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Course: DrinksCuisine: Swedish
Servings
13
servings
Calories
120
kcal
Total time
2
hours
How to make a traditional glogg.
Ingredients
5wholeCardamom Pods
1wholeCinnamon Stick
2ozRaisins
1tspVanilla Extract
1tspBitter Almond Extract
1.5cupsSimple Syrup
1bottleRed Wine
1bottleBrandy
Directions
Technique: Infusion
Add cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, raisins, vanilla extract, and bitter almond extract into a container with brandy. Let the spices infuse into the brandy for 24 to 48 hours.
Before serving, gently heat red wine in a stovetop pot. Add sugar and stir to dissolve. Do not boil.
Once the wine has warmed up, turn off the heat and add the spiced brandy mixture while straining out the spices. Discard the spices and serve.
Recipe Video
A Brief History Of Glögg And Mulled Wines.
Glögg is a Swedish mulled wine similar to other mulled wines from other countries. I’ve had many mulled wines, and this style is my favorite. Keep in mind there are as many Glögg recipes as there are Swedish Families, with each family having its own unique family recipe. Glögg is the shorthand way of saying “glödgad vin,” which roughly translates to “hot wine” or “mulled wine,” and the term was most likely coined around the early 17th century. Spiced wines, in general, date to the Romans. They had a spiced wine they called Hippocras. Unfortunately, there are no actual Roman recipes for it. At least that I could find. It was not till the 1300s that the English and French started to specify the spices to use, and it’s essentially what is still used today.
Associated with the holidays in modern times, the process of mulling and cooking wine and beer originally began as a way to make old alcohol taste better. Before modern sterile bottling and refrigeration, beer and wine had a limited shelf life. Adding spices and heating the alcohol was one way to turn the taste and help mask foul flavors. One such recipe for a hot ale flip comes from the 1669 book “The Closet” by Sir Kenelme Digbie is an ale with a honey recipe specifically for beer that is about to go bad. Sir Kenelme Digbie described cooking old beer with honey would help the turned old beer and “set the whole a working a fresh, and casting out foulness.” Like most other methods of early food preservation, mulled wines eventually became more refined and desirable. Mulled wines found a home as fancy drinks at holidays and church festivities.
While Americans are usually very good at mixing alcoholic drinks, mulled wines are best made outside the US, and Glögg is an excellent example of that. The issue with American mulled wine recipes is that they cook the wine for hours on end in a slow cooker like a tough hunk of pork shoulder. Using a slow cooker to make mulled wine became trendy in the 1970s, and mulled wines have never recovered. Skip the slow cooker and infuse the fortifying spirit with the spices for 1 to 2 days, or if pressed for time, boil the spices in a small amount of water for one to two hours and add the water to the wine.
NOTE: This recipe is a combination of an 1898 wine blending manual I found on Huffpost and an elderly neighbor of mine who gave me his father’s old recipe. The HuffPost author doesn’t cite the recipe, but the ingredients and volumes used look like other old recipes I have found. I believe it’s real.
Also, the 1898 recipes use bitter almonds, but I have them substituted for bitter almond extract. BE WARNED! Real bitter almonds are pretty poisonous if not prepared and cooked correctly. If you do not know how to cook with them and test for hydrogen cyanide after, it’s best to be safe and use bitter almond extract instead.
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Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings
1
servings
Calories
300
kcal
Total time
3
minutes
How to make a Tom and Jerry Coffee
Ingredients
1/2ozSimple Syrup
1.5ozBrandy
5ozCoffee
1.5ozTom and Jerry Batter
Directions
Technique: Build In Glass
Add simple syrup and spirit to a heat proof grass.
Stir to combine and then add coffee.
Float the Tom u0026 Jerry batter on top.
Recipe Video
What Does the Tom & Jerry Coffee Taste Like?
The Tom and Jerry Coffee is fantastic. It tastes like an Irish coffee and a pumpkin spice latte. It has a slight sweetness and a clear coffee flavor that is not covered up by syrups and sugar, with the Tom and Jerry Christmas spices coming through nicely. A classic Tom and Jerry is fantastic, but it is a taste I thought would pair well with coffee. The intent was to make an Irish coffee but replace the whipped cream top with Tom and Jerry batter. Think Irish coffee but with Christmas spice. If it is Tom & Jerry Batter you are looking for please read my article on The Improved 1860s Style Tom & Jerry Batter.
What Is Tom & Jerry Batter?
Tom and Jerry’s batter is an egg and Christmas spice flavored mousse. It’s pretty good and doesn’t need to be mixed into a drink. You can make it yourself, or Tom and Jerry batter can be bought in stores during the holiday season in the upper midwest, where the drink is still pretty popular. I used to publish the original recipe on this site. However, I now use an updated one that makes for a considerably better drink while still being very similar flavor-wise to the original. Most modern recipes include butter and heavy cream and are much denser and almost eggnog-like. Mine does not. If the recipe is true to the classic and lacks a heavy fat ingredient, then the problem they are stuck with is using just warm water or milk, as meringue can not be heated so violently and rapidly. These versions taste fine, but I found this one that uses hot water to taste the best. The aroma is better; it sips better and has a more cozy feel to it. At its core, Tom and Jerry Batter face the same issue all egg-based desserts face when heated. The risk of curdling.
Most desserts try to solve this problem by cooking in a water bath so the egg doesn’t get too hot, and the original 1862 recipe could only use warm water and not hot, or else it would curdle. Most modern recipes try to fix this by adding butter or heavy cream since a cooked protein will bond to fat before bonding to another protein or stick with warm water or milk. While this keeps the drink from curdling, it either completely changes the flavor and texture or makes for a weak old, tasting drink. The solution I am using is an old baker’s technique to add a small amount of thickened corn starch, similar to American-style custard. American custards, cream pies, cream fillings, etc., are cooked at rapid high heat like any other dessert and do not curdle. This solution fixes the issue of curdling and lets the drink gets heated to a good hot drinks temperature while maintaining the drink’s original flavor and texture.
Make This Improved Tom & Jerry Batter Recipe.
I tried to change the original recipe and its ratios as little as possible. The only changes I made were adding cornstarch as a stabilizer and reducing the sugar to a more balanced amount. If you do not add cornstarch, then DO NOT use hot water. Only use warmed water or milk as the rapid heat will curdle the egg and make the drink lumpy.
6 Eggs
1.5 cups (360 g) of sugar
1 tbs (15 g) Cornstarch
1 oz (30 mLs) gold rum
1/2 tsp (2.5 g) ground cloves
1/2 tsp (2.5 g) ground allspice
1/2 tsp (2.5 g) ground cinnamon
Combine cornstarch and an ounce of hot water, stir till the cornstarch is dissolved and the mixture is thick, then set aside.
Separate the egg whites and yolks into two bowls.
Add the sugar to the egg whites and using an electric mixer (you would be crazy to do this by hand) beat the eggs into a medium peak meringue.
Once you are done beating, still using the electric mixer, slowly add the thickened wet corn starch. The cornstarch can only be added after you are done beating the meringue. The cornstarch prevents the meringue from cooking when you add hot water and curdling.
In the second bowl with the egg yolks add the rum, ground cloves, cinnamon, and allspice. Using the electric mixer again beat the yolks till they become lighter in color and runny.
Add the egg yolk mixture to the meringue and fold to combine.
If you would like to explore different fun ways to add flavor to your coffee, please check out this link for more coffee flavors.
NOTE: If what you are looking for is the Tom & Jerry Batter Recipe the link for that is here. Also, the video attached to this recipe below provides simple step-by-step instructions to make the batter and drink.
0 from 0 votesOnly logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings
1
servings
Calories
300
kcal
Total time
3
minutes
How to make a Butterscotch Alexander
Ingredients
1ozButterscotch Liqueur
1ozCreme de Cacao
1ozBrandy
1ozHeavy Cream
Directions
Technique: Saxe Soda Shake
Combine all ingredients into a cocktail shaker.
Add one medium or two small ice cubes to the cocktail shaker and shake until the ice fully melts.
Without a strainer, pour the chilled and aerated drink into a glass.
Garnish with a dusting of nutmeg.
Featured Video
What Does The Butterscotch Alexander Taste Like?
The Butterscotch Alexander is excellent. The blend of butterscotch and chocolate flavors goes great together and the brandy gives the drink a little kick. The Butterscotch Alexander is not a classic cocktail; It’s just an excellent way to use butterscotch liqueur. My wife bought a bottle of butterscotch liqueur a while back because it sounded fun, but we never used it. One day when she asked me to make her a Brandy Alexander, it hit me that this would be an excellent way to use the butterscotch liqueur. The cocktail was a hit with her and everyone I have served it to, so I figured it would be a fun recipe to share with others.
The History Of The Alexander Cocktail.
The first printed recipe for the Alexander is from the 1917 book “Recipes For Mixed Drinks” by Hugo Ensslin. This early Alexander is gin-based, and so is the Alexander recipe in the Old Waldorf-Astoria. This means the two oldest known Alexander recipes are both gin cocktails. Even though the Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book was printed in 1935, it documented the bars recipes from the 1890s to 1920.
Europe, it seemed preferred to use Brandy instead of gin. The earliest printed recipes for the Alexander in Europe come from “The Savoy Cocktail Book” by Harry Craddock and “Harry’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails” by Harry McElhone. Both books refer to it only as an Alexander cocktail, not specifically a gin or brandy Alexander. Interestingly the Savoy list both the older style gin-based Alexander as an Alexander #1 and the brandy-based one as an Alexander #2. Harry’s ABC book only lists the brandy recipe and does not have the gin version. With all the European cocktail books I looked through from the 1930s on, I noticed that most had both a gin version and a brandy version and referred to both of them as Alexanders. The gin-based Alexander is often called an Alexander #1, and the brandy-based one is called an Alexander #2.
The first American book I could find to include an Alexander with brandy is the 1951 book “Bottoms Up” by Ted Saucier. He lists them as an Alexander (Gin) and an Alexander (Brandy). By the 1970s, the gin-based Alexander goes back to just being called an Alexander, and the Brandy one gains its more common current name of a Brandy Alexander. I first saw this naming convention used in the 1972 Trader Vic’s Cocktail Guide.
Personally, I like the Bottoms Up naming convention for the Alexander and its variations. It’s clear and descriptive and easily allows for additional variations.
Should I use Dark, White, or Clear Creme De Cacao?
None of the Alexander cocktail recipes specify precisely what kind of creme de cacao/chocolate liqueur to use, and honestly, they all taste the same. The dark, white, clear, or lightly aged color depends mainly on the base spirit used and if dyes were added. That being said, the white and dark brown chocolate-colored liqueurs are not naturally that color. Pigments are added to achieve that look. Clear ones were probably also manufactured using a super processed cocoa extract which is then added to sweetened vodka. A naturally colored creme de cacaos is either a light pale brown color or looks like a typically aged spirit like cognac. This depends on if the base spirit is an un-aged distillers alcohol/vodka or an aged spirit. You can easily see this at home by making your own creme de cacao. Add cocoa nibs to high-proof grain alcohol, let it soak for a few days, filter it, and combine it with vanilla extract, sugar, and water until you get a desirable flavor. The color will be a nice light pale brown from the soaked cocoa nibs.
Again the color is artificial unless it’s one of the two mentioned above and is not a result of the flavor extracting process, so get one you like. Ultimately all creme de cacaos are the same product, and the look and color are purely visual. Do you want a dark brown Alexander or a white one? They will taste practically the same so find a brand you like and go with it.
Punches are some of the oldest types of mixed drinks invented out of necessity. Early merchant sailors brought tons of beer with them as they voyaged to distant exotic lands. These voyages, often to India, were long, and beer has a relatively short shelf life. Toward the end of each trip, the booze had long gone unpalatably flat or was completely spoiled (This is how IPAs were invented, too. Adding a lot more hops helped preserve the beer and kept it from tasting flat by the end of the trip). Every culture has its local distilled booze, and in India, it was arrack. Arrack is a little rough, so it was mixed with juices, black tea, and sugar to make it taste better. It was brought back to England and spread to other English colonies.
The earliest records of the punch style of preparing drinks date to the early 1600s. By the mid-1800s, you don’t hear much about punches. That’s not to say these ever really fell out of fashion, but this style doesn’t make sense commercially. Around the mid-1800s, saloons started to get popular, and the recipes and information that started to get recorded were saved are the more profitable commercial style of mixed drinks. Some examples of taverns or restaurants made punches, but the technique is mainly used for residential free for all drinking and not pay per drink businesses. Restaurants don’t want to make a ton and then potentially end the night with leftover stock and then need to dump it. Also, you need a bartender there to track how much people drink; it can’t have free for all and expect to get paid correctly, so it makes more sense to have that individual make drinks as ordered. These are more suited for college parties or house parties, or we just wrote the declaration of independence so let’s get drunk parties. Even though I’ve read a few articles about this becoming vogue in the last decade or so, I’ve only ever seen one bar that had one house punch, but almost every house party or DIY wedding I’ve been to has 2 or 3 different punches on hand.
If you have not heard of this, it’s not surprising. It’s primarily made in the western side of the United States and is popular in parts of California and Nevada with large Basque immigrant populations. If you go to Basque areas in northern Spain, they will have no idea what this is. Most of the histories I have found on this credit its creation to the Noriega Hotel in Bakersfield, California. Although I think that was more just a story used by the hotel. The earliest printed reference of the Picon Punch is from the 1900 book “Cocktail Boothby’s American Bartender” by William Boothby of San Francisco, California. It’s the first recipe listed in “miscellaneous and unclassified drinks” and is called an Amer Picon. The drink is labeled as already being a popular beverage in France, and that makes a lot more sense to me than it was invented in Bakersfield, California, during the end of the 19th century. The part I found most difficult to imagine was that a small hotel in Bakersfield was using grenadine before 1900.
The most popular red fruit syrup in the US before 1900 was raspberry syrup. William Boothby was the first American bartender to print recipes using grenadine. Grenadine first started being used in France and England around 1890; in his 1891 edition of the book, the Amer Picon cocktail does not use grenadine but orgeat. The change from orgeat to grenadine makes sense, too, with grenadine’s explosive popularity in France during that decade. Check out my grenadine article for its history and use in cocktails.
The hotel was founded in 1893, so that would have given them plenty of time to use Amer Picon before it stopped being imported to the US in 1920, but I don’t buy that it was invented there. The use of grenadine and references to its recipe many years before its origin story says it was created point to it being traditionally a French cocktail.
This is not the classic Picon Punch, but a strong variation served without ice in a cocktail glass. Both the traditional and this version are delicious, but they have different intents. This strong version transforms the refreshing Picon Punch into a classic-style cocktail.
This is defiantly more on the tart side of tiki drinks and is closer in taste to a sour than most juice-filled tiki cocktails. Think of this as a nutty tiki version of a rum sour. It’s a beautiful cocktail that is more to the taste of someone who likes sours than Dark & Stormies or mules.
Nothing too interesting in the history of this cocktail. It was invented by Victor Bergeron for Trader Vic’s and was one of his most popular cocktails, second to the Mai Tai. Trader Vic’s Bartending Guide says that after 2 of these, you won’t even see straight anymore, but I have had 2 or 3 of them, and I was alright. There are countless variations on this guy (true for almost all tiki drinks), but here is the tried and true recipe from Trader Vic’s book itself.
Floating Sherry On Top.
The last ingredient in this cocktail is to do a sherry float on top. Here is the thing: sherry is very dense and thus can not float. Floating alcohols on top of each other are based on weight. Sugar is heavier than water, water is heavier than alcohol, and the heaviest ingredient will always sit at the bottom. The sherry is way more sugary than the drink. Therefore, it will want to drop to the bottom. This works out to have a cool effect and make it look like the sherry is cutting through the drink. If you want an excellent dark float that will sit at the top, try using 151, as it has less sugar than the rest of the drink and is much more alcoholic, so it floats on top.
The original scorpion was not a bowl or an individual cocktail but a punch from Victor Bergeron’s First book from 1947 and was a punch made for 12. The original scorpion recipe was 1.5 bottles of rum, 2 oz gin, 2 oz brandy, 1 pint of lemon juice, 1/2 a pint of orange juice, 1/2 a pint worth of orgeat, 1/2 a bottle of white wine, and two sprigs of mint. Those are odd proportions like Trader Vic added the gin and mint as a joke. That original scorpion punch is also in the 1972 edition, but the updated edition included his more popular versions of the scorpion.
Trader Vic heavily modified the recipe over the years and, in his 1972 edition, added the scorpion bowl and a single scorpion cocktail. The recipe here is the single-serve version and, in my opinion, the best version of the drink. But I will say those flaming scorpion bowls are a ton of fun. Oddly enough, the scorpion bowl, which is made to serve 3, is not just 3x the ingredients of the single-serve one. The ingredients are the same, but the volumes are different.
What Does The Scorpion Taste Like?
The scorpion was Trader Vic’s third most popular cocktail, and while I think this is the best version of the drink, it’s not a top-tier tiki cocktail in my book. It’s just kind of juice and booze. Again that is a personal opinion, and taste is subjective. It’s good but not outstanding. I envision juice, booze, and spice when I think tiki, but this cocktail lacks spice. The orgeat adds a nice nuttiness to the drink, but the white rum, orange juice, and lemon juice are the most prominent flavors. And if it’s going to be heavy on the juice, let it be exotic juices like pomegranate, passion fruit, pineapple, papaya, etc., not just orange and lemon. This is a tiki drink I would have loved when I first started drinking tiki drinks, but a decade and a half in, this comes off bland to me.
5 from 1 voteOnly logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings
15
servings
Calories
180
kcal
ABV
19%
Total time
2
hours
Learn how to make English Milk Punch.
Ingredients
1CupLemon Juice
1/2CupSimple Syrup
2CupsWater
1TeaspoonNutmeg
1BottleBrandy
1.5CupsMilk
1/4tspCalcium Chloride
1/4tableRennet
Directions
Technique: Milk Clarification
Using a peeler, cut the zest of 5 lemons, add the shaved zest to the brandy and let it sit for 24 to 48 hours.
Juice the peeled lemons to the required volume. Set juice aside.
Add calcium chloride to milk the night before you plan to use it to clarify your milk punch.
Combine water, nutmeg, lemon juice, sugar, and brandy in a large pot with the lemon peels filtered out: everything but the milk and rennet.
Once the sugar is dissolved, add the rennet and then pour the milk. Stir the mixture for 10 seconds, then let it sit for 30 minutes undisturbed. The rennet needs time to work fully.
Line a mesh strainer with a large paper coffee filter and strain out cheese, letting the clear whey run into a large pot.
Bottle, refrigerate and serve cold.
Recipe Video
The History Of Clarified/English Milk Punch.
The typical origin story of English Milk Punch, also known as Clarified Milk Punch, is provided in David Wondrich’s book “Punch” is the Clarified Milk Punch was invented by Mary Rockett. This cocktail seems to have been designed to preserve milk punch by curdling and removing the parts that go bad and would turn the drink. The alcohol and milk fats protect the drink from spoiling. When Charles Dickens Died, there is a story that months-old bottles of milk punch were found in his cellar still good. The recipe I have provided here is the classic Benjamin Franklin English milk punch from 1763.
The Clarified or English milk punch started to fade in the middle of the 1800s, and by the 1900s, there wasn’t a single book that mentioned it. The invention of commercial refrigeration in the mid-1800s meant people could now get their drinks cold even in the middle of summer. Hot cocktails, room temperature cocktails, and preserved cocktails like this fall out of favor with chilled beverages. Jerry Thomas gave one of the last printed recipes for it, and he is very similar to Benjamin Franklin’s recipe.
What Does English Milk Punch Taste Like?
This tastes absolutely nothing like what you would expect, and it should not taste as good as it does. English milk punch is refreshing and tastes like limoncello. You would never guess this was the byproduct of cheese. I’m usually pretty good at tasting something and thinking about what is in it or reading a list of ingredients and knowing what the final product will taste like, not all the time but enough. Still, I was utterly wrong when guessing what English milk punch would taste like. This is a fantastic drink that blew me away and one I will make many more times.
Just for fun, I also tried the leftover cheese strained out of the milk punch, which tastes EXACTLY like what you would expect. A sweet and sour, booze cheese, and it was so gross. If you make this, which you should, try both the cheese and the punch, and you will be amazed they both came from the same mixture.
How Does Milk Clarify?
By making cheese, of course. Milk is made mainly of 4 things, water, protein (cheese), fat, and lactose (sugar), and by denaturing/cooking the protein, you can isolate it. When the milk protein casein joins with other casein, it forms a large pentagon-shaped ring that captures particles in the mixture. Cooking can be done in two ways, with heat or acid. Typically when making cheese, you keep the protein part and throw out the whey, but this cocktail reverses that, and instead, you save the whey (water, sugar, and some protein) part. By removing the cloudy white protein, what is left is the clear pale yellow liquid. That is not to say English milk punch is easy to make. Making cheese is not difficult. What is difficult is making cheese that produces clear whey. I have made and experimented with this enough that, hopefully, I can make this easier for you.
Why Is My Milk Punch Cloudy?
The cloudiness most people see after filtering milk punch for the first time are tiny homogenized milk fats designed to stay emulsified in regular store-bought milk. The issue with old-fashioned milk punch recipes is that the milk we use today is not the same as from the 18th and 19th centuries. Today’s milk is engineered to be perfectly emulsified with tiny milk fats and pasteurized to have a long shelf life. Benjamin Franklin used raw, unpasteurized milk with large fat globules forming a cream on the top and making milk punch 200 years ago much easier to make than it is today. Most how-to videos or online guides suggest filtering the milk punch multiple times, and it takes all night to clarify. That is a result of modern milk. Benjamin Franklin could filter his once with perfect results in just a few minutes. If you live by a farm and have access to raw milk, that’s great, but most of us can only get store-bought homogenized and pasteurized milk. The homogenized fat is mechanically formed by using a machine to smash and blend the fats into tiny particles. Sodium chloride is added to prevent the fats from forming back together. Here are a few things you can do to make engineered modern milk behave more like raw milk and get a clear milk punch on a quick first filter.
How To Make English Milk Punch The Easy Way.
To undo the science in modern milk, one must use science. The main disadvantages of using regular milk instead of raw milk to make clarified milk punch are:
Pasteurized milk proteins form a weaker curd. A strong curd clarifies the whey better.
Milk fats are homogenized into smaller parts, and sodium chloride is added to emulsify them.
All store-bought milk is pasteurized, so there is no getting around that. Pasteurization is the light heating of milk over a long period to kill all the bacteria and give it a longer shelf life. The problem is heating the milk denatures the proteins causing their amino acid chains to unfold. Once they unfold, that’s it, and if they don’t form a curd at that moment, they won’t create one later. If you have made meringue, it’s similar to how pasteurized egg whites will never fluff up. There is still enough undamaged protein that pasteurized milk works, but uncooked raw milk would be ideal. And forget about using ultra-pasteurized milk. All the proteins have been cooked, and it’s impossible to make curd with ultra-pasteurized milk.
Adding an appropriate amount of calcium chloride helps negate the effects of sodium chloride. This allows the milk fats to form back together into larger particles and helps the curdled proteins form a stronger curd. Those tiny homogenized milk fats are what most people see clouding up their milk punch. It’s similar to the cloud that forms in an absinthe drip. Calcium chloride can be added right before using it, but it’s much more effective if it’s allowed to sit in the milk overnight and rectify to the milk’s un-homogenized nature. Larger milk fats will get better caught in a filter, and a curd matrix will grab more particles without breaking down as easily.
Casein forming a cheese curd and capturing particles
Another trick is to add a little rennet immediately before pouring the milk in. Long story short, rennet helps curdle the proteins. Rennet is an enzyme added by cheese makers and has been used for hundreds of years. The primary protein in milk is casein micelle. The ends of casein are negatively charged and repel other negatively charged casein molecules. Rennet (chymosin) cuts the negative ends off, leaving the casein molecules with positively charged ends. The positive-charged ends bond to the negatively charged calcium and other particles in the mix, forming a bridge to bond with other casein. Five casein molecules form a pentagon matrix that traps other large particles. All of this comes together as the mechanism that clarifies a milk punch. Acid also cuts the negative ends of casein off, but rennet does a much better job. Also, buy vegan rennet. The way animal-derived rennet is made is horrible, and fermentation-derived vegan rennet is more effective.
Another tip for getting a clear milk punch is to add the milk last. I’ve experimented with the order, and the best clarification only happens when the milk is added last. This has to do with the concentration of proteins to each other once they start curdling. If the milk and water, alcohol, tea, or whatever you are mixing are combined, the proteins are too far apart and diluted to link up nicely. First, combine all your ingredients, and then pour the milk at the end. I can’t explain scientifically why this works other than it’s been my constant observation.
The last tip I have is to heat the milk once you have combined everything and poured the milk in. Heat is not necessary for the curdling process. Rennet and acid handle that well enough, but light heating will cause the curdled cheese to melt slightly and bond into larger, stronger curds. Fresh cheese melts at a very low 80°F (26°C), so a light heating to 90°F (32°C) will help the curds bond into even larger curds which will filter out easier.
All these tips come together to make a clarified milk punch that’s as easy as it was for Benjamin Franklin. Filter once, and in 40 minutes, you will have half a gallon of clarified punch. I came up with technique because most recipes you find online took way too long, and the level of effort involved was unreasonable. Having some experience making cheese, I decided to apply cheese-making techniques to this drink and make it faster and easier. Most of these tips are procedural. The only items to buy are calcium chloride and rennet, which can easily and cheaply be purchased online. The rennet and calcium chloride also has no effect on the taste and are picked up by the curds and filtered out. Any calcium left behind is also probably healthy for you too. I hope I have contributed something meaningful to the world of mixology with this and that it allows more people to enjoy this drink. Enjoy!
Jerry Thomas most likely invented the Tom & Jerry since there was no reference to it till Jerry Thomas published his recipe. The cocktail is often credited with being created by him anyway. The story goes that he named the drink after his two pet mice, Thomas and Jerry, which he named after himself. Even Savoy credits him with inventing it, and the Savoy is pretty on point.
While the Tom & Jerry seems to fade in the 1930s, it’s still in the larger cocktail books up through the 1970s (I try to limit this project to only published literature from 1970 and earlier). In his 1972 book, Victor Bergeron even gives a single-serve recipe if one needs to be made on the spot. The Tom & Jerry is a very preparation and labor-intensive drink, so I feel this is relegated to be more of a home holiday party cocktail, and I have never once seen this at a bar ever.
When I first heard of this cocktail, I wondered if the iconic MGM cat and mouse cartoon Tom and Jerry were named after it. Unfortunately, no one knows if the cartoon famous Cat and Mouse duo Tom and Jerry were named after the drink, but it would be a weird coincidence. Joseph Barbara, of Hanna Barbara, wrote in his autobiography “My Life in Toons” how they came up with Tom and Jerry’s names. “We left the choice of names to chance. We invited studio personnel to write down pairs of names on paper and toss them into a hat. We shook the hat and drew Tom and Jerry, which had been submitted by an animator named John Carr. He won fifty dollars.” Maybe John Carr knew the drink from a holiday party; they are all long gone now.
What Is The Difference Between Eggnog And A Tom & Jerry?
Tom and Jerry are often compared to lighter eggnog, but it all depends on which recipe of a Tom and Jerry you are comparing to which eggnog recipe. If you compare a store-bought Tom and Jerry to store-bought eggnog, they taste similar. Today most eggnogs are made with cooked eggs and heavy cream, and the result is a thick, boozy custard. It’s a hefty drink, and a Tom and Jerry with heated milk are lighter with a similar flavor.
To compare apples to apples, if you compare a mid-1800s eggnog recipe to this classic style Tom and Jerry recipe, they are entirely different. This classic style of Tom and Jerry is more cappuccino-like than egg nog. The top has a nice foam similar to a cappuccino, but the drink itself is light. In an 1800s style, eggnog tastes more like a rich milk punch than today’s custard. The modern version of both drinks is similar, with the Tom and Jerry being a warm thinner version of eggnog, but the older versions of both drinks are very different.
What Is Tom & Jerry Batter?
Tom and Jerry’s batter is an egg and Christmas spice flavored mousse. It’s pretty good and doesn’t need to be mixed into a drink. You can make it yourself, or Tom and Jerry batter can be bought in stores during the holiday season in the upper midwest, where the drink is still pretty popular. I used to publish the original recipe on this site. However, I now use an updated one that makes for a considerably better drink while still being very similar flavor-wise to the original. Most modern recipes include butter and heavy cream and are much denser and almost eggnog-like. Mine does not. If the recipe is true to the classic and lacks a heavy fat ingredient, then the problem they are stuck with is using just warm water or milk, as meringue can not be heated so violently and rapidly. These versions taste fine, but I found this one that uses hot water to taste the best. The aroma is better; it sips better and has a more cozy feel to it. At its core, Tom and Jerry Batter face the same issue all egg-based desserts face when heated. The risk of curdling.
Most desserts try to solve this problem by cooking in a water bath so the egg doesn’t get too hot, and the original 1862 recipe could only use warm water and not hot, or else it would curdle. Most modern recipes try to fix this by adding butter or heavy cream since a cooked protein will bond to fat before bonding to another protein or stick with warm water or milk. While this keeps the drink from curdling, it either completely changes the flavor and texture or makes for a weak old, tasting drink. The solution I am using is an old baker’s technique to add a small amount of thickened corn starch, similar to American-style custard. American custards, cream pies, cream fillings, etc., are cooked at rapid high heat like any other dessert and do not curdle. This solution fixes the issue of curdling and lets the drink gets heated to a good hot drinks temperature while maintaining the drink’s original flavor and texture.
Make This Improved Tom & Jerry Batter Recipe.
I tried to change the original recipe and its ratios as little as possible. The only changes I made were adding cornstarch as a stabilizer and reducing the sugar to a more balanced amount. If you do not add cornstarch, then DO NOT use hot water. Only use warmed water or milk as the rapid heat will curdle the egg and make the drink lumpy.
6 Eggs
1.5 cups (300 g) of sugar
1 tbs (15 g) Cornstarch
1 oz (30 mLs) gold rum
1/2 tsp (2.5 g) ground cloves
1/2 tsp (2.5 g) ground allspice
1/2 tsp (2.5 g) ground cinnamon
Combine cornstarch and an ounce of hot water, stir till the cornstarch is dissolved and the mixture is thick, then set aside.
Separate the egg whites and yolks into two bowls.
Add the sugar to the egg whites and using an electric mixer (you would be crazy to do this by hand) beat the eggs into a medium peak meringue.
Once you are done beating, still using the electric mixer, slowly add the thickened wet corn starch. The cornstarch can only be added after you are done beating the meringue. The cornstarch prevents the meringue from cooking when you add hot water and curdling.
In the second bowl with the egg yolks add the rum, ground cloves, cinnamon, and allspice. Using the electric mixer again beat the yolks till they become lighter in color and runny.
Add the egg yolk mixture to the meringue and fold to combine.
NOTE: If what you are looking for is the Tom & Jerry Batter Recipe the link for that is here. Also, the video attached to this recipe below provides simple step-by-step instructions to make the batter and drink.
Invented in the Late 19th century by D.C. lobbyist Joe Rickey (At least that’s who is credited with having invented it), the rickey is a refreshing and slightly tart cocktail. This recipe is a brandy variation of the original whiskey-based rickey. More than just a recipe, the rickey became an archetype for many popular cocktails, even if you don’t realize they are structurally a rickey. The rickey cocktail structure is simple: 1/2 ounce (15 mls) citrus, 2 oz (60 mls) base spirit, and 5 oz (150 mls) carbonated beverage. For example, the rum and coke with a lime is a rickey, Dark ‘N’ Stormy, gin, and tonic; are all based on rickey structures.
What Does a Brandy Rickey Taste Like?
The Brandy Rickey has a refreshing and slightly tart taste with the taste of brandy coming through. A perfect sipper for a warm day.
Properly Adding Soda Water.
The essential ingredient in a rickey, I feel, is the soda water and how the cocktail is prepared. Of course, the spirit and citrus are the flavors you taste, but the soda water is what provides all the texture. If you prepare it to stay as bubbly as possible, you will have an outstanding cocktail. Still, if you don’t cool the ingredients or glass properly and stir it too violently, you will end up with a flat lame cocktail, similar to drinking a flat soda. Sure the flavor will be there, but it will be flat. So here is what you do. The two things you have control over are 1). the temperature, and 2). how violently you add the soda water. First, add the spirit and citrus to a glass filled with ice. Stir them together so that they get cold and the inside of the glass chills. Even better, you could chill the glass in the freezer first, but that requires forethought. Stirring with ice works well enough on the spot. Next, when you add the soda water, do it gently and only give the drink a couple of turns to mix the soda water with the spirit and citrus. Adding and stirring the soda water like this helps maintain as much carbonation as possible, and the bubblier it is, the more refreshing it will be.
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