Cocktail nerdery from Doctor Z: Sherbet (a little work, a lot of flavor)
Also: make better nachos; celebrate Cheese Toast; abuelas trash-talk each other's tamales
Doctor Z (my buddy’s nickname at Spoke & Steele, where she’s lead bartender and six-time Queen of the Bar) is like a lot of other amazingly talented booze nerds I know: effortlessly charming and always ready to put a drink in your hand that’s equal parts comfort, zing-zang and surprise. And like many other brilliant folks behind the bar — she’s unapologetically nerdy about her craft. And she’s ready to help make your cocktail game even better — regardless of your skill level.
Please enjoy our first dispatch from The83K’s Cocktail Correspondent, Zoe Hayes!
A little work, a lot of flavor: Sherbet (no, not the frozen stuff)
Sherbet (not the frozen dessert) is a dope home cocktail ingredient because it’s super easy but sounds complicated to make, so it impresses at parties. Sherbet is a type of syrup made from oleo saccharum (Latin for “oily sugar”) and fruit juice. Sherbet is easy to make, in theory: Make an oleo saccharum by combining citrus fruit peels with sugar and letting them sit at room temperature, covered, for at least 24 hours. The sugar will pull the oil out of the peels, providing richer, deeper flavor and slight bitterness. Remove the peels; the sugar mixture is the oleo saccharum. Then, combine that with an amount of juice equal to the amount of sugar used and simmer the mixture briefly until the sugar is fully dissolved. In practice, it can be tricky to perfect a good sherbet, but I made my mistakes so you don’t have to – just follow these steps.
Peel about about as much citrus as you expect to juice. This seems self-evident, but it’s a good benchmark. I usually expect to get a good 8 ounces of juice from one grapefruit and about two ounces from one lemon. Limes are super variable; plump, juicy limes will yield as much as 3 ounces of juice, while smaller varieties may only yield one. Grapefruit and lemon are the best to practice with, as they have better acidity and texture than oranges and their juice naturally deteriorates more slowly. Limes can be challenging because their peel is naturally more bitter, so a lime sherbet may have a funky balance.
Peel fruit thinly, taking off as little pith as possible. Pith is the white tissue just below the surface of citrus fruit. It has no oil and a lot of natural bitterness, so it’ll make your syrup taste funky, plus it blocks oil from mixing with the sugar directly. Peeling is an art, but it’s easy to practice. I recommend using a cheap Y-peeler with a sharp blade; Kuhn Rikon makes a great one and it’s cheap on Amazon.
Choose your sugar carefully. I usually use white sugar because it highlights the citrus’s natural brightness well, but a good turbinado can be fun too. Use caution with brown sugars – they’re usually made by adding molasses to white sugar and their higher moisture content can affect sugar absorption.
Use fresh-squeezed, strained juice. As with everything, it’s just better. You also should have a bunch of peeled fruit from making the oleo, and what else were you going to do with that?
Simmer at a low heat point until the sugar is just absorbed. You want to combine everything, but to avoid cooking the juice or reducing the syrup too much.
Mix it with everything, and I mean everything. A grapefruit sherbet will take your Paloma game to new heights – mix an ounce with two ounces of blanco tequila, a dash of lime juice, and a splash of soda. I sometimes mix an ounce with some vodka, sparkling wine, and frozen fruit for a super quick white sangria. Lemon sherbet can make a pretty quick Tom Collins riff with milder acidity and more depth of flavor. Sherbets are delicious with some soda in and fresh herbs in a mocktail or shaken with citrus juice to make a fancy lemonade. Sherbets can also be a cool way to introduce fruit citrus into an old fashioned because they’re way less acidic than juice and can be stirred into drinks, but they pack a ton of flavor. Mess around with them, and when you’re comfortable with it, play with mixing different peels and juices or infusing the warm sherbet syrup with fresh herbs!
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Things you should make:
Fall means lots of parties with big hunks of meat on grills and big hunks of meat in pots and old-school Boston baked beans go with just about all of them.
My dad used to work for Sara Lee, which means about 9% of all calories I’ve ever consumed were probably from pound cake. Making one (or two or three) for yourself is a decision I can’t make for you — I can only tell you it’s a good one. Also: maybe drizzle some of Zoe’s sherbet on top of the slices?
Let’s all agree that nachos are a fantastic idea for about ten minutes, and then the cheese gets cold and gummy and the lukewarm pockets of food that’s supposed to be hot (beans, beef) or cold (scallion, sour cream) are a terrible substitute for what you actually want, which is a composed bite of everything you put on those nachos in the first place. I’d use this recipe as a framework but then top each chip separately in a single layer on both sheet pans. No chips at the bottom undersauced and unloved. No chips on top wallowing in olive-studded goop, seasoned with disappointment. Don’t revel in the unnecessary chaos of conventional nachos. Sometimes, a teeny bit of order is what’s needed.
Links:
If you have lactose sensitivity or suffer from irritable bowel syndrome, hard cheeses such as Parmesan will probably be better for reducing your gut symptoms. Sharon Collison, a registered dietitian and clinical instructor in nutrition at the University of Delaware, says you may end up only wanting a little bit of this variety. “These cheeses are very low in moisture which increases their shelf life,” Collison says. “They are generally served grated and can be healthy choices because they have such intense flavor that small portions are usually enough.”
These are almost always fake but darnit if they aren’t funny. “My flavors are all firemen”
A solid Eater rundown of 9 food shows to check out this fall.
September 15th is approaching! Don’t forget to buy National Cheese Toast Day cards for your friends and family before you see them all at Sizzler! Win cheese toast-flavored lip balm!
Things you should watch or listen to:
TAMALEDOME: THREE ABUELAS ENTER. ONE ABUELA LEAVES.
Knife skills are good. Understanding no one at home cares about a perfect julienne as long as everything’s delicious is better.
I like shrimp. But not this much. (But this dude’s channel is forking amazing.)
Gastropod, on The Strawberry: “This episode, we tell an age-old tale: an innocent young berry heads west to make its fame and fortune—but sells its soul in the process. In order for our hero, the strawberry, to defeat its nemesis, a fungus called wilt, the aromatic red fruit makes a deal with the devil—and duly becomes America's favorite berry. But its success relies on fumigants, toxic gases injected into the soil that kill everything in their path. So what are fumigants; what's their effect on farm workers, local communities, and the environment; and can the strawberry break free of their poisonous grip? Listen in this episode to find out!”
Just watch this over and over until you realize your partner/child/roomie called a local banh mi place for you while you drooled onto your phone.