Cocktails

Hawksmoor's Marmalade Cocktail

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on November 28 2014 at 07:55

Unless you've been living in outer Mongolia you can't fail to be aware that the Paddington movie goes on release today. Cue for a marmalade cocktail!

This recipe comes from my son Will's restaurant Hawksmoor. His business partner Huw Gott fills in the background:

"Based on one of Harry Craddock’s from his time at the Savoy in the 1920s, this has become one of the most popular drinks on our list. We’ve added a splash of Campari to Harry’s recipe which reinforces the bitter-sweet of the marmalade and turns this anti-fogmatic into a perfect aperitif.

At the Savoy Harry had to deal with more than his fair share of Bertie Woosters and Gussie Fink-Nottles the morning after the day before. Bertie was so familiar with hangovers that he had names for different varieties: the Broken Compass, the Sewing Machine, the Comet, the Atomic, the Cement Mixer and the Gremlin Boogie. Unlike Jeeves, who served his famous hangover cure (brandy, clam juice, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and a raw egg) with his trademark wry deadpan, Harry Craddock was a man passionately obsessed. He saw it as a ‘great necessity of the age’ to develop effective anti-fogmatics and recommended that they be drunk ‘before 11.am. , or whenever steam and energy are needed’ (Savoy Cocktail Book, Harry Craddock, 1930).

MAKES 1

1 tsp Seville orange marmalade, preferably homemade (Hawksmoor uses my mum's recipe here)

50ml good gin such as Beefeater

5ml Campari

15ml lemon juice

a dash of orange bitters

a twist of orange peel

Place a headed barspoon (or teaspoon) of marmalade in a shaker. Add the gin and stir, pressing the marmalade against the side of the shaker to loosen it up. Add the other ingredients, fill up the shaker with ice cubes and shake hard to break down and dissolve the marmalade. If you’re left with a big glob of marmalade after shaking you either haven’t shaken hard enough or your marmalade is particularly resilient – in which case dissolve it in a small amount of boiling water and shake it all up again (but do it quickly so the drink doesn’t become too diluted). Strain into a Martini glass and serve with a twist of orange peel.

For the twist of orange peel

To make the orange twist, use a potato peeler to pare off a rough rectangle of rind from the top of the bottom of an orange. Using your fingers bend the rind over the drink -outer side of the orange over the drink – until the oils in the skin spray over the drink. Then twist the rind into a spiral and drop into the drink.

Extracted from Hawksmoor at Home by Will Beckett & Huw Gott.

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