. But the subject I'm writing about now, cleverly integrated into the above photo, demands that I address cakes. Thus, despite Regina's patience, energy, and expertise, each day has for me ended with a feeling of depletion and fatigue, requiring a single end-of-the-day cocktail before I began dinner (which would be followed by more baking—cakes can be, should be, frozen—and/or photography). So I wanted something strong, complex, familiar, and easy at the end ...

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Friday Cocktail Hour: The Tom Collins

Michael Ruhlman — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 14:01:12 +0000

A Tom Collins, a favorite of Charles Jackson.
Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.

Today's cocktail is in honor of my best friend's latest biography out this week, Farther & Wilder: The Lost Weekends and Literary Dreams of Charles Jackson. Jackson is all but forgotten but was the toast of Hollywood for a time and a highly regarded novelist, best known for The Lost Weekend. The Wall Street Journal calls Blake Bailey's book "brilliant and gripping," which is all the more amazing in that the story is largely about literary failure. The Lost Weekend was until now Jackson's only enduring legacy, and remembered only because a great movie was made of it. Blake, whom the Daily Beast and his next subject, Philip Roth, both called the best biographer working today, ...

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Friday Cocktail Hour: The Vesper

Michael Ruhlman — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 16:00:18 +0000

The classic Vesper. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.

Having recently delighted in Skyfall with son James, and with a fresh bottle of Lillet on hand, and having never tried this preposterous sounding cocktail with the beguiling name, well, I had to give the Vesper a go. Checking my resources I noticed that one, the very elegant and excellent ratio-oriented book, See Mix Drink, includes a twist of orange rather than the customary lemon twist. I contacted the author, Brian D. Murphy, who explained his rationale via email: "Alessandro, the bartender at the Dukes Hotel in London (where the cocktail originated), replaces the lemon with an orange peel. When I visited there and asked why, he said it pairs much better with the hint of orange ...

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Friday Cocktail Hour: The Donna Paloma

Michael Ruhlman — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 17:11:46 +0000

A freshly made Paloma. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.

I've written before in the depths of winter that now is grapefruit season and grapefruits were my first realization that food was in fact seasonal. It was 1989 and I'd grown up in a country where I could buy pretty much anything I knew about all year long and this was the natural way of the world. I'd fallen in love with Donna, who was a photographer for the Palm Beach Daily News, but I kept long-held plans and left her to travel Africa and Asia, only to find myself 10 weeks later on the porch of an American expatriate living in Ouagadougou. A monkey jumped onto my lap, and I thought What the hell am I doing in Ouagadougou when ...
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Friday Cocktail Hour: The Rye Old-Fashioned

Michael Ruhlman — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:34:21 +0000

The Rye Old-Fashioned. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.
My inclination is to simplify. And with this, one of the oldest and sturdiest of cocktails, the old fashioned, should be just that, as Brad Parsons notes in his excellent book Bitters, and in my original post on it. Sugar muddled with bitters, ice, American whiskey, and a twist. Brad laments that it's too often gussied up and over-muddled with orange and overly adorned. Brad also notes a nostalgia for the gritty undissolved sugar, but nevertheless recommends simple syrup in his. I am like-minded on all counts. Except. I splurged on these awesome cherries, "original" maraschinos. Also I really wanted to feature rye whiskey, here Bulleit rye, a whiskey on the upswing in America. And this great, great cocktail, the ...
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Friday Cocktail Hour: The Boulevardier

Michael Ruhlman — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 16:00:37 +0000

The Boulevardier. Photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman.
Were it not for the Internet, my guess is that only the most devoted barfly would know about the Boulevardier. It's not in any of my cocktail books, not the standard-bearing The Standard Bartender's Guide, my Madmen-era dad's paperback. I only heard about it from a reader of this blog (with links below). And an email this week pushed me into a tasting, happily! I love how various flavoring components (bitters, vermouths) become different cocktails when you change the spirit. How the Manhattan becomes a Rob Roy when you change the bourbon to scotch (as opposed to a lame-sounding "Scotch Manhattan"), or how a Martini becomes a ... um, never mind about that #lostcause (Paulius, can we hope for Darwinian selection here?). I love the elasticity of a ...
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Friday Cocktail Hour: Clover Club

Michael Ruhlman — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 16:20:32 +0000

A classic cocktail: the Clover Club. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.
This Friday cocktail recipe is posted with heavy shame. I'm sorry, but it's the way it sometimes goes with blog posts. I'll always be honest with you. Regrettably, there are multiple levels of shame here. Ignorance, laziness, bad planning, haste, forced collusion. It all started when Jeff Houck, the Tampa journalist (the sounds so much more formidable than a, doesn't it? and since I like the guy's work, he's definitely a the), wrote an article about digital food books, which noted this excellent iBook called 25 Classic Cocktails. I asked the guys who made it to do a guest post and offer some cocktails. They chose a Pink Lady and also gave the recipe for ...
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Friday Cocktail Hour Revisited: The Dark & Stormy

Michael Ruhlman — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 16:57:21 +0000

Another classic, the Dark & Stormy. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman
I've been traveling and hobnobbing with entertainment industry folks this week, so work and body clock are all off. Now I'm back in the deep Cleveland gray and longing for the fine days of cooking in Key West, so I'm reposting this most excellent cocktail that started off all those long lovely boozy nights in the southernmost with my sailing family, the Dark & Stormy: Gosling's rum, ginger beer, and lime. I like equal parts rum and ginger beer, because that's me; the traditional ratio is 2:1 beer to rum. This time I'd like to stress the use of lime. There should be plenty in the perfect Dark & Stormy or the drink is cloying after the first sip or two. Don't give a desultory ...
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Friday Cocktail Hour: Key Lime Daiquiri

Michael Ruhlman — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 15:00:32 +0000

Key Lime Daiquiri. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.
This blast of arctic air and wind and snow and gray has me longing for the lovely afternoons and evenings of the Key West I left a week ago. Nine full days there, writing, cooking, carousing with the sailing droogs. Sigh. So, to cheer myself, I made some Key Lime Daiquiris—proper daiquiris, with nothing but rum, citrus, and simple syrup. The frozen daiquiri and the frozen margarita are yet more travesties America has made of previously fine libations. I think I was in my thirties when I learned that a daiquiri wasn't a slushie with alcohol. So I fight off these, the worst weeks of the year, with memories of Key West, rum, and Key limes (and thanks to you, Rob and Ab!). Yes, that's blue Ohio winter in ...
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Friday Cocktail Hour: Pink Lady(from a cool new digital book)

Michael Ruhlman — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 15:00:52 +0000

Ingredients for a Pink Lady; tap on each for helpful info/from 25 Classic Cocktails
I first read about a new self-published iBook, 25 Classic Cocktails, published to iTunes, when Tampa journalist Jeff Houck wrote about entrepreneurial food people turning to digital devices. Donna and I recently published The Book of Schmaltz to the iTunes app store, a short cookbook on making and cooking with rendered chicken fat, an underappreciated cooking technique. Meanwhile, ingenious folks in Tampa came together to publish a book whose title requires no explanation. But the book does warrant explanation. Each recipe, some common, some I hadn't heard of (one per screen), includes the recipe, a very brief history, one instructional video of the drink made and one quick montage video. At the bottom of the screen is a fat bar that, when tapped, ...
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Top 10 Posts 2012

Michael Ruhlman — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:01:55 +0000

Time to reflect on the year that has passed, a good one with much productivity here in the Ruhlman household! As our hobbled economy slouches toward recovery (and a fractious House of Reps hides behind a corner, stick in hand, waiting to trip it up), we remain staunchly optimistic! And I would like to publicly thank my amazing wife, without whom none of this could happen. Thank you, Donna! Herewith, a bit of personal horn tooting, highlights of this year's work, followed by the Top Ten most popular posts of 2012. Best wishes to all for a healthy and fruitful New Year filled with great food and great cooking! Ruhlman’s Twenty: 20 Techniques, 100 Recipes, a Cook’s Manifesto won both the James Beard Foundation Award and the IACP award for general cooking. Brian Polcyn and I published Salumi: The Craft of ...
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How to Cook Your Goose!

Michael Ruhlman — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 14:56:45 +0000

Goose Broth with Foie Gras and Vegetables/Photo by Shimon and Tammar Rothstein
Out of nowhere My Girl Friday shouted, "You should do a post on goose!" with her customary joie de vivre. So when I was ordering a couple of chickens from Cara at Tea Hill Farms, I asked if she had a goose. No, but her neighbor did. A few days later my dear pal Lester shouted, "We should cook goose!" I said, "I just bought one!" My equally dear pal (all of us since high school) Dave Loomis said, "I want in!" So for what is now about year 15 of an annual dinner, I determined to cook my own goose. I had cooked goose, exactly once, nearly two decades ago (I remember being astonished at ...
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Friday Cocktail Hour: Eggnog

Michael Ruhlman — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 15:21:59 +0000

Cooked eggnog: a true holiday treat. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.
I'm so pleased with results of the cooked eggnog I wrote about long ago, I wanted to repost an official tested recipe. I'm a fan of raw-egg eggnog, as well as aged-for-two-years raw eggnog. I don't believe anyone should be afraid of eating raw eggs (especially if you buy organic or well-raised eggs). Raw yolk on raw ground beef is a delight, a kind of ready-made sauce. I love a homemade mayo, a runny poached egg. Indeed, raw or warm egg is one of the great pleasures of cooking and eating. But there are those who may be concerned or have reason not to take any chances. There are also those who may simply love the richness of the cooked egg and the clean flavor the vanilla ...
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