Wednesday, September 12, 2012

A Saltier Dog


No, not Gus.

But here is a question for you. Cocktails come in all sorts of flavors. There are sweet bombs, sour ones, and bitter cordials. But there are very few cocktails that are salty. A salted rim on a Margarita does not a salty cocktail make. A dirty martini may fit the bill, but I prefer an olive that tastes like gin to gin that tastes like olives. Maybe salty cocktails are few and far between because the traditional accompaniment to pre-dinner drinking was salty snacks like peanuts, popcorn, pretzels, or olives. A salty drink and salty bar snacks would probably cause hyper hypertension. Still what would happen if you made a drink itself salty?

Now, the Salty Dog and the Greyhound share the same attributes. Namely, both drinks take vodka and add grapefruit juice. The Salty Dog adds a rim of salt. I wondered what would happen if you took that salted rim and incorporated it into the drink? I remembered a margarita at Jose Andres' Jaleo that used a salt air to add a subtle salinity to the drink. Making an air is too pretentious for a home bar, even for me. Instead I married the flavors of a Salty Dog with the technique of a Pisco Sour or Gin Fizz. To tone down the flavors of the drink, I used Cathead Honeysuckle Vodka.

Serve it with something sweet like the gaze of a basset hound.

A Saltier Dog

3 oz Honeysuckle Vodka
2 oz Fresh squeezed grapefruit juice
1 egg white
A pinch of salt

Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker, cover, and shake for ten seconds. Add ice, cover, and shake again for another fifteen seconds. Strain into a chilled glass; a coupe works well.

3 comments:

Todd said...

The Rogue/Beta Cocktail boys have played around with salt. I can't remember if they include any salted cocktails in their books.

Mike said...

As Todd said, the Beta guys have done some things with salt. One of Maks's drinks the Growing Old and Dying Happy is fantastic... http://looka.gumbopages.com/2009/07/29/growing-old-and-dying-happy-is-a-hope-not-an-inevitability/

Rene said...

I didn't really mean to imply there are no salty cocktails. Even a Bloody Mary has some salty elements in some forms. But it is strange that seemingly every other taste bud has a signature drink, but salt. Thanks for those links though, I will play around with those.