Cocktails

I'm not much a mixed drinks kind of guy. I like wine, I like Scotch, I like cider. My opinion usually is that if I am going to drink alcohol, I want it to be good enough alcohol that it doesn't need added sugar or juice or soda, etc.

The Dining & Wine section of the New York Times has a "Special Drinks Issue" today that looks at cocktails and includes quite a few recipes. Given my lack of interest in cocktails, I have not read any of them. I did, however, read Mark Bittman's column about the cocktail.

Bittman write The Minimalist column for the Times, and the name of his column describes his approach to mixed drinks.

Look at the pattern — you might call it the basic recipe — of these drinks, many of which might be grouped as “sours”: they combine liquor with water (usually in the form of ice), a sour flavoring (usually citrus juice) and a sweetener (simple syrup, or something more expensive and flavorful, like Cointreau). You might add a splash of soda or, if you like, fruit juice, which gets you into beachcomber or cosmo territory.

Master this pattern and you can mix hundreds of cocktails at home without a book or recipe. For me, most cocktails look like this: A stiff pour of alcohol, say a quarter cup, over ice; very little sweetener, a teaspoon or at the most two; a tablespoon or more of lime juice (which I find more refreshing than lemon juice); and, if suitable, a garnish like mint (which I chop), or an orange slice. Not only can the proportions change to your taste, they should.

The parallels with cooking are clear. You can start with good ingredients, or not. You can start with someone else’s recipe (on which there are usually a score or more variations) or make the cocktail your own. The point — and this clearly comes from the perspective of cook, not bartender — is this: Why not make cocktails from scratch, ignoring the names and acknowledging your preferences? Why not treat the margarita like a dish of pasta with tomatoes, assuming a few given ingredients but varying them according to your taste?

That's the kind of approach to a cocktail that I could get behind. Sometimes ingredients that are great on their own, also taste wonderful or even better in combination with other great ingredients. Certainly the same could be true with different alcohols. The mixed-drinks = pasta-with-a-sauce analogy makes a lot sense to me.