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muckefuckI ate the last piece of the "king cake" today, which coincidentally was the one with the coin in it. (Fear not, my reign will be a peaceful and just one; the coin was a James Monroe dollar, not a gold sovereign or piece of eight.) So much for being forced to consume it all ourselves! The recipe (another Cooks Illustrated find) is definitely being added to our stable. A bit fussy, insofar as the mixing all takes place in a food processor, but well worth it for what is essentially a marzipan cake. Really, that's my only justification for calling it "king cake". The name makes me think of a northern French galette des rois with its frangipane filling, but I couldn't be arsed to fool around with puff pastry. And real New Orleans-style king cake, despite its resemblance to tortell de Reis, has never done much for me.
I could've assembled the Sazeracs more quickly if I'd been willing to mix up some simple syrup, but I wanted more ability to adjust the sweetness since I knew I was preparing for a range of palates without increasing the dilution. The traditional sugar cube looks good, but only allows you teaspoon-sized increments, so instead I pulled out the superfine sugar. It didn't dissolve as cleanly as I might've wished. I prefer a ratio of three dashes of Peychaud to one of Angostura, but I made some with all Peychaud, again for the sweeter palates. But at least one of them actually preferred it with the Angostura.
I kept a shot glass on hand for the absinthe that I poured out after swirling the glass. It tended to become diluted with residual ice water in the glass so I emptied it periodically into my gullet. At one point, Big Tim asked me not to pour out the absinthe from that stage, so I gave him one with it in. He arrived expecting something quite different when I said "Sazerac": apparently he'd had diluted absinthe served to him under that name. Twilight Santa was going on about the toxicity of the drink when he arrived. "Wormwoods a poison!" I mocked him. "What do you think alcohol is?"
In any case, the authorities were right that using rye makes all the difference. I even tried fixing one with the high-rye Redemption I'd bought before and gotten only one slug of and, nope, too sweet. For similar reasons, I think the Armagnac we were forced to use because that's what Nuphy keeps bringing was a better choice than most cognac would've been. I mean, the whole point of doctoring the liquor this way is to smooth off some of the rough edges without eliminating them completely.
I could've assembled the Sazeracs more quickly if I'd been willing to mix up some simple syrup, but I wanted more ability to adjust the sweetness since I knew I was preparing for a range of palates without increasing the dilution. The traditional sugar cube looks good, but only allows you teaspoon-sized increments, so instead I pulled out the superfine sugar. It didn't dissolve as cleanly as I might've wished. I prefer a ratio of three dashes of Peychaud to one of Angostura, but I made some with all Peychaud, again for the sweeter palates. But at least one of them actually preferred it with the Angostura.
I kept a shot glass on hand for the absinthe that I poured out after swirling the glass. It tended to become diluted with residual ice water in the glass so I emptied it periodically into my gullet. At one point, Big Tim asked me not to pour out the absinthe from that stage, so I gave him one with it in. He arrived expecting something quite different when I said "Sazerac": apparently he'd had diluted absinthe served to him under that name. Twilight Santa was going on about the toxicity of the drink when he arrived. "Wormwoods a poison!" I mocked him. "What do you think alcohol is?"
In any case, the authorities were right that using rye makes all the difference. I even tried fixing one with the high-rye Redemption I'd bought before and gotten only one slug of and, nope, too sweet. For similar reasons, I think the Armagnac we were forced to use because that's what Nuphy keeps bringing was a better choice than most cognac would've been. I mean, the whole point of doctoring the liquor this way is to smooth off some of the rough edges without eliminating them completely.