Av and I made Sazeracs at home this week…and they were really nice! I got the recipe from our Arnaud’s cookbook, where it says that the Sazerac was the first cocktail, and that it was invented in New Orleans by Antoine Amedee Peychaud (who invented Peychaud’s Bitters).
The ingredients for one glass are:
2 oz. rye whiskey
3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters (if you don’t have Peychaud’s, you can double the Angostura)
3 dashes Angostura bitters
splash of water
2 dashes of Herbsaint or Pernod liqueur
twist of lemon
1 tsp Simple Syrup
To make the simple syrup, just put into a small saucepan regular white granulated sugar and water – at a ratio of 2 portions sugar to every one portion of water. I went ahead and made a small batch (2 cups of sugar to 1 cup of water), because it will keep in the refrigerator for a while. Just cook the sugar-water mixture on the stove, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the sugar completely dissolves – this just takes a few minutes on medium heat. Make sure it cools to room temperature before you use it in any cocktail recipe.
Here in the shaker is ice (fill the shaker about half-full), the whiskey, simple syrup, both bitters, and the water. Make sure it combines well.
The next step is to take the Herbsaint, pour enough into the glass to coat the interior (just swirl it all around the glass), then pour out what’s left.
Pour the strained drink mixture from the shaker to each glass (we made the recipe 2x for two servings), and pop in a lemon twist. Perfect!
A little different recipe can be found at the Peychaud’s Bitters website here, and we’ll try it that method next time.