Happy Friday! I trust we’re all not cripplingly hungover from the return of football last night?
Good.
Admittedly, I got a late start on drink selection this week. So when I sat down to choose a drink, I was in need of something simple. I found my answer in the trusty Walorf Astoria book. That is where I found the Pan-American. A drink consisting of rye, lemon and demerara sugar. Seems like a slam dunk of a drink right?
Hang on.
As you’ll see below, this calls for 1/2 a lemon, quartered. My initial thought is that seems like a lot of lemon. But, this is from the Waldorf bar. I’m just some rando on the internet making drinks. They know what they’re doing. Let’s mix!
Pan-American
1/2 Fresh lemon, quartered
1 Barspoon demerara sugar
2 oz. George Dickel rye whiskey
Add lemon and sugar to a mixing glass. Muddle to release oils and juice. Add whiskey and fill with ice. Shake well and pour entire contents into a chilled Old Fashioned glass. Serve with straw.
Housekeeping note: I used Rittenhouse for the rye, and light brown sugar instead of the demerara. So, was that too much lemon?
YUP! That is exactly what I expected. That is A LOT of lemon. It completely overpowers the rye and sugar. I mean I love a rye and lemon, but holy damn is that a lot. The Waldorf book calls this a sipper. That’so putting it mildly.
Sometimes it’s good to trust your instincts and that is what I should have done here. I sipped it down and added some more light brown sugar and more rye to try and salvage this cocktail.
With the extra rye and sugar, the flavors start to come out. It starts out heavy on the lemon, but then the the sweet, slight molasses flavor curbs the citric acid a little bit, which allows for the spicy rye to start shining through. The sip ends heavy on the lemon again.
Overall, the combination of flavors really does work very nicely here. Although I still get a lot of lemon. I may not have added enough sugar and whiskey to save this iteration completely. I would make this again, but cut way down on the lemon. The original recipe is borderline undrinkable.
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Honest question–is it too much lemon because lemons used to be smaller and half of a smaller lemon would have been just right?
That makes a lot of sense. You’re probably right.
Can we get somebody to rate the relative hangover by drink?
Overdoing the tequila yields potent hangovers for me. Too much red wine, too. Still drink both, though, but less excessively now that I am in my sixties.
Worst ever was in Japan, where I drank two shots of absinthe (12 bucks a shot in 1983!), hangover lasted 3 days. Felt like the entire Chinese Army had marched through my mouth in their stocking feet .
I meant for the individual drinks, as in the sweetness/ sugar content makes it worse for me. But I see what you are saying; tequila is the one that would be the one to make me puke first. Can’t really say about absinthe as the three times I’ve had enough to affect, it was mixed with enough other drugs as to make the results unscientific. I went through a phase where a group of us would drink B-52s (https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-B-52-Layered-Shot) which is basically a Snickers bar in alcohol form and mixed with beer would give that raunchy motion sickness type hangover. My worst one was in NOLA (big surprise) with a full day of drinking all different kinds of drinks. Due to age and medical I don’t have to be very buzzed to get a hangover anymore.
It all comes down to sugar. Unless you are allergic to sulphites then red wine is out for you.
The reason I said “for me” is that I’ve seen others that process the sugar much better than I, as with straight booze, they have similar hangover pain.
Cheap champagne will bring on a vicious migraine. That’s science. And poetry!
I’ve got some preserved lemons in the fridge and some rye. Going to have to try this out. Thinking the preserved lemons aren’t as sharp as the fresh ones, so maybe won’t be as overpowering.
This sounds crazy delicious. There is no such thing as too much Lemon.
If you have leftover citrus, just throw a lemon party.
I’m not aware of that type of party. Can you give me some details or should I Google it?
Definitely Google it. Sound way up.
I’d try this with Stevia and heavy lemon. Maybe tonight. And some lime. More like a whiskey sour. It is almost the weekend, afterall.
It’s all ball bearings!
And 2 fans and multi-stage LP and HP compressors… And an industrial smoke machine, ’cause early jet engines did their best “20 year old grandma diesel station wagon” that has never seen proper maintenance at high thrust 😀
(and yes, that’s the J57 powered B-52F, but those engines evolved into the TF33/JT3D)
Some nice views:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=14&v=QuHFkxbbzDc&feature=emb_logo
That black smoke is caused by water injection into the engines, which cooled and condensed the air intake (oxygen) which allowed a greater fuel injection (hydrocarbons) to achieve maximum power at take-off when the aircraft is at its maximum heaviest.
Too much lemon? That’s unpossible!
Too much is just right.