Brunch’s second most popular cocktail, the Bloody Mary, has cured hangovers all over the world for decades. I call it the Doctor’s cocktail because of these healing powers. It’s simple to make, and you can dress it up however you would like. No matter how you take it, the Bloody Mary is always on call to deliciously deliver a healing stream of nutrients, salt, and booze.
Bloody Mary
Ingredients
2 oz vodka
4 oz tomato juice
1/2 oz lemon juice
2-3 dashes Worcestershire sauce
Tabasco sauce
celery salt & black pepper
garnish: celery stalk & lemon wedge
Method
Combine all ingredients in cocktail shaker with ice. Shake pour into pint glass. Garnish with whatever you want from citrus to olives or even a strip of bacon!
GLASS: PINT
Alcohol, taken in sufficient quantities, may produce all the effects of drunkenness.
– Oscar Wilde
History
If French bartender Fernand Petiot had known just how bastardized the Bloody Mary would become, perhaps he wouldn’t have told his granddaughter that it was he who invented the cocktail in 1921 at New York Bar in Paris. The bar was later named Harry’s New York Bar and was a popular hangout for Hemingway and the like.
The oldest story about a cocktail made with vodka and tomato juice comes from Petiot. He mixed it for a customer who made a joke, saying it looked like his girlfriend who he met at a cabaret. The name of the cabaret was Bucket of Blood, and his girlfriend’s name? You guessed it, Mary! So Petiot agreed to call it the Bloody Mary. Of course it’s just a story. Maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not. Who cares? Bloody Mary’s are awesome.
Variations
There are so many variations these days, but the original recipe was just equal parts vodka and tomato juice. Like most classic cocktails, it was made up on the spot. There is so much lore around this cocktail. Even the guy who claimed to have invented it in 1921 changed the recipe after comedian George Jessel made it popular in 1939. After The New Yorker published an article giving Jessel credit, Petiot retorted with claims that he invented the modern Bloody Mary in 1934.
Petiot’s revised recipe: (built in shaker) 4 large dashes salt, 2 dashes black pepper, 2 dashes cayenne pepper, layer of Worcestershire sauce, dash of lemon juice, cracked ice, 2 oz vodka, 2 oz thick tomato juice – shake, strain, and pour.
Today’s Bloody Mary is more like a meal! I’ve seen a Bloody Mary with a frickin’ Cornish hen in it! It’s getting ridiculous.
One of the best attributes of the Bloody Mary is it’s ability to stay delicious no matter what you do to it. Three Crow Bar in Nashville, TN uses Guinness in their Bloody Mary, among other secret ingredients, and has won Best Bloody Mary in the city for many years. Sub out the vodka for gin and make it a Red Snapper. It’s still delicious! Remove the booze altogether and have a Virgin Mary. It’s super tasty! Do you prefer tequila? Make it a Bloody Maria. It’s delightful! Wanna get a little weird? Replace vodka with absinthe to make a Bloody Fairy. Need something to pair with your sushi? Use sake and make a Bloody Geisha!
Whether you’re trying to cure a hangover, fit your brunch meal in a glass, or just enjoy a tasty beverage, the Bloody Mary has it all.