I'm very often finding that each week's recipe requires one more visit to the liquor store - a specialty liqueur, a rum or gin I don't have, a difference-making bitter, a special syrup, or the particular sweet vermouth that I don't have expiring in the fridge. If I were wiser I might know how to make good substitutions with what's on hand, but I also feel that the drinks on offer are rarely contained within the bounds of the 40-bottles-or-so you wrote about a couple years back, which helped me stock my shelves. I don't want to discourage the novel twists of brilliance, but I also more often want to make what I'm reading about, rather than read and imagine.
The one thing I always find myself wanting is an app or website which contains your recipes, as well as their origins, variations, relationships, and links back to the substack posts where they are mentioned. Being able to leave notes and add personal variations would be awesome. By the way, I'm a web developer!
Good idea! I've been keeping them cataloged myself, first with Evernote Web Clipper now with OneNote's Web Clipper, which automatically puts them in my OneNote and is completely searchable. That way I can pull up the recipe I saved when I'm in the liquor store when I'm trying to remember what the heck was that obscure bottle I wanted to pick up and what was I planning to try and make with it. I would absolutely download an app though! Especially since OneNote doesn't do tagging particularly well so if I'm looking for seasonal recipes or something more (or less) specific, that's harder to do if I don't know exactly what I'm searching for.
I have personal notes on drinks and recipes going back years and years that I rely on heavily. But they are...not really suitable for public consumption.
If I need to recall something specifically from the newsletter, I actually just use gmail search, which remains remarkably good. But something dedicated and focused would obviously be ideal.
I really, really want to gather as many friends, subscribers, and befuddled onlookers as possible in a good cocktail bar and have slightly too much fun. I just haven't been able to figure out how to do it in a way that doesn't either result in some combination of mediocre drinks, people getting left out, or an irresponsibly large bill for myself at the end of the night.
I second batch recipes--I find cocktail party guests are never as adventurous as I hope--and also: more aquavit recipes that aren’t just straight substitution for gin.
I like the idea of a pdf as well, but honestly you should be putting together a book proposal instead.
How about a series highlighting how different whiskey styles affect things. From obvious (smokey/peaty/spicy) to surprising. Lots to work from across the bases and recipes. Gives you a chance to show off your knowledge breadth and synthesizing skills.
I really enjoy the routine of winding down my Friday with some nerdy cocktail details, then picking one of the week's recipes that I can approximate with our home bar, and giving it a go. Almost every week, there's something accessible and enjoyable to try. (And every now and then, I end up with peaches stewing in the immersion circulator, which is fun, too.) So whatever comes, don't let that part go.
Maybe one post on a couple of non alcoholic options? I've been designated as the bartender at family gatherings, which is a great opportunity to show off drinks I've learned from the substack.
But with one or two expectant mothers, and one person who doesn't drink, it would be great to have 3 or 4 "fancy drinks" to have on offer so they don't feel left out.
-Seedlip spirits, especially Spice 94, in a basic sour/Daiquiri format (2 ounces spirit - 3/4 ounce syrup - 3/4 ounce lemon or lime - bit of saline/salt - garnish - up in a coupe). You can order these from Amazon. https://amzn.to/3GktlzG
-N/A beer, which I drink pretty frequently myself these days. Athletic has wide distribution, and their IPAs and golden are quite good. Sam Adams and Peroni also make zero proof beers that are surprisingly good.
Awesome, I'll give these a try! Here in Wisconsin I saw these at a makers event. Some people like them mixed up, but the apple cider vinegar base can be a turn off. Maybe will experiment more with mixing with other ingredients https://sirenshrubs.com/collections/sophisticated-mixers
Love your work mate! I’d love a post on amaro choices and substitution options. I find myself unsure about when I truly need to buy a new bottle and when I can make a decent sub in from the existing collection.
Amaro subs! That I can do (with a little bit of work).
A podcast is...something I've been -- maybe? almost? kind of? -- on the brink of doing for over a year. It's just been a bit of a challenge trying to get some of the logistics worked out.
I would definitely love more batch recipes! The more we've been diving into cocktail making, the more this is what we make for friends when they come over for dinner, so batch cocktails make our lives infinitely easier.
Also, I love your format of starting with a basic recipe and then tweaking it and giving us ideas for alternatives. It gets my brain going and thinking of other alternatives and riffs to enjoy. Love it!
There will be batches! Certainly for cold weather drinks. And I think I might have some novel twists on batching summer drinks for crowds, pending a few more tests.
Cold weather drinks would be great! I race sailboats, even in the winter, and something to warm us up after a cold day on the water always goes well with the crew!
Thanks to this substack I always have bottles of Cynar, Rittenhouse, Laird's, and Del Maguey Vida, when previously I had never even heard of any of them.
I would love to see more recipes in the future that use Japanese whisky and Irish whiskey, as well as ones that use my favorite kind of ketchup, the bartender's ketchup St. Germain.
Thanks, Peter! It's been a delight reading each week and learning from you.
Maybe this is too far afield from what you'd like to do, but it sounds fun to me: What about a weekly (or occasional) "puzzler" and your solution? A simple example: What the heck can I do with this bottle of Chambord I bought for making some dessert 2 years ago?
Perhaps a more interesting example, years ago my wife came home with a list of 6 bottles of booze that created the best drink she ever tasted at a fancy bar. The problem was she had zero idea what the proportions were. She purchased some expensive bottles, tried this and tried that, and never came close to the drink she was looking for. Fast forward a couple years, and having learned a bunch from reading your stuff, I took another crack at it recently and came up with a rather decent drink, although almost assuredly not the original gangsta.
I'm coming very very late to this party, but would appreciate delving into barrel aging cocktails. Starting with how to batch drinks but also going over the order in which to cycle drinks so that the flavors of subsequent batches don't clash.
An index of recipes by drink/family of drinks that link to the relevant post.
Yeah, this is something I've been meaning to make -- for readers, but also for myself. I will try to bump this up on my task list for this year.
More batch recipes! The Aleppo pineapple margaritas are one of my favorite recipes from the three years, the proportions are perfect.
I'm very often finding that each week's recipe requires one more visit to the liquor store - a specialty liqueur, a rum or gin I don't have, a difference-making bitter, a special syrup, or the particular sweet vermouth that I don't have expiring in the fridge. If I were wiser I might know how to make good substitutions with what's on hand, but I also feel that the drinks on offer are rarely contained within the bounds of the 40-bottles-or-so you wrote about a couple years back, which helped me stock my shelves. I don't want to discourage the novel twists of brilliance, but I also more often want to make what I'm reading about, rather than read and imagine.
How about creating a PDF file with all the recipes from the last 3 years? I have too many random pieces of paper with recipes.
The one thing I always find myself wanting is an app or website which contains your recipes, as well as their origins, variations, relationships, and links back to the substack posts where they are mentioned. Being able to leave notes and add personal variations would be awesome. By the way, I'm a web developer!
Good idea! I've been keeping them cataloged myself, first with Evernote Web Clipper now with OneNote's Web Clipper, which automatically puts them in my OneNote and is completely searchable. That way I can pull up the recipe I saved when I'm in the liquor store when I'm trying to remember what the heck was that obscure bottle I wanted to pick up and what was I planning to try and make with it. I would absolutely download an app though! Especially since OneNote doesn't do tagging particularly well so if I'm looking for seasonal recipes or something more (or less) specific, that's harder to do if I don't know exactly what I'm searching for.
I have personal notes on drinks and recipes going back years and years that I rely on heavily. But they are...not really suitable for public consumption.
If I need to recall something specifically from the newsletter, I actually just use gmail search, which remains remarkably good. But something dedicated and focused would obviously be ideal.
I want an in-person Suderfest event next year, every subscriber gets a +1 😎
I really, really want to gather as many friends, subscribers, and befuddled onlookers as possible in a good cocktail bar and have slightly too much fun. I just haven't been able to figure out how to do it in a way that doesn't either result in some combination of mediocre drinks, people getting left out, or an irresponsibly large bill for myself at the end of the night.
A pot-luck - but for booze.
I second batch recipes--I find cocktail party guests are never as adventurous as I hope--and also: more aquavit recipes that aren’t just straight substitution for gin.
I like the idea of a pdf as well, but honestly you should be putting together a book proposal instead.
How about a series highlighting how different whiskey styles affect things. From obvious (smokey/peaty/spicy) to surprising. Lots to work from across the bases and recipes. Gives you a chance to show off your knowledge breadth and synthesizing skills.
I really enjoy the routine of winding down my Friday with some nerdy cocktail details, then picking one of the week's recipes that I can approximate with our home bar, and giving it a go. Almost every week, there's something accessible and enjoyable to try. (And every now and then, I end up with peaches stewing in the immersion circulator, which is fun, too.) So whatever comes, don't let that part go.
Maybe one post on a couple of non alcoholic options? I've been designated as the bartender at family gatherings, which is a great opportunity to show off drinks I've learned from the substack.
But with one or two expectant mothers, and one person who doesn't drink, it would be great to have 3 or 4 "fancy drinks" to have on offer so they don't feel left out.
Good question.
I might do a longer post on this next year, but my go-tos for N/A drinks are:
-the St. Agrestis Phony Negroni and Phony Mezcal Negroni. Somewhat expensive, and depending on where you live, you might have to order from out of state, although they do have some retail distribution now. They don't quite fully replicate their base drinks, but they are very good, and if served over a big piece of ice with a nice garnish, very much do the job of a cocktail without any booze. https://stagrestis.com/products/phony-negroni?variant=42965996503293¤cy=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=CjwKCAiAmZGrBhAnEiwAo9qHiZpITDpj3rx6siZwEgyfoHQfeloeB1aUM6nn6RXLkyPi-Xj7-c1e6xoCM0EQAvD_BwE
-Seedlip spirits, especially Spice 94, in a basic sour/Daiquiri format (2 ounces spirit - 3/4 ounce syrup - 3/4 ounce lemon or lime - bit of saline/salt - garnish - up in a coupe). You can order these from Amazon. https://amzn.to/3GktlzG
-N/A beer, which I drink pretty frequently myself these days. Athletic has wide distribution, and their IPAs and golden are quite good. Sam Adams and Peroni also make zero proof beers that are surprisingly good.
Awesome, I'll give these a try! Here in Wisconsin I saw these at a makers event. Some people like them mixed up, but the apple cider vinegar base can be a turn off. Maybe will experiment more with mixing with other ingredients https://sirenshrubs.com/collections/sophisticated-mixers
"There will be Cynar"
That sounds like the name of the unheralded sequel to "There will be Blood".
I drink your, er, Cynar...milkshake? Now there's an idea.
Love your work mate! I’d love a post on amaro choices and substitution options. I find myself unsure about when I truly need to buy a new bottle and when I can make a decent sub in from the existing collection.
And a podcast?
Amaro subs! That I can do (with a little bit of work).
A podcast is...something I've been -- maybe? almost? kind of? -- on the brink of doing for over a year. It's just been a bit of a challenge trying to get some of the logistics worked out.
I use this as a reference for Amaro substitutions.
https://www.reddit.com/r/cocktails/comments/etvhtu/amaro_substitution_index/
I would definitely love more batch recipes! The more we've been diving into cocktail making, the more this is what we make for friends when they come over for dinner, so batch cocktails make our lives infinitely easier.
Also, I love your format of starting with a basic recipe and then tweaking it and giving us ideas for alternatives. It gets my brain going and thinking of other alternatives and riffs to enjoy. Love it!
There will be batches! Certainly for cold weather drinks. And I think I might have some novel twists on batching summer drinks for crowds, pending a few more tests.
Cold weather drinks would be great! I race sailboats, even in the winter, and something to warm us up after a cold day on the water always goes well with the crew!
Thanks to this substack I always have bottles of Cynar, Rittenhouse, Laird's, and Del Maguey Vida, when previously I had never even heard of any of them.
I would love to see more recipes in the future that use Japanese whisky and Irish whiskey, as well as ones that use my favorite kind of ketchup, the bartender's ketchup St. Germain.
Thanks, Peter! It's been a delight reading each week and learning from you.
Maybe this is too far afield from what you'd like to do, but it sounds fun to me: What about a weekly (or occasional) "puzzler" and your solution? A simple example: What the heck can I do with this bottle of Chambord I bought for making some dessert 2 years ago?
Perhaps a more interesting example, years ago my wife came home with a list of 6 bottles of booze that created the best drink she ever tasted at a fancy bar. The problem was she had zero idea what the proportions were. She purchased some expensive bottles, tried this and tried that, and never came close to the drink she was looking for. Fast forward a couple years, and having learned a bunch from reading your stuff, I took another crack at it recently and came up with a rather decent drink, although almost assuredly not the original gangsta.
Am I just asking for Mailbag Episodes? :D
I'm coming very very late to this party, but would appreciate delving into barrel aging cocktails. Starting with how to batch drinks but also going over the order in which to cycle drinks so that the flavors of subsequent batches don't clash.
I did a two part series covering some of this a couple years ago:
https://cocktailswithsuderman.substack.com/p/barrel-aging-cocktails-at-home-part
https://cocktailswithsuderman.substack.com/p/barrel-aging-cocktails-at-home-part-1be
This should at least get you started. Hope it is helpful!