Holiday cocktail - Cranberry Julip

 Here's a present for all of you.  During the holiday season, it is always good to have the makings for a nice holiday cocktail on hand.  First you make a cranberry flavored syrup.  Cranberries are a constant item; we buy them fresh and freeze them until needed.  And for other items a bag of dried cranberries is always around too.  To make the syrup, put a cup of cranberries in a cup of water, add 3/4 cup of sugar, 2 largish orange peels.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 15-20 min.  Use the back of a spoon to crush any berries that remain whole.  Strain the syrup (a large tea strainer worked fine in 2 batches).  Save the "berry jam" and put on a half pear.  Use 1/2 to 1 oz. syrup (adjust to taste) with 2 oz. bourbon in a short silver julip cup filled with crushed ice.  Stir.  Garnish with a half round slice of orange around a cranberry.  This is a very festive looking cocktail, and quite tasty.  It isn't too sweet.  The syrup will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks.  Enjoy, and Happy holidays.

Whiskey (whisky) primer

An article asks, "What's the difference between bourbon and whiskey?"  This is sort of like asking what's the difference between ice cream and vanilla ice cream.  Beer is a beverage made from malted cereal grain, and a distilled beer is a whiskey; spelled with an E in USA, probably the result of all those Irish immigrants.  So  bourbon is a type of whiskey made in the USA.  Bourbon is technically a maize (corn is any common grain - ask for "corn" in Scotland and see what you get) whiskey, but the USA let's them get away with as little as 51% maize.  Tennessee makes the same type of whiskey but it's not called bourbon even though it is.  It's a wonder Kentucky and Tennessee were on the same side of the Civil War.  Speaking of that Rebel Yell bourbon wasn't "exported" (north of the Mason-Dixon line) back in TPP's graduate student days.  Canadian whiskey is also a sort of bourbon, but it can't be called that and be imported to the USA, so Canadian whiskey it is. Scotch is a different sort of whisky (spelled that way where it's made), and some of the barrel aged whisky is blended, cut or diluted with neutral grain spirits (don't bother) or straight malt whisky (read your labels folks).  All bourbon is straight malt whisky.  Yea!  The best bourbon cocktail in the humble opinion of this author is the Old Fashioned, and the two best ones TPP has ever been served were at The Girl and The Goat (Chicago) and Sobu (New Orleans).  Hint: use orange bitters!  Hope that was edifying.

Blog clout!

Oh, yeah!  That's right!  You don't want TPP coming down on you!  So from the perspective of this keyboard, no big surprise really that the makers of Maker's Mark decided maybe it wasn't such a good idea to water down their bourbon.  See, there's something that people, well, people who drink bourbon, do agree upon.  Since MM has decided not to dilute the good stuff, TPP is calling off his personal boycott.  This shows you the tremendous clout that bloggers have upon the state of affairs.  You feel like the verbal Hulk, although probably a little bit more articulate, although just as green.

Unmaking Maker's

The whole thing about whiskey is the proof. The whole idea of proof is a test of the strength, the alcohol content of the distilled beverage.  The way they used to test whiskey, seeing if a 1:1 mixture of whiskey and gunpowder burned evenly (if too watery it wouldn't burn, and you can figure out what would happen with more ethanol!), which turned out to be about 50% ethanol and was termed 100% proved, or 100 proof, later set to be exactly 50% ethanol, setting the scale for proof from 0-200 for 0-100% ethanol.  Watering down whiskey is a time honored way to cheat the customer.  Now Maker's Mark has a pretty good reputation, a modestly good bourbon at a reasonable price, so it's gotten rather popular although by no means the best even in this price range based upon TPP's extensive testing.  It would seem that any and every manufacturer of anything wants to be so popular that the demand exceeds the supply because if TPP remembers his economics lesson, probably learned from Father Guido Sarducci, when demand exceeds supply you get to charge more and make more money!  So where the heck did MM makers learn their bidness economics?  Instead of riding the demand to higher profits these morons are watering down the product there by assuring that the demand will go down!  Yes indeed, MM bourbon is going from 90 proof (45%) to 84 proof (42%).  Now this isn't probably enough to notice unless an expert was doing a side by side comparison, but it's basically 'old fashioned' crooked dealing, not to mention stupid, even if you put the information on the label.  So glad this isn't my bourbon. You begin to wonder who's the Mark. 

Alcohol and empty calories

TPP's employer is so concerned about us that healthy missives are circulated among us quite regularly warning about unprotected sex, risky life styles, and the perils of climbing Mt. Everest in just a bath robe and slippers.  Generally TPP treats these missives rather like the sincere, well-meaning, and utterly simple-minded Mormon missionaries that come to your door, and politely send them on their way.  But the latest one shows a total lack of understanding about life that borders on disrespect.  According to the latest health missive, alcoholic beverages are nutritionally empty providing nothing but calories.  A moment, please, TPP must take a sip of bourbon to fortify himself before continuing.  OK health and wellness people, you're only doing your job, but here's a news flash for you.  Alcoholic beverages are not consumed for nutritional reasons, rather they provide not just a taste treat but an important attitude adjustment, a lowering of blood pressure and reducing of stress that is certainly important to healthy living!  The people who take such jobs are always so sincere in their concern, and so dedicated to living the healthiest of lives that seem to wring all enjoyment out of food, drink, and at times it seems, life itself.  Why follow their advice just to live a few hundred extra days in misery?  And if that weren't enough, this missive included a pumpkin pie recipe made from tofu.  Who in ever loving hell expects pumpkin pie to be healthy?  Don't they know that most flavor molecules are lipid soluble?  You don't eat a piece of pie because it's health food, you eat it because it's rich, and decadent, and insanely delicious.  Nothing made of tofu has ever been put in the category of delicious.  Ah, a bit more bourbon.  Yes, bourbon (and here you may substitute your favorite tipple) provides something quite beyond nutrition, something psychologically important, a medicine for good mental,and shall TPP have to say it, health.  So in a final response, let TPP respond, "Providing nothing but empty calories my foot!"  If they want us to pay more attention to their advice, it had better reflect reality more than tofu pumpkin pie.

What should bourbon taste like?

An advertisement caught my attention for cherry, spices, and honey tea flavored bourbon.  Having struggled to control my gag reflex, here's my take on this.  In some sense the Phactor understands flavored vodkas.  Ethanol is a colorless, flavorless, clear liquid that mixes totally in any proportion with water, another colorless, flavorless, clear liquid, so adding some sort of flavor to vodka makes a little bit of sense.  On the other hand bourbon tastes like bourbon, and some taste better than others, and some are better values than others.  Now if you do not like bourbon, fine, but apparently the whole point of flavoring bourbon is to get people who don't like bourbon to drink bourbon, and the assumption must be made that if the bourbon was any good to begin with, people would drink it for the bourbon flavor, not some other flavor.  And when it comes to flavored spirits, the Phactor doubts that these flavors are subtle. 
Great minds must think somewhat alike because over at the Garden Rant, someone is also in a tizzy about cocktails and what has happened to them when they become too, too fashionable.  We are on the same page; they call it an old fashioned cocktail that because it is, so don't mess around with some infusion of orange blossoms and cucumber slices. 
So this makes two problems to deal with.  First you have spirit makers trying to cater to a generation that grew up on sweet, fruity drinks, and then you have overly fashionable cocktails.  How the Phactor hates ordering a margarita and then being asked if it is to be frozen, sugar or salt rimmed, or on the rocks.  A margarita is served on the rocks with a salted rim.  Anything else is another drink which is why they call frozen margaritas frozen margaritas.  It's a different drink.  But some purveyors do get it.  One of the best small, locovore, farm to table, creative restaurants in our area always features a couple of classic, we-didn't-mess-with-it cocktails. 

Bourbon bar in Kentucky

OK, the Phactor must be on vacation because apparently he is in a bourbon bar in Lexington Kentucky.  How very nice although a bit C&W for his taste.  The Phactor has never really gotten along with horses, and Mrs. Phactor can verify this.  So perhaps it is a good thing in terms of being in KY that the Phactor gets along with bourbon very well.  In keeping with my formal policy of never endorsing any product that does not in some small way grease my palm, no particular brands will be mentioned.  And in any case, a considerable thirst compelled the Phactor to drink a tall, cold Kentucky bourbon barrel ale, which has the taste of a bourbon boiler maker.  It actually was quite good, very smooth, but not something you would want to responsibly drink more than one of.  Wow!  What a feeling!  Is it the bourbon beer, the fatigue, or academic decompression?  Immersion in scholarly projects is good for getting things done, but then you almost get light headed when you are peeled away from them for some R&R.  Sort of a rapid decompression and it goes to your head.  Hopefully, and this is my only worry, the Phactor will not loose track of where he was in the process and have to spend valuable time back tracking.  But now things get complicated.  Here's how it stacks up.  Vacation, then back for a week, and off to the botanical meetings, but still have to prepare the talk, and better look up the abstract and see what was promised.  And then finally about mid-July, it will be time to get back to the book project and get it DONE, because the fall semester will be looming.

More Father's Day happenings

The F1 stopped by to give the Phactor a decent bottle of bourbon, and it is much appreciated.  Really good bourbons are out of her budget, but they're sort of out of my price range too.  It was very thoughtful, and a bit old fashioned (pun).  A bit later Komi called, a foreign student from years ago, but as loyal as a hound dog, to wish the Phactor well.  This was from a time when we had a monopoly on students from the 4-lettered African countries: Togo, Chad, Mali. It was good to hear from him.  More recently we've had two German graduate students living with us, sequentially, for about 2.5 months each, both charming in their own way.  And this is one of the great things about working at a university, interacting with students, especially foreign students who need generous people like us. It has never struck me as fathering, my interaction with foreign students, but it has been quite rewarding as a sort of mentor.  And the F1 has made us very proud by being very welcoming to these interlopers, these surrogates, giving them a younger view of life in the USA, to the point of really befriending a couple of them.  In fact in combination, our influence on one of the recent visiting borders resulted in several interesting reactions: 1. spiced pecans were a huge hit, as they have been with many others, and 2. her Father got a gift of bourbon (curiously the same brand the Phactor just received).  It's not the same, it's not really fathering, but how nice of them to just remember that you helped them out, and taught them a little something.

A classic little flower

The Phactor has been really, really busy, and he hopes his editor notices the low frequency of blogging and understands that all that energy is being directed at finishing his book.  In terms of solving the problems that stand between me and the completion of this tome, the Phactor feels like he has been playing a game of whack a mole.  Progress is being made, but it seems so slow.
So, here's something to tide you over, something classic, something wonderful, and if you don't know it by now, the Phactor is a huge fan of Sidney Bechet.  If you don't know who this is, then you knowledge of American music is sadly deficient, but this will help: le petit fleur.  So get yourself a nice old fashioned cocktail, preferably using orange bitters, and enjoy.

Honeydew weekend

A beautiful weekend is in the offing, not cold and rainy like a week ago, but the chores are piling up.  After working at a plant sale for an arboretum, the rest of the morning was spent planting some of the plants from the plant sale, cleaning pond filters, fixing an aeration stone, moving a garden table and chairs into the garden, cleaning out a garden fountain pond, cleaning up a fountain, installing one inside the other and adding water, moving a bird feeder so that the seed scavengering squirrels don't trample Mrs. Phactor's hosta into the ground, fixing the squirrel baffle, locating the kitchen window, balcony door, and porch door screens, cleaning said screens, cleaning said windows (but only on the outside), and it's just 12:30 pm.  But the chores will stop early because of the obligation to drink a mint julep and eat some guacamole, this being Cinco de Mayo Derby Day.  Some people may watch a horse race, but the Phactor is just in it for the bourbon, one of the justifications for growing mint and getting out the monogrammed sterling silver mint julep cups.  Oh, you don't have such cups?  As explained by the Kentucky cousin who gave them to us 42 years ago, "Y'all can't right proper be married without julep cups."  Undoubtedly the reason for our marriage's success.

Peach Julip

Aw, she done gone and made my day! Peaches and bourbon play well together, but keep the damn chickens out of my drink!

Kentucky Derby

Yesterday was Kentucky Derby day, and as a hat lover this sounded like a nice celebration although never had the Phactor associated a derby with Kentuckians before. The only connection in my memory was coonskin caps, a left over of childhood Disney versions of Davey Crockett. Still a hat is a hat, and even better, according to southern kin, the most important thing about derby day is mint julips. "You can't right be properly married without monogrammed silver mint julip cups", said Cousin Dan (wife's side of course), as he presented a set of four as a gift nearly 40 years ago. The southern side of my family were Baptists. Nuf said. Any beverage made with bourbon is already high on the Phactor's list, and if you have to watch a herd of numbered horses run for about 2 mins to get one, or two, or three, well, that's not too high a price to pay for a frosty minty julip is it? And in viewing the audience, it turns out that hats, big ugly ones, are indeed a part of the derby. Here's one, appropriately floral, a custom made job. A couple of mint julips, a hat like that, and who knows? Oh, yes, a horse won the race.