In the Land of Cocktails

And They’re Off.…..!

Posted by on April 25th, 2011

“Civ­i­liza­tion begins with dis­til­la­tion.”  William Faulkner

Faulkner, from the very begin­ning of his career, drank while he wrote.  He claimed, “I usu­ally write at night.  I always keep my whiskey within reach.”   I con­fess, over the years I have shared this writ­ing rit­ual with him.  It has made for some very inter­est­ing con­ver­sa­tions with net­work stan­dards and prac­tice exec­u­tives over cer­tain pas­sages of dia­log and char­ac­ter behavior…

In the early 1800’s, doc­tors used the word julep to describe “a kind of liq­uid med­i­cine.”  These were reme­dies in which leaves from the men­tha fam­ily were used to soften the taste of the med­ica­tion.  Of course, this is not to sug­gest the Mint Julep is good for you, but it may be what Faulkner had in mind when he said, “Isn’t any­thin’ Ah got whiskey won’t cure.”  He was so much an author­ity on the drink that the famous Musso & Frank Grill in Los Ange­les let him mix his own.

Every year, on the first Sat­ur­day in May, the best 3 year old thor­ough­bred horses in the coun­try gather to “Run For the Roses” at Churchill Downs in Kentucky.

And in our house the Ken­tucky Derby is a hol­i­day — As big and cel­e­brated as Thanks­giv­ing, Christ­mas and Easter.  I’ve spent many a Thanks­giv­ing at the track being thank­ful for the long-shots, the day after Christ­mas the fam­ily heads to open­ing day at Santa Anita, and Easter marks the start of our Derby handicapping.

Every­one has their own way of hand­i­cap­ping – Horse own­ers will tell you jock­eys don’t make a dif­fer­ence, train­ers will tell you a jockey can make the horse, and jock­eys will tell you that even under the most per­fect cir­cum­stances, excel­lent breed­ing and pedi­gree, good track con­di­tions, favor­able post posi­tion, etc., luck will be the decid­ing fac­tor.  And in our house we will always bet on the grey.

There’s a lot of super­sti­tion and tra­di­tion that goes along with the track.  Years ago, I was stand­ing at the rail with one of my best friends, Cecily Adams, and her dad, Don, and a bunch of his cronies.  Great famous funny men, who were all big rac­ing fans — Har­vey Kor­man, Dick Van Pat­ten, Dick Yarmy, and Tim Con­way.  It was like being in a Damon Run­yon novel or a Bukowski poem – but with a lot more punch lines.

These guys were such devoted fans, that when you went to Don’s “office” for a meet­ing it was his box at Hol­ly­wood Park.  Back in the day, these guys would only take book­ings at clubs near a racetrack.

That par­tic­u­lar day I was with them, Don was down.  He had been hav­ing a los­ing streak that had lasted weeks.  When I sug­gested that he just buy a win ticket on every horse in the field to guar­an­tee a win­ner and bust the streak, he looked at me like I had kicked his dog and said, “That would be cheating.”

One day my Daddy and I were at Oak­lawn in Hot Springs, Arkansas — it’s a great old race­track with one of the best drink and oys­ter bars in the area – and we were on a los­ing streak.

Our picks were so cold that we ended up throw­ing the pro­gram on the ground and pitch­ing pen­nies at the names, hand­i­cap­ping be damned.  Win or lose, there is noth­ing like watch­ing those beau­ti­ful ani­mals doing what they were born to do – and when your 12 to 1 shot noses out the favorite, it’s sub­lime.  And a hell of a way to break a streak.

Our Derby par­ties are a hot ticket.  Over the years our house has even been nick­named the Club­house.  This annual gath­er­ing is an excuse to wear a hat in the house, sing “My Old Ken­tucky Home,” get in on the bet­ting pools, teach the kids “Track Math,” eat some great south­ern food, scream at the tele­vi­sion dur­ing the most excit­ing 2 min­utes in sports… and of course drink Mint Juleps.

The Mint Julep is the sig­na­ture cock­tail of Ken­tucky and the Derby.

120,000 mint juleps are expected to be served over the two day KY Derby and KY Oaks races at Churchill Downs this week­end.  How­ever, debates have raged over the cen­turies about ori­gin and recipe.  Cock­tail­ians from Geor­gia and North­ern Vir­ginia will throw-down with any Ken­tuck­ian over the julep birthright.  And for such a sim­ple drink, there are many vari­a­tions – Commander’s Palace adds 1/2 ounce of brandy to theirs.  Yum!

At the Club­house this Sat­ur­day for the 135th run­ning of the Ken­tucky Derby we’ll be pour­ing Dale DeGroff’s clas­sic version.

- NL

Nan­cylee Myatt is a writer and pro­ducer liv­ing in New Orleans, LA.  She is an urban cow­girl who is an avid fan of horse rac­ing, polo and the cul­ture of cock­tails… oh, and the drink­ing of them.

For more info on Mint Juleps, Bour­bon, and great cock­tails here are some fun links:

Mint Julep Tours, “The Essen­tial Cock­tail” by Dale Degroff.  “Vin­tage Spir­its and For­got­ten Cock­tails” by Ted Haigh aka Dr. Cock­tail.  “Hem­ing­way & Bailey’s Bar­tend­ing Guide to Great Amer­i­can Writ­ers“ by Mark Bai­ley.  Commander’s Palace in New Orleans.

Fol­low the Cock­tail Chicks on TWITTER.

MINT JULEP

(from Dale DeGroff’s book “The Essen­tial Cock­tail”)

2 sprigs of mint, prefer­ably perky look­ing spearmint
3/4 ounce of sim­ple syrup
2 1/2 ounces bonded bour­bon (like Old Forester, Book­ers, Blanton’s or Maker’s Mark)
Pow­dered sugar, for dust­ing, optional

Gen­tly bruise 1 of the mint sprigs in the bot­tom of a mix­ing glass with syrup – use just enough pres­sure to release the mint’s oils, but don’t shred the leaves.  Add the bour­bon, but there’s no need to mix here, because you’re going to do a lot of it next.  Strain into a high­ball glass or your favorite sil­ver julep chal­ice filled with crushed ice and swirl the ice with a bar spoon until the out­side of the glass frosts, which can take a few min­utes for a thick glass or just a few sec­onds if you’re using a proper sil­ver julep cup (a 10-ounce sterling-silver chal­ice) or its approx­i­ma­tion; if using glass, the thin­ner the bet­ter.  Top off with a bit more crushed ice, as the level will have dropped with all that stir­ring, and stir briefly again.  Gar­nish with the remain­ing mint sprig.  If it’s your pref­er­ence, sprin­kle the sugar over the top of the drink, which looks like yet more frost­ing of snow.  Also, if it’s your pref­er­ence, insert two straws that are about 1 inch taller than the glass—ideally, these straws, a well as your cups, are ster­ling.  Coun­sel your guests to hold the drink tightly, because all the frost makes it likely to slip through their grasp.  One of the beau­ties of the proper julep cup is he reverse-tapered body, some­times with a lip at the rim, allow­ing the imbiber every oppor­tu­nity to res­cue a slip­ping drink.