Thursday, April 5, 2012

the reliever

Juice 1/2 Lemon (1/2 oz)
1 barspoon Sugar (1/4 oz Jaggery Syrup)
2/3 Jamaican Rum (1 1/2 oz Smith & Cross)
1/3 Port Wine (3/4 oz Sandeman Tawny)
1 Egg White

Shake with ice for a full minute and strain into a fancy glass.

For a followup to the Jacksonia, I found the Reliever in William Schmidt's The Flowing Bowl from 1892. The text provided no hint to the meaning of the drink's name as to whether it was a morning hangover curative, an evening stress palliative, or other; perhaps it was the Painkiller rum drink of the day. In addition, the Reliever recipe shares similarity with the soda water-lightened Chicago from the Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book. After posting this, I received a comment from Dagreb asking if there was a baseball connection considering that the season was starting. My knee jerk reaction was to say no, William Schmidt and baseball? However, I remembered that the book contained a recipe for "Base-Ball Lemonade" (lemon juice, sugar, water, milk, ice), so it was possible. Moreover, the first relief pitcher in history was in 1876 and the rules on this were formalized in 1889 which pre-dates the publication of the book by 16 and 3 years respectively, so the drink could indeed be celebrating the new laws and the addition of a game closing pitcher.
The Reliever's nose offered a bounty of Smith & Cross rum notes with hints of the citrus juice's brightness. The rich, creamy lemon sip contained the fullness of the port wine, and as the drink warmed up, the sip became more grape as well. This was followed by a tart swallow showcasing the port's grape and a mellowed out funky Jamaican rum flavor.

2 comments:

Dagreb said...

The Reliever, for MLB opening day?

frederic said...

My knee jerk reaction was to say no, William Schmidt and baseball? However, I remembered that the book contained a recipe for "Base-Ball Lemonade" (lemon juice, sugar, water, milk, ice), so it's possible. Moreover, the first relief pitcher in history was in 1876 and the rules on this were formalized in 1889 which pre-dates the publication of the book by 15-16 and 2-3 years respectively, so the drink could indeed be celebrating the new laws.

Hmm...