Tags
American, Bloody Mary, College Football, Ernest Hemingway, Fernand Petiot, France, Grad School, Louisiana, Mason Jar, New Orleans, NFL, Paris, Pickled Green Beans, Pickled Okra, Red Snapper, Shrimp, St. Regis Hotel, Tabasco, The Cabin Restaurant, The New York Bar, Worcestershire Sauce
There is something about quickly approaching weekend that made me think of a Blood Mary. It wasn’t too long ago that I was in grad school in New Orleans and my Saturday and Sunday mornings usually featured a walk to a local bar to grab a Bloody Mary and wait for football to start/recuperate from the night before.
Now that I am out of school, have a sweet little 2 year old daughter, and am usually working on Saturday mornings, the opportunities to enjoy a pre-lunch Bloody Mary on the weekend are few and far between. But I thought I’d share how we like to make a Bloody Mary down here in south Louisiana, just in case you had the opportunity this weekend to drink one!
Here’s a brief history of the Bloody Mary: The Bloody Mary was originally invented in 1921 (according to legend) by Fernand Petiot while working at the New York Bar. The bar was a regular stopping place for Ernest Hemingway and other Americans in Paris, France and was later renamed to Harry’s New York Bar. A traditional Bloody Mary is garnished with shrimp, pickled onion, olive, and sea salt. The drink was initially called a “Red Snapper.”
The St. Regis Hotel, where Petiot was employed in 1934, is the site where the drink moved from the Red Snapper to the Bloody Mary with the addition of Tabasco Sauce from Louisiana. Later, in the 1960s, the drink gained popular status and was served with a stalk of celery.
Today, the Bloody Mary is garnished with lemon, lime, celery, olive. In Louisiana, we add pickled okra, pickled green beans (my favorite part of a Bloody Mary), and a pepperoncini. At The Cabin, we serve our Bloody Marys on the rocks in a mason jar. We normally have 2-for-1 Bloody Marys Thursday and Friday night, and all day Saturday and Sunday.
For those of you who want to make your own authentic Bloody Mary this weekend, here’s a standard recipe. It’s a little more complicated than mixing Zing Zang and Vodka, but it produces a much tastier Bloody Mary!
- 1 oz. to 1½ oz. (1-2 shots) vodka in a highball glass (or mason jar, if available) filled with ice
- 1 dash celery salt
- 1 dash ground black pepper
- 1 dash Tabasco®
- 2-4 dashes of Lea & Perrin’s® Worcestershire® sauce
- 1/8 tsp. horseradish (pure, never creamed)
- Dash of lemon or lime juice
- Fill glass with tomato juice
- Garnish with celery stalk, pickled okra, pickled green bean(s), and whatever else you fancy.
- Stir and enjoy!
