ENDANGERED COCKTAIL OF THE MONTH
IT’S NOVEMBER. The trees are beginning to shed the last of their leaves and, as the month wears on, it will be more and more challenging to shake the chill from your bones without a good, stiff drink. We’ll save the Hot Toddies for January and February and discuss a new/old cocktail which is one of our favorite ways to A) keep warm and B) keep classics alive: a Moscow Mule variation called the Nantucket Mule.
We’ve touched on the Moscow Mule before but, to refresh your memory, this drink was vodka’s gateway cocktail into the US. It was the brainchild of Heublein’s John G. Martin who was having a hell of a time selling the odorless, flavorless Smirnoff vodka brand he’d acquired in 1939 to Americans who preferred strong flavored spirits that they could smell. He and Jack Morgan, owner of the Cock n’ Bull Pub in Hollywood put their heads together to resolve their business woes. Jack was sitting on a store of extra spicy ginger beer he’d been bottling and unable to foist upon drinkers, and another friend had recently acquired a copper mine and had no idea what to do with a surplus of copper mugs. Next thing you know, the Cock ‘n’ Bull Moscow Mule, served in a copper mug emblazoned with a kicking mule, was born: Nothing more than a vodka highball made with ginger beer and served in a fancy vessel with a squeeze of lime. Ah, marketing.
As you well know, we enjoy classics with a twist and a long standing favorite of ours is the Nantucket Mule that has been served at Toro in Boston since they opened. The drink utilizes a special, spicy ginger syrup and cranberry compote and is simply a delight.
In other words, this Thanksgiving LUPEC invites you pare down your baking hours into cocktail-ingredient-making hours by drinking your cranberry sauce.
THE NANTUCKET MULE
heaping barspoon of cranberry compote
2 ounces of vodka
½ ounce of ginger simple syrup
½ ounce of cranberry simple syrup
½ ounce of lime juice
Ginger beer
Combine first five ingredients
in a cocktail shaker with ice.
Shake then pour into a copper mug
or a double old fashioned glass.
Top with ginger beer.
Garnish with a lime wedge.
what you need . . .
GINGER SIMPLE SYRUP
1 quart (4 cups) simple syrup*
1 strip ginger
2 cloves
2 star anise
2/3 tbsp coriander
2/3 tsp chopped fennel
½ cinnamon stick
2/3 cup molasses
what to do . . .
Bring to a boil all the ingredients – in a pot.
simmer for 5 minutes.
Let steep until the flavors fuse.
Strain and store in an airtight container.
what you need . . .
CRANBERRY SIMPLE SYRUP
& CRANBERRY COMPOTE
1 pound cranberries
1 quart simple syrup*
what to do . . .
Bring to a boil both ingredients – in a pot.
Once the cranberry skins begin to break,
let steep until cooled.
Strain the syrup and
Save the compote to use separately.
* simple syrup equal parts water and sugar
