Syrups

GUILTY , oui, I admit it.  For years I was accustomed to bartending with Rose’s Lime Juice, and the red sticky Grenadine syrup. I  thought that really was the authentic "Grenadine". Probably bad habits I picked up bartending at the Lafayette Restaurant in Williamsburg.  Simple syrup?  I remember my mother and my girlfriend making it, but to use in a bar?  Sugar cubes of course, or just old-fashioned plain sugar crystals.

Now well into my 40’s (wink) and having established my old friend Old Mr. Boston Official Bartender Guide, well, I have matured and seen the light in using freshly made syrups, juices and infusions.

So I present here some recipes for the most frequently called upon syrups –

Simple Syrup – 1 cup or 201 g sugar to 1 cup/257 ml water. Bring to a boil stirring gently, then let cool and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks. 

Grenadine Syrup – 16 oz or 514 ml Pomegranate juice to 7.1 oz/201 g sugar; bring to a boil stirring gently, then let cool and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

Raspberry Syrup – 1 cup or 201 g super fine sugar, 1 cup/257 ml water, ½ pint (or 8 oz. or 257 ml ) of fresh raspberries, puree to cook down, but maintain fresh flavor. About 4 minutes. Add puree to syrup and let cool. Place in airtight container in the refrigerator.(Mark Brinker, Barrelhouse Flat Chicago.)

Ginger Syrup – 4.5 oz or 128 g fresh ginger, 7.1 oz/201 g superfine sugar, 8 oz/257 ml water. Add ginger to syrup and let cook low heat for 20-30 minutes. Pulse in a blender, cool and refrigerate for 24  hours before using. Refrigerate. (Debbie Peek of Southern Wine and Spirits.)

Some recipes indicate the addition of 100 proof vodka, 3/8 oz/11.1 ml, as a means of further lengthening the life of the syrup.

Fresh juices, lemon, lime, orange  – I make my own, squeezed and strained so there is no residual pulp in the cocktail I make.

Once you have mastered the art, you’ll begin to notice recipes that call for Demerara syrup, or Castor. These are still sugars and you make them as you do the simple syrup.

Recently I began to stockpile cans of  Sanpellegrino for an emergency source of fruit juices. Aranciato Rossa (blood orange), Limonato (lemon) and Pompelmo (grapefruit).  Works quite well in a pinch.

With time and experience you may begin to make your own cocktail onions in French vermouth, cherries in brandy, ...

"Gomme syrup”?  The possibilities are endless.

Resources? Imbibemagazine.com; diy-cocktail.com a la’ Marcia Simmons!

Master the Art!

The Royal Gingersnap

1 ½ parts Crown Royal

2 dashes (1/16 oz or 1.8 ml) Ginger syrup

1/8 oz / 3.7 ml Orange Marmalade

1 Maraschino Cherry

1 Orange slice

Muddle fruits an syrup. Add Crown Royal and ice. Shake well and strain over glass with rocks

Garnish with a flamed orange peel.

Music – Los Zafiros
Appetizer –  Parmesan slices and warm bread


Conversion to gram  ml was updated on 12.1.2016

The Lost Meaning of Armistice Day



1818 War Memorial - Neue Wache, Berlin

“Mother with her Dead Son”

Photo by Barbara Weibel

Until 1954, the day devoted to the memory of those who fought in the Great War (now known as World War 1) was referred to as Armistice Day; alternatively in some countries, Remembrance Day. The Day denoting  the surrender of Germany and Central allies to the Allied Powers of France, Great Britain and the British Empire, the United States, Russia, Greece and other allies.

Armistice Day is celebrated on the 11^th of November at 1100 hours, as that was the time that the Central Powers surrendered their arms and armies to the Allies in a railroad carriage in Compièane. The same railroad car where the French had been forced to accept terms by the German army following the fall of France in WWII.   By no coincidence did the surrender to Germany take place in the same railroad car.

The earlier “tit for tats” would foretell the retributions that Germany would be required to repay to the Allied Nations in the form of payments to the governments who fought the Axis. This, along with the basic dissolution of the German Army, would ultimately become the fodder for the resentment that grew into the basis for the growth of the populist Socialist Party of Germany and the rise of the Third Reich.

The Great War differed from World War II in that the events leading up to war were caused by nationalism within the Ottoman Empire.  For a more thorough and comprehensive review, the reader’s attention is directed to “The Sleepwalkers, How Europe Went to War in 1914” by Christopher Clark.  Regrettably, you will find a much recurrent theme to today’s events in the Middle East, Europe and the United States.

Of interest to contemporary society and the world’s governments, there is a similarity between events in the Middle East and the affairs in Serbia, Hungary, Albania, Croatia, the Ukraine, leading up to the Great War.  There is a lesson to be learned from the war from 1914 to 1918 and the political, religious, and ethnic wars, revolutions, terrorism taking place in countries we read of daily .. Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, Yemen and of course Syria.  It would seem that our remembrance of Armistice Day has done little to enhance our understanding of the potential events the contemporary world is watching – oblivious to the potential world conflict that might erupt. 

God bless the memory all the nations’ soldiers of The Great War, World War II and all wars. And the tears of their mothers. 

Victory Cocktail

French  Vermouth 1 oz./ 3 cl.

Italian Vermouth 1 oz./3 cl.

Lemon juice .25 oz./ .75 cl.

Orange juice .25 oz./ .75 cl.

Grenadine syrup – couple dashes

 

Music – ‘Requiem for Fallen Soldiers’ – Eduard Tubin

                Selection provided by Raymond Jones, Evening Host, WHRO-FM

Appetizer – Cold beans with baguette



f.n. 1  The Allied Powers were: France, British Empire, Russia, Serbia, Montenegro, Japan, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Hejoz, United States of America, Greece and Siam.

The Central Powers were: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria.



Replica Victory Medal

f.n. 2  Christos Buluheris, Private, 322^nd Division, “Wildcats”.  Christos's war record denotes participation in the battles Somme Dieu,  La Foram, Meuse-Argonne Offensive, St. Die  along with being wounded in action – being gassed on the 10^th of November 1918, St. Die at Elam just east of Verdun. He received the Victory Medal ,  Meuse Argonne Offensive Clasp. Christos’s son Constantine holds his father’s war records from the Great War.

Christos Buluheris
Pvt. 322nd Infantry Division
Photo likely taken in France, post war

 

 

 

 

Canon de 75 modèle 1897 - To Drink or Shoot?

The Great War – or as we commonly refer to it – World War 1; well, some terrible things came from the war, and some more pleasant.

The French 75, or Canon de 75 modèle 1897, was one of the modern wonders of war that was deployed. It was the first recoilless canon, thus not requiring re-aiming after firing - it was a rapid fire canon. This piece would play a significant role on the Western Front in the battles of Verdun, Meuse-Argonne, Somme, and other battles and skirmishes of the war. One hundred years ago at this time, Europe had been embattled  for 15 months.  And it would rage on for another 36 months or 3 years. America would not join those bloodied battlefields for another year.

75 MM Canon - La French 75
Musee Armee Francais

Lessons learned from the Great War...No longer would Great Britain deploy entire villages of men to the same unit, such as the  <<”36^th. Ulster Division, 109^th Brigade, Royal Inniskilllin Fusilers>>, comprised of men from Inniskillin, Ireland.  By the advent of the second world war, Great Britain would begin to deploy men like John Carless of Walsall,England. Although an Englishman, he was assigned to Scotland’s <<The Black Watch, Royal Highlanders Regiment>>. This action was to help prevent whole villages of men from being wiped out.


I’d prefer to recall a more positive creation, that of the cocktail created in 1915 at The New York Bar in Paris…...French 75 was the name ascribed to the cocktail of gin and champagne, aptly named for the “kick” it gives to those who imbibe. For me, it is my best girl’s favorite sparkling wine drink.

Salut to the memory of those who served in The Great War
July, 1914 to November, 1918. 

French 75 or Le Cocktail Canon de Soixante Quinze 

6 parts Champagne
3 parts gin

1.5 parts lemon juice

2 dashes simple syrup

Music – La Marsellaise or Heil Dir im Siegerkranz or God Save the King 
Food – Une planche de fromage