The 12 Cocktails of Christmas, Day Eight: ‘The Everything Bagel’
Recipes inspired by global craft cocktail culture, shared this holiday season by Melissa Rayworth and Ted Anthony.
--
This year, in lieu of the holiday card we didn’t have time to create, we welcome you to The 12 Cocktails of Christmas — a dozen recipes and thoughts on what makes them work. We’ll continue updating the top drink each day until we’ve reached a dozen (yes, we’ll get done right after Christmas, but our schedules have been pretty crazed with new job adventures, current job obligations, two teenagers, two cats — the list, just like yours, goes on).
Hope this brings you all some holiday cheer. Please do share these recipes with your friends and family, and please take a moment this year to raise a glass — no matter what it may hold — to one another and to all the adventures and good things ahead in 2020.
Happy holidays,
THE EIGHTH COCKTAIL OF CHRISTMAS: ‘The Everything Bagel’
Well, this one’s different. And perhaps not for everyone.
Sometimes, cocktails try to approximate their food counterparts. In Bangkok, at a wonderful restaurant called Eat Me, we had one of the best cocktails we’ve ever encountered — the pork larb cocktail, an ode to a spicy and fragrant Thai pork salad, which came complete with a strip of crispy serrano ham across the top of the glass.
But bloody Marys and dirty martinis aside, doing savory in a cocktail can be fraught with potential pitfalls.
That’s why, on the night we decided to invent the Everything Bagel, we figured we might well jettison it after the proof of concept was done. After all, how can a cocktail that includes butter extract and dried onion and garlic on top be any kind of a player in the cocktail landscape?
We employed two of our favorite brown-liquor infusions — rye whiskey infused with roasted caraway seeds (again, easy: pan-roast some caraway seeds for five minutes, let them cool, dump into a Mason jar with rye and forget about it for four days) and regular American whiskey infused with oatmeal (same story). And, in keeping with the drink’s New York delicatessen roots, we threw in some store-bought celery bitters as a flavor accent. Finally, “everything bagel” seasoning was sprinkled across the drink’s foamy cap.
The result is something that tastes … New Yorky and breakfasty. Is this a savory drink? You could say yes, but it’s savory in the way that salted caramel is — with a burnished sweetness that places it unmistakably in the camp of the cocktail rather than the snack.
That said, dip your bagel chip in the concoction and have a crunch.
In the end, this “proof of concept” made it into our permanent repertoire, as evidenced by its presence here today. Let us know what you think. We don’t think you’ll be sorry you tried it.
‘THE EVERYTHING BAGEL’
3 oz. caraway-infused rye whiskey
3 oz. oatmeal-infused whiskey
1½ oz. brown sugar syrup
6 dashes butter extract
1 egg white
6 dashes whiskey barrel-aged bitters (Angostura can substitute)
6 dashes celery bitters
2 bagel chips, savory flavor (onion, garlic or everything)Dry shake. Add ice and shake again. Strain into rocks of coupe glasses but do not add additional ice. Top with three pinches of “everything bagel” seasoning (if you don’t have this handy — and why would you? — any combination of coarse-ground salt, pepper, poppyseeds, sesame seeds, dried garlic and/or dried onion will work just fine).
Garnish with half a bagel chip. Serves two.
WHY WE LIKED THIS ONE: We found it comforting and pleasing to the palate because it activated both the salt-seeking and sugar-loving taste buds in different parts of the mouth. The two whiskey infusions gave it a bready taste, and using brown sugar syrup instead of simple syrup added to the baked-goods nature of the proceedings. The celery bitters and the everything bagel sprinkle on top shout out to the drink’s New York deli roots. Melissa — decidedly not a celery person — thought it worked here. Finally, despite the “everything” topping, it was the caraway aftertaste that helped push it toward being sweet first and savory second — which was an interesting and, to our minds, pleasing sensation.
Previous libations in this series:
- The First Cocktail of Christmas: “Opening Day”
- The Second Cocktail of Christmas: “Afternoon Delight”
- The Third Cocktail of Christmas: “Subourbon Oasis”
- The Fourth Cocktail of Christmas: “The Phipps Conservatory”
- The Fifth Cocktail of Christmas: “The Sour Spice”
- The Sixth Cocktail of Christmas: “The Dark Horse”
- The Seventh Cocktail of Christmas: “Pop Culture Books Night”
- The entire story and collected cocktails.
The same motivation that led us to these drinks led Melissa to do these stories while we were living in Thailand. Check them out:
Welcome to Breadcrumbs, our publication and private storytelling service. We’re here to celebrate the stories of your life and ensure that they echo for generations to come. We work with you to elevate milestone moments, teasing out meaningful details. Using our decades of journalism experience and our creative talent, we battle the inevitable disappearance of memories that once seemed indelible. Our mission is to create permanent keepsakes in any form that suits you, from hard-cover books and personal magazines to pieces of home decor and art to one-of-a-kind projects we make or guide you through creating.
Because your story matters.
And as life races by, we will help you to preserve and celebrate it — wherever that journey may lead.
©2019, Melissa Rayworth and Ted Anthony. All rights reserved.
