march/april 2014 plate 69for recipes and more, visit plateonline.com

by Anthony Todd

Flips. Nogs. Fizzes. The names evoke a

time in bartending when refrigeration

was questionable, liquids were measured

in ladles and drams and eggs were

everywhere. Today, after a retreat during

the age of salmonella scares and sweet

fruit-tinis, egg cocktails are back. And

while some customers (and even some

bartenders) might look askance at a raw

egg going into a mixing tin, using eggs in

drinks is safe, easy and delicious.

According to Erick Castro, general

manager and partner of San Diegos Polite

Provisions bar, egg cocktails go way, way

back. I found a reference to a flip from

the late 1600s, Castro says. Ironically,

given todays fearful consumers, the rea-

son was safety. The whole idea behind

it, in practical terms, was to add alcohol

to eggs to make sure they could be eaten

safely, explains Castro. If youre on a

boat and you dont have a lot of options

for calories, dont throw the eggs away;

add high-proof rum or gin, and you can

get rid of the chance of getting sick.

These days, Castro is in love with a

drink called the New York sour, and he

wanted to create something similar but

with a twist. [A New York sour] is basi-

cally a whiskey sour, but with red wine,

Castro explains. Instead of whiskey and

red wine, he combined gin and white

wine to create the Monterrey sour ($8,

recipe, p. 93). I took a sip of gin and

thought, What do I get? Floral, lightly

aromatic and grapefruit peel. I realized

those same three words would describe

Sauvignon Blanc. As for the added egg

white? It gives it texture and makes it

frothyit creates a great mouthfeel, and

it gives the drink airiness, he says. You

take a sip and you feel like you flew into

the sky and took a bite out of a cloud.

Gabe Orta, a partner in The Broken

Shaker in Miami, also likes eggs for their

texture. Its pretty similar to drinking a

cappuccino. You see it there and it has a

subtle creaminess. Its almost like drink-

ing coffee, he says.

Orta has a tip for time-crunched bar-

tenders: use good ice. Most egg drinks

require two shakes: a dry shake (without

ice) to froth the egg and then a traditional

shake with ice. Orta insists that if you

have really great ice, you dont have to do

both. Big, solid cubes wont melt, and the

cubes themselves will help froth things

up. His lavenda is a twist on a classic fizz,

but without the fizz and with the addition

of lavender syrup for an extra hit of floral

flavor ($11, recipe, plateonline.com).

Bartenders are unanimousno spirit

is verboten when mixing with eggs. Gin

seems to be the clear frontrunner, but

General Manager/Beverage Director Ste-

phen Cole of Chicagos Lone Wolf swears

by bitter Italian amaro. In his giralamo

sour, Cole mixes Luxardo Amaro Abano,

Luxardo bitters and lemon with egg white

to create a creamy yet bitter digestif ($12,

recipe, plateonline.com). He likes to use

egg with amaro because it lets drinkers

taste more of the nuances in the spirit.

Imagine taking a rubber band and just

stretching it; thats what youre doing to

the liquor, he says.

Anthony Todds favorite egg dish is a real Caesar

salad.

Down the

eggs add a touch of

adventure to cocktails

Monterrey sour,

$8, General Man-

ager/Partner Erick

Castro, Polite Pro-

visions, San Diego,

Calif. RECIPE, p. 93.

bytheglass

march/april 2014 plate 69for recipes and more, visit plateonline.com