Cooking With Spirits

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Mixed Drinks

Zombie Cocktail Recipe

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THE ZOMBIE COCKTAIL This tropical drink by legendary Donn Beach of Don the Beachcomber restaurant kicked off the Tiki craze.

 

ABOUT THE ZOMBIE COCKTAIL

This tropical drink by legendary Donn Beach of Don the Beachcomber restaurant kicked off the Tiki craze. Legend has it that Donn Beach originally concocted the Zombie to help a hung-over customer get through a business meeting. The customer returned several days later to complain that he had been turned into a zombie for his entire trip. Its smooth, fruity taste works to conceal its extremely high alcoholic content. Don the Beachcomber restaurants limit their customers to two Zombies apiece because of their potency, which Beach said could make one "like the walking dead."

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The Best Mojitos Recipe

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The Best Mojitos Recipe. This is an authentic recipe for mojito is sized to make a pitcher full but you can easily change it to a single serving.

 

What's A Mojito?

Mojito (/moʊˈhiːtoʊ/; Spanish: [moˈxito]) is a traditional Cuban highball. Traditionally, a mojito is a cocktail that consists of five ingredients: white rum, sugar (traditionally sugar cane juice), lime juice, soda water, and mint. ... Mint leaves and lime wedges are used to garnish the glass.

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Scotch, Whiskey and Bourbon, What’s the Difference Between Them?

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The main difference between scotch and whiskey is geographic, but also ingredients and spellings. Scotch is whisky made in Scotland, while bourbon is whiskey made in the U.S.A, generally Kentucky. Scotch is made mostly from malted barley, while bourbon is distilled from corn. If you’re in England and ask for a whisky, you’ll get Scotch. But in Ireland, you’ll get Irish whiskey.

What is Scotch?

Technically, Scotch is whisky (spelled without the "e") that must be produced in Scotland, made from mostly malted barley and aged in oak barrels for three years or more. (The number following the name on a bottle of Scotch tells you how long it was aged.) Some Scotch tastes a lot like bourbon, but with a signature smokiness that lingers at the tail-end of a tasting. For this reason, some people avoid it, but for others, the acquired taste only makes the experience better. We think this pairs nicely with some stews and smoked meats.

For a whiskey to call itself bourbon, its mash, the mixture of grains from which the product is distilled, must contain at least 51% corn. (The rest of the mash is usually filled out with malted barley and either rye or wheat.) ... The distillate must be aged in a new charred oak barrel.
 

Rye

"Rye whiskey" can refer either to American whiskey, which must be distilled from at least 51% rye and aged two years or more, or Canadian whisky, which may or may not actually include any rye in its production process. Full in body and spice, rye -- which had been playing second fiddle to its closest cousin, bourbon, ever since U.S. corn production increased in the decades following Prohibition -- has been making a steady comeback on cocktail menus across the country in the last decade.

Rye's bold, slightly burning bite cuts right through sweet mixers, making for intense beverages with layers of flavor.

Does it Matter in Cooking?

Yes, it does, but you can interchange them. Remember, the alcohol content may be different, and the flavor will be too.

The Whiskey Sour

If you are looking for a great drink to use whiskey in Real Life with Lulu will show you How to Make a Whiskey Sour. 

How to Make Your Own Superfine Sugar or Castor Sugar

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Superfine Sugar

Superfine sugar is favored for sweetening drinks or preparing a meringue. Caster sugar is the name of very fine sugar in Britain, so named because the grains are small enough to fit though a sugar "caster" or sprinkler. It is sold as "superfine" sugar in the United States.

Because of its fineness, it dissolves more quickly than regular white sugar, and so is especially useful in meringues and cold liquids. It is not as fine as confectioner’s sugar, which has been crushed mechanically (and generally mixed with a little starch to keep it from clumping).

If the recipe calls for superfine, powdered, or brown sugar, you can actually make any of them at home from regular white sugar. "If you don't have it in the house, you don't have to run out to the store—it's totally fine to make it yourself, All you need is a blender (or food processor) and a bit of ingenuity.

Name Variations

  • bar sugar
  • instant dissolving sugar
  • berry sugar
  • castor sugar
  • caster sugar
  • casters' sugar
  • caster's sugar

How to Make Superfine Sugar

f you don’t have any caster sugar on hand, you can make your own by grinding granulated sugar for a couple of minutes in a food processor (this also produces sugar dust, so let it settle for a few moments before opening the food processor). For one cup: Grind one cup and two teaspoons of white granulated sugar in a blender, coffee bean type grinder or food processor for 30 seconds.

Rimming the Glass with Sugar

Many cocktails, including our lemon drop cocktail, call for rimming the glass with superfine sugar. The rim of the glass is moistened just a bit and then dipped into the superfine sugar. Lightly tap the side of the glass to remove any excess sugar.

Let us know in the comments section if you have any questions or tips related to making superfine sugar at home.