Bloody Mary (aka Red Snapper) - Learn All the History & How to Make the Classic Brunch Drink

Опубликовано: 15 Январь 2025
на канале: Distinguished Spirits

14,864

400

Learn how to make a Bloody Mary (aka Red Snapper) worthy of being called a James Bond cocktail using the Simon Ford recipe with Aylesbury Duck Vodka (of course), Tomato Juice, freshly-squeezed Lemon Juice, Tabasco, Worcestershire, Salt & Pepper and a Dry Sherry float. The series, Cocktails and Pussy Galore, shows you how to drink like 007 using the Ian Fleming books (not the movies) as the source.

The Bloody Mary is one of the most famous drinks in the world. As usual with a drink this famous, the precise origin of it is a little murky. There are a lot of claims to it's authorship, but as Brian Bartels lays out in his book, The Bloody Mary, the most likely of those stories is the following.

In the 1800's there was a drink called the Oyster Cocktail that was designed as something to start your day, which was made with an oyster, tomato, lemon, (sometimes) Worcestershire, hot sauce, salt, pepper, sometimes horseradish, in other words, the baseline flavors for a what would become the Bloody Mary. Then in 1917, at the French Lick Springs Hotel in French Lick, Indiana, they began serving freshly-squeezed tomato juice to their guests. It was a big hit and inspired two men, in particular, Ernest Byfield and George Jessel.

Byfield was a restaurateur and hotelier from Chicago who, after discovering tomato juice at French Lick, started to manufacture, bottle and sell tomato juice commercially. Then, much later, in the 1960's, after the Bloody Mary had established itself, it was one of Byfield's restaurants that plopped a celery stalk in the drink when it ran out of stir sticks, which became the drink's iconic garnish.

Back in the late 1920's George Jessel also fell in love with French Lick's tomato juice. He claims he invented the Bloody Mary near the end of the Roaring 20's and named it after his friend, Mary Brown Warburton, who after sampling the drink, spilled some on her chest and declared, "Now you can call me bloody Mary, George." The whole story was recounted in Jessel's autobiography, The World I Lived In!, so feel free to take that particular incident with a grain of celery salt.

Just after Prohibition, Fernand "Pete" Petiot also claimed to have invented the Bloody Mary. In the 20's, Petiot was a bartender at Harry's New York Bar in Paris. In 1934, he set up shop at the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis Hotel in New York. In 1935, Vincent Astor bought the hotel. He liked the Bloody Mary and wanted it on his menu, but thought the name inappropriate for the finest hotel in New York, so the drink became known as the Red Snapper. And it was the St. Regis that helped make the drink famous.

Jessel and Petiot both contended that each was the originator of the drink. However, in 1964, Petiot admitted that Jessel created the drink, but that Petiot made it the drink everyone knew. Jessel's drink was a simple 1:1 vodka to tomato juice cocktail (and sometimes he added a dash of Pernod). It was Petiot who took that concept and dressed it up with lemon, Worcestershire and spices, a la the Oyster Cocktail, to create the Bloody Mary.

That's the most plausible story. It may not be perfect, but it's probably the closest we're going to get to how this drink came to be.

There is not really a standard recipe. They all more or less contain, tomato juice, spices, Worcestershire and Vodka, but even that's not a certainty. And don't get me started on the one-upmanship with the garnish. But the recipe I like the best come from Simon Ford. It's really close to the St. Regis recipe, only it adds a masterful layer of complexity with the Dry Sherry. Ford calls for Fino, but I like it with Manzanilla. Use whatever Dry Sherry you have...or not. It's optional.

James Bond never actually drank a Bloody Mary in the books, but in Thunderball, Domino Vitalli, the bond girl, ordered a double Bloody Mary with plenty of Worcester sauce. Then shocked and impressed by Bond by referring to it as a "soft drink." Maybe she's right, it's how you get away with drinking these things for breakfast. Cheers!

Recipe:
1.5 oz vodka
3 oz tomato juice
0.5 oz lemon juice
4 dashes tabasco sauce
2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
0.25 oz float Fino Sherry (optional)
pinch Salt & Pepper
garnish Celery Stalk

Roll all ingredients except sherry with ice. Strain over ice in a Collins glass. Float Sherry. Garnish celery...and whatever else you want.

Music:
Until the World Ends (Instrumental Version) by Martin Carlberg
via Epidemic Sound

Follow Us!
  / distinguishedspirits
  / distinguishedspirits
  / distinguishedsp
  / distinguishedsp

Featured in this Episode:

Aylesbury Duck Vodka
http://bit.ly/2qDYdFM

Lustau Sherry
http://bit.ly/2qBb3UM

Tomato Juice
http://amzn.to/2rBMUvZ

Tabasco
http://amzn.to/2rBHlgP

Worcestershire
http://amzn.to/2q36L63

The Bloody Mary by Brian Bartels
http://amzn.to/2q3gGbL

Thunderball by Ian Fleming
http://amzn.to/2qBpcS4