Remember The Remember The Maine

So after running out of rye and not making rye cocktails — or more accurately, not making them correctly (i.e., using bourbon instead, which sits around the house in giant 1.75L plastic bottles) — it had been a while since we had a Remember the Maine. The last time I’m sure we omitted the lemon twist. Lately I’ve been thinking more about not overlooking those garnishes. In this case, it makes a difference.

Eat What You Clean With

At home we use cleaner made from a mixture of water, vinegar and a little essential oil. It’s a homemade mixture. And if you’re not familiar with water and vinegar, it’s actually very good for cleaning. The essential oil just makes it smell nicer (though when vinegar dries it stops smelling like vinegar, meaning it’s impossible to have your place smelling like vinegar all the time).

Sometimes, usually when I’m cleaning up after breakfast, lunch or dinner, I start thinking about how neat it’d be to use the same thing both to season food and clean tables, and how it’d confound the Health Department, and what the place would feel like when there was this scent floating about.

All of which is to set up what happened tonight when I used vinegar to deglaze the skillet we cooked pork chops in. Jen grabbed the pan and dipped the roasted broccoli in the vinegary fat mixture. It was good — the vinegar made it almost lemony tasting.

Nothing Says “Tequila Cocktail” Like The Name Of A Major Mexican City

The Guadalajara, made with tequila, dry vermouth and Bénédictine, is a nice little drink (Mr. Boston, page 137). From our tasting panel: “flavors hard to place” and “it’s good.” The recipe calls for a lemon twist, which I think would actually benefit the drink — we nearly always omit twists and such because just no.

Guadalajara, the second largest city in Mexico, includes St. Louis as one of its sister cities, along with Albuquerque, Cleveland, Downey (California, in Los Angeles County), Kansas City, Lansing, Portland (Oregon), San Antonio and San Jose (California) (and also San José, Costa Rica).

I don’t know why tequila cocktails have all this cheesy Mexican imagery attached to them. Thinking about why the name “Guadalajara,” I sort of see it like calling your fantastic bourbon creation a “Paducah.” Harrumph. Then again, maybe they should do this more . . .

And . . . Maybe We’ll Even Make It Correctly Next Time

The Shruffs End cocktail in the Mr. Boston guide (page 196) calls for Islay single malt scotch, apple brandy, Bénédictine and Peychaud’s bitters. We actually have Islay single malt scotch around most of the time; it’s something I like, one, so yeah, and also it’s something that a lot of good cocktails include, so we also have cheap versions of Islay single malt around. So actually there’s none left right now, only a Highlands single malt that from the label sounds like the opposite of Islay scotch (“never peated!”). Between using an inappropriate expensive single malt scotch in a cocktail and using a cheap-shit blend in a cocktail, 19 times out of 20 I’ll choose the latter. So of course I went for the triangular bottle of Grants.

And even in spite of all that, this is a good cocktail. Maybe we’ll make it correctly next time.

If You Just Use The Plural — “Whiskies” — You Avoid Having To Try To Remember What’s Got An “E” And What Doesn’t

Dry County Cocktail (PDT Cocktail Book, pg. 107): rye, dry vermouth, ginger liqueur and lemon bitters (we used grapefruit bitters) — yes (sometimes the less said the better).

Kentucky Longshot (Mr. Boston, pg. 185): bourbon, ginger liqueur, peach-flavored brandy, dash Angostura and dash Peychaud’s — I keyed in on this one after Louisville put us firmly in second place in our tournament bracket. We have that DeKuyper peach shit in the cabinet and it never gets used. I was excited to try it because it smells so ridiculously treacly. I can’t believe it’s made of anything natural. I will stop my snarking to google this point. [time passes] Can’t tell. It’s such a weird flavor though, that’s for sure. Bottom line: this is a good drink, and a useful way to use up any peach-flavored brandy you might have.

Adderley Cocktail (Mr. Boston, pg. 170): rye (we used cheap bourbon; I’m sure rye would have been better), maraschino liqueur, lemon juice and orange bitters — Jen doesn’t really like maraschino and still liked this drink; the SweeTart flavor of the maraschino is low in the mix, this despite there being a ridiculous 3/4 ounce of it in there (and I say this as someone who likes maraschino — I could drink Fancy-Frees all the time).