The Bloody Mary
Posted: 25/08/2009 8:33:51 a.m.
But the second was seeing the surprising popularity of the 42BELOW ‘Morning Mary’ that we were serving until noon each day. Each day we took a new ingredient from one of the many exhibitors around the show and added that to the day’s Mary mix – personal favorites’ were Bloody Mary’s made with Rocket Fuel and with smoked garlic from Marlborough.
Many people at the show expressed the sentiment ‘I’ve always wanted to try a Bloody Mary, but I don’t know how to make them.’ That came as a surprise because in places like the US Bloody Mary’s must be one of the most commonly made drinks at home and in bars.
One of the reasons the Bloody Mary is perhaps less common in New Zealand is that it is seen as a ‘hangover cure’ rather than a great Cocktail in its own right. Well, it is a sad truth that time is the only known ‘hangover cure’ but the Bloody Mary will help pass that time in a much more pleasant fashion.
Invented by Ferdinand Petiot in Paris in the late 1920s, the Bloody Mary soon made its way to New York and from there to drinkers-in-need everywhere. Debate rages about whether gin or vodka was the original base, but it is the vodka version that is now the accepted classic.
Before the Bloody Mary swept bars and restaurants around the world, vodka was just enjoyed ‘neat’ and usually only by drinkers who were old, male, and from Eastern Europe. 80 years later, vodka is the most popular spirit around the world, and the Bloody Mary is the world’s biggest selling Cocktail. (Americans like to believe the most popular drink is the Margarita, but like the ‘World Series’ that’s a parochial view).
You can find a Bloody Mary at nearly every bar, restaurant and pub across New Zealand, but like soup and barbecues, Bloody Mary’s are better at home.
The great thing about the Bloody Mary is that whilst there is a standard formula, every bar, and every home bartender, can create their own signature ‘Mary’ that builds on the genius of the original. Cayenne pepper and lemon juice were all that were called for by Mr Petiot’s original recipe, but in this day and age all manner of flavours are included.
A dash of soy sauce and wasabi will give you an ‘Asian Mary’, whilst the plethora of hot sauces now available enables you to take your recipe to the limits of your tolerance for spice. Or perhaps beyond.
Depending on your level of tolerance, you need to add some ‘kick’. Traditionally, cayenne pepper was used, and now Tabasco is the basic pepper sauce used globally.
However, right now we are loving New Zealand’s own ‘Huffman’s Hot Sauce’ – a gloriously smoky blend of peppers and paprika that makes the best Bloody Mary’s we have ever had.
A fairly standard ‘Mary’ is presented below, but feel free to take this recipe and twist it to your own taste. Likewise, the ‘garnish’ is a blank slate. Celery is popular, as is cucumber, as both are great to chew on in your hour of need, though olives and pickled onions are equally delicious if you like it on the briny side of life.
45 mls 42BELOW vodka
10 mls lime or lemon juice
4-5 good dashes of Worcestershire sauce
4-5 good dashes of Huffman’s Hot Sauce
A sneaky splash of red wine or sherry
Pinch of celery or sea salt
150 mls (5 oz) tomato juice
A good grind of black pepper to garnish
A slice of cucumber or a celery stick to garnish
Combine the 42BELOW vodka with the spices, juice, wine and tomato juice in a cocktail shaker, and ‘rock’ the ingredients from side to side to combine. Shaking is fine, but tends to aerate the juice a little too much. Then pour the Bloody Mary into an ice-filled tall glass. Garnish with a good grind of black pepper, and a slice of cucumber or celery.
Bloody Mary for Friends
Bloody Marys are better in jugs. Ernest Hemingway thought so, and on this at least, he was right. Make up large batches, and invite friends. Leave the lemon juice out till just before mixing, and add vodka to glasses rather than to the mix, that way your sober driver can join in the fun, and still stay sober.
The basic Bloody Mary recipe calls for vodka, pepper, lemon and tomato juice. Everything else has been added in later years. But the flavour should be in this order: tomato juice, lemon, vodka, pepper. It is the simple blend of tomato and lemon juices that makes it so easy.
That said, great additions include:
- Worcestershire sauce – now practically traditional
- Horseradish – very traditional, at least in New York. Add lots for impact
- Salt – around the rim, in the drink, on the surface. Make sure it’s proper sea salt. It restores minerals lost during last night’s exertions.
- Wasabi – clears the head, and with a dash of soy sauce, makes an ‘Asian Mary’
- Paprika and garlic salt for a ‘Moroccan Mary’, great with barbeques
- Jalapenos, as many as you can handle, make it just taste better
- Olives and cocktail onions are great garnishes if you don’t like celery
- Cucumber is more refreshing than any other garnish, cut a long slice and stick it in the glass
‘Bloody Sunday’ – or the Game Day Bloody Mary, for 20
You can leave the vodka out of this, as a mark of respect for drivers, and add it to each individual mix, but for ease of use, we include it here.
1 bottle of 42BELOW vodka
3 litres tomato juice
1 cup of red wine
1/2 cup of lemon or lime juice
8 basil leaves
Pinch of chipotle powder
8 good grinds of pepper
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
1 splash of light soy sauce
1 teaspoon of minced garlic
2 teaspoons of wasabi
In a blender or food processor, or just in a cocktail shaker, combine garlic, basil and chipotle with soy and lemon juice. Add 42BELOW, tomato juice and red wine, and cover well. Season with salt and pepper, and serve. Garnish with cucumber slices, which are so much more refreshing than celery.