We had a lonely peach on the counter about to go bad and I decided to make the honey peach syrup and recommended lemonade recipe. I used the stove top method for the syrup at midday and let it rest until about 6pm. My wife & I thoroughly enjoyed the drink as we sat by a back yard fire in the early evening. Wonderful!!
As an added bonus we saved the remains of the peaches for a fruit topping on our Sunday morning waffles along with honey-peach syrup infused whipped cream.
Thank you for the syrup instruction and recommendations, they have helped my cocktail experience greatly!!
I’ve done the hard steps and the clean up and everything’s chilling in the fridge now, but not before I put the brandy bottles with the 8oz freshly squeezed lemon juice / 16oz mezcal / 34 drops of 20% saline, and the big mason jar of the honey-peach syrup together under my nose and took a good whiff. I already have a 4th of July reputation thanks to the Fish House Punch and the blackberry bourbon ginger lemonade, and I suspect I can just claim my lifetime achievement award tomorrow after everyone enjoys this drink. Thank you, Peter. (Also was laughing thinking “Good thing I have a sous vide unit.” when it occurred to me the reason I did was entirely because of Megan.)
Inspiration: Between recent events, the mezcal, and the color and opacity of the combined ingredients, I’m telling my guests that they’re enjoying a “Wildfire Sky”.
The shake is standard for most single serve cocktails involving citrus juice. In those drinks, the shake serves to dilute the drink, chill the drink, and aerate the drink.
This drink, however, is designed to allow for large batches that you can make in advance and then pour when ready -- you can make a triple-sized version for a big group of guests if you want.
The dilution comes from the soda water, which also adds something like aeration (a bubbly effect), and the chill comes from serving it over ice.
It’s not exactly the same effect as shaking over ice -- but the pre-batched/large format nature of the drink means you can have pour-ready drinks for a group of friends without having to individually shake every drink the whole night.
Well, I hadn't gotten around to mezcal on my bar build yet, but this changed my priorities. It's delicious. I'm going to have to have some people over to drink all this lemonade though!
Thanks for this recipe, which inspired me to purchase sous vide equipment.
Two questions: When making the syrup, should I measure the 12 Oz of honey with a scale? Or should I just measure up a cup and a half until the measuring cup reads 12 ounces. I ask, because I emptied a jar of honey labeled as one pound, yet it did not measuring up to a cup and a half. I used my scale....fingers crossed.
Curious if you ever freeze unused portions of syrups? We are two, we enjoy our cocktails mightily, but occasionally, we see a shiny new recipe, divert to try if, and have leftovers.
For the syrup, I measure the honey and the water by volume -- it's easier and it always works, and I tend not to mess with things that work.
Measuring by weight is going to produce a somewhat different ratio, but it shouldn't make for a bad syrup at all.
I typically don't freeze my syrups. Syrups without additives like fruit tend to last a while in the fridge - most sources say a month, but I keep mine longer without issue. I also tend to make a lot of drinks for friends, so there's always some use for them. (Occasionally syrups and leftover batches of drinks go into the office for happy hours.) I am also less worried about discarding a little bit of syrup -- unlike, say, an alcohol infusion, syrups are relatively inexpensive in terms of ingredient cost, which is one reason so many of my unusual custom-flavor projects (like: https://cocktailswithsuderman.substack.com/p/this-thanksgiving-make-a-pumpkin) involve a homemade syrup.
Hope the sous vide projects go well for you! Sous vide is also great for making meat and eggs, if you're into that sort of thing. Some of the best ribeyes I've ever had have been cooked to a precise internal temp using sous vide.
Thanks so much. I learned that it’s very important that the peaches be very ripe. My farmer’s market peaches were purchased on the day I made the syrup. I wasn’t patient enough to let them fully ripen, so the syrup did not have much detectable peach flavor. I did buy a couple of ribeyes. High hopes, and thanks again.
Peter this sounds delicious - thanks for all the work perfecting it. I have some Mathilde Pêche Peach Liqueur, a good product that tastes very natural. I’m thinking of swapping 3 oz of that + 1 oz Bärenjäger Honey Liqueur for the 4 oz syrup - do those amounts / proportions sound like they’d work?
I haven’t used the Mathilde, but if it’s anything like the Giffard Peche liqueur it’s less sweet than the honey syrup here so you will probably need to adjust the volume of the sweetener if you come into the two. Off the top of my head I would guess something like 3 ounces of 3:1 honey plus 2-3 ounces of peach liqueur. But it’s a good idea and some combo should be pretty tasty, once you get the balance right.
J. Kenji Lopez Alt has a write-up on doing a beer cooler sous vide without the sous vide machine. You basically preheat the cooler, then add hot and cold water to hit the target temp, and close up the cooler. It doesn't maintain quite as solid a temp as an actual machine (for longer cooks you may need to add more hot water), and it's a bit more work, but I think it's probably a good middle ground between your actual sous vide method and the stove top method.
As soon as I read this article on June 30th I knew I wanted to make it for the 4th of July get together we were attending. I made a double batch and everyone loved it! 56oz was gone within a few hours!
On a side note, I did the syrup in the sous vide and I thought it tasted fantastic when it was done. It very very peachy (i was shocked at how peachy it was). In my head I was like, "Yes! this is going to be perfect with the mezcal." But once it was in the cocktail the peach flavors definitely got lost amongst everything else. I thought about adding more syrup to the bottles of batched cocktails but I didn't want the balance to get thrown off. It was really well balanced, perfect amount of tartness from the lemon and perfect amount of sweetness from the syrup. All in all I would still make this again, but maybe just with a honey syrup without the addition of peaches.
We had a lonely peach on the counter about to go bad and I decided to make the honey peach syrup and recommended lemonade recipe. I used the stove top method for the syrup at midday and let it rest until about 6pm. My wife & I thoroughly enjoyed the drink as we sat by a back yard fire in the early evening. Wonderful!!
As an added bonus we saved the remains of the peaches for a fruit topping on our Sunday morning waffles along with honey-peach syrup infused whipped cream.
Thank you for the syrup instruction and recommendations, they have helped my cocktail experience greatly!!
I made this for two separate parties this weekend and it was a huge hit. But you need a better name!
I guess I could rename it?
Glad you and your fellow party-goers enjoyed it.
I’ve done the hard steps and the clean up and everything’s chilling in the fridge now, but not before I put the brandy bottles with the 8oz freshly squeezed lemon juice / 16oz mezcal / 34 drops of 20% saline, and the big mason jar of the honey-peach syrup together under my nose and took a good whiff. I already have a 4th of July reputation thanks to the Fish House Punch and the blackberry bourbon ginger lemonade, and I suspect I can just claim my lifetime achievement award tomorrow after everyone enjoys this drink. Thank you, Peter. (Also was laughing thinking “Good thing I have a sous vide unit.” when it occurred to me the reason I did was entirely because of Megan.)
Inspiration: Between recent events, the mezcal, and the color and opacity of the combined ingredients, I’m telling my guests that they’re enjoying a “Wildfire Sky”.
So you don’t shake to combine (minus the seltzer, of course)? Isn’t that the standard method for making citrus cocktails?
Correct! No shake for this one.
The shake is standard for most single serve cocktails involving citrus juice. In those drinks, the shake serves to dilute the drink, chill the drink, and aerate the drink.
This drink, however, is designed to allow for large batches that you can make in advance and then pour when ready -- you can make a triple-sized version for a big group of guests if you want.
The dilution comes from the soda water, which also adds something like aeration (a bubbly effect), and the chill comes from serving it over ice.
It’s not exactly the same effect as shaking over ice -- but the pre-batched/large format nature of the drink means you can have pour-ready drinks for a group of friends without having to individually shake every drink the whole night.
Well, I hadn't gotten around to mezcal on my bar build yet, but this changed my priorities. It's delicious. I'm going to have to have some people over to drink all this lemonade though!
Thanks for this recipe, which inspired me to purchase sous vide equipment.
Two questions: When making the syrup, should I measure the 12 Oz of honey with a scale? Or should I just measure up a cup and a half until the measuring cup reads 12 ounces. I ask, because I emptied a jar of honey labeled as one pound, yet it did not measuring up to a cup and a half. I used my scale....fingers crossed.
Curious if you ever freeze unused portions of syrups? We are two, we enjoy our cocktails mightily, but occasionally, we see a shiny new recipe, divert to try if, and have leftovers.
For the syrup, I measure the honey and the water by volume -- it's easier and it always works, and I tend not to mess with things that work.
Measuring by weight is going to produce a somewhat different ratio, but it shouldn't make for a bad syrup at all.
I typically don't freeze my syrups. Syrups without additives like fruit tend to last a while in the fridge - most sources say a month, but I keep mine longer without issue. I also tend to make a lot of drinks for friends, so there's always some use for them. (Occasionally syrups and leftover batches of drinks go into the office for happy hours.) I am also less worried about discarding a little bit of syrup -- unlike, say, an alcohol infusion, syrups are relatively inexpensive in terms of ingredient cost, which is one reason so many of my unusual custom-flavor projects (like: https://cocktailswithsuderman.substack.com/p/this-thanksgiving-make-a-pumpkin) involve a homemade syrup.
Hope the sous vide projects go well for you! Sous vide is also great for making meat and eggs, if you're into that sort of thing. Some of the best ribeyes I've ever had have been cooked to a precise internal temp using sous vide.
I'll also add a tsp or so of vodka or everclear to a syrup that may get light rotation and have seen very long life if kep refrigerated.
Thanks so much. I learned that it’s very important that the peaches be very ripe. My farmer’s market peaches were purchased on the day I made the syrup. I wasn’t patient enough to let them fully ripen, so the syrup did not have much detectable peach flavor. I did buy a couple of ribeyes. High hopes, and thanks again.
Peter this sounds delicious - thanks for all the work perfecting it. I have some Mathilde Pêche Peach Liqueur, a good product that tastes very natural. I’m thinking of swapping 3 oz of that + 1 oz Bärenjäger Honey Liqueur for the 4 oz syrup - do those amounts / proportions sound like they’d work?
I haven’t used the Mathilde, but if it’s anything like the Giffard Peche liqueur it’s less sweet than the honey syrup here so you will probably need to adjust the volume of the sweetener if you come into the two. Off the top of my head I would guess something like 3 ounces of 3:1 honey plus 2-3 ounces of peach liqueur. But it’s a good idea and some combo should be pretty tasty, once you get the balance right.
Not Peter. But wouldn’t that be too boozy. The syrup is the sweetener.
J. Kenji Lopez Alt has a write-up on doing a beer cooler sous vide without the sous vide machine. You basically preheat the cooler, then add hot and cold water to hit the target temp, and close up the cooler. It doesn't maintain quite as solid a temp as an actual machine (for longer cooks you may need to add more hot water), and it's a bit more work, but I think it's probably a good middle ground between your actual sous vide method and the stove top method.
As soon as I read this article on June 30th I knew I wanted to make it for the 4th of July get together we were attending. I made a double batch and everyone loved it! 56oz was gone within a few hours!
On a side note, I did the syrup in the sous vide and I thought it tasted fantastic when it was done. It very very peachy (i was shocked at how peachy it was). In my head I was like, "Yes! this is going to be perfect with the mezcal." But once it was in the cocktail the peach flavors definitely got lost amongst everything else. I thought about adding more syrup to the bottles of batched cocktails but I didn't want the balance to get thrown off. It was really well balanced, perfect amount of tartness from the lemon and perfect amount of sweetness from the syrup. All in all I would still make this again, but maybe just with a honey syrup without the addition of peaches.