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“History in a glass”
That’s the Sazerac, “the official cocktail of New Orleans.” Tuesday Tales of the Cocktail[’s founder Ann Tuennerman (she of the New Orleans Culinary and Cultural Preservation Society led a bunch of Austin’s finest mixologists and, uh, me, through a delightful history class and cocktail party on the Sazerac in an effort to revive the classic drink. It was Fat Tuesday — how could I not go?
The Sazerac is sometimes touted as America’s first cocktail, or the oldest cocktail, or something. Whatever the case it’s a fascinating history that goes back to around 1975, when one Antoine Amedee Peychaud came from what is now Haiti to New Orleans with his family’s bitters recipe. Peychaud ran an apothecary and became renowned for serving toddies with his bitters in an egg cup — the precursor to the steel jiggers that are ubiquitous in bars today.
Then there were two soldiers in World War I, J.M. Legendre and Reginald Parker, who learned how to make absinthe while serving in France. They returned to New Orleans to make Herbsaint (Creole, roughly, for wormwood), a substitute for absinthe. Convenient, that, because true absinthe was banned in the U.S. beginning in 1912. And during Prohibition Herbsaint was…medicine. Yay.
Then there’s the legendary Sazerac Bar in the Roosevelt Hotel. Ready-made Sazerac in a bottle was available for a time. Every single ingredient has a story to tell, and the drink is a huge part of New Orleans’ cultural heritage. Tennessee Williams drank them, you know.
So there I am with some of the best drink-slingers in town, people who go to international competitions and win, and at the end of the class we get to make our own. First thing we do is fill a glass with ice, then we muld a sugar cube with two dashes of bitters. Tuennerman asks us to display our results and says, “Yes. Patrick, that’s very good.” Then I realize I’d used the rounded end, the wrong end, to smash the cube. And there was the telltale red stain. No hiding that.
Oh, shame. Oh, humiliation.
Here’s the recipe as it was given to us. We were told Herbsaint isn’t available right now in our market but I guess you could use absinthe. Distillation resumed here in 2007, after the ban was sensibly repealed.
Pack and Old-Fashioned glass with ice.
In a second glass place the sugar cube and Peychaud’s Bitters and crush the sugar, ideally with the right end of the mulder.
Add 1.5 oz. Sazerac rye whiskey (Cognac was used originally) to the glass containing sugar and bitters.
Empty the ice from the first glass, coat the glass with Herbsaint and discard Herbsaint. (Really, you don’t want too much of that unless you really love black licorice.)
Empty the whiskey, bitters and sugar mixture from the second glass into the first glass. Garnish with lemon peel and laissez les bon temps roulez.
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By Jay
February 18, 2010 11:52 PM | Link to this
Actually regular 90 proof Herbsaint is available in your market, the new 100 proof Herbsaint Original, which is a reproduction of the original 1934 formula made by J.M. Legendre, is the one that is not yet in TX. (Well this writer has some…) The new Herbsaint Original works well in a Sazerac, and is excellent served in the classic absinthe drip manner. www.neworleansabsinthehistory.com