Thursday, May 3, 2007
(This may seem like a long entry, but at least skim through it, and read the portion in green at the end. It is worth the read, believe me! Even if you have no desire to drink a mint julep, after reading that passage, you'll be thirsty for something!)
On this day, I was again trying to think of something new to learn that had to do with The KY Derby, and I realized that I have never, ever had a mint julep. I’d always heard that it was an acquired taste.
It must be, because I didn’t like it at all.
I called a couple of friends, and I searched the internet, and I finally decided on using the following recipe:
The Perfect Mint Julep
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Recipe courtesy Bill Samuels | |
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4 cups bourbon
2 bunches fresh spearmint
1 cup distilled water
1 cup granulated sugar
Powdered sugar
To prepare mint extract, remove about 40 small mint leaves. Wash and place in a small bowl. Cover with 3 ounces bourbon. Allow the leaves to soak for 15 minutes. Then gather the leaves in paper toweling. Thoroughly wring the mint over the bowl of whisky. Dip the bundle again and repeat the process several times.
To prepare simple syrup, mix 1 cup of granulated sugar and 1 cup of distilled water in a small saucepan. Heat to dissolve sugar. Stir constantly so the sugar does not burn. Set aside to cool.
To prepare mint julep mixture, pour 3 1/2 cups of bourbon into a large glass bowl or glass pitcher. Add 1 cup of the simple syrup to the bourbon.
Now begin adding the mint extract 1 tablespoon at a time to the julep mixture. Each batch of mint extract is different, so you must taste and smell after each tablespoon is added. You are looking for a soft mint aroma and taste-generally about 3 tablespoons. When you think it's right, pour the whole mixture back into the empty liter bottle and refrigerate it for at least 24 hours to "marry" the flavors.
To serve the julep, fill each glass (preferably asilver mint julepcup) 1/2 full with shaved ice. Insert a spring of mint and then pack in more ice to about 1-inch over the top of the cup. Then, insert a straw that has been cut to 1-inch above the top of the cup so the nose is forced close to the mint when sipping the julep.
When frost forms on the cup, pour the refrigerated julep mixture over the ice and add a sprinkle of powdered sugar to the top of the ice. Serve immediately.
Then, after reading the entire, very complicated and time consuming instructions, I decided to use this recipe instead:
4 fresh mint sprigs
2 1/2 oz bourbon whiskey
1 tsp powdered sugar
2 tsp water
Muddle mint leaves, powdered sugar, and water in a collins glass. Fill the glass with shaved or crushed ice and add bourbon. Top with more ice and garnish with a mint sprig. Serve with a straw.
Yes, I do know what “muddled” means.
The Early Times recipe actually sounded like it would be good, too, but it required refrigerating overnight, and I couldn’t do that if I was going to learn today, so I went with the former one.
Perhaps I would have liked it better if I’d used the time-consuming recipe, but I don’t think so. I’m not a bourbon drinker, anyway, and although I do love mint tea, hot or cold, I just don’t think mint julep is my drink. I did use Early Times bourbon, though, because it is a true Kentucky distilled bourbon, and it wouldn’t have been right to use any other. There are those, also, who say that only pure spring water should be used to get the right taste, but I don't live where I can get real, honest-to-goodness, clean spring water. And now I have the remains of a small bottle of Early Times Bourbon that I have to give away. Thomas said just put it away, and this winter we'll use it to make hot toddies for sore throats!
I also found this very interesting and funny bit of writing regarding mint juleps, that is worth a read (part of it reprinted here, with link to entire writing following):
So far as the mere mechanics of the operation are concerned, the procedure, stripped of its ceremonial embellishments, can be described as follows:
Go to a spring where cool, crystal-clear water bubbles from under a bank of dew-washed ferns. In a consecrated vessel, dip up a little water at the source. Follow the stream through its banks of green moss and wildflowers until it broadens and trickles through beds of mint growing in aromatic profusion and waving softly in the summer breezes. Gather the sweetest and tenderest shoots and gently carry them home. Go to the sideboard and select a decanter of Kentucky Bourbon, distilled by a master hand, mellowed with age yet still vigorous and inspiring. An ancestral sugar bowl, a row of silver goblets, some spoons and some ice and you are ready to start.
In a canvas bag, pound twice as much ice as you think you will need. Make it fine as snow, keep it dry and do not allow it to degenerate into slush.
In each goblet, put a slightly heaping teaspoonful of granulated sugar, barely cover this with spring water and slightly bruise one mint leaf into this, leaving the spoon in the goblet. Then pour elixir from the decanter until the goblets are about one-fourth full. Fill the goblets with snowy ice, sprinkling in a small amount of sugar as you fill. Wipe the outsides of the goblets dry and embellish copiously with mint.
Then comes the important and delicate operation of frosting. By proper manipulation of the spoon, the ingredients are circulated and blended until Nature, wishing to take a further hand and add another of its beautiful phenomena, encrusts the whole in a glittering coat of white frost. Thus harmoniously blended by the deft touches of a skilled hand, you have a beverage eminently appropriate for honorable men and beautiful women.
When all is ready, assemble your guests on the porch or in the garden, where the aroma of the juleps will rise Heavenward and make the birds sing. Propose a worthy toast, raise the goblet to your lips, bury your nose in the mint, inhale a deep breath of its fragrance and sip the nectar of the gods.
Being overcome by thirst, I can write no further.
Sincerely,
S.B. Buckner, Jr.
With thanks to the Buckner Family for the above quoted passage, I now direct you to the Buckner Home Page: http://www.thebucknerhome.com/julep/index.html
